Pakistan, Afghanistan open main border crossing, closed for nearly a month

Pakistan and Afghanistan reopened the Torkham border crossing after nearly a month of closure due to clashes. Initially open for trade, pedestrian crossings will resume Friday. The closure had stalled supplies to Afghanistan, which heavily relies on Pakistani food imports.

The Torkham border crossing, the main artery for travel and trade between Pakistan and landlocked Afghanistan, will be initially opened for trade, Pakistan government official Riaz Khan Mehsud told Reuters, and people would be allowed to cross on foot from Friday onwards.

Qureshi Badlon, head of the media department for the Afghanistan's Nangarhar province, said the two sides had agreed to reopen the crossing and resume transit trade.

The crossing has been closed since February 21 after clashes erupted. In the skirmishes, the two sides used mortars and rocket fire after Afghan forces objected to Pakistan's construction of a border outpost.

Since the closure, the crossing been clogged with truckloads of supplies, mainly to Afghanistan, which faces a humanitarian and hunger crisis and relies heavily on food imports from Pakistan.

Trade between the countries was worth over $1.6 billion in 2024, according to Pakistan's foreign office.

(Reporting by Mushtaq Ali in Peshawar; additional reprting by Muhammad Yunus Yawar in Kabul; writing by Asif Shahzad; Editing by Bernadette Baum)

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