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KABUL: A key border crossing with Pakistan reopened on Saturday, giving way to tens of stranded trucks to cross into Afghanistan, less than a fortnight after the Taliban captured Spin Boldak district and its crossing point with Pakistan which temporarily shut trade.
Pakistan’s Ambassador to Kabul announced the reopening of Chaman-Spin Boldak border crossing in Kandahar province on Monday. Chaman was captured by the Taliban about two weeks ago.
Pakistani envoy Mansour Ahmad Khan wrote in a Twitter message that the bilateral trade and transit through the Chaman-Spin Boldak border crossing has resumed. He added that the congestion in the border area would be settled down in two days.
Government officials have not yet commented, but the Interior Ministry announced a few days ago that it had recaptured the Spin Boldak border area from the Taliban, but the Taliban denied it.
The Chaman-Spin Boldak crossing, a key port for a landlocked Afghanistan, had been closed by Pakistan for commercial traffic since fierce fighting for the control of the crossing erupted between Taliban insurgents and Afghan security forces earlier this month.
The Taliban claimed about a week ago that they had captured the town of Spin Boldak and the border crossing. Things boiled to the delirium after First Vice President Amrullah Saleh said that Pakistan had formally warned the Afghan government not to conduct air operations in the Spin Boldak area against the Taliban.
