Chaman: The arrest of the Taliban from the Afghan-Pakistan-Pakistan-Pakistan border post has sent truck costs that jumped, with guerrillas and government officials separately drove traders, and bandits demanded bribes to allow safe goods travel.
Thousands of vehicles cross every day from Chaman in Southwest Pakistan to rotate Boldak on the other hand, bring items destined for Kandahar, Afghan’s second largest city.
On the way back, they usually transport agricultural products to the market or port of Pakistan.
Bilateral trading is worth hundreds of millions of dollars per year if it is no more stopping earlier this month after the Taliban won a dusty border city, but continued this week with the rebels who seemed to be very responsible.
They have captured the extensive plot from the country since the beginning of May after launching a series of attacks to take advantage of the final stages of withdrawal of foreign troops.
Even though they have not taken the provincial capital, they have captured a series of main border posts with Iran, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Pakistan who provide vital income from customs for goods that come in land-locked countries.
“We contained wine in Kandahar and on our journey was squeezed at least three times,” said Trucker Hidayatullah Khan told AFP in Chaman.
“Sometimes they charge 3,000 rupees ($ 20), elsewhere 2,000 rupees, and in several other places 1,000 rupees,” he said.
It was on tax he had to pay Taliban officials at Spin Boldak and the Afghan government customs official who had opened a shop in Kandahar.
– Chaos and confusion – the truck driver interviewed in Chaman this week was told about chaos and confusion on the side of the Afghanistan border.
Imran Kakar, Vice President of the Joint Commerce Room, Pak-Afghanistan, gave one example of a cloth carrying a truck from Karachi destined for Kandahar.
The Taliban imposed a 150,000 rupee driver (around $ 1,000) as a task in the Bopp’s round, but when the vehicle reached the Kandahar government officials also waited.
“We have to pay higher customs customs because they do not recognize payments made to the Taliban,” said Kakar.
The scenes reminiscent of Afghanistan during the brutal civil war in the 1990s, when the eldest patch of militia held a stretch of main trade routes and preservatives and residents who were squeezed using the road as they wish.
Hundreds of trucks lined on Wednesday on the side of the Pakistani border, waiting for permission to cross.
At Dusty Dusty this week, with rough hills as a background, driver and internship “Spanner Boy” playing with their vehicles ahead of the trip.
While the distance is only 100 kilometers (60 miles), a trip full of danger.
Vehicles and roads are poorly maintained at Afghan checkpoints, police and army regularly demanding “tea money” or more of each driver, and bandits also wait well to steal goods or demand further payments for safe passages.
There are also risks they can be captured in a shootout during the battle between the Taliban and government forces.
However, traders and drivers say they have little choice but to keep the truck.
“The war has happened, we know it, but we have no other choice,” said Abdul Razzaq, a driver who brought chicks that hatched into Kandahar.
“Transportation items is the only way for us to feed our family,” he told AFP.
Road to Ruin: Double Tax and Bandit on the Pakistan-Afghan Trade Route
