A Tajik long-distance trucker says the Taliban have waived visa requirements for them at the Sher Khan Bandar crossing. The Taliban have facilitated trade across the Sher Khan Bandar bridge customs revenues are now accruing to them.
A Tajik truck driver has told Asia-Plus on the basis of anonymity that the Sher Khan Bandar crossing is open for passing and the Taliban do not create problems for traffic.
“The Taliban have waived visa requirements for us,” said he. “In the past, when we entered, the Afghan customs officers took a bribe of about US$200.00. Now it is gone. Currently, we only pay 60.00 somonis (equivalent to US$5.26 – Asia-Plus) for the carriage of goods”
The long-distance trucker told Asia-Plus that he had returned from Sher Khan Bandar crossing ten days ago.
The Taliban have waived visa requirements for Tajik truckers after the Afghan Embassy in Dushanbe has suspended the issuance of visas to Tajik long-distance truckers.
The Taliban movement has not yet made an official statement on waiving visa requirements, but its members have posted videos on social networks that tell about the resumption of work of the border crossing, noting that there are no problems with travel.
The Tajik authorities have not yet commented on the resumption of work of the Sher Khan Bandar crossing.
Recall, Taliban militants seized the Sher Khan Bandar bridge, built in 2007 with United States funding, on June 22, when 134 Afghan soldiers fled across and into Tajikistan.
Meanwhile, Eurasianet says Tajik truckers are mostly only going as far as Sher Khan Bandar, to drop off or pick up goods, although nobody is explicitly forbidding them from going further.
Adjmal Kokar, a journalist from the Afghan city of Kunduz, told Eurasianet that there are Tajik drivers going deep into the country without trouble.
