PESHAWAR: Pakistan on Saturday reopened a busy border crossing on its frontier with Afghanistan in the northwest for transit trade and pedestrian movement, confirmed officials and customs clearing agents, following a clash between security forces of the two countries.
Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities shut down the Torkham border, the main trade link between the two neighboring countries, last weekend while blaming Islamabad for not abiding by an agreement to let Afghan patients and their caretakers cross over without travel documents. On Monday, a Pakistani soldier was injured after the Taliban and Pakistani border guards exchanged fire.
Ghuncha Gul, a senior administration official in the Khyber tribal district, said he received instructions from high-ups late Friday night on reopening the border crossing for all kinds of vehicles and pedestrians.
“We have opened the gate at 6:00 am in the morning today for all kinds of export, import, transit, trade, vehicles and pedestrian movement,” Gul told Arab News on Saturday.
A high-level Pakistani delegation, led by Defense Minister Khawaja Asif, also visited Kabul this week to hold talks on security issues with the Taliban leadership, amid strained ties between the two neighbors.
Following the talks, Torkham crossing was briefly reopened by the Taliban forces on Thursday, but was closed again due to “administrative issues.”
Irshad Mohmand, another administration official in Khyber, told Arab News the border had now been opened for trucks and pedestrians.
“It is now open for all sorts of movement, both pedestrian and vehicular,” he added.
Hazrat Nabi Toor, a trade official on the Afghan side, told Arab News over the phone that the border was reopened early Saturday.
“The gate is now open and desperate Afghan families are seen crossing the border into Pakistan,” he said.
“But pray that it stays open,” Toor added.
Long queues of trucks loaded with fruit, vegetables and other goods were seen along the roads leading to the key border crossing on the Pakistani side as trade remained suspended most of this week.
Asghar Ali, a Pakistani custom-clearance agent at Torkham, said routine business had now begun after the reopening of the terminal, with hundreds of trucks moving on either side of the gate.
“Thousands of stranded passengers thronged to the gate the moment it reopened in the morning,” he told Arab News.
“Loaded vehicles started crossing the gate, entering Pakistan and Afghanistan.”
Pakistan has not recognized the Taliban government in Kabul since it took control of the neighboring country in August 2021, though it has allowed Afghan patients to get medical treatment in its hospitals while also trying to enhance bilateral trade.
However, relations between the two neighbors have soured over the past couple of months with a surge in militant attacks in Pakistan.
The number of attacks increased after the Pakistani Taliban, or the proscribed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), called off a fragile, months-long truce with the government in November last year. The Pakistani Taliban share a common lineage and ideals with the Afghan Taliban.
Pakistani officials have repeatedly asked the Afghan Taliban to rein in militant groups operating on the Afghan soil and intensified counter-insurgency efforts in the country’s northwestern and southwestern regions.
