After fatal gunfire, the Pakistan-Afghanistan border crossing reopens

Two days after a cross-border gunfight that claimed the lives of at least nine Pakistani civilians and one Afghan soldier, the Chaman crossing reopened.

Two days after a cross-border exchange of fire claimed the lives of at least nine Pakistani civilians and one Afghan soldier, a crucial border crossing between Pakistan and Afghanistan has reopened.

An official at Chaman, the name of the crossing on the Pakistani side, Abdul Hameed Zehri, said that the things have returned to normal.

As usual, the border is open for business and public use. The situation is peaceful and everything is going well," Zehri remarked.

The Chaman border crossing is one of the busiest between the two nations and is used by hundreds of people every day. It is located about 120 kilometers (74 miles) northwest of Quetta, the capital of Pakistan's Balochistan province in the southwest.

The latest deadly incident along their sensitive border, according to the Pakistani military, occurred on Sunday when "unprovoked and indiscriminate" firing from the Afghan side at the crossing killed several civilians and injured more than a dozen more.

The Afghan government had apologized for the shooting, Pakistan's defense minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif informed parliament the following day.

"Afghanistan launched the provocation. When the Taliban militants struck, our troops were busy fixing the border barrier. In first round of firing, there were no injuries but in second round, they deployed heavy artillery and mortars which resulted in the civilian deaths,” he claimed.

Following the incident, representatives from both sides met, and Afghan authorities gave their assurances that a similar occurrence wouldn't happen again.

According to Kabul, at least one Taliban soldier was killed and ten others were hurt in Sunday's gunfire.

The repetition of such instances would be regretful, according to Abdul Qahar Balkhi, spokesman for Afghanistan's foreign ministry, in a tweet on Monday.

He said the Afghanistan government “on its part has taken serious preventative measures and also calls on the Pakistani government to pay serious attention to preventing provocations that cause violence and adversely affect relations between the countries”.

Shehbaz Sharif, the prime minister of Pakistan, announced he will convene a meeting to assess the circumstances along the country's border with Afghanistan.

He told reporters in Islamabad that "the government wants the Afghan government should prevent occurrences which could affect bilateral ties."

When a Pakistani security official was assassinated by an Afghan gunman on November 13 last month, the Chaman border was shut down for a week.