Panic spread among people waiting for Torkham border to reopen on Monday as intense fire was exchanged between Pakistani and Afghan border forces.

Local sources told Khabar Kada that ‘heavy artillery fire’ was exchanged between the two sides early on Sunday morning, injuring at least one civilian. Later reports said that a truck driver caught in the stampede died of cardiac arrest.

A checkpoint on the Afghan side also caught fire according to the sources and several ambulances were rushed to the scene.

The firing led to panic among the pedestrians and transporters waiting to travel across the border. The transporters association has asked its truck drivers to vacate the area until tensions end.

The Torkham border has been closed since February 21, when Pakistani forces stopped the Afghan side from constructing a checkpost on the border’s zero point. In response, Afghan border forces had taken up positions, leading to a rise in hostilities. Pakistani authorities then closed the border and evacuated its staff to Landi Kotal.

In a weekly press briefing, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had called upon the Afghan side to make use of bilateral mechanisms to solve the issue instead of pressing ahead unilaterally. MoFA had also called the decision to close the border and ‘undesirable’ one.

However, negotiations between the two sides did not bear fruit. Afghan Commissioner Abdul Jabbar Hikmat said on Sunday that he has told Pakistani officials that the border should remain open 24 hours a day and there should be no restriction on any civilian or commercial movement.

Afghan Consul General Hafiz Muhibullah Shakir also met KP CM Ali Amin Gandapur to discuss reopening the border and improving trade ties on Sunday.

Torkham is one of eight border crossings between Pakistan and Afghanistan and thousands of pedestrians and vehicles cross it in both directions each day. The closure of the border has led to trade worth $10 million so far, according to a recent estimate.