QUETTA: Pakistan agreed on Sunday conditionally to renew the Chaman border with Afghanistan, further than a week after firing from the Afghan side on Frontier Corps officers at the Friendship Gate led to its check.
The decision to open the border was made during a meeting between Pakistani and Afghan officers, Chaman Deputy Commissioner Abdul Hameed Zehri told the media on Sunday.
The details of the addresses and the decision to open the border had been conveyed to the civil-military liaison commission of Chaman, which agreed to open the border for trade and trips from Monday.
Accordingly, the immigration services of the Federal Investigation Agency(FIA) and Pakistan Customs would also be opened, officers said.
Mr. Zehri said that during the meeting, Afghan Taliban officers expressed wrathfulness and grief over the November 13 incident and assured the Pakistani authorities that the “terrorists” behind the incident would be arrested and rigorously penalized.
Both sides also decided to take concrete ways to avoid a reprise of similar incidents.
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The border check since last week redounded in suspense of trade between both countries through the Friendship Gate. A large number of exchanges carrying Afghan conveyance trade goods and holders carrying import and import goods were stranded on both sides.
While attesting the border check for an indefinite period, Chaman DC Zehri last week said “A man crossed into Pakistani side at Friendship Gate from the Afghan border and opened fire at the security labor force posted at the gate, performing in the martyrdom of one dogface and injuring two others.” Shortly after the incident, the functionary said, the Afghan labor force opened fire on Pakistani forces, which redressed and the blasting continued for some time.
Pakistan border authorities incontinently summoned a flagship meeting of the Afghan forces and demanded that the fortified men, who had fired at the Pakistani security labor force, be handed over to the Pakistani authorities, but the accommodations remained fruitless at that time, as Afghan officers refused to hand over those involved in the blasting, sanctioned sources said. The exchange of fire proceeded in the evening, which officers said continued with small intervals.
The Chaman border, some 100 km northwest of Quetta, is one of the major transnational border crossings and is used by thousands of people on a diurnal base. On the Afghan side, it leads north into Wesh city in the Spin Boldak quarter of Kandahar fiefdom.
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Pakistan had earlier refused to renew the Friendship Gate for conveyance trade and crossing until the authorities got the guardianship of the attackers.
A couple of days latterly, Pakistani authorities on philanthropic grounds and as a goodwill gesture allowed several hundred Afghan citizens, who were stranded in Chaman due to the border check, to cross into their country from another area, considering that there were cases among them who had come to Pakistan for treatment.
A prophet for the Afghan innards ministry last week told Reuters that the clash had passed between border forces from both sides due to a “misreading” and the incident was being delved.
The Afghan border authorities explained that the Taliban forces weren’t involved in the firing at Friendship Gate.
“They might be terrorists who were involved in blasting,” the officers said.
