ISPR DG Lt Gen Chaudhry to address press conference today

Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General (DG) Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry will address a press conference at 3pm today (Friday) wherein he is expected to discuss security-related matters including surge in terrorist incidents. 

The development comes a day after the federal government appointed Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir as Pakistan's first Chief of Defence Forces (CDF).

The military spokesperson is also expected to discuss counterterrorism efforts, the situation on the Pak-Afghan border, and other related issues.

Last week, Lt Gen said that the Afghan Taliban troops engage Pakistan's border forces with unprovoked firing to facilitate the infiltration of terrorists into the country.

“Borders are always mutually guarded by both countries. On the other side, there is a country whose posts first engage your posts through fire, and an exchange begins. And then they have them [terrorists] pass from the gaps in between,” the top military spokesperson said during an interaction with senior journalists last Friday evening.

"If you go to the border of Sindh or Punjab, do you get divided villages or populations, or are you sitting on the border? Here [Pak-Afghan border], there are 29 tribes which are divided. The population is here and there. How will you control the movement on the same border?" he added.

A day earlier, Pakistan partially reopened border crossings at Torkham and Chaman, specifically for the transportation of humanitarian emergency aid being sent by the United Nations for the people of Afghanistan. 

The UN emergency aid also includes food, medicine and school supplies for Afghan children.

A Pakistani official told AFP said that the border would remain closed to all trade, and that the partial reopening for aid was “conditional”. “Pakistan has not reopened the border for general trade or immigration with Afghanistan, nor has it restored Afghan Transit Trade,” the official added.