By Mushtaq Ali
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) -The main Afghanistan-Pakistan land border crossing reopened on Friday after being closed for nine days, a senior Pakistani official told Reuters.
The Torkham border crossing between the neighbouring nations had been closed since last week after forces from both sides exchanged fire, stranding thousands of travellers and hundreds of trucks laden with goods.
“A series of talks between Pakistani and Afghan officials resolved the issue and the border was opened,” a security official in Torkham said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
He said thousands of loaded vehicles had been stuck on both sides of the border due at crossing point in northwestern Pakistan.
Pakistan said the Taliban administration had tried to encroach on its territory with the construction of an “unlawful structure” and accused Afghan forces of “indiscriminate firing”.
The Taliban foreign ministry said Pakistan security forces had fired on its troops as they fixed an old security outpost near the border. They criticised the border closing at a key entry point for landlocked Afghanistan.
Relations between the two neighbours has been tense at times, particularly over border disputes and Pakistan’s charges that militants can launch attacks into its territory from bases in Afghanistan. Afghan authorities deny this.
(Reporting by Mushtaq Ali in Peshawar; Writing by Gibran Peshimam; Editing by Tom Hogue and Gerry Doyle)
