Tensions flare at Torkham as Pakistan fires warning shots over resumed Afghan checkpost work

Tensions flared again at the Torkham border on Friday evening, when Pakistani border forces fired warning shots after Afghan forces restarted construction of a disputed security checkpost on their side of the crossing. Officials at Torkham said the Afghan side had resumed work near the border’s Zero Point that both sides had previously agreed to stop.

Second breach in a week

Officials described it as the second violation this week of a mutual agreement under which neither side builds a new post or building, or repairs an old one, within a 100-metre radius of the border. The same controversial Zangali checkpost was at the centre of a scare on October 19, when Afghan authorities abandoned the work after Pakistan expressed strong resentment, averting an armed clash. That day the repatriation of undocumented Afghans was suspended for some hours and immigration and customs offices were closed, before operations resumed once construction stopped.

Residents indoors, talks urged

After Friday evening’s warning shots, residents of the border area stayed inside their homes, while Pakistani officials also sent verbal messages to their Afghan counterparts. Officials insisted the warning shots were fired only after those messages drew no positive response and the Afghan side refused to stop what Pakistan calls illegal activity near the Zero Point. Pakistan’s position, officials said, has always been to settle border issues through negotiations — but without compromising its principled stand on border security.

The stakes go beyond one checkpost. Torkham is among the busiest crossings between Pakistan and Afghanistan, so every dispute over a post near the line ripples straight into trade, the repatriation process and daily life in the border villages. The question now is whether the Afghan side halts the work, or whether the tension carries into the coming days.