Pakistan Reopens Key Border Crossing Days After Taliban Clash

The Durand Line border has emerged as a source of tension between Islamabad and Kabul since the Taliban* takeover last August. Several firing incidents have been reported.

Islamabad re-opened the Chaman border crossing with Afghanistan on Monday, a week after Afghan shooters entered Pakistan.

The November 13 incident triggered hours-long firing between Taliban guards and Pakistan’s Frontier Corp (FC). One Pakistani soldier was killed and another two injured.

The decision to re-open the transit point - which is also known as the Friendship Gate and connects Pakistan’s Balochistan province to Afghanistan’s Kandahar province - was taken after a meeting between Taliban and Pakistani authorities on Sunday, Chaman Deputy Commissioner Abdul Hameed Zehri told reporters on Sunday.

Trade and civilian movement at the border crossing had been severely hampered due to the firing incident.

Hundreds of trucks remained stuck on both sides of the border for over a week, as Pakistani authorities demanded that the person identified in footage of the shooting be handed over to Islamabad.

Reports suggest that the suspect has now been handed over to Pakistan, but this is yet to be confirmed by Pakistan.

Taliban spokesman @Zabehulah_M33 claimed that an “unidentified man” killed #Pakistan’s soldier at #Chaman border. In this video one can clearly see a second #Taliban guard shooting at the CCTV camera & trying to destroy the evidence. pic.twitter.com/eCLYDFBOgr

— Ayaz Gul (@AyazGul64) November 15, 2022

In a statement last week, Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said that a “high-level delegation” had been formed to investigate the border shooting, which he blamed on an “unknown” assailant.

Before the Sunday meeting, several other “flag meetings” were also held between the two sides, but they remained “inconclusive”, local media reports claimed.

Islamabad has called for a “joint mechanism” to be established to prevent violence at the border, but the Taliban is yet to agree to this proposal.

The firing incident triggered outrage in Islamabad, with a leading Pakistani lawmaker from the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) demanding a joint parliamentary investigation to look at it and the more general issue of terrorism.

Senator Raza Rabbani expressed concerns over rising terrorism in Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) provinces amid a surge in attacks that have been claimed by the banned group Pakistan Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP)*, an offshoot of the Afghan Taliban.

The stated goal of the TTP is to overthrow the Pakistani state and establish Sharia law in Pakistan.

While the Taliban initially mediated peace talks between the TTP and Islamabad after it came to power in Kabul last August, dialogue has been suspended since late last year. The United Nations (UN) says that the TTP leadership is based in Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar province.

Pakistan has repeatedly urged the Taliban to fulfill its international obligations to not shelter terrorists, a charge that the Islamic group has repeatedly denied.

*The Taliban and the TTP are under UN sanctions over terrorist activities.