Pakistan reopens border with Afghanistan
After a week’s closure
Pakistan on Monday reopened its key Chaman border crossing with landlocked Afghanistan for trade and pedestrian movement after shutting it down a week earlier after an Afghan gunman shot and killed a Pakistani soldier and wounded two others, a Pakistani official said. The deadly shooting on November 13 shuttered the border, which is also known as Friendship Gate, causing heavy losses to traders and stranding thousands of people on both sides. Abdul Majeed Zehri, a Pakistani government administrator in Chaman in Balochistan province, told reporters that the decision to reopen the border came after talks with Afghan officials. They are searching for the attacker. Zehri said Afghan officials also expressed grief and sorrow over the killing of the Pakistani border guard.