Border troops of Pakistan, Afghanistan exchange fire

KARACHI, Pakistan

The border troops of Pakistan and Afghanistan exchanged fire along a key border crossing between the two neighbors on Monday, officials and local media reported.

The firing – latest in a series of clashes between the two border forces – took place a day after Afghanistan's Taliban government unilaterally shut down northwestern Torkham crossing for all kinds of movement on Sunday, accusing Islamabad of not "honoring its commitments."

It came after Pakistani border authorities allegedly refused to let an attendant of an Afghan patient enter their side of the border, local broadcaster Dunya News reported.

A video clip on social media showed visuals of the porous border with heavy gunfire in the background. The veracity of the video could not be confirmed.

There were no immediate reports of casualties from either side.

In a brief reply to Anandolu's message, Irshad Khan, the assistant commissioner of Landi Kotal town, which sits on the Torkham border, said: “It's calm there now.” However, the crossing still remains closed.

Foreign Ministry’s spokeswoman, Mumtaz Zehra Baloch, was not available for a comment despite repeated attempts.

Without elaborating, the Taliban commissioner at Torkham, Maulavi Mohammad Siddique, accused Islamabad of "not abiding by its commitments."

“Pakistan has not abided by its commitments and so the gateway has been shut down on the directions of (our) leadership,” the commissioner said in a tweet on Sunday.

Pakistan and landlocked Afghanistan share 18 crossing points, with the busiest ones being the Torkham and southwestern Chaman border posts.

Clashes between the two border troops have long been taking place, and there is no lull even after the re-capture of Afghanistan by the Taliban in August 2021.

In December last year, at least six Pakistani civilians were killed in an exchange of heavy firing along the Chaman border, which connects Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan province with Afghanistan's southern Kandahar province.

Apart from trade activities, thousands of people, mainly Afghans, daily cross into the two bordering areas for medical and labor purposes.

The two neighbors share a porous border of almost 2,670 kilometers (1,640 miles).