Ahmad Nabi
LANDI KOTAL: On the second day more than five thousands Afghan citizens willing to go to their mother land crossed the Pak-Afghan sharing border, Torkham on Tuesday.
Last day the Afghan border security after receiving 1000 Afghan nationals carrying legal travelling documents refused to let enter more Afghans on the pretext that they set up quarantined enough for fixed figure of Afghan nationals and shut the border for all kind of movement.
According to Pak border security official a mammoth gathering of Afghan citizens, arrived in the outskirts of Torkham border started to approach the border that developed pressure on the Afghan forces and with no choice the later permitted them to cross the border without proper document checking.
Earlier last night the arrived thousands Afghan citizen at the border, spent the night under an open sky and the local residents provided them food and potable water.
The Pak government on request of Afghan government opened the Torkham border in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Chaman border in Baluchistan provinces on April 6th, 2020 and will remained open till 9 of the current month.
Earlier, hundreds of stranded Afghan citizens crossed the Pak-Afghan sharing border, Torkham to Afghanistan when the Pak government temporary resumed the border for four days.
It is to be mentioned here that last day, notification issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, reading that on the request of the Afghan government, the Pakistan authorities on humanitarian basis decided to open the borders of Torkham and Chaman for the trapped Afghan nationals willing to go to their country. The border will be unlocked from April 6th till April 9th, 2020.
It is to be stated here that Torkham border had been suspended on March 16, 2020 due to pandemic of coronavirus across the world. Since wee hours of Monday, hundreds of thousands Afghan citizens including women, children, old and sick Afghans thronged to Khyber Pass however according to the administrative officer checking points had been set up at Takhta Baig, Bugyari, Zayrai, Michni and Toll plaza sites to manage the rush of the passengers at the border.
A dozen of ambulances, carrying ill and corpses of the deceased Afghanis were also arrived at Toll plaza check point, Torkham to cross the border to Afghanistan. The stranded Afghan citizens appreciated the positive step of the Pak government although they complaint that the Torkham Bazaar was suspended and they were standing in lines since early morning without food and potable water that added their miseries.
On the other hand the Afghan government restricted enormous entry of its citizens and refused to allow its national without legal travelling documents. Quoting the Afghanistan border security officials, one of Pak security officials in Torkham said that those Afghans holding passport and visa would be permitted to cross in and they would let 1000 Afghan nationals per day to cross the border to Afghanistan because they lacked quarantined centers at the border and could not manage more of their citizens in the wake of the epidemic of COVID 19.
One, Alaf Din of Khost province of Afghanistan said that on the information of Afghan council in Peshawar that the border would be resumed on March 6th,they approached to Torkham border but now the Afghan officials refused them to cross the border.
They lamented that they had no money to return to Peshawar to meet their expenditure and stuck on Landi Kotal-Torkham road near Michni checkpost under an open sky. If anyone in the mob was COVID 19 infected, it would be a health hazard to the thousands of Afghans and asked the Afghan government to have mercy on them and let them to go to their homes in Afghanistan.
