Afghan envoy calls for immediate reopening of Pakistani border

Afghan Ambassador to Pakistan, Dr Omar Zakhilwal has described the continued closure of border crossings as violation of Afghanistan-Pakistan Trade and Transit Agreement (APTTA) and called for immediate reopening of the Pak-Afghan border as part of the "quick de-escalation" of the prevailing tension between the two neighbours.
However, Foreign Office Spokesperson Nafees Zakaria told his weekly media briefing that Pak-Afghan border would reopen in due course of time. "As part of the quick de-escalation of the prevailing tension between Afghanistan and Pakistan, as agreed in our talks with the relevant Pak authorities a couple of days ago, Torkharm, Spin Boldak and other crossing points should have reopened by now but unfortunately they still remain shut," the Afghan envoy said in a Facebook post which was also shared on his Twitter account.
"In fact, formal trade and transit crossing points between our two countries, under no circumstances, should have been closed in the first place, both as per Afghanistan-Pakistan Trade and Transit Agreement (APTTA) and also Afghanistan's land-locked country transit right as per international rules," he added.
"The closure of these crossing points, which are heavily regulated with full checking arrangements on both sides, serve no purpose other than to inflict hardships on ordinary people and hurt trade and transit," he said. He also stated that he had written a letter to top Pakistani military leadership, and hoped that these crossing points would have been opened on Thursday without causing any further unnecessary hardship. "I conveyed the same to Sartaj Aziz, Advisor to the Prime Minister of Foreign Affairs, on Wednesday night," he added.
In the wake of recent terror attacks across the country, Pakistani security forces closed Pak-Afghan border for all kinds of transportation owing to security reasons. A senior government official toldBusiness Recorder that Pakistan's security concerns are the first priority to be looked into, as terrorists based in Afghanistan are involved in the fresh spate of terrorism. He said that the militant outfits like Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a splinter group of the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), are based in Afghanistan and Pakistan has already shared details of these outfits involvement in the terrorist attacks.