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Today's Paper | May 07, 2024

Published 29 Jul, 2016 11:13pm

Afghan soldier returns home after medical treatment provided by Pak army

PESHAWAR: Pakistan Army on Friday announced that an Afghan soldier, under treatment at Combined Military Hospital (CMH) Peshawar, has been repatriated to Afghanistan.

According to an Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) statement, Naik Haider of the Afghan National Army (ANA) was discharged from Combined Military Hospital (CMH) Peshawar yesterday and has returned to Afghanistan through Torkham.

"Naik Haider got sick on a post opposite to Pakistani post at Nawa Pass Bajaur agency on July 26 and requested for medical treatment. He was initially evacuated to agency hospital and later on to CMH Peshawar where he was operated for appendix," read the statement issued from ISPR.

The ISPR statement adds the Afghan soldier was provided free of cost quality healthcare "on humanitarian grounds".

Pakistan on Thursday inaugurated a newly-constructed gate at the Torkham crossing point on the Pak-Afghan border, signalling the end of a long-running violent border row between the two neighbouring countries.

Clashes between Pakis­tani and Afghan security forces over the construction of the border gate last month left four soldiers dead on both sides, including Frontier Corp’s Major Ali Jawad Changezi.

The clashes kept Torkham, one of the busiest crossing points between the two countries and used by between 15,000 and 20,000 people and hundreds of vehicles daily, closed for six days.

Pakistan plans to have similar border control measures at all six major crossing points between the two countries that share a 2,600km-long porous border. Additionally, there are about 200 crossing routes which are not frequently used because of difficult terrain and absence of roads. At least 88 of them are accessible only through jeeps.

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