Pakistan again closes Torkham border gate

JALALABAD (PAN): Pakistani guards on Monday closed the Torkham border crossing for Afghan citizens without valid travel documents, officials said.

While travelers freely crossed into Afghanistan allowed entry to individuals with passports and other travel documents — a move that affected many.

Col. Mohammad Ayub Hassankhel, an Afghan border police officer in the eastern zone, said they were in talks with their Pakistani counterparts on reopening the gate.

A shopkeeper in the border town of Torkham, Khaksar, told Pajhwok Afghan News that a large number of people had been stranded on this side of the frontier.

He said it was raining and the affected people, including women, children and the elderly, faced problems. Khaksar urged the authorities to address the recurring issue once and for all.

But a Pakistani official, Adnan Khan, said they had been directed by the federal government to shut the border crossing. The gate would remain closed till further orders from the centre, he added.

Thousands of people, including patients, cross the otherwise border on a daily basis. Few of them have passports. In recent months, however, Pakistani authorities have sealed the frontier several times.

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