A major Afghan-Pakistan border crossing reopened on Saturday after it was closed for several days following deadly clashes between the two countries following the construction of a gate on the Pakistani side to control cross-border movement, officials said. The clash, which erupted along the Torkham border a week ago, left at least three Afghan policemen and a Pakistani military officer dead, with dozens wounded. "The Torkham border reopened around 6 this morning after around five days of closure," Mohammad Ayub Hussain Khil, border police chief in eastern Afghanistan, said. "Everyday huge crowds of Afghans used to cross the border for medical purposes, but now they are only allowing people with visas and passports," he said. The spokesman for the governor of the Afghan province of Nangarhar, Ataullah Khogyani, confirmed the reopening of the border saying it happened after "days of negotiations" between the two sides. A Pakistani official who declined to be named said that the border had reopened and "the construction work on the gate has also resumed." Pakistan's foreign ministry spokesman posted a message on Twitter saying: "Only passport holders allowed from Afghan side." The new requirement will affect thousands of people who formerly crossed the busy border post without travel documents. The border clash prompted bitter recriminations on both sides, with Islamabad and Kabul summoning each other's diplomats to lodge strong formal complaints. The Pakistani military justified the construction of the gate at Torkham, saying "terrorists" were using the crossing point. Afghan Ambassador Dr Omar Zakhilwal claimed that the resumption of work on the gate was not agreed upon in the meeting he held with Pakistani officials. The envoy had threatened to quit and return to his home country if the construction work was not stopped. Security sources said the construction of the gate continued on Saturday, which Pakistan has said is being built to stop militants from crossing the border. The Pakistan-Afghanistan border has long been porous and disputed. Afghanistan has blocked repeated attempts by Pakistan to build a fence on sections of the roughly 2,200-km-long frontier, rejecting the contours of the boundary. Torkham is one of the major crossings between Afghanistan and Pakistan, where hundreds of trucks and thousands of people cross the border daily through the Khyber Pass. The border was closed over similar clashes last month, but was reopened after an understanding was reached between the two countries.
