ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s interior minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed has said that fencing work along the country’s porous border with Afghanistan will finish by June 30. 

During an address to the National Assembly on Saturday, he added that “88 percent of the fencing work has already been completed,” according to media reports. 

Pakistan began fencing its 2,600 km border with Afghanistan in 2017 to prevent militant crossings and smuggling and has frequently attributed high-profile attacks to groups based in Afghanistan. 

Afghanistan, in turn, accuses Islamabad of sheltering the Afghan Taliban militants who are battling the Western-backed government in Kabul. Both countries deny the charges. 

On Saturday, Pakistan’s military conducted an intelligence-based operation in the Spinwam area of North Waziristan district near Afghanistan, killing two “terrorists” which it says “were active members of the TTP [Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan].” 

“[They were] involved in terrorist activities against Security Forces,” the Inter-Service Public Relations (ISPR), the Pakistani military’s media wing, said in a statement.