Afghan patients without visa and passport restrict at Torkham border

F.P. Report

LANDI KOTAL: Entry of Afghan patients without proper travelling documents were banned at Torkham border since last night.

It is to be stated here that the Pakistani authorities as a good gesture had granted visa-exemption to the Afghan patients at Torkham border and according to the health official 90 to 105 Afghan patients along with an attendant were daily permitted to cross into Pakistan to get treatment for their disease somewhere in the country.

An official in Torkham on the condition of anonymity said on Wednesday that last night the Pak border forces denied entry of Afghan citizens including patients who were supposed to come to Pakistan for treatment.

They Afghanis were asked to produce a visa and passport at the border while crossing into Pakistan, he stated.

A health official in Pak-Afghan Dosti (friendship) Hospital, Torkham also confirmed it and said the forces asked their Afghan counterpart that they only permit eight to ten serious Afghan patients to come to Pakistan without legal documents. However the Afghan border security force in reaction discontinued entry of all Afghan patients to Pakistan via Torkham to express distress. 

The Afghan Commissioner in Torkham, Haji Hikmat said that they had been informed by the Pak officials not to send Afghan patients without visa and passport.

Following Army Public School on 16 December, 2015 mishap, passport and visa policy had been made compulsory at Torkham border; although Afghan patients and the drivers had been exempted from proper visa documents.