July 28, 2002	Sunday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 17,1423

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LANDI KOTAL, July 27: Afghanistan’s border security forces closed the Torkham gate on Saturday after they developed differences with Pakistan’s security guards over the deportation of Afghans who had entered the country illegally.

Reports reaching here said the Torkham-Jalalabad road remained closed since the morning as the Afghan forces had placed containers and erected hurdles on the highway.

Afghan border forces commander Shah Zameen rejected an offer for negotiations by his Pakistani counterpart as traffic was stalled on both sides of the checkpoint.

Sources said that Khasadar Forces, the Khyber Agency’s local security force and paramilitary forces arrested about 40 Afghans at Shahgai Fort checkpoint, some 40km west of here on Friday evening. They had crossed into Pakistan through unfrequented routes.    Soon after their arrest, the agency’s political authorities drove them to Torkham to deport them, but the Afghan security forces refused to grant them entry.

They claimed that Pakistani authorities had forced the displaced people to pay them illegal gratification at one checkpoint and detained them at the next checkpoint for their illegal entry into the country. “There is a long queue of traffic on both sides of the border, waiting for crossing the border,” a witness told Dawn by telephone.

Official sources said Afghan commander Shah Zameen had refused to talk to the Pakistani officials, saying that the issue should be discussed at high level and resolved for ever. The political authorities sought help from the Shinwari and Afridi elders to settle the dispute.

NWFP Governor Syed Iftekhar Hussain Shah had issued instructions to the law enforcement agencies two days back to improve security along the border to stop illegal entry of Afghans and the authorities had established additional checkpoints on Peshawar-Torkham road.