Afghan firing continues at the border despite agreeing to ceasefire

After a strong reaction from Pakistan following unprovoked firing at the Pak-Afghan border at Torkham, white flags were hoisted on both sides of the border on Wednesday morning. Yet despite that, Afghan forces resorted to unprovoked firing in the evening resulting in the injury of two Pakistani soldiers. In response, Pakistani forces also opened their fire and the same situation persisted late into the night.

The root cause of this fire exchange between the two countries is a gate which is being constructed at the border to check the free flow of border-crossers. Even though the gate is being constructed at the Pakistani side, the Afghans are still not in favor of it and had objected to its construction.

The gate had initially been removed when Pakistan was building the Torkham-Jalalabad road as part of its contribution to war-torn Afghanistan’s reconstruction and development, but recently orders had come in for its reconstruction.

Meanwhile, Afghan ambassador to Pakistan, Umar Zakhilwal denied that he had ever agreed to a ceasefire at Torkham during his meeting with Army Chief General Raheel Sharif. He even said that he had never agreed to the construction of a gate at Torkham.

Due to the tense situation at the border for the past three days, all the surrounding villages have been evacuated. Trade between the two countries through this route is also halted, due to which the businessmen are facing heavy losses.

Due to the Afghan firing, several Pakistani soldiers have been injured, while an Army Major was also martyred.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=53334

Posted by fatimaarshad on Jun 16 2016. Filed under Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.