Exchange of fire at Afghan-Pakistani border crossing kills 1

PESHAWAR, Pakistan – Afghan border guards and Pakistani security forces exchanged fresh rounds of artillery Monday after an overnight exchange of gunfire at a border crossing killed one Afghan guard and wounded 19 people on both sides, officials said.

Mohammad Ali Hazarat, the head of the provincial council in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province, said the Pakistani army resumed firing artillery and Afghan forces responded in kind.

The Torkham crossing was closed following the incident and talks were underway to defuse the situation and reopen it.

Ghuncha Gul, a Pakistani official in the region, said earlier that the Afghan side started shooting late the previous night when construction work began on a new gate on the Pakistani side.

He said the gunfire ended around 4 a.m. but that the Afghans started firing artillery rounds hours later, and that the exchange of fire was continuing. He said four guards and nine civilians were wounded on the Pakistani side.

Gen. Zarawar Zahid, police chief of Nangarhar, said one Afghan security officer was killed and six were wounded. He said Pakistani forces opened fire after the Afghans asked them to stop work at the gate, which he claimed is located on no-man’s land.

Afghanistan does not recognize the present boundary, the so-called Durand Line, as an international border, and has denounced Pakistan’s plans to erect a fence at the crossing.

The Pakistani military said it is “constructing a gate on its own side of the border as a necessary measure to check for unwanted and illegal movement.”

Islamabad summoned Afghanistan’s charge d’affaires on Monday to complain about the incident, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said.

Last month, the Torkham crossing was closed over a similar incident and reopened only after an understanding was reached at a meeting between Pakistani army chief Gen. Raheel Sharif and Afghan Ambassador Omar Zakhilwal.

The father of Omar Mateen, the American of Afghan heritage who allegedly carried out the mass shooting early Sunday in an Orlando gay bar, referenced the border dispute in a Facebook posting early Monday in which he spoke of his son as a “nice” man.

Seddique Mateen, who is believed to have moved from Afghanistan to the United States some three decades ago, said Afghan security forces were battling Pakistan’s intelligence service, known by its acronym ISI, at the border. He blamed the dispute on Pakistan but did not elaborate further.

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Shah reported from Kabul, Afghanistan.