Pak Govt allows 150 stranded Afghan trucks to cross Wagah Border for goods delivery

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Pakistan Govt allows 150 stranded Afghan trucks to cross Wagah Border for goods delivery​

Nadir Guramani
May 1, 2025


Pakistan on Thursday allowed 150 stranded Afghan trucks carrying goods for India to cross the Wagah Border, easing a weeks-long bottleneck, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

A week ago, Pakistan suspended trade and closed airspace with India in response to New Delhi’s measures following a Kashmir attack. India alleged cross-border links, a claim denied by Pakistan. The moves were decided at a National Security Committee meeting to formulate a response, including halting “all trade with India, including to and from any third country” via Pakistan.

A document shared by the foreign ministry today, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, acknowledged a request made by the Afghan embassy in Islamabad on April 28 regarding containers stranded at different transit points in Pakistan.

“The ministry has the honour to inform that in view of the brotherly relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan, the government of Pakistan has decided to permit stranded Afghan trucks, carrying goods in transit to India, which entered Pakistan before April 25, 2025, to cross Wagah Border for delivering the goods.

“The list of 150 trucks provided by the esteemed embassy has been transmitted to the concerned authorities,” the foreign ministry said.

Details of other stranded trucks, if any, may also be tared at the earliest, it added.

Trade ties between Pakistan and India have remained suspended since February 2019 due to the imposition of heavy duties by New Delhi on imports from Pakistan after the Pulwama attack, which killed 40 Indian soldiers in Indian-occupied Kashmir.

Following the attack, India had decided to impose a 200 per cent duty on imports from Pakistan, suspended the Kashmir bus service and trade across the Line of Control.

In August of the same year, Pakistan formally downgraded its trade relations with India to the level of Israel with which Islamabad has no trade ties at all. The move had come in response to India’s decision to revoke Article 370 of its constitution that granted occupied Kashmir a special status.

Govt allows 150 stranded Afghan trucks to cross Wagah Border for goods delivery

Acknowledges request made by Afghan embassy in Islamabad on April 28 regarding containers stranded at different transit points in Pakistan.

www.dawn.com