Torkham border reopens after eight days

Move comes as tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan ease

LANDI KOTAL:

After eight days of closure, the vital Torkham border that straddles Pakistan and Afghanistan was reopened for transit trade and travellers at 8am on Friday.

The development came as tensions between Pakistan and Afghan forces over the construction of an "illegal" check post by the latter subsided.

Border officials confirmed to The Express Tribune that vehicles that were stranded on both sides of the border were being allowed to cross the point after clearance. Travellers were also permitted to cross the border after strict inspection.

Stringent security measures had been put in place before allowing entry, according to border officials.

Thousands of travellers and hundreds of trucks laden with goods were stranded last week by the closure of the Torkham border crossing, at the western end of the fabled Khyber Pass.

“It’s opened for pedestrian and vehicular traffic," Abdul Nasir Khan, deputy commissioner of Pakistan's Khyber district, told Reuters.

The Foreign Office spokespersons and authorities in Afghanistan’s eastern province of Nangarhar confirmed the re-opening. The road is a key lifeline for landlocked Afghanistan, linking Peshawar to Jalalabad, the main city in Nangarhar, and the route onwards to Kabul.

Read Pakistan accuses Afghanistan for 'misusing' transit trade facility

"The border closure was causing huge losses to traders and common people of the two neighbouring countries," said Ziaul Haq Sarhadi, director of the Pakistan-Afghanistan Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Among dozens of families braving the heat and humidity in a bid to return home was an Afghan refugee, Mohammad Ismail, who had spent a week in a makeshift shelter in Peshawar with his wife and four children, waiting for the border to open.

"They're not letting us go back," Ismail told a Reuters photographer, saying that officials were not acknowledging his legal documents, although he had pleaded with them to let the family cross over and seek medical assistance.

"All my children have fallen sick," he added. The refugee family has been in Pakistan for the last three years. Dozens more families in the queue also complained of very slow processing of documents.

Lining the route nearby were hundreds of vehicles carrying perishable fruits, vegetables and other items.

With additional input from Reuters