Ashrafuddin Pirzada
TORKHAM BORDER: After the takeover of Jalalabad city, the Taliban also took control of the Torkham border on Sunday morning and suspended all kinds of movement from and to Pakistan.
Dozens of Afghan Taliban and their leaders reached to Torkham border and shot aerial gunfire to show their presence. Pakistan army also deployed forces to avoid mishaps on the border.
As the Taliban reached Torkham they took over the offices in Afghan Torkham side, Afghan customs house.
Zain trader customs clearing agent Shareefuddin told this scribe that they were of the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. He accused the whole setup of the Ashraf Ghani-led government of being in control of an anti-Pakistani lobby. He said Ashraf Ghani-led government officials had imposed unfair restrictions on Pakistani businesses that compelled them and shifted
3200 Pakistan-based factories in Bangladesh.
Meanwhile, business activities on both sides of the Torkham border remained suspended as the Taliban were gradually taking over the Afghan customs, administration and other government offices on the Afghan side of the border.
Ningrahar province Taliban governor Nida Muhammad Kandahari in a social media message said that those who have any kind of complaint against any Talib fighter could contact him. He gave his two Afghan mobile cell phone numbers on social media to contact him if anyone wanted to register a complaint.
Soon after the Taliban took over Torkham and its surrounding Afghan localities the border was reopened after 12 hours of closure and allowed fresh fruits and transit-loaded trucks to cross the border. However, pedestrian movements remained suspended via the Torkham border.
