PESHAWAR/LANDI KOTAL/QUETTA: Cross-border firing erupted at Torkham as Islamabad blamed Kabul for an escalation in tensions following an attack on Pakistani troops a day earlier that left an army major dead on Tuesday.

Official sources said that the firing began again minutes before Iftar when Pakistan restarted building of a gate on its side of the Torkham border.

They confirmed injuries to two more Frontier Corps personnel during the renewed armed clashes amid full-scale preparations for the installation of the gate.

Islamabad blames Kabul for sabotaging peace efforts

“The Afghan side will not find us mere sitting ducks if they continue with their unprovoked and indiscriminate firing at our forces,” a top administrative official told Dawn moments after the eruption of fresh clashes.

Also on Tuesday, the army chief, Gen Raheel Sharif, visited forward locations in North and South Waziristan and made it clear that the military’s focus would now be on an efficient border management to curb cross-border movement of terrorists.

His remarks came in the wake of efforts being made to regulate movement on the Pak-Afghan border with the government having imposed restrictions on Afghan nationals entering Pakistan without valid travel documents from June 1.

The move to regulate the movement by setting up fences on the Pak-Afghan border at Torkham led to an exchange of heavy gunfire between Pakistani and Afghan troops on Sunday and Monday.

In a statement, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan blamed Afghanistan for “sabotaging the sincere efforts” of Pakistan for an effective border management for curbing cross-border infiltration.

“Afghanistan has to decide whether it wants to support our efforts for regional peace or wants to play someone else’s game,” he said.

Khyber Agency Political Agent Khalid Mehmud said: “We will go all out for achieving our goal no matter how severe the scale of resistance of Afghan forces.”

He said Pakistan was under no obligation to acquire permission for the installation of a gate quite inside its territory, “neither would we make any excuses for the achievement of our internationally legitimate right of securing and managing our border”.

The Army Engineering Corps, in assistance with regular army and FC, continued with their fixing of the gate at its designated location on the Pakistan side.

The construction activity continued amid heavy artillery and tank shelling as reports came that one of the shells directly targeted Javed Sanger (bunker) on the Afghan side, destroying it completely. A number of Afghan border guards were reportedly killed in the attack.

The official sources said that fresh army back-up forces, along with artillery and tanks, were moved to the army camp in Landi Kotal and near the border alongside additional FC personnel dispatched to the Torkham border.

The curfew was relaxed on Tuesday in Landi Kotal, but no one was allowed to go beyond the Machni checkpoint on Landi Kotal-Torkham road.

Two Afghan policemen were killed and nine others wounded in gunfights since Sunday, said Mohammad Ayub Hussain Khil, border police chief in eastern Afghanistan, according to AFP.

“The firing continued till 7:00 am (Tuesday). The border is now closed until the tension subsides,” he said.

Slain major laid to rest

The Inter-Services Public Relations said in a statement that Major Ali Jawad Changezi succumbed to his wounds at the Combined Military Hospital.

Army Chief Gen Raheel Sharif, Corps Commander of Peshawar Lt Gen Hidayat Ur Rehman, family members of the deceased and senior military officers attended his funeral prayers at Peshawar Garrison.

Later in the evening, Major Changezi was laid to rest in the Baheshat-i-Zainab graveyard in Quetta. He was to retire in December this year.

Country-wide combing operations to continue

The army chief spent the whole day with the tribal people and troops busy in the consolidation phase of the Zarb-i-Azb operation. He was briefed on the ongoing operations and rehabilitation work and its effects on social landscape of the area.

For enduring stability, Gen Raheel said, intelligence-based operations and combing operations would continue with the same vigour across the country.

He praised tribal people’s support in combating terrorism, acknowledged their sacrifices and assured them that terrorists would never be allowed to return and the army would not go back till the job was fully done.

Gen Raheel said Zarb-i-Azb had been launched against terrorists of all hues and colour and their sanctuaries had been dismantled without any discrimination. He said the operation was in its final stages in the fewer left-out pockets. The army, with the support of the entire nation, had achieved unparalleled successes in the fight against terrorism, he added.

The army chief also inaugurated multiple projects as part of the post-operation rehabilitation plan for Fata. He inaugurated a 72km Miramshah-Razmak-Makeen dual-carriage road as part of the 705km central trade corridor.

The new road constructed by the Frontier Works Organisation will considerably reduce travelling time between North and South Waziristan. He also commissioned a state-of-the-art 100-bed Sheikha Fatima Binte Mubarak Hospital at Shola in South Waziristan.

Gen Raheel said development of Fata was a priority task being undertaken by the army as a comprehensive plan and the projects would improve the quality of life in tribal areas, usher a new era of economic prosperity and address the problem of militancy on a long-term basis.

The army has so far undertaken 567 projects in the social, communications and power sectors in Waziristan.

Published in Dawn, June 15th, 2016