KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – Pakistan has halted nearly 2,000 trucks carrying fruits and vegetables at the Torkham border for over a week, causing millions of dollars in losses for Afghan traders, according to Taliban authorities.
In a post on X on Wednesday, August 28, the Embassy of Afghanistan in Islamabad, now under Taliban control, urged Pakistani authorities to reopen the gate and prevent further losses for both countries.
“After the Torkham gate was repeatedly closed and reopened during the fresh fruit and vegetable season, affecting Afghan trade, the Peshawar-Torkham route has once again been blocked for over a week,” the embassy said.
“Currently, nearly two thousand trucks have been halted on their way from Torkham to Peshawar, causing millions of dollars in losses for Afghan traders,” it added.
The embassy further stated that it has repeatedly raised this issue with Pakistani officials, who have promised a swift resolution, but no progress has been made so far.
The Torkham border crossing, situated between Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Afghanistan’s Nangarhar provinces, is one of the busiest routes for traders and ordinary travelers between the two neighboring countries.
This is not the first time the country has closed the Torkham border. In recent years, the border has been shut multiple times for several days, impacting all forms of movement, including ordinary travelers, patients, and trucks.
Pakistan has recently tightened border controls along its nearly 2,600-kilometer frontier with Afghanistan to prevent terrorist infiltration, in response to a rise in terrorist attacks within the country in recent years.
The ongoing border blockages and the lack of resolution are escalating tensions, impacting trade and diplomatic relations between the two neighboring countries.
