Summary Talks are aimed at promoting peace and resolving the escalation.
ISLAMABAD (Web Desk / AP) - An Afghan delegation has arrived in Islamabad for talks on last week s border clashes that killed two Afghan border guards and a Pakistani officer.
Foreign Office s spokesman Nafees Zakaria said Monday‘s talks are aimed at promoting peace and resolving the escalation.
He says Pakistani Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry welcomed the delegation led by Afghanistan s deputy foreign minister, Hekmat Khalil Karzai.
Afghanistan and Pakistan last week traded deadly heavy gunfire and artillery at the Torkham border crossing after Pakistan started building a gate on its side to check for unwanted and illegal movement.
Afghanistan does not recognize the present boundary, the so-called Durand Line, as an international border. Pakistan reopened the border crossing on Saturday, after the clashes stopped, allowing thousands of stranded to cross.
Earlier on Sunday, Adviser to the Prime Minister on National Security and Foreign Affairs, Sartaj Aziz said that gate on Torkham border in Pakistani area will certainly be constructed.
While giving an interview to BBC Urdu, he said that Pakistan will strongly retaliate to any attack from Afghanistan.
“Issues like extremism and smuggling cannot be controlled without setting up the system of border management,” he affirmed.
Sartaj Aziz clarified that Pakistan had informed the Afghan authorities that from June 1 no one will be allowed to cross the border without documents.
“Movement across the border from both the sides should be done with the aid of documents,” he said.
He said that Pakistan has not breached any agreement by constructing a gate on the Torkham border.
Sartaj Aziz also explained that the gate is being constructing in Pakistan’s territory and is 30-35km away from the border, therefore, no one has the right of objection to this.
Pakistan-Afghanistan border has been opened for travelers on Saturday after six days of tensions and curfew owing to clash over construction of a gate.
