“The Pakistanis are saying they will continue building the gate and every time they start the construction, they come under fire”, he said.
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The main gates at Torkham, the most frequented official border crossing at the end of the Khyber Pass, stayed closed for a third day, leaving thousands stranded on either side.
As The Diplomat reported, a fierce firefight erupted late Sunday between Afghan Border Police and Pakistan’s Frontier Corps purportedly after a Pakistani attempt to erect a gate on the border.
Pakistan’s army chief Gen. Raheel Sharif joined Khan’s family and relatives for his funeral service in Peshawar later Tuesday. Pakistan’s desire to fence the border is reflective of Islamabad’s willingness to stand by the commitment for peace and not to allow her land to be used for terrorism in Afghanistan.
Pakistan lodged a strong protest with the Afghan government over unprovoked firing by the Afghan forces that also injured a Pakistani solider and nine civilians.
The Torkham crossing was closed following the incident and talks are underway to reopen it on Monday.
He expressed concern over the continued firing by the Afghan forces for last few days with a view to disrupt the construction works aimed at strengthening effective border management. “This gate [is] considered essential to check&verify documentation of all border crossers”. The resolution of the consequences of a colonial history is perhaps centuries away, and both Pakistan and Afghanistan are going to have to make the best of what was a very bad deal in 1893.
This became all the more evident from what happened on Torkham border where Afghan forces indulged in deadly firing in their bid to stop Pakistan from constructing a gate well inside its territory as part of the measures to regulate border movement.
Pakistan and Afghanistan have agreed to observe a ceasefire along the Torkham Border, the diplomatic sources disclosed on Wednesday.
Both sides say militants use the border to conduct anti-state acts in their respective countries.
Officially, Pakistan claims that the increased border controls at Torkham are to crack down on smuggling and militant activity across the border.
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Afghanistan does not recognize the present boundary, the so-called Durand Line, as an worldwide border, and has denounced Pakistan’s plans to erect a fence at the crossing.
