Humanitarian Assistance: India Dispatches Wheat to Afghanistan via Attari-Wagah Border

The first consignment of wheat was flagged off from the Attari-Wagah border on Tuesday, over four months after India declared its humanitarian aid to Afghanistan in the form of 50,000 metric tonnes (MT). 

Officials claimed roughly 2,000 MT of wheat will be delivered to the crisis-stricken country in 41 Afghani trucks. On Monday, authorities from the Land Port Authority of India (LPAI), the Border Security Force (BSF), customs, the Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC), and the Punjab Police met at the Integrated Check Post (ICP) at Attari for a high-level meeting. The officials assessed the preparations that had been made to begin the transportation. 

The government of India stated in October 2021 that it will supply 50,000 metric tonnes of wheat to Afghanistan. Pakistan's Cabinet had given India permission to transfer the shipment across its border in November of last year. However, transportation became a sticking point. Islamabad wanted the wheat carried on Pakistani trucks furnished by the National Logistics Cell, a trucking operation associated with the Pakistani Army, according to those familiar with the situation. New Delhi desired it to be transported on Indian trucks. After that, both nations agreed that the wheat will be put in Afghani trucks at the ICP. The wheat will be transported by Afghan vehicles via the Torkham border of  Pakistan to Jalalabad, Afghanistan. 

"The Food Corporation of India (FCI) began loading wheat into Indian trucks on Monday." On Tuesday morning, these trucks will be unloaded at the ICP. Following that, the wheat would be placed into 41 Afghani trucks," stated a senior customs official in Amritsar. Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla would flag off the consignment from the Attari-Wagah border at 4 p.m., he added. 

The Indian government has reached a deal with an Afghan logistics business to transfer empty trucks to Attari across the Torkham border (Peshawar). When the Afghani trucks reach the ICP, customs officials will conduct a thorough security check. 

According to a senior official of LPAI, which oversees the affairs of ICP Attari, the Afghan trucks will begin collecting wheat on Tuesday morning and the full operation would take around a month. 

He went on to say that the Afghan authorities had given the identities of the drivers, the kind of trucks, the production firm, capacity, registration number, and other data with the foreign ministry of India.