PAKISTAN: The main border crossing between Afghanistan and Pakistan, Torkham, has been closed following residents of the area hearing sounds of gunfire close to the bustling border transit point.
Gunshots fired at Torkham border
The Torkham border has been an important point in enabling transit for goods and travellers despite the 2,600 km border area being a vulnerable spot for growing tensions between the neighbours.
There has been no report on whether the Afghan or Pakistani authorities closed the Torkham border crossing close to the Khyber Pass. Still, this action comes in handy from a direct tense relationship between Taliban-ruling Afghanistan and Pakistan.
A commissioner appointed by the Taliban, Mullah Mohammad Siddiq, stated that Pakistan had not obeyed their “commitments, so the crossing point was shut down.” He also asked the Afghans to avoid travelling to the border on the Afghanistan side in the Nangarhar province until matters are resolved.
A Pakistani Police official, Khalid Khan, said there had been erratic exchanges of fire at Torkham, located in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan’s north-western region. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said at the Munich Security Conference on Sunday that this fight could affect the world.
A resident of Landi Kotal in Pakistan, Mohammad Ali Shinwari, stated that gunfire started on Monday after the borders were closed late on Sunday. He said, “We became alarmed and thought that the two nations’ armies may have begun fighting when we heard gunfire early in the morning.”
Clashes on the border have been rampant during the twenty years of rule by Afghanistan’s US-supported government and since 2021, when the Taliban took over the country.
An increase in armed attacks was faced by Pakistan when TTP, Pakistan’s Taliban had a different army group allied with the Taliban in Afghanistan, terminated a month-long ceasefire agreement with the government.
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