Pakistan closes border with Afghanistan after clashes

Pakistan has reportedly called on the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan to hand over a border guard who is suspected of killing a Pakistani Frontier Corps guard at the Spin-Chaman crossing earlier this week.

Pakistan has accused an IEA border guard of crossing over the border and opening fire on Frontier Corps members, killing one and wound two others.

VOA reported that a senior Chaman administration official told VOA by phone that the border crossing was briefly opened late Monday afternoon to allow stranded Afghan and Pakistani pedestrians to return to their native countries, but no trade convoys were permitted to move in either direction.

“The border terminal has now been indefinitely closed for trade and all other movements. It will not be opened until the handing over of the assailant responsible for the martyrdom of the Pakistani soldier,” Deputy Commissioner Abdul Hameed Zehri told VOA.

Zehri said Pakistan’s attempts to seek a negotiated settlement to the issue failed to produce an outcome, but there were no clashes on Monday.

The Spin Boldak and the northwestern Torkham border crossings serve as the main trade routes for landlocked Afghanistan for bilateral and transit trade with and through Pakistan.

Residents and traders said Monday scores of trucks transporting Afghan transit trade goods and bilateral shipments were stranded on both sides of the border after Pakistan closed the Chaman crossing.

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s Ministry of Interior has warned that Afghan immigrants who are waiting in Pakistan to relocate to other countries and whose visas have expired will be arrested and imprisoned for three years.

But a member of Pakistan’s parliament strongly criticizes the treatment of the Pakistani police with Afghan immigrants.

“It is extremely unfortunate that we do not have any policy for Afghan refugees in Pakistan. They are mistreated. The federal government has to devise a policy to protect their rights,” said Mohsin Dawar, a member of the Parliament of Pakistan.

He further added that: “Our government does not have any kind of policy on how to deal with Afghan immigrants in Pakistan, and including the government of Pakistan, UNHCR and the whole world have remained silent against this wrong treatment.”

On the other hand, the local authorities of Kandahar say that the talks between the Afghan and Pakistani authorities have also started regarding the reopening of the Spin Boldak-Chaman crossing.