Pak-Afghan border closed over building post at Torkham

F.P. Report
LANDI KOTAL: Tension developed at the Pak-Afghan sharing border, Torkham when Afghan forces started constructing a new post at the crossing here on Wednesday.
The forces officials said that at 11:55 am, the Afghan border security force initiated building works at the building of a new post, opposite to Pak Chota Frontier Post, Torkham. The Pak officials objected to structuring the new post and suspended the Torkham border in protest against all kinds of movement.
Cross-firing was also carried out between the troops from both countries, locals said. According to unofficial sources, six Afghani and two Pakistani citizens including a soldier sustained injuries. Eyewitnesses said that thick clouds of smoke were omitting the building of an Afghan Custom house on the other side of the border.
Reinforcement was dispatched to the border and the troops resumed important positions at the border. On the other hand, the Pak forces through an announcement asked the traders and shopkeepers in Torkham bazaar to shut their business centers and vacate the Torkham city to ensure their safety, forces officials added.
Locals informed that two mortar shells fired from Afghan forces landed in the residential area of Bacha Mena, Torkham that scared the dwellers and scores of families left their homes in hurry and took refuge with their relatives in Landi Kotal. Due to suspension of clearing process, long queues of the transit and export commodities could be witnessed at Pak-Afghan highway, Landi Kotal. Also, hundreds of pedestrians were stuck at both sides of the border and they asked officials of both countries to keep in view their miseries, immediately resolve the post dispute. It is to be mentioned here that in June, 2016, a Pakistan Major Ali Jawad was martyred in firing across the border when the Pakistani officials erected a formal gate at zero point.