KHYBER AGENCY: Though trade related activities are banned, however thousands of stranded Afghan citizens crossed the Pak-Afghan sharing border when it was opened on Tuesday after remaining closed for 18 days.
The Khyber Rifles official said that following the decision of the government, the Torkham border was reopened at 7:00 am and the Afghan nationals stranded in Pakistan were let cross the border to Afghanistan.
It is pertinent to mention that last night the government of Pakistan announced reopening of Torkham and Chaman borders for two days to facilitate the stuck Afghan nationals to move back to their country.
The relaxation of border crossing was granted to pedestrians only and commodities’ transportation or vehicles’ movements was still restricted there, official confirmed.
Those Afghan citizens having legal travelling documents including passport and visa were permitted to move to their motherland. In the same way, from Afghan side Pakistanis with passports were allowed to cross into Pakistan. However, entry of Afghan citizens into Pakistan was banned in spite of keeping valid documents.
Levies Subedar, Hikmat Afridi, said airing news of reopening of Torkham border, thousands of Afghanis, male and female thronged the border to go to their homeland. Extra troops of the Frontier Corp (FC) along with Khasadars had been posted at Michni check-post, five miles away from the border who checked the passports of the arriving Afghan passengers. The passport holders were let approach the border while those who had no proper documents were sent back from the checkpoint.
The restrained policy affected dozens of repatriated Afghan citizens who asked for permission to move to the country.
Razi Gul, a driver and a resident of Nengarhar province of Afghanistan who was refused by the border security officials to cross the border, said that days back he had taken his relative child to Peshawar for medical treatment by paying two thousands rupees fine on the border but now the authorities did not allow him to go back to Afghanistan.
As per details provided by the Tehsildar passport Shamsul Islam, so far 2300 Afghan citizens returned to Afghanistan while 500 Pakistanis cross into Pak territory.
He further added that till 8: 00 pm the Afghanis’ repatriation process would continue and hectic efforts would be made to facilitate more Afghanis to return to their homeland.
