By Abdul Qadir Sediqi
KABUL (Reuters) -Afghan security forces have retaken control of a major southern border crossing with Pakistan that the Taliban briefly captured, a senior Afghan government official said on Thursday, but the Taliban dismissed that saying they still held the town.
Taliban fighters captured the Spin Boldak-Chaman border crossing on Wednesday, the second most important crossing on the border with Pakistan and a major source of revenue for the Western-backed government in Kabul.
But Afghan forces retook the area’s main market, the customs department and other government installations in the border town a few hours later on Wednesday, a senior government official in the southern province of Kandahar, where the crossing is located, told Reuters.
Government forces, who had initially fallen back to minimise civilian and security personnel losses, were conducting clearing operations, the official said.
He warned that the threat remained high as Taliban fighters outnumbered Afghan security forces in the area.
But Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said his forces still held the border post.
“It is merely propaganda and a baseless claim by the Kabul administration,” he told Reuters.
Pakistan, worried about a spillover of fighting, had shut its side of the border at the second busiest border crossing on the main commercial artery between the second Afghan city of Kandahar and Pakistani ports.
Clashes between the Taliban and government forces have intensified as U.S.-led international forces have been withdrawing and the Taliban have captured several districts and other border crossings in the north and west.
‘IMPORTANT LEADERS’
With security deteriorating sharply, diplomatic efforts focussing on pushing the rival Afghan sides to make progress towards a ceasefire at talks that they have been holding intermittently in Qatar.
President Ashraf Ghani was due to meet regional leaders in Uzbekistan on Thursday as the deteriorating security raises fears of a new Afghan refugee crisis and Pakistan said it would host a conference of senior Afghan leaders in a bid to find solutions.
Pakistan was for years accused of backing the Taliban with the aim of blocking the influence of its old rival India in Afghanistan. Pakistan denied that.
“Important Afghan leaders, including Hamid Karzai, have been invited,” Pakistan’s Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry, said on Twitter, referring to the former Afghan president who remains an influential figure in Kabul.
Chaudhry said Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan spoke to Karzai late on Wednesday. He did not elaborate but told Reuters Taliban leaders would not be attending as Pakistan was holding separate talks with them.
Karzai and some top Afghan political leaders are expected to fly to Qatar this weekend for talks with members of the Taliban who have an office in the capital, Doha.
The Islamist militants ruled Afghanistan from 1996 until their ouster in 2001, weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
They have since been fighting to expel foreign forces and topple the Western-backed government in Kabul.
(Reporting by Abdul Qadir Sediqi in Kabul and Gibran Peshimam in Islamabad)
