LANDI KOTAL: Over 200 stranded Afghan nationals returned to their country on Friday after the Khyber Agency’s political administration allowed them to cross the border on humanitarian grounds.

Officials said that at least 252 Afghan nationals who were stranded in different parts of Khyber Agency had been handed over to Afghan border authorities at Torkham on Friday.

They said the decision was taken purely on humanitarian grounds because the stranded people had no place to live and most of them had run out of money.

Most of the returning Afghan nationals, including women and children, belonged to border towns of Afghanistan.

Over 100 stranded Afghan nationals held a demonstration in Landi Kotal on Thursday when they were forcibly evicted from the main mosque in Landi Kotal bazaar.

Local residents in Landi Kotal had refused to provide shelter to the stranded Afghan nationals.

Published in Dawn, February 25th, 2017