Pak-Afghan border reopens for the second day

CHAMAN: Thousands of people are expected to cross the Pak-Afghan border at Torkham and Chaman as it reopened on Wednesday.

The border will stay open from 8AM till 5PM today to allow several stranded Afghan nationals with complete travel documents to travel on foot.

On Tuesday over 19,000 Afghan nationals entered Afghanistan from both points at the border. Meanwhile, over 2,000 Pakistanis from Afghanistan crossed over into Pakistan.

A bar on trade activities between Pakistan and Afghanistan is in place. The Chaman border, Bab-e-Dosti, will be opened from 8AM till 5PM.

On Monday, the Pakistani authorities said they would open the border for two days to let Afghan nationals with valid visas pass through.

The border between Pakistan and Afghanistan was closed on February 16, hours after a bomb ripped through a shrine in interior Sindh leaving at least 80 people dead.

The suicide attack on Lal Shahbaz Qalandar's shrine in Sehwan city of Sindh was part of a deadly wave of terror attacks in the country, and the fifth blast in less than a week targeting innocent people.

The border has since been closed due to security concerns and non-cooperation by Afghan authorities regarding devising an effective border management mechanism.

Of late, Pakistan has voiced concerns over terrorist sanctuaries in Afghanistan, from where majority of last month's attacks were believed to be coordinated.

Pakistan has right to take action against terrorists based across its border with Afghanistan, its defence minister said Tuesday, adding they would not remain quiet on martyrdom of their troops.

The statement comes a day after five Pakistani troops embraced martyrdom in an attack by terrorists, based across the border, on a Pakistani ckeckpost in Mohmand Agency.

The soldiers embraced martyrdom while foiling a terrorism bid on three border checkpoints in Mohmand Agency on Sunday night, according to the Inter-Services Public Relations. The shootout between army personnel and terrorists also left at least 15 militants dead.

"Terrorists must be denied freedom of movement along the border," Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa was quoted as saying in a statement. He lauded the immediate response of the personnel and expressed grief over the loss of precious lives.

Pakistan also recently conducted strikes across the Afghan border.