The Torkham crossing was closed to trade vehicles on Friday night, border officials said, with around 3,000 trucks stranded on both sides of the border as of Monday, the co-chairman of the Pakistan-Afghanistan Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Khan Jan Alakozai, told AFP.
This "has not only inflicted losses on traders from both countries but has also resulted in an increase in market prices, as most of the cargo consists of food items that will perish if the crossing remains closed", he said.
Both sides blamed the other for the latest shutdown at the Torkham crossing, which was extended to other border points since Friday.
The dispute centred on demands for drivers from either side to have visas and passports, a document many Afghans do not have.
A long line of trucks piled high with goods snaked down the road from Torkham on Monday afternoon, an AFP photographer saw.
A Pakistan customs official said on Monday that some 450 trucks were stranded on the Pakistani side of the Torkham crossing, with 600 more forced to stop along the road to the border.
Talks were underway between Islamabad and Kabul to resolve the issue, according to officials on both sides.
There was no breakthrough as of Monday night, Abdul Salam Jawad, spokesman for the Afghanistan Ministry of Industry and Commerce, told AFP.
Pakistan and Afghanistan have had increasingly fraught relations in recent months, with Islamabad accusing the Taliban government of failing to root out terrorists staging attacks on Pakistan from Afghan soil.
The Torkham and Spin Boldak-Chaman crossings were frequently shut last year, with tensions sometimes spilling over into armed clashes between border guards across the frontier.The busiest frontier crossing between Afghanistan and Pakistan has been closed to trade in the latest row over document rules for commercial vehicle drivers crossing the border.
Crossings between the two countries have been temporarily shut in recent months after Islamabad last year launched a massive operation against undocumented Afghans living in Pakistan and tightened document requirements for Afghans entering the country.
Both sides blamed the other for the latest shutdown at the Torkham crossing, which started late Friday night, according to officials on either side of the border.
"Torkham is closed to commercial truck drivers without visas from Pakistani authorities," Afghan border official Abdul Jabbar Hekmat said in a statement on Friday.
Pakistani officials on Saturday denied a visa requirement had been imposed, saying the border had been shut when Afghan counterparts were informed truck drivers could only cross with a valid passport, a document many Afghans do not have.
"Following our updated policy, Afghan officials were informed last night that cargo drivers will only be allowed to enter our side if they possess a passport," a Pakistani customs official told AFP
He said this regulation had been agreed in past meetings between Afghan and Pakistani authorities on border rules.
"However, rather than adhering to the previously agreed-upon regulations, the Afghan border officials opted to close down border trade."
Hundreds of trucks had been stranded at the crossing, a Pakistani security official told AFP, adding that the border was still open to pedestrians.
Pakistan and Afghanistan have had increasingly fraught relations in recent months, with Islamabad accusing the Taliban government of failing to root out militants staging attacks on Pakistan from Afghan soil -- a claim Kabul has denied.
The Torkham crossing -- equidistant between the capitals Islamabad and Kabul -- was frequently shut last year, with tensions sometimes spilling over into armed clashes between border guards across the frontier.
