Torkham closer to reopening as officials ‘reach understanding’

KHYBER: With senior officials of Pakistan and Afghanistan reaching an understanding during their protracted parleys during the last week of Torkham border closure, positive signs emerged on late Thursday about the possible reopening of the border on Friday morning.

Though there was no official word on record about the border re-­opening of Friday till the filing of this story, social media was ­abuzz with reports about its possible reopening on Friday.

Customs and immigration officials posted at Torkham border also responded in the affirmative about the likely reopening of the border with requests that their identity should not be disclosed because of the sensitive nature of the matter.

They, however, said that they had been directed to report at their respective places of work at Torkham early on Friday morning with the possibility that pedestrian movement would be restored first and it would be followed by movement of goods stranded on both sides of the border.

Official sources privy to the week-long deliberations between Islamabad and Kabul stated that the foreign ministry of the Afghan interim government had given an assurance to Pakistani authorities that “the Afghan territory shall not be employed for hostile actions against Pakistan”, and thus there was a possibility that the Torkham border which was closed on Sept 6 would be re-opened on Friday.

“The resolution to reopen the border transpired during a high-level meeting involving Pakistan’s chief of mission and senior Afghan officials,” the sources said.

Border security guards of both countries resorted to heavy firing at each other’s positions on Sept 6 when Afghan authorities started building a security post close to Pakistan’s side of the border.

An FC personnel and a Customs clearing agent on Pakistan side of the border, were injured during the two-hour-long exchange of fire in which both sides used light and heavy weapons.

Pakistani officials had insisted that the establishment of a new security post near the border crossing was totally uncalled for and it was also a violation of the understanding reached between the two countries about any such development which was to be mutually discussed and agreed.

The Afghan foreign office in one of its statements had insisted that they were only renovating an old post on their own territory and which was of no harm to the Pakistani side.

The week-long closure of the border caused trading and transport community on both sides of the border huge financial losses while it also rendered hundreds of poor labourers and daily-wage earners jobless.