KHYBER: A verbal brawl between customs officials and border security guards at Torkham temporarily suspended clearance of trade goods late on Thursday evening.

Sources at Torkham said that customs officials ordered its entire staff to ‘step back’ from their respective positions where they examine loaded vehicles and conduct goods clearance after an exchange of hot words with border guards at the zero point.

Though the actual reason about what caused the verbal brawl could not be ascertained, customs officials complained about undue interference from the security guards and anti-narcotics officials in their official working.

Confirming the sudden halt of goods clearance, local customs clearing agents said that the incident took place around 5pm when the entire customs staff abandoned their positions and gathered at their main offices.

They said that they too were taken by surprise about the sudden halt of the goods clearance as they were not given any prior notice about it.

The daily figures shared by customs officials however said that as many as 274 vehicles loaded with export goods had crossed over to Afghanistan on Thursday along with 34 Afghan Transit Trade vehicles.

Similarly 312 vehicles loaded with import items entered Pakistan along with 37 empty vehicles on Thursday. Pedestrian movement remained open throughout the day.

Published in Dawn, May 23rd, 2025