KHYBER: Scores of returning Afghans got stranded at the Torkham border on Wednesday as the authorities refused to allow them to go back to their country on the mere production of Tazkira (Afghan identity card).

Officials at Torkham border told Dawn that all returning Afghans were forewarned that a ban would be imposed on the recognition of Tazkira for their return after April 4 and that none of them would be allowed to go back without valid travel documents.

They said the federal government had introduced Individual Voluntary Arrangement System (IVAS) at the Torkham border for Afghan nationals in early March to regulate their cross-border movement through a security mechanism.

The officials said in the recent past, hundreds of Afghans came to Pakistan via Chaman border by showing Tazkira and would use the same at Torkham on return.

Officials say valid travel documents required for return and not just Afghan identity card

“After the introduction of IVAS, the cross-border movement of Afghans at Torkham on the production of Tazkira was stopped,” an official said, adding that the condition was relaxed for a few days at the request of returning Afghans.

An undated notification by Afghanistan’s Inter-Ministerial Coordination Cell said entry to and exit from Pakistan via Torkham border over Tazkira had been completely banned from April 4 onwards.

“It is further clarified that entry to Pakistan on Tazkira at Spin Boldak is allowed for Chaman border crossing point only and that no Afghan is allowed to enter/exit from any other border crossing point on Tazkira,” it said.

Meanwhile, the stranded Afghans urged Pakistani authorities to allow them to return to their country on humanitarian grounds. They included a large number of women, children and patients.

Representatives of the stranded Afghans, including Ameen Khugiyani, Sadiq Khan and Zarmast, told reporters at the Landi Kotal Press Club on Wednesday that hundreds of their countrymen had been made to wait in the open for permission to return as the authorities had refused to recognise their Tazkira and stopped them from crossing the border.

They complained that they had no homes in Pakistan nor was any residential or lodging facility available to them at the Torkham border.

The returning Afghan nationals said women, children and patients were the worst affected by the restriction as they stayed in an open compound keeping fast and that most of them had run out of money.

They demanded that Pakistani authorities allow them to return on humanitarian grounds as they had no other Afghan official documents other than Tazkira.

Published in Dawn, April 7th, 2022