Traders, drivers and residents of Landi Kotal in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province staged a protest on Sunday against the continued closure of the Torkham border crossing, which has remained shut for more than a month.
Demonstrators called for the immediate reopening of the key transit point, saying the prolonged closure has inflicted heavy losses on the economies of both Afghanistan and Pakistan and has left thousands of people unemployed. They warned that factories in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were now at risk of shutting down due to the disruption in cross-border trade.
Protesters said the closure had severely damaged the agriculture, trade and transport sectors, with Pakistan’s economy bearing the greatest losses. One participant said that even during wartime, trade routes typically remained open, adding that the current situation had driven people deeper into hunger and poverty.
The demonstrators warned that if the closure continues and economic pressures intensify, the security situation in the region is likely to deteriorate. They urged Pakistani authorities to take concrete steps to resolve the impasse and called on the Afghan Taliban to address disputes through dialogue.
Torkham and several other border crossings were closed to commercial and passenger traffic last month following deadly clashes between Pakistani forces and the Afghan Taliban. The shutdown has led to sharp increases in the price of imported goods in both countries.
Pakistani officials have previously said that under normal circumstances, the Torkham crossing alone facilitates more than US$3 million in daily trade, including about US$2 million in exports and roughly US$900,000 in imports.
