Pakistan closes Chaman, Torkham gates on Afghanistan's request
US and NATO commander General Scott Miller was not hurt in the attack
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – Pakistan on Friday closed the Chaman and Torkham gates at its borders with Afghanistan for two days (October 19-20) on the latter’s request in view of yesterday’s Taliban attack which left three dead including Afghan police and intelligence chiefs.
Foreign Office Spokesperson Dr Muhammad Faisal in a statement on Friday said that on a request by the Afghanistan government, it has been decided to keep the friendship gates on Pakistan Afghanistan border crossing points at Chaman and Torkham closed for two days on October 19 and 20.
Dr Muhammad Faisal said both the crossing points will remain closed for all kinds of traffic except emergency cases.
It is pertinent here to mention that, a Taliban-claimed attack on the top US commander in Afghanistan and senior Afghan security officials had killed at least three people and sent the government scrambling to secure the country s restive south.
US and NATO commander General Scott Miller was not hurt in the attack inside a heavily fortified government compound in Kandahar city that targeted a high-level security meeting.
But the shooting carried out by a member of the provincial governor s security team killed anti-Taliban strongman and police chief General Abdul Raziq, Afghan and NATO officials said.
Afghan security forces swarmed Kandahar city after the shooting that shuttered shops and sent terrified civilians -- already on high alert for violence ahead of Saturday s ballot -- into their homes.
The Taliban said in a Twitter post that Miller and Raziq were the targets of the shooting. Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Kone Faulkner said Raziq or the governor, not Miller, had been the targets. "Eye witnesses reported that the attacker was focused on Raziq," a US embassy official in Kabul said.
But the unprecedented attack on a US and NATO commander in Afghanistan and the death of Raziq was "a huge blow to stability and to counterinsurgency more broadly", said Michael Kugelman of the Wilson Center. "The bottom line here is that no one is safe, no matter how powerful they may be and no matter how much security they may expect to receive."
Afghanistan is tense ahead of the October 20 legislative election after the Taliban pledged to attack the ballot. More than 2,500 candidates are competing for 249 seats in the lower house. The election process has already been hit by violence, with hundreds killed or wounded in recent months.
At least 10 candidates have been killed so far including Abdul Jabar Qahraman, who was blown up Wednesday by a bomb placed under his sofa in the southern province of Helmand.
The election is seen as a rehearsal for the presidential vote scheduled for April and an important milestone ahead of a UN meeting in Geneva in November where Afghanistan is under pressure to show progress on "democratic processes".
