World / Firing between pakistan and taliban fighters over border fencing

Pakistan : Imran Khan's helping hand to the Taliban to take over Afghanistan is now backfired. Firing is going on between the Pakistani Army and the Afghan Taliban on the Durand Line. The latest incidents took place on Friday in the villages of Ganjgal, Sarkano and Kunaur in Bajaur area. Reports in the local media and videos tweeted by journalists showed both the sides firing at each other.

According to some reports, firing continued for about half an hour from both the sides on Friday afternoon. The firing reportedly started when a Taliban sniper gunned down two Pakistani soldiers engaged in fencing along the border. After this Pakistani soldiers fired on the settlements here. In response, Taliban fighters also opened fire.

A local report said that there was heavy firing in the area. Villagers came in the grip of many pellets and cannon balls. Meanwhile, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) on Saturday claimed responsibility for the December 19 attack on Union Minister Shibli Faraj at Darra Adam Khel, in which his driver and bodyguard were injured.

The clashes along the border come at a time when the Taliban and Pakistan have claimed that they have resolved the recent dispute over the cordon. A senior official, who spoke to a group of journalists on Friday, said that it has been decided at the senior level that in future the issues related to the fence will be settled by mutual consent. However, the official did not specify at what level the talks between Pakistan and Afghanistan actually took place.

Earlier, Pakistan's biggest newspaper Dawn had reported that on Wednesday Taliban boys had blocked the cordon and took away barbed wire. Pakistan has been fencing the 2,600-km-long border with Afghanistan since 2017 to prevent terrorist infiltration and smuggling from the neighboring country. Border posts are also being built here due to tarbandi lava. According to officials, 90 percent of its work has been completed.

Why is the Taliban opposing the cordoning?

The fencing between Pakistan and Afghanistan has been a source of contention, as Afghanistan opposes it by saying that the border was demarcated during the colonial period. The Afghan Pashtuns define their country's borders on the basis of the Durand Line, while Pakistan opposes this demarcation. The differences over the status of the border are so deep that there have been several deadly clashes between the soldiers of the two countries in the past.