QUETTA: With the efforts of a 16-member jirga that visited Kandahar to meet the Taliban officials amid tense situation at Chaman border, a flag meeting held between Pakistan and Afghan authorities at Friendship Gate on Tuesday agreed to resolve all border issues through talks.

At the flag meeting, which was postponed earlier on Saturday reportedly due to grouping among the Afghan officials on use of authority and taking decisions, it was also decided that civil and military officials of both sides would visit the other country for negotiations on all issues in future.

Both sides agreed that fighting was not a solution to any problem and negotiation was the right way to resolve all issues between the neighbouring countries. The meeting was held in a very cordial atmosphere as two sides discussed the border issues in detail and appreciated the role of religious and tribal elders in breaking the deadlock through their efforts and suggested that their role should be continued in future for increasing trust and confidence between Pakistan and Afghanistan,“ official sources told Dawn.

“It was decided the civil and military officials concerned would hold negotiations by visiting both countries in future and will remain in contact,” a senior official present at the meeting disclosed.

The Pakistani civil and military officials also put traditional turbans on the heads of Afghan officials.

While the situation has been tense at Chaman border since the mid of November when a Pakistani soldier was martyred by firing from across the border, Afghan border forces’ shelling on officials as well as on civilian settlements in recent weeks aggravated it.

In an ice-breaking visit to Afghanistan after the postponement of Saturday flag meeting, a delegation comprising leading religious scholars and tribal elders from Chaman held talks with senior Afghan Taliban leaders and officials in Spin Boldak and Kandahar and took up the issue of shelling by Afghan forces on the civilian settlement that claimed at least nine lives and left 45 others injured.

At those meetings, the Pakistani delegates and Afghan officials agreed to facilitate the conduct of flag meeting before the jirga returned to Chaman and briefed the civil and military authorities about their decisions, sources said.

Subsequently, the flag meeting was held at Friendship Gate on Tuesday afternoon. Civil and military officials, including deputy commissioner Chaman, tribal and religious leaders, while from the other side, senior border security and deputy commissioner of Spin Boldak attended the meeting.

The Afghan officials expressed their grief and sorrow over the human loss during the recent shelling from the Afghan forces and fateha was offered for the departed souls of the Pakistani civilians who lost their lives. “We have a lot of respect for the sacrifices rendered by the people of Pakistan for Afghanistan and we cannot forget these sacrifices forever,” they said.

Published in Dawn, December 21st, 2022