Pakistan reopens Torkham border after temporary closure

Pak-Afghan border was shut after mortars fired from Afghanistan

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Wednesday temporarily closed the Pak-Afghan crossing at Torkham after mortars were fired from across the border, Foreign Office Spokesperson Aisha Farooqui said.

The Torkham crossing, through which thousands of vehicles pass every week, is the main trade link between the two neighbouring countries.

Exchanges of fire across the border, which Kabul has never recognised, are common. But an Afghan official denied that Afghan forces had fired into Pakistan.

Hundreds of vehicles that had been stuck on both sides began moving across the border on Wednesday afternoon after the crossing was reopened, Pakistani and Afghan officials said.

“The border is closed for investigation purposes,” Mahmood Aslam Wazir, deputy district commissioner of the area on the Pakistani side, said at the time.

Attaullah Khogyani, spokesman for the governor of Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province, claimed that Pakistani forces had fired the mortar bombs as an excuse to close the border.

Pakistan was angered this week when President Ashraf Ghani condemned the arrest of Pashtun rights activist.

(With additional input from Reuters)