By Ashrafuddin Pirzada
LANDIKOTAL: Thousands of Afghan citizens stranded in Pakistan crossed Torkham border on the second day of Torkham border relaxation, sources said on Tuesday.
The sources said that a large number of Afghan nationals who wanted to cross the border had come from various cities in Pakistan and stayed overnight near the Torkham border. While thousands of others reached the Torkham border on the second day that was a big challenge for border authorities to control and check their documents and other travel requirements.
“As the border gate opened on the second day around ten thousand people most of them were youngsters rushed to the border and broke the queues to fastly get in into Afghanistan”, said a health worker at Torkham border point. He said everyone was in hurry and wanted to cross the border as soon as possible. He said gradually the number of passengers when increased to thousands avoided going through formal documentation checking and entered their native country.
Unauthentic data collected from various unofficial channels suggested that more than ten thousand people have crossed the border so far in the past two days of border relaxation with Afghanistan.
On the other side of the border in Afghanistan, the sources confirmed, that Afghan border authorities were also unable to control the crowd coming from Pakistan and put them into tented Coronavirus isolation wards.
Afghan officials said most of the tents established where to quarantine those entering from Pakistan had been set ablaze the other night. They said the lack of facilities and no availability of space to quarantine permitted them to proceed to their homes in Afghanistan.
To reduce the passengers flow at the Torkham border crossing Pakistani police stopped hundreds of Afghan nationals at Takhtabaig, Bagyari, Prangsum and Michni check posts on the Peshawar-Torkham highway. However, hundreds of other Afghan passengers including men and women were seen walking in hilly routes to bypass the police checking points and reach to Torkham border.
Residents, police and philanthropists arranged food and drinking water for those Afghan citizens who stayed in mosques, tunnels, hotels and other shelters for border opening at
