Foreign Ministry of Pakistan announced that Pakistan has reopened another border “the Kharlachi - Borkai crossing” with Afghanistan that was closed in February after a series of attacks from across the border killed over 100 people. Two major crossings — Torkham and Chaman — were already opened earlier.
It further clarified that this is not a pedestrian crossing, but it is meant for facilitation of trade and transit vehicles. The Kharlachi-Borkai, bordering Paktia province of Afghanistan, is not a major border crossing like Torkham and Chaman with respect to trade activities.
Pakistan and Afghanistan share a roughly 2,500 km-long border, which runs through a mountainous terrain and remains largely unmanned.
The Pakistan army on February 16 closed all the border crossings with Afghanistan including the Kharlachi-Borkai till further orders over security reasons because on the same day a suicide attacker targeted Sehwan Sharif, killing at least 90, while injuring more than 100 others. Responsibility for the Sehwan Sharif blast coupled with few other terror attacks were claimed by Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA), a splinter terror outfit of the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan.
Pakistan’s military announced earlier on 16th April, that its plan to fence the entire 2,611-kilometer largely porous border with Afghanistan is underway and scores of new outposts are also being built to prevent terrorist infiltration. Army spokesman Major-General Asif Ghafoor told reporters in Rawalpindi that a total of 338 security posts and forts will be constructed along the frontier by the end of 2019. He said 42 such installations have been built while work on another 63 is under way.
Why tension arose
The border, called the Durand Line, virtually disappeared during the 1980s when Pakistan-based militant groups fought a decade-long war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan.
Since 2007, when some groups spawned by Pakistan-based militant networks turned hostile towards Islamabad, Pakistan has made efforts to firm up its border vigilance. This has caused several fatalities on both sides of the border.
The border became particularly tense after the Army Public School massacre in Peshawar in December 2014. In February this year, Pakistani troops resorted to heavy shelling of Afghan territory in Nangarhar region, saying the area was hosting anti-Pakistan militants.