Taliban a big loser after Pahalgam terror attack — here’s why

Out of all the economic fallout of the Pahalgam terror attack — visas curtailed, borders closed, flights diverted and trade suspended, there is one unintended collateral victim.

 

The Taliban, no less.

 

While India and Pakistan slug it out, it is the fundamentalist group-run Islamic country to the west of both nations that is set to take a sucker punch — Afghanistan.

 

This is because the closure of the Attari-Wagah border between India and Pakistan is set to give a body blow to Afghanistan’s flourishing trade with India.

 

According to the United Nations COMTRADE database, India imported about 665 million dollars worth of merchandise from Afghanistan — a trade that has grown massively, particularly over the past two years. India’s primary imports from Afghanistan are fruit and nuts — dry fruits, peel of citrus fruit as well as fresh fruits like melons. Other imports include lac, gums and resins, coffee, spices, wool and animal hair.

 

With most of these coming via the land route — Afghanistan is landlocked with crossing Pakistan the shortest route to India, the closure of the Attari-Wagah border post will severely hamper the flourishing trade.

 

Particularly for dried fruits and nuts, for which this is the season.

 

The other option is to send the shipment via Iran and its controversial Chabahar port, however, this takes a longer time. While Afghan traders say the port doesn’t have enough proper storage facilities, the reality could well be that Afghan traders do not have enough cold storage facilities for fresh fruits and the like during the much longer shipment to Chabahar and then onward via sea to Mumbai’s Nhava Sheva. Taking the help of third-party transit points like Dubai would turn out to be too expensive for the Afghan produce.

 

India is amongst Afghanistan’s five top trading partners (neighbouring Iran is where most of its imports come from, while most exports go to Pakistan and via Pakistan into India) — its total exports last year was 1,800 million dollars, of which 665 million dollars, or more than one-third, is with India.

 

Naturally, there is consternation amongst the traders of this troubled nation. So much so that India sent joint secretary in MEA Anand Prakash to talk with the Afghanistan minister to assuage Taliban worries over trade, transit and the latest developments. This comes after Pakistan started stopping trucks carrying merchandise intended for India. Before the Pahalgam attack, an average of 50 trucks carrying dry fruits, apples and other goods used to cross Pakistan into India every day.

Business