LANDI KOTAL: Pakistani border authorities on Tuesday allowed over 3,900 Afghans to go back to their country through the Torkham border.

Immigration and security officials posted at Torkham said that at least six Pakistanis, a Pakistan embassy employee among them, were also allowed to return home.

They said that the stranded Afghans were given permission to go back upon the request of the Afghan government purely on humanitarian grounds.

Pakistan had earlier opened the Torkham and Chaman borders on April 6 and allowed thousands of Afghans stranded in Pakistan since March 16 to go back to their country.

The officials said that over 20,000 Afghans had returned to their country through Torkham alone. The border remained open till April 9.

Though the government made no formal announcement to allow the Afghans to go back to their country on Tuesday, yet 3,915 stranded Afghans, women and children among them, reached the border crossing and were sent to their country after completion of necessary immigration process.

Pakistani border forces also granted a rare permission to five Pakistanis stranded on the Afghan side to come back, while an employee of Pakistan embassy in Kabul was also allowed to return.

Border officials said that though a large number of Pakistanis had gathered at the Afghan side of the border with the hope to cross into their country, they were refused permission for lack of scanning facilities and their transportation to the quarantine centres in different parts of Khyber.

They said the remaining Pakistanis would be allowed once all the arrangements were made both at the border and the quarantine centres.

Published in Dawn, April 29th, 2020