Chaman border crossing set to reopen today

Afghan border guards apologise for desecrating Pakistani flag

QUETTA: The border crossing between Pakistan and Afghanistan at Chaman, shut for the past 14 days, is set to reopen today (Thursday) after successful negotiations between border guards from both sides.

“Talks between officials have been successful and the Friendship Gate will reopen from September,” a Frontier Corps spokesman told The Express Tribune. The Bab-e-Dosti (Friendship) Gate in Chaman, one of the major border crossings between Pakistan and Afghanistan in Balochistan, had been closed by Pakistani authorities on August 17 after a large number of Afghans pelted the crossing with stones and desecrated the Pakistani flag while raising anti-Pakistan slogans.

The closure meant that trucks carrying goods and buses with passengers from either side through the border were left stranded with queues stretching for miles.

Pakistani and Afghan border authorities held four flag meetings to resolve the impasse. The latter demanded that the border should be reopened unconditionally while the former refused to budge till an apology was tendered for provoking their compatriots into disrespecting the Pakistani flag.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 1^st, 2016.