PESHAWAR: The main crossing on the Afghan-Pakistan border remained shut on Tuesday for the third straight day, officials said, after Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers earlier this week closed the key trade route and exchanged fire with Pakistani border guards.
The closure has added to increasing tensions between the two neighbouring countries and concerns for traders, for whom the Torkham crossing is a key commercial artery. Trucks carrying various items also travel to Central Asian countries from Pakistan, through Torkham crossing point and Afghanistan.
On the Pakistani side of the border, in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, many merchants watched their trucks on Tuesday, loaded with fresh produce that could soon spoil, and waited for the crossing to reopen.
The Taliban closed Torkham on Sunday, angered by Pakistan’s alleged refusal to allow Afghan patients and their caretakers to enter Pakistan for medical care without travel documents. On Monday, Taliban fighters and Pakistani guards exchanged fire. There was no word on casualties on either side.
The reason for the closure was not entirely clear, though officials on both sides have said they were in discussions to resolve the issue. A provincial Taliban official told Reuters on Monday Pakistan had not lived up to its commitments to allow transit, travellers and sick people seeking treatment to cross.
Pakistan’s government has not commented publicly on the matter. A Pakistani official source said they had not been told the reason ahead of the closure.
“The traders and particularly those supplying fresh food items such as fruits, vegetables, are facing losses as trucks are stranded on the way for the past three days,” he said.
He added some trucks had been diverted to another, smaller border crossing, but traders were worried about the security of truck drivers travelling to that region.
According to Ziaul Haq Sarhadi, a director at the Pakistan-Afghanistan joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry, nearly 7,000 trucks carrying various goods — including perishable fruit and vegetables — were stuck and lined up, on both sides.
Hundreds of Pakistanis with valid travel documents were also waiting near Torkham for the crossing to reopen, he added. “It is causing problems for traders on both sides.”
There were also vehicles waiting on the other side of the border, in Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar province, but the Taliban have not commented on the issue.
Siddiqullah Quraishi, the Taliban’s appointed official at the Nangahar’s information and culture department, said Pakistan has not been abiding by its “commitments, so the crossing point was shut down.” He did not elaborate but advised Afghans to avoid travelling to the crossing until further notice.
Closures, cross-border fire and shootouts are common along the Afghan-Pakistan border. Each side has in the past closed Torkham, and also the Chaman crossing in southwestern Pakistan, over various reasons.
The Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021 as US and Nato troops were withdrawing from the country after 20 years of war. Like the rest of the world, Pakistan has so far not recognized Afghanistan’s Taliban government. The international community has been wary of the Taliban’s harsh measures, imposed since their takeover, especially in restricting the rights of women and minorities.
