Hundreds of trucks and travellers were stranded on Tuesday on the main point of transit for travellers and goods between Pakistan and Afghanistan, Torkham border crossing, a week after a gunfight erupted between the security forces of both countries.
Since then Islamabad and Kabul have been in diplomatic deadlock as each blamed the other for firing the first salvo last Wednesday.
The Pakistan side of the border, usually bustling with pedestrian and truck traffic, was abandoned on Monday, with markets and offices shut and crowds of travellers sheltering in nearby mosques.
The country is in the grip of an economic downturn, while Afghanistan is still reeling from the mass withdrawal of foreign aid in response to the Taliban’s return to government two years ago.
Jamal Nasir, deputy commissioner of Khyber district, said 1,300 vehicles, including trucks and trailers, were sitting idle waiting for the international trade hub to reopen. “Fruit and vegetable trucks have been turned back because their cargo was either rotten or feared to rot,” he told AFP.
