PESHAWAR, June 25: Child smugglers have broken the recently erected iron fence at the Pakistan-Afghanistan border at Torkham checkpoint to force their way for carrying the smuggled items.

Few days back these kids had even broken the wall to make a passageway more comfortable for carrying the foreign items but it was immediately repaired, said a khasadar of the political administration of the Khyber Agency at Torkham on Tuesday.

Talking to Dawn from other side of the fence, the naughty, Afghan kids, denied to have broken the small and sharp iron bars but said some other boys had broken these and sold these to a scrape shopkeepers.

“But whosoever have done the act, is very good for us as now we can pass throw between the two large iron fences easily as some of our colleagues were injured due to the small and sharp iron bars during their attempt to sneak into the Pakistan territory,” they replied to a query.

Praising the Taliban border security guards for helping them to carry the foreign items from Afghanistan to Pakistan, they said the present armed men of Governor Ningerhar Abdul Qadeer were very cruel as they often beat them with sticks and strips whenever they tried to enter the Pakistan territory.

For non-locals it was very interesting to see the hide-and-seek between the foreign goods-carrying Afghan kids and the border security guards. Four or five kids with shopping bags in their hands are always alert to take advantage of trucks and other vehicles to force their entry into Pakistan, taking cover behind the vehicles.

These sharp kids run towards different sides after crossing the border and if someone is caught the rest succeed in carrying the foreign items to their destination inside Pakistan.

“I get Rs20 for carrying one carton of items from Afghanistan to Pakistan,” said Gulalai, who is doing the job with his two sisters — Bibigai and Malalai. Showing small and transparent Iranian cup, he added that he carried between 15 to 20 cartons of foreign goods from the Afghanistan side of Torkham to Pakistan territory daily.

“If the border security guards snatch the foreign items there is no penalty on us, but if we break any of the item while carrying these, we pay the fine,” he went on to say.

A border security guard said he only stopped them from entering the Pakistan territory and avoided to beat them as most of these kids were orphans, who were living in Bacha Myana refugee camp at Torkham.

“They start their job early in the morning and finally go to their camps before the sunset,” he added.