Torkham border reopened after 20 hours

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LANDI KOTAL, Dec 29: The Torkham border was reopened on Saturday after remaining closed for almost 20 hours in protest against beating of two Pakistani truck drivers by Afghan police on December 27.

Officials at the border said that regular traffic was allowed to move across the border after Afghan and Pakistani officials agreed to prevent occurrence of such ‘ugly’ incidents in future.

The Pakistani border guards closed the border on Saturday morning after the two truckers complained about severe torture at the hands of Afghan police at Pul-i-Charkhi checkpost near Kabul on December 27.

However, Pakistani border guards allowed the traffic to cross over to Afghanistan and let the stranded Afghans to enter Pakistan at around 5pm.

Officials said that those Afghans, who didn’t possess legal documents, would not be allowed to enter Pakistan. They said that both the governments also agreed to take action against those, who were involved in three incidents of torture of nationals of both the countries. They would ensure safety of each other’s nationals when they entered either country, they said.

Meanwhile, a woman was killed and her son received injuries when a mortar shell fell on a house in Yousuf Takan area of Bara on Saturday.

In another incident, an official of Mehsud Scout was killed when militants fired at a security checkpost  in Nala-Malikdinkhel area. Security forces later targeted militant hideouts in the area.

However, no loss of life was reported in the artillery shelling.

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