ISLAMABAD, March 5: Afghan Ambassador to Pakistan Omar Zakhilwal has said that if Pakistan does not re-open the Pak-Afghan border, his country would arrange special flights to airlift its stranded citizens.
On February 16, Pakistan closed the border after 88 people were killed in a suicide bombing at the Sufi saint Lal Shahbaz Qalandar shrine in Sehwan Sharif, Sindh. “Argument that the closure of these crossing points was needed to stop terrorists` crossing cannot carry any weigh as these points such as Torkham and Spin Boldak have been manned by hundreds of military and other security personal and have all the checking infrastructure and equipments in place,” Zakhilwal said in his Facebook post. Zakhilwal said he met Advisor to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Foreign Affairs, Sartaj Aziz and conveyed to him that Afghan government would provide charter flights to lift its stranded citizens if an opening was not allowed in the next couple of days. The envoy said that in fact, formal trade and transit crossing points between our two countries, under no circumstances, should have been closed in the first place, both as per Afghanistan-Pakistan Trade and Transit Agreement (APTTA) and also Afghanistan’s land-locked country transit right as per international rules. He hoped that the Pakistani authorities would open the border without further delay. – DNA
