Pakistan, Afghan Taliban trade fire at border crossing

Officials say Pakistani border guards and Afghan Taliban forces have exchanged fire at a key border crossing in northwestern Pakistan

Pakistani border guards and Afghan Taliban forces traded cross-border fire on Monday morning, officials said, a day after Afghanistan's Taliban rulers closed the Torkham border crossing amid increasing tensions between the two neighbors.

There was no immediate word on casualties on either side.

On Sunday, the Afghan Taliban shut Torkham, a key trade route, over Pakistan's alleged refusal to allow Afghan patients and their caretakers to enter Pakistan for medical care without travel documents, Pakistani security officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss border issues.

Khalid Khan, a local Pakistani police official, confirmed the border closure and what he described as intermittent exchanges of fire at Torkham, located in Pakistan's northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Pakistan's military and the Foreign Ministry made no immediate comments.

Mullah Mohammad Siddiq, a Taliban-appointed commissioner at Torkham, said Pakistan has not been abiding by its “commitments, so the crossing point was shut down." He did not elaborate.

Siddiq advised Afghans to avoid travelling to the border crossing, located on Afghanistan's side in the country's eastern Nangarhar province, until further notice.

Cross-border fire and shootouts are common along the Afghan-Pakistan border. Each side has in the past closed Torkham, and also the Chaman border crossing in southwestern Pakistan, for a multitude of reasons. Both crossings are vital for landlocked Afghanistan for trade and travel.