Pakistan, Afghan increase border troops

Afghan security officials in Jalalabad on Monday carry the flag-covered coffin of a border policeman. He was killed in clashes with Pakistani troops on the border in eastern Nangarhar province. (Photo: AFP)

A Pakistani Army officer died on Tuesday after being shot by Afghan forces in a border clash, Pakistan’s military said, a development likely to ratchet up tension between the neighbours who sources said were beefing up troop numbers on either side.

The main gates at Torkham, the most frequented official border crossing at the end of the Khyber Pass, stayed closed for a third day, leaving thousands stranded on either side.

Firing between Pakistani and Afghan forces first broke out on Sunday at the crossing, about 45 km west of Peshawar, over the construction of a new border post on the Pakistani side.

Pakistan’s Army chief attended funeral prayers on Tuesday for Major Jawad Ali Changezi, who was among nine Pakistani and six Afghan troops wounded in the fighting, security officials said.

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s office and the Pakistani military’s press wing also confirmed Changezi’s death. One Afghan soldier was killed, Afghan officials had said on Monday.

“This gate (is) considered essential to check and verify documentation of all border crossers,” Asim Bajwa, chief spokesman for the Pakistani military, said on the social media website Twitter on Monday.

Afghanistan summoned the Pakistani ambassador on Tuesday to register its protest at the violence, Afghanistan’s foreign ministry said. Pakistan had similarly summoned the Afghan charge d’affaires in Islamabad on Monday, the Pakistani foreign office said.