ISLAMABAD: 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.
The moves came nearly a week after Pakistan shut off its borders for any trade with India, including to or from a third country, in response to New Delhi’s measures following a deadly attack in occupied Kashmir. India, without proof, implied cross-border links, which Pakistan denied and instead sought a neutral probe.
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.
Islamabad decided to halt trade with New Delhi — including to and from any third country via Pakistan — during the National Security Committee meeting on April 24.
Trade between the two countries had already been suspended since February 2019, when New Delhi imposed steep duties on Pakistani imports after the Pulwama attack, which killed 40 Indian soldiers in Indian-occupied Kashmir.
That August, after New Delhi stripped occupied Kashmir of its special status by revoking Article 370, Pakistan formally downgraded trade ties with India to the level of Israel, with which it has no commercial relations.
