Soldier injured in firing by Afghan Taliban

PESHAWAR: A Pakistani security official suffered gunshot injuries when the Afghan Taliban opened fire on their checkpoint at Torkham border as the Afghan authorities continued to keep their border closed with Pakistan for second consecutive day on Monday, according to senior government and security officials.

The Afghan border authorities on Sunday suddenly closed the border with Pakistan in Torkham after Pakistani officials allowed a patient from Afghanistan to enter, but asked the attendants to come with legal travel documents.

“The Afghan border officials made it an issue, saying Pakistani authorities should allow the patients and their attendants without visas or legal travel documents to enter Pakistan for treatment in Peshawar or elsewhere,” said a senior government official at the Torkham border.

Pleading anonymity, he said officials on the border tried to convince the Afghan authorities but they didn’t listen to them, adding that they did not allow the vehicles to enter Pakistan from Afghanistan or vice versa.

Hundreds of trucks loaded with various goods and Afghans having legal documents were stranded on both sides of the border after the border was closed. According to Pakistani authorities, the Afghan border security forces opened fire and targeted the Ayub post, located on hilltops, causing bullet injuries to a soldier.

The soldier was immediately taken to the hospital where he was stated to be in stable condition. Pakistani security forces retaliated with heavy gunfire on suspected places from where they had come under attack but there was no information if there were any casualties to the Afghan security forces.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid avoided commenting on the border situation. According to government officials and residents of the Torkham border, firing between the security forces of Pakistan and Afghanistan lasted for half an hour.

The border remained closed till the filing of this report, though senior officials told The News that backdoor channels were in process to defuse the tensions between the two neighbouring countries and open the border.

“Some senior officials of the two countries are using backdoor channels to resolve this issue. Hopefully, the border will be reopened by Tuesday,” a government official said. According to official sources, Pakistani authorities had made it mandatory for the Afghans to have legal travel documents for taking their patients to Pakistan for treatment.

They said a hospital has been set up on the border where the patients are properly assessed by the doctors and if they required treatment, they are referred to the hospitals in Peshawar for better health care. Critical patients don’t need any visa or legal travel documents.

The decision on strengthening security measures was made after the Peshawar police lines suicide attack. There are, however, widespread allegations that certain people in Afghanistan are made to pay for entering Pakistan even without legal documents. The residents of Torkham said they had been fearing the backlash of the tense situation on the border for the past few days.