Updated

Pakistan's prime minister has ordered the reopening of the country's border with Afghanistan, ending a protracted closure that has cost businesses on both sides millions of dollars and deepened tensions between the two neighbors.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Monday issued the order to open all the crossings along the boundary, considered the busiest and most lucrative border crossings in South Asia.

Pakistan closed the border in mid-February following a string of deadly militant attacks which Islamabad has blamed on militants hiding in Afghanistan.

Since then, traders have complained of daily losses and prices of goods imported from Pakistan rose sharply in Afghanistan.

Pakistan and Afghanistan often accuse the other of harboring militants. They have also exchanged lists of insurgents each says are hiding in the other's country, demanding action.