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Pakistan on Tuesday closed two major border points with Afghanistan for its efforts to maintain security during the July 25 elections, officials said.

The Embassy of Pakistan in the Afghan capital Kabul has announced that the Chaman border in southwestern Balochistan and Kharlachi in the Kurram district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will remain closed on Tuesday and Wednesday due to parliamentary elections in Pakistan.

However, officials said the major border crossing at Torkham in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will remain open as usual.

Meanwhile the Afghan consulate in Peshawar has advised all Afghans to avoid unnecessary movement in view
of the elections in Pakistan.

According to the UN refugee agency, Pakistan still hosts around 2.4 million Afghan refugees.

On July 17, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani had assured Pakistani caretaker Prime Minister Nasir-ul-Mulk and
Army Chief Gen. Qamar Bajwa that his government will take measures on the Afghan side of the border
for security during the elections.

Pakistan has deployed 800,000 security personnel for the security of elections of the National Assembly,
lower house of the parliament, and provincial assemblies.

NAM reports that as campaigning steps up for the general elections on Wednesday, bombings across Pakistan
have stoked fears of more violence in the country of 208 million, where political rallies can draw
tens of thousands of people.

Violence in Pakistan has ebbed since the military began major operations against militants along the
tumultuous border with Afghanistan following a shocking 2014 attack on a Peshawar school that killed
149 people, most of them children.

(Xinhua/NAN)