Chaman border reopened

Published January 13, 2007

QUETTA, Jan 12: Pakistan on Friday reopened its Chaman border crossing after suspending implementation on the bio-metric control system for two days following talks between tribal elders and Afghan officials in Vesh.

The biometric border crossing control system was launched on Wednesday.

"The border was opened and the new (biometric) system was suspended as a goodwill gesture," an official in Chaman said. The system, he said, had been suspended only for two days for further negotiation between Pakistani and Afghan officials.

Sources said that further negotiation were likely to be held on Sunday to remove the reservations of Afghan border authorities. The supply of oil and other items to the allied forces in Afghanistan was also affected because of the closure of border.

According to reports reaching here, Afghan border officials barred Pakistanis from crossing into Afghanistan on the computerised passes issued by the National Database Registration Authority (Nadra) on Friday morning.

In retaliation, Pakistani security officials also closed the border when Pakistanis came back from the Afghan side.

A large number of people were stranded on both sides of the border because of the border closure.A delegation of tribal elders, headed by District Nazim of Qila Abdullah Haji Adam Khan Achakzai, had gone to Vesh to hold talks with Afghan authorities and defuse the situation.

According to sources, Afghan officials were insisting that computerised passes should also be issued to Afghans who crossed the Chaman border on a daily basis on account of their businesses or to visit their relatives.

Pakistani officials, it was learnt, had suggested that the Afghan officials should appoint responsible border officials and tribal elders for issuing of such passes to them or adopting some other way for resolving this issue.

The Afghan officials assured the tribal delegation that they would send these proposals to Kandahar and Kabul for seeking advice of the Afghan government, Haji Adam Khan Achakzai told reporters in border town Chaman.

Sources said that after the return the Pakistani delegation, the border security officials opened Pak-Afghan border and people from both sites were allowed to cross border on old permits.

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