Meeting of officials, regarding bring back trapped Pakistani citizens in Afghanistan held in Landi Kotal

Ahmad Nabi

LANDI KOTAL, April 13: Meeting of officials of various departments was held here at tehsil guest house lawn last day aimed to review measures initiated prior to bring back stranded Pakistan from Afghanistan via Torkham border.

It is to be mentioned here that more than 2000 Pakistan nationals have trapped due to suspension of Pak-Afghan border, Torkham and Chaman in threat of spread of coronavirus.

Chaired by Director Health, merged districts Dr Niaz, the meeting was attended by focal person of entry points of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,Dr Qasim,Assistant Commissioner(AC),Landi Kotal Muhammad Imran,Addetional AC Shamsul Islam, officials of police, public health, civil defense and representatives of forces were among the participants.

Speaking on the occasion Dr Niaz said that the government was intended to bring back the trapped Pakistan national in Afghanistan through Torkham border to be expecting in near future and the main purpose of the moot was to examine the facilities to be provided to them while quarantined them.

He added that all precautionary steps would be taken on the occasion of the arrival of the stranded persons to curtain spread of the deadly disease in the area.

Beside lack of staff, health officials had been deployed in all quarantined and isolation ward to treat the expected COVID 19 suspected patients.

He assured that services of health officials would be hired, if needed to tackle the extraordinary situation pertaining the COIVD 19.

Dr Qasim while sharing details said that batch wise entry plan of the trapped Pakistani had been formulated to easily deal them and each bitch would comprise 1000 persons.

He said that following accommodating of the stranded persons in quarantined centers established in Landi Kotal, sample of every Pakistani citizen came across the border would be collected and after lab test result they would be sent to isolation or to quarantine center for certain period.

He maintained that the situation was under control in Khyber and so far 13 persons confirmed and suspected cases had been reported in district Khyber.

The officials also visited the quarantine centers and inspected the provided facilities.

According to the local administration official quarantine centers for 787 persons had been set up in Landi Kotal.

Meanwhile a moot of district officials of number of departments under the head of Deputy Commissioner, Khyber Mehmood Aslam was held here in Landi Kotal on Monday to discuss pre-situation of bringing of  trapped Pakistan citizens from Afghanistan.

Talking on the occasion DC, Khyber stressed upon the departments to strictly follow the Standard Operation Procedure (SOP) originated by the government.

He asked the officials to persuade the returning Pakistani nationals that they were not infected of the deadly COVID 19 but as precautionary measures they were quarantined to halt spread of the coronavirus in the area.

The district administrative officer said that command and control room had been set up and insisted on all departments to deploy its one representative so that with joint coordination deal the challenge.

On the other hand the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) dispatched fifty thousands N5 face masks, 8000 each surgical caps and gloves to health department and ten thousands to Rescue 1122 and others.

According to DG, PDMA further safety commodities had been dispatched to Khyber quarantined including 200 N95,2000 KN95,500 personal safety kits,200 bottle sanitizers,1000 safety suits,2000 gloves,1000 gowns,200 hygienic kit,mattresses,beds,150 liters chlorine ,two spray machines and 50 KV generator.