Pakistan closes key crossing with Afghanistan after cross-border attack

Pakistani authorities close a key border crossing with Afghanistan for several hours after mortar bombs land in Pakistani territory from across the border, local officials say.

A Pakistani official said the Torkham crossing was shut for at least 10 hours on Wednesday after mortar bombs fired from Afghanistan landed in Pakistan territory.

"The border is closed for investigation purposes," media outlets quoted Mahmood Aslam Wazir, deputy district commissioner of the area on the Pakistani side, as saying.

But an Afghan official denied that Afghan forces had fired into Pakistan.

Attaullah Khogyani, spokesman for the governor of Afghanistan’s Nangarhar Province, suggested that Pakistani forces had fired the mortar bombs as an excuse to close the border. "In the past, Pakistan has played the same game whenever they want to close the Torkham crossing."

The Torkham crossing is the main trade link between the uneasy neighbors.

Pakistani and Afghan officials said that hundreds of vehicles that had been stuck on both sides began moving across the border on Wednesday afternoon after the crossing was reopened.

Pakistan and Afghanistan regularly accuse each other of sheltering their enemy insurgents.

Kabul blames elements in the Pakistani spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), for supporting the Taliban militants. Islamabad blames the Afghan government for giving refuge to militants on its side of the border.

The two sides also accuse one another of not doing enough to stop militants engaging in cross-border attacks.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said on January 23 that Pakistan continued to give sanctuary to an insurgent group that helps the Taliban in its war against Kabul and the United States.

Ghani made the remarks one day after Prime Minister Imran Khan of Pakistan told reporters at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that the Haqqani network had no activities or bases in Pakistan.

SS