Torkham
تورخم | |
|---|---|
Town | |
 | |
  Torkham | |
| Coordinates: 34°7′18″N 71°6′11″E / 34.12167°N 71.10306°E | |
| Country |  Pakistan |
| Province |  Khyber Pakhtunkhwa |
| District | Khyber |
| Time zone | UTC+05:00 (PST) |
Torkham (Pashto: تورخم, romanized: torxam; Urdu: طورخم) is a Pakistani town in Khyber District (until 2018 the Khyber Agency of the now defunct FATA), that is the location of the Torkham Border Crossing with Afghanistan just to the west of the historic Khyber Pass.
Torkham lies at the end of the N-5 National Highway. It is connected to city of Peshawar in the east. Transported goods arrive to Tokham from the port city of Karachi in Sindh province. Torkham is 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) west of the summit of the Khyber Pass. It lies on the most important supply route for US-led NATO forces in Afghanistan. Pakistan's government sometimes block supplies due to the American use of drone strikes in Pakistan,[1][2] and for security reasons after firing from the Afghan side against Pakistani construction workers building a border fence.[3] By the end of 2018, Pakistan had completed a 486 kilometer portion of the border fence around Torkham to seal the porous border in order to curb arms smuggling, illegal migration, and drug trafficking.[4]
Throughout history it has been an important trade route between the South Asia and Central Asia and a strategic military location. The adjacent town on the other side of border in Afghanistan is also known as Torkham. Torkham was the first point of entry into Pakistan for many of the 3.5 million Afghans who fled the Soviet invasion as refugees.[5]
