Afghan patients without visa restrict at Torkham

F.P. Report

LANDI KOTAL: Entry of Afghan patients into Pakistan without proper visa and passport was restricted due to security reasons since last day at Torkham border.

An official said on Monday that the border security officials confined entry of Afghan patients via Torkham crossing while Afghan pedestrians with proper visa and passport could cross the border into Pakistan.

Due to the firing incident from across the border at Khar Lachi check point last day, the border was sealed for Afghan patients, a security official said. 

On the condition of anonymity, a health official in Pak-Afghan friendship hospital, Torkham said that as per direction of the government, entry of Afghan patients without visa had been banned since last day till further order.

The Pakistani government as a good gesture had granted visa-exemption to the Afghan patients at the border and according to the health official 90 to 105 Afghan patients along with one or two attendants were daily permitted to cross into Pakistan to get treatment for their disease somewhere in the country.

As per information, the health officials at Pak-Afghan friendship health center could examine case history of an Afghan patient, passed on by the Afghani doctors at the border and then decide either to send him or her back or to refer to down towns’ hospitals in Pakistan.

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