-Chaman border closed
-Security on high alert at the crossing point
-Pakistan’s Levies officials confirm development
-Kabul says it following Taliban’s advancement
-China welcomes US withdrawal
-George W. Bush terms Afghanistan Troops pullout a mistake
DM Monitoring
KABUL: The Taliban continued with their onslaught against the Afghanistan government Wednesday, as a spokesperson of the group said they had captured the important Spin Boldak border crossing with Pakistan.
“The (Taliban) Mujahideen have captured an important border town called Wesh in Kandahar,” Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said in a statement.
“With this, the important road between (Spin) Boldak and Chaman and Kandahar customs have come under Mujahideen control.” A Pakistan security forces confirmed the Taliban had taken control of the crossing. The Afghan defence ministry said it was checking developments.
“The Taliban has taken control of the Afghan side of the Chaman-Spin Boldak border crossing,” the Pakistani security official said. “They have raised their flag and removed the Afghan flag.”
The Taliban have launched a widespread offensive across the countryside since early May when US-led foreign forces began their final withdrawal of troops.
Since then, the group has captured at least three other crossings along the borders with Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Iran.
After seizing control of the Chaman crossing point Friendship Gate, the Taliban have called on citizens and traders to not use the crossing point.Pakistan has also suspended activities at the Chaman crossing point in light of the recent development. “The Pak-Afghan border at Chaman is on high alert,” said Levies officials. “Additional security has been deployed at the gate.”
Levies officials confirmed that all border crossing points along the Afghan border at Chaman are under the control of the Taliban.”We are in contact with the local leadership of the Taliban on resuming trade and movement of people,” said Levies officials.The Levies officials admitted that the situation at the Chaman border, currently, was uncertain.
Meanwhile, Chaman Assistant Commissioner Arif Kakar told media that security was on high alert. “The Friendship Gate at the Chaman border has been closed,” he said. No comment has been made so far from Pakistan regarding the capturing of the crossing. The situation on the ground could not immediately be verified, social media was abuzz with pictures of Taliban fighters looking relaxed in what appeared to be the frontier town.
The taking of Spin Boldak would be the latest in a string of border crossings and dry ports seized by the Taliban in recent weeks.
Its seizure follows days of heavy fighting across Kandahar province, where the government was forced to deploy commando fighters to prevent the fall of the provincial capital even as the insurgents inched closer to taking the frontier crossing.
Afghan officials insisted they still had control.
“The terrorist Taliban had some movements near the border area The security forces have repelled the attack,” interior ministry spokesman Tareq Arian told media. Residents disputed the Afghan government’s claims.
“I went to my shop this morning and saw that the Taliban are everywhere. They are in the bazaar, in police HQ and custom areas. I can also hear the sound of fighting nearby,” said Raz Mohammad, a shopkeeper who works near the border.
China welcomes US withdrawal:China said the withdrawal of US and NATO Forces from Afghanistan offered the country a new chance to take its destiny into its own hands, while calling for the Taliban to cut all ties with terrorist groups.
Speaking in Tajikistan’s capital Dushanbe, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said the US should reflect on its role in Afghanistan after its 20-year military involvement failed to bring peace.
“With the United States and Nato leaving Afghanistan, the Afghan people have a new opportunity to take the destiny of their country and their people into their own hands,” Wang said in a news release posted on the ministry’s website on Wednesday. In remarks directed at the Taliban, Wang said the deeply conservative group should “resolutely draw a line with all terrorist forces, and return to the political mainstream of Afghanistan with a responsible attitude toward the country and people”.
China shares a narrow border with Afghanistan and is concerned about Islamist extremism spilling over into its traditionally Muslim region of Xinjiang. As part of those prevention efforts, Beijing has been sharing up ties with its central Asian neighbours such as Tajikistan.
Former US president George W. Bush on US exit:Former United States President George W. Bush on Wednesday criticised the withdrawal of Nato troops from Afghanistan and said civilians were being left to be “slaughtered” by the Taliban.
“Laura (Bush) and I spent a lot of time with Afghan women, and they’re scared. And I think about all the interpreters and people that helped not only US troops but Nato troops, and it seems like they’re just going to be left behind to be slaughtered by these very brutal people. And it breaks my heart,” Bush told German media.
Asked whether he thought the withdrawal was a mistake, Bush replied: “Yes, I think it is.” The former Republican president, who sent troops to Afghanistan in autumn 2001 after the September 11 attacks on New York’s World Trade Centre, said he believed German Chancellor Angela Merkel “feels the same way”.
Bush said Merkel, who is set to retire from politics later this year after 16 years in power, had brought “class and dignity to a very important position and made very hard decisions”. US and Nato forces began withdrawing from Afghanistan in early May and are due to completely pull out by September 11, some 20 years after they arrived in the war-torn country.
