Pakistan halts trade at two Iran border crossings

Pakistan suspended commercial operations at two Iran border crossings on Friday, according to a Ministry of Commerce notification cited by Firstpost on Sunday, disrupting trade through Balochistan’s Gabd-Rimdan and Taftan routes.

The interruption matters for Pakistan’s commodity flows because Gabd-Rimdan handles more than 4,000 tonnes of liquefied petroleum gas imports a day, Dawn reported. The two crossings named in the notification are half of the four official crossings on the 909-kilometre border.

Shahid Rind, adviser to the Balochistan chief minister on media affairs, said on Saturday that the suspension covered Gabd-Rimdan and Taftan. He said the measure was aimed at improving security and coordination between authorities on both sides of the frontier, while addressing smuggling concerns at the crossings.

Rind said Pakistani and Iranian officials were discussing how to resolve the disruption and that commercial operations were expected to resume soon. Firstpost did not report a date for reopening the routes.

Iran gave a different public explanation. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei described the closure as temporary, according to the state-run IRNA news agency, and attributed the disruption to technical issues while saying consultations were taking place to restore normal operations.

The Quetta Chamber of Commerce and Industry said commercial activity had stopped across all border crossings between Pakistan and Iran. After the suspension order, the chamber advised businesses involved in bilateral trade not to place new import or export orders until further notice.

Hundreds of freight vehicles carrying LPG, rice, fresh fruit and other essential goods were reportedly stranded on both sides of the border. Iran’s WANA news agency reported that passenger movement through the Rimdan-Gabd crossing continued despite the halt in commercial traffic.

The affected routes sit between Pakistan’s Balochistan province and Iran’s Sistan and Baluchestan province. The four official crossings on the frontier are Taftan-Mirjaveh, Gabd-Rimdan, Mand and Chadgi.

The suspension adds pressure to a trade route already exposed to insecurity in Balochistan. Dawn reported that Taftan had faced disruption linked to unrest in the province, and that a stoppage at Gabd-Rimdan could tighten LPG availability and raise prices in Pakistan’s open market.

Liquefied petroleum gas, or LPG, is a fuel used for cooking, heating and transport in cylinder form. Dawn described Gabd-Rimdan as an important channel for Pakistan’s energy supplies, with more than 4,000 tonnes of LPG imported daily through the route.

Source: news report, Firstpost, Oct. 18, 2026