Al Jazeera’s Inside Story lays bare how TTP-driven violence and tit-for-tat strikes are shredding the fragile economic lifelines along the Afghanistan–Pakistan border: markets stand empty, trucks loaded with perishables rot at closed crossings like Torkham, and traders on both sides count daily losses in the millions. What starts as security clashes quickly cascades into humanitarian strain — displaced Pashtun families, stalled remittances, and supply shortages that hit urban centres from Peshawar to Kabul hard.
For EU diplomats in Berlin, this isn’t distant South Asian friction: it’s a live warning on how proxy blowback and border militarisation can tank regional trade worth billions, disrupt Central Asian corridors, and spike migration pressures on Europe’s southern flank. With Qatar and Turkey already mediating fragile ceasefires, the real diplomatic test lies in stitching together trade normalisation and local development pacts — before the frontier’s collapse pulls in wider powers and turns economic interdependence into a security trap.
Watch the full episode on Al Jazeera’s YouTube channel.