After 10 days' closure due to what is widely believed as retaliation of September 30 helicopter attack which killed 3 Pakistani soldiers and injured three more, the government on Saturday decided to reopen Pakistan-Afghanistan border at Torkham, with immediate effect, for supply chain to Nato/Isaf forces in Afghanistan.
"After assessing the security situation in all its aspects, the government has decided to reopen the Nato/ISAF supply from the Pakistan-Afghanistan border at Torkham with immediate effect," said a statement issued by Foreign Office spokesperson Abdul Basit.
The statement said that the relevant authorities were in the process of co-ordinating with authorities on the other side of the border to ensure smooth resumption of the supply traffic. Earlier, on October 6, both the U S and Nato 'apologised' for the September 30 attack, saying that the American helicopters had mistaken Pakistani soldiers for insurgents, as they were in hot pursuit across the Afghan border.
In addition, Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of US Joint Chiefs of Staff, in a letter to Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, also expressed condolences for the deaths and injuries of Pakistani soldiers involved in the September 30 border incident. Meanwhile, Interior Minister Rehman Malik stated that Pakistan had accepted the apology tendered by the Nato-led International Security Assistance Forces for violating airspace.
The public 'apology' by Nato and US officials helped to bring an end to this international incident that was keeping vital supplies from reaching Nato/Isaf troops in Afghanistan. The government had blocked the Torkhum route after a comprehensive study of alternative supply routes to Afghanistan. The objective of suspension of the route was to bring it home to ISAF that any attack within Pakistan may result in changing Pakistan's position as a non-Nato key alliance.
The dispute revealed critical vulnerabilities in the Nato supply chain. Nato and US promised that the alliance "will draw the right lessons" from the deadly cross-border attack. Sources said that supply routes are trump card that Pakistan has. The signal that was sent was: 'you cross our red lines, you'll suffer'. Pakistan sent that signal by closing the Torkham crossing. The blockade created a logjam of trucks loaded with food, fuel and other necessities for Nato troops.
A Nato contractor and president of Khyber Transport Association Shakir Afridi, told Business Recorder that from the time the government blocked the route, 190 Nato containers and oil tankers were set ablaze and 12 drivers lost their lives. "Around 1100 containers and oil tankers, taking supply to Isaf have been torched till today", he said.
He said despite repeated requests neither Pakistan nor Nato gave any compensation to the aggrieved families of those drivers who lost their lives on their way to Afghanistan. Some 80 percent of all Nato non-combat supplies for Afghanistan pass through Pakistan, and the truck convoys are vulnerable to militant attacks. The 'Pakistani Taliban' claimed responsibility for all attacks.
That was a costly situation for the US-led coalition in Afghanistan, which has relatively few other options. Earlier, an alliance spokesman in Kabul warned the Government of Pakistan that this shutdown would force Nato to move more supplies through Russia and the Central Asian Republics on Afghanistan's northern border as a prolonged shutdown could be even more costly for Pakistan, which derives a lot of revenue from the goods crossing its territory.
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