QUETTA: Pakistan has reopened a major border crossing with Afghanistan that was shut for trade and transit after security forces of both the countries clashed last week.
However, as the crossing opened on Monday, three people were wounded in another clash reported on a northwestern border with Afghanistan.
Abdul Hameed Zehri, Deputy Commissioner of Chaman, which borders the Afghan district of Spin Boldak, said the southwestern crossing was reopened after dialogue between Pakistani government and Afghan Taliban officials on Sunday.
Thousands of people and hundreds of trucks that had been stranded on both sides were able to cross the border on Monday, Zehri said.
The separate hostilities that started on Monday were in Kurram district of Pakistan, said Munib Zadran, a police spokesman for bordering Paktia province, while a Pakistani security official said the fresh exchange of fire killed one member of border personnel and wounded nine other people.
Afghan Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid confirmed the latest clash. “We are going to meet senior Pakistani officials to find an amicable solution,” he said. Disputes linked to the miles-long border have been a bone of contention between the neighbouring countries for decades.
Pakistan-Afghanistan share a porous border of almost 2,670 kilometres. Pakistan and landlocked Afghanistan share 18 crossing points, with the busiest ones being the northwestern Torkham and Chaman border posts.
Separately, Minister for States and Frontier Regions Talha Mahmood on Monday said that the registration DRIVE (Documentation Renewal and Information Verification Exercise) for unregistered Afghan refugees in the country has been extended up to December 31, 2022.
Responding to a question of Shamim Ara Panwar in National Assembly during question hour, Parliamentary Secretary for Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development Syed Agha Rafiullah said the drive exercise will ensure to compile complete data of registered and unregistered Afghan refugees as well as those, who have gone back to Afghanistan.
He said as many as 1,282,963 registered Afghan refugees residing in the country have been already been verified under the DRIVE exercise.
He said additionally 136,490 undocumented members of registered families have also been documented whose confirmation is in process. If they are found eligible under prescribed criteria, the number of registered Afghan refugees would increase further. –Agencies
