Taliban shuts down main border point with Pak

The Taliban-led government in Afghanistan has ordered the shut down of one of the country’s main trading and border crossing points with Pakistan, accusing Islam­abad of reneging on its commitments. The Afghan Taliban commissioner for Torkham said the border point had been closed down for travel and transit trade, reports Dawn news. “Pakistan has not abided by its commitments and so the gateway has been shut down on the directions of (our) leadership,” Taliban commissioner at Torkham Maulavi Mohammad Siddique tweeted. He advised the people of Afghanistan to avoid travelling to the border crossing in eastern Nangarhar province. However, the Taliban official did not specify the commitment Islamabad allegedly breached. Some unconfirmed media rep­orts suggested the Taliban were irked by an unannounced ban on tra­vel of Afghan patients seeking treatment in Pakistan, Dawn reported. There was no immediate official word from Foreign Office in Islamabad. The Afghan Taliban appear unlikely to shift their strategic calculus on providing support to the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) terror group, an analysis by the US Institute for Peace (USIP) said last week. It furthered that much of the TTP’s political leadership and capability was based in Afghanistan and the outlawed faction was able to fundraise through extortion inside Pakistan as well as in Afghanistan, The Express Tribune reported. It reiterated that the Afghan Taliban remain “very supportive” of the TTP and are providing the group with a permissive safe haven. “The TTP also has a lot of popular support in Afghanistan, where both Taliban and non-Taliban constituencies get behind the TTP due to a fervent dislike for Pakistan. Some Taliban fighters are also joining the TTP, and there are reports of some recent bombers being Afghan.”