Pakistan-Afghanistan clash: Torkham border crossing remains closed for third consecutive day

Local sources told Dawn News that any understanding regarding border reopening hadn’t been reached due to the “hard stance” of the Afghan Taliban’s government in Kabul.

They said that Afghan security officials were uncompromising and didn’t show any flexibility during the ongoing parleys insisting on the establishment of a border check post on their side of the border.

Irshad Ali Momand, a district administration official, told Dawn that things had come to a standstill as the status quo prevailed on the third consecutive day.

According to reports, scores of people are waiting for hours for the  Landi Kotal border to reopen.

Most stranded men had taken temporary shelter in the main Landi Kotal Bazaar’s mosque with local traders and shopkeepers arranging edibles for them, reports Dawn News.

An exchange of gunfire erupted between the Afghan military and Pakistani border soldiers at the Torkham checkpoint on Wednesday, eyewitnesses told Sputnik.

According to eyewitnesses, clashes affected several thousand people as civilian were forced to leave their homes and flee the area.