WAKHAN—Afghanistan’s new road through the Wakhan Corridor toward China opened with three governments claiming credit and Pakistan demanding to know who authorized Afghanistan to have another exit.
Hamid Karzai said he laid the first strategic gravel. Ashraf Ghani disagreed. “I spent twenty years explaining Afghanistan must become land-connected,” Ghani said. “Unfortunately, it was completed after I became cloud-connected.”
Hibatullah claimed final credit. “They produced studies, conferences and PowerPoints,” he said. “We removed the PowerPoint and found a road underneath.”
Pakistan condemned the project as “economic terrorism against strategic depth,” warning that Afghans could develop dangerous expectations of sovereignty.
China welcomed an unexpected Belt and Road franchise. Its first export reportedly included Chinese-built Taliban replicas already finding brides in Kandahar.
“I arrived as Wei Qiang. By lunch I was Qiangullah. After marriage, Noorzai,” said Mullah Wei Qiangullah Chan Noorzai.
Beijing declared integration complete after Qiangullah accused the next Chinese shipment of being foreigners, demanded passports and warned Afghanistan could not absorb unlimited undocumented Chinese Taliban.
Pakistan immediately closed Torkham in retaliation. Nobody had used it. Islamabad reopened it three hours later and declared victory as the first Wakhan truck entered China carrying pine nuts, carpets and Afghanistan’s most dangerous export: an alternative to Pakistan.