Clashes between Pakistan security forces and Afghan Taliban on Torkham Border
The Torkham border crossing between Afghanistan and Pakistan has been closed.
The closure of Torkham Crossing comes after relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan's ruling Taliban soured.
Torkham, the main border crossing between Afghanistan and Pakistan, has been closed after residents of the area said they heard gunshots near the usually crowded border crossing.
It was not immediately clear whether Afghan or Pakistani authorities had closed the Torkham border crossing near the Khyber Pass, but Monday's move came after relations between Afghanistan's ruling Taliban and Pakistan deteriorated sharply.
Clashes at the border have raged for years during her 20-year rule of the U.S.-backed Afghan government and he since the Taliban took over Afghanistan in 2021.
Mulla Mohammad Siddiqui, the Taliban-appointed Torkham commissioner, said Pakistan "failed to deliver on its promises...so the border crossings were closed." Siddiqui advised Afghans not to travel to border crossings located on the Afghan side of the country's eastern Nangarhar province until further notice.
A Pakistani police official confirmed the closure of the border and what he described as a temporary firefight in Torkham in Pakistan's northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
A resident of Landi Kotal on the Pakistani side said the border was closed late Sunday and the shooting occurred early Monday morning. “When I heard the gunshots in the morning, I worried and believed that the armed forces of both countries had started fighting,” he said.
Disputes over 2,600km of borders have been the backbone of disputes between neighboring countries for decades. The Torkham border crossing is a major transit point for travelers and goods between Pakistan and landlocked Afghanistan.
