LANDI KOTAL: Scores of tribesmen, traders and custom clearing agents staged a demonstration near Torkham border after a local resident died of heart attack when he was refused timely permission at Shaheed Morr checkpost to reach a hospital.

The protesters were holding black flags and chanting slogans against the personnel of Frontier Corps posted at the checkpost. The protest march started from the custom terminal and ended at Shaheed Morr where the slogan-chanting protesters blocked the road.

Some officials of FC reportedly tried to forcibly disperse the protesters and clear the road but the angry mob remained steadfast and refused to end the protest.

Speaking on the occasion, Torkham Custom Clearing Agents Association president Hayatullah said that family members of Ajab Khan wanted to shift him to Landi Kotal hospital after he suffered a heart attack.

“The near-to-death Ajab Khan was not allowed to pass through Shaheed Morr despite repeated requests by his family members. He eventually died before being shifted to hospital,” he alleged.

Protesters assured of action against official

Hayatullah said that it was not the first time that such inhuman treatment was meted out to residents of Bacha Maina by the FC personnel.

The protesters cleared the road when they were assured about a meeting with the commandant of Khyber Rifles and removal of the FC official, who denied permission to the ailing tribesman.

Official sources said that a minor boy from Kurram Agency, accompanied by his parents, fainted due to exhaustion after he was denied entry by the border guards at Torkham.

They said that the boy was taken by his parents to a faith healer in Nangarhar province of Afghanistan. They were returning to Pakistan. Both the parents possessed CNICs but they were stopped for a long time at the border crossing which caused fainting of the minor boy.

Sources at Torkham told Dawn that a delegation of Bacha Maina residents later held a meeting with Commandant of Khyber Rifles Col Umar Farooq at army camp in Landi Kotal.

They said that the delegation was assured that checking of local residents would be eased with provision of a separate passage from Shaheed Morr for them, exempting women from producing CNICs if they were accompanied by male members of their family.

The Khyber Rifles commandant assured the delegation that no patient would be unduly stopped from proceeding for treatment and local students with no CNICs would be allowed to go to their educational institutions if they possessed their school/college identity cards or local domicile certificates.

Published in Dawn, August 19th, 2016