QUETTA: Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan at Chaman reopened on Tuesday after a flag meeting between officials from the two sides.

The border was closed after Afghan security forces had objected to erection of a fence near a border village.

Pakistan has been erecting a fence at its border with Afghanistan for more than two years and around 90 per cent work on it has been completed. The remaining work is expected to be completed in the next couple of months.

Pakistan is also erecting a fence along the border with Iran.

Sources said the Afghan border authorities once again objected to the erection of fence in the Killi Luqman area of Pakistan and tried to create some hurdles. Both sides closed the border after that.

All kinds of traffic, including trucks carrying Afghan transit trade goods and Nato supplies, were suspended. The closure also affected the routine crossing of people from the two sides.

“The border remained closed for two hours the other day,” officials said, adding that after negotiations during the flag meeting the border was reopened.

The sources said Pakistan had already informed the Afghan authorities of the fencing work because it wanted to stop all kinds of illegal border crossing from both sides.

According to Home Mini­s­ter Ziaullah Langove, subversive activities have come down after com­­mencement of border fencing.

Published in Dawn, April 28th, 2021