Pakistan Will Close Its Border With Afghanistan If The Taliban Take Over The Country

In this file photo, an army soldier stands guard along the newly fenced part of the Pak-Afghan border after Chief of the Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa inaugurated the fencing work near the Panjpai area of Balochistan.—AFP/File  

Hindustan Times: Pakistan will shut its border with Afghanistan in ‘national interest’ if Taliban takes over post-US withdrawal 

The foreign minister’s admission comes a day after Prime Minister Imran Khan told reporters that Pakistan will be sealing its border with Afghanistan if the Taliban attempts to take over the country with their military might. 

Pakistan’s foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said the country will shut its border in “national interest” with neighbouring Afghanistan if the Taliban takes over the country after the withdrawal of US troops from the region concludes. 

“We will have to shut our border, we have to safeguard our national interest,” the Associated Press said, quoting Qureshi. Qureshi claimed that Pakistan has sheltered 3.5 million Afghan refugees over the years as the Taliban ravaged Afghanistan but “we can’t take more”.  

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Update: Pakistan will shut border if Taliban take over Afghanistan (AP)  

WNU Editor: A takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban will create a refugee crisis that the world has not seen in years. This announcement by the Pakistani government tells me that they have accepted that this is a very real possibility, and they are positioning themselves for a worst-case scenario.