Officials said that the continued closure of the lead crossing crossing on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan for a period of approximately a week led to the disruption of bilateral trade and the movement of individuals, which caused financial losses to merchants and left many individuals stuck in harsh winter conditions.
The Tarsham border crossing has been closed since February 21 after it was closed by Pakistan against a dispute over Afghanistan’s construction of a border site.
He said The Director of the Joint Pakistan Pakistani Chamber of Commerce and Industry Dia Al -Haq Surdi, since then, the means have been cut by more than 5 thousand trucks and vehicles carrying goods, including fruits and vegetables, on both sides of the border, pending the reopening of the trade route.
The Tarshm crossing is a vital corridor to transport goods between Pakistan and the Central Asian countries, and called on the two countries ’sacred to resolve the dispute between them until the bilateral trade and the movement of the transportation of individuals.
The truck driver, Naguib Allah, said that he had to sleep in his car because he could not leave it without guarding the road. “We ask Pakistan and Afghanistan to have mercy on us because we suffer without any reason,” he told reporters.
The ways were cut by hundreds of individuals near the border, and Mustafa Khan, another driver, said that he was hoping to return to his city in northwestern Pakistan after handing over the cement supplies in the Afghan city of Jalalabad, but “I have been stuck here since last Friday, and I have no idea about the number of days when we will face this problem.”
Farhad Nusrat, an Afghan citizen, said that he was returning to his home with his mother and children, and forced them to close the border crossing to spend their days and nights in the open area. He appealed to the Pakistani authorities to reopen the border.
The authorities said that hundreds of Pakistanis were also crossed on the other side of the border.
There was no immediate comment from Pakistan. But Abdul -Jabbar Hikmat, the commissioner on the Afghan side of the border, confirmed the closure of Pakistan to the border.
Hikmat said: “When the Pakistani authorities carry out work on their side, we do not say anything. But when we do something, they close the border,” Hakmat said.
Border fence
Abdel Salam Jawad, a spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Trade and Trade, said that Pakistan closed the border crossing unilaterally, and that the Afghan authorities are trying to solve this problem.
He said that the closure also affected the transit trade in non -coastal Afghanistan. There were no more details, but other local Taliban and Pakistani local officials said that among those who were separated on both sides, women, children and patients of Afghan were either returning to their homes or wanting to travel to Pakistan for medical treatment.
The closure of the border in Tarsham is common due to the differences around the new sites along the Durand that is easy to penetrate, which is absolutely not officially recognized by Afghanistan. Meanwhile, Pakistan has almost completed the construction of a border fence to enhance control.
The Tarshim crossing is located on the outskirts of the Khyber region of Khythmkhua, northwest of Pakistan, where the Pakistani Taliban militants are targeting the security forces frequently.
