Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai has blamed British imperialism following recent skirmishes between Pakistani and Afghan border guards.
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Security sources said the construction of the gate continued on Saturday, which Pakistan said was being built to stop militants from crossing the border.
The border between Pakistan and Afghanistan at Torkham reopened on Saturday, after a closure of almost six days during which the two sides skirmished over the issue of construction of a gate on the Pakistani side. Since then, Pakistan and Afghanistan have not been able to develop good working relations due to a host of reasons.
Sartaj Aziz has already spelt out Islamabad’s stance in a policy statement in which he said the new border rules had been introduced as part of the government’s counterterrorism strategy to check infiltration of terrorists from Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, an Afghan delegation led by deputy foreign minister Hekmat Khalil Karzai would visit Islamabad on Monday. Afghanistan had claimed its ownership for a long time.
He emphasised that dialogue is the only option as ultimately the Afghan government had to continue it.
“When Pakistan came into being in 1947, they received it this way, so we are not blaming them but Durand Line is a blow which no Afghan can ever forget”.
Almost 60 percent of imported goods enter Afghanistan through the border crossing, say traders. A Pakistani foreign office official said Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry informed the Afghan delegation that Pakistan planned to build four gates at different points on the border.
Firing broke out on Sunday over the construction of a new border post on the Pakistani side.
As if the Afghans never expected this, they reacted to the Pakistan’s decision harshly and accused Pakistan of violating the Easement Tribe Accord reportedly reached between the British-India and then Afghan rulers. The envoy had threatened to quit if the construction work was not stopped.
He said the Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) government in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa was not raiding and targeting religious institutions but has been cooperating and providing financial assistance to it. They spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the media.
A Landi Kotal-based senior tribal journalist, Sudhir Afridi, still remembers when some officials of the political administration sold the old steel gate to a person in Landi Kotal who dealt in used items.
Curfew was imposed in Landi Kotal market and surrounding areas to protect civilians who were in the crosshairs of shelling by Afghan troops.
Pakistan’s main leverage, trying to avoid a war over the border, is threatening to expel the 1.5 million Afghan refugees camping out in their country. “A Tehsildar-rank officer would handle all such issues and we never faced any difficulty”, Mohmand recalls, adding that there exists no proper border management hierarchy on Pakistan side of the border. “There are 235 entry-exit routes on the Pak-Afghan border”.
“The Torkham border reopened around 6 this morning after around five days of closure”, Mohammad Ayub Hussain Khil, border police chief in eastern Afghanistan, told AFP.
“There has been no aggression or provocation by Pakistan”, Aziz said.
A few days ago, COAS met with an American delegation. “117 drone attacks took place in 2013”.
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General John William Nicholson is working in Afghanistan on resolute support mission. “We are just not there yet”, Kirby said. “Now what effect the border clashes are having on reconciliation, I don’t know”. However, third round of flag meeting was successful after which the border was opened.
