ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Friday reopened a key trade route with neighboring Afghanistan after a closure of almost four years.
Traders in both countries welcomed the move, and expressed hope that it will increase cross-border trade.
Pakistan closed the Ghulam Khan border crossing in June 2014 after its military launched a major offensive against Pakistani and foreign militants in North Waziristan. The area has been almost completely cleared of armed groups.
Ghulam Khan was reopened on Friday “for trial operations,” Pakistani official Kamran Afridi told Arab News. Four trucks carrying almost 240 tons of cement entered Afghanistan from Pakistan, he added.
“The decision to resume trade via Ghulam Khan was taken in the national interest,” he said. “It will help in the development of North Waziristan, and will provide new job opportunities.” Reviving trade will pave the way for better bilateral relations, Afridi added.
Pakistani and Afghan traders expressed hope that all other border crossings will reopen. “There should be no restrictions on cross-border trade,” Zubair Motiwala, chairman of the Pakistan-Afghanistan Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PAJCCI), told Arab News.
He called for a liberal visa regime for Pakistani and Afghan traders, and said trade should be separated from security and political issues.
Khan Jan Alokozai, co-chairman of PAJCCI, told Arab News: “We welcome Pakistan’s decision to open a major trade route. It will not only boost trade activities, but also promote people-to-people contacts.”
He added: “I’m confident that the decision will also help reduce political tension, as Pakistan has conveyed a positive message to Afghan traders and people.”
Military, local administration and customs officials gathered at Ghulam Khan to welcome Pakistani traders and see them off at the crossing point, Afridi said. Afghan trucks “need a few days for preparation” before they arrive in Pakistan, he added.
Bilateral trade has decreased to nearly $1.2 billion from $2.6 billion in less than two years, Motiwala said earlier this month.
Pakistan reopens key trade route with Afghanistan
Pakistan reopens key trade route with Afghanistan
Bangladesh says at least 287 killed during Hasina-era abductions
- Commission says corpses were believed to have been dumped in rivers or buried in mass graves
- Says many of those kidnapped belonged to Jamaat-e-Islami or Bangladesh Nationalist Party
DHAKA: A Bangladesh commission investigating disappearances during the rule of ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina said Monday at least 287 people were assumed to have been killed.
The commission said some corpses were believed to have been dumped in rivers, including the Buriganga in the capital, Dhaka, or buried in mass graves.
The government-appointed commission, formed after Hasina was toppled by a mass uprising in August 2024, said it had investigated 1,569 cases of abductions, with 287 of the victims presumed dead.
“We have identified a number of unmarked graves in several places where the bodies were presumably buried,” Nur Khan Liton, a commission member, told AFP.
“The commission has recommended that Bangladesh seek cooperation from forensic experts to identify the bodies and collect and preserve DNA samples from family members.”
In its final report, submitted to the government on Sunday, the commission said that security forces had acted under the command of Hasina and her top officials.
The report said many of those abducted had belonged to the country’s largest Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami, or the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), both in opposition to Hasina.
In a separate investigation, police in December began exhuming a mass grave in Dhaka.
The grave included at least eight victims of the uprising against Hasina, bodies all found with bullet wounds, according to Criminal Investigation Department (CID) chief Md Sibgat Ullah.
The United Nations says up to 1,400 people were killed in crackdowns as Hasina attempted to cling to power.
She was sentenced to death in absentia in November for crimes against humanity.
“We are grateful for finally being able to know where our brother is buried,” said Mohamed Nabil, whose 28-year-old sibling Sohel Rana was identified as one of the dead in the grave in Dhaka.
“But we demand a swift trial for the police officials who shot at the people during the uprising.”
