QUETTA: The border in the Chaman area remained closed for the fifth consecutive day on Tuesday as three flag meetings between border authorities of Pakistan and Afghanistan have ended in a stalemate.

Another meeting is expected to be held on Wednesday (today) at the Friendship Gate border crossing but it is also not expected to resolve the issue.

In the earlier meetings, the Pakistani border authorities told their Afghan counterparts that the border would be reopened only after the Afghan government apologised for an incident of the burning of the Pakistani national flag, which had led to the border closure.

On Thursday, Pakistani tribesmen held a demonstration at the Friendship Gate to protest against Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent remarks about Balochistan. When they were leaving the place, Afghan demonstrators across the border torched a Pakistani national flag.

The Pakistani border officials said that a final decision about reopening the border would be made by their high command.

The Afghan officials called for early reopening of the border to allow hundreds of container-mounted trailers and trucks involved in Nato supply and Afghan transit trade trucks stranded at both sides of the border to leave for their destinations. They said fruit and vegetables loaded on the trucks are decaying.

In the meetings, the Pakistani delegation was headed by Lt Col Changez Khan and the Afghan team by Lt Mohammad Ali.

According sources, the two sides have also stopped border crossing by pedestrians having valid travelling documents. Afghan security forces are reported to have taken some Pakistani nationals into custody in Spin Boldak, a border town of Afghanistan. The reason for the arrests was not clear.

Daro Khan, a traders’ leader from Chaman, said that Pakistani traders and importers doing business with Afghanistan were suffering huge losses due to the border closure.

Published in Dawn, August 24th, 2016