Taliban have shut Chaman-Spin Boldak border, confirms Sheikh Rasheed

ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad on Friday said that the Taliban have shut the Chaman border crossing with Afghanistan’s Spin Boldak area over Covid-19 certificate and biometric verification issues, ARY NEWS reported.

The interior minister in his statement said that the shadow governor of the Taliban has closed down the border after he refused to accept the conditions of biometric verification and COVID-19 certificate.

Previously, Sheikh Rasheed said that the transit facility was provided to people to travel to and from the border after compliance with visa and biometric conditions.

“We have also shut down the Chaman-Spin Boldak border over COVID-19 issues,” he said while confirming that the border has been shut down completely.

The interior minister said that Pakistan has no role in the internal matters of Afghanistan and the country would not let its soil be used against the war-torn neighbouring country.

He also stressed that Afghanistan should also ensure that its soil is not being used against Pakistan. “I have shared the facts as border management comes under my domain,” he concluded.

Earlier in the day, a Reuters report said that the Taliban closed a key border crossing with Pakistan on Friday, saying no one would be allowed through until Islamabad dropped or relaxed its visa requirements for Afghans.

Pakistan initially closed its side of the crossing, landlocked Afghanistan’s second busiest entry point and main commercial artery to the sea, before reopening it last week.

But since the Taliban took control of Chaman-Spin Boldak, Pakistani border officials there have begun enforcing visa requirements for Afghans which previously were not as strictly observed.

In a statement on Friday, the Taliban statement called on Pakistan to scrap all visa requirements for Afghans.