Torkham | Pakistan

KHYBER: The dead body of an Afghan national, lying at Zero Point on the Torkham border for the past several days, was finally handed over to Afghan authorities by a delegation of local tribal elders on Thursday. The development comes a day after Pakistan announced that it had decided on a “temporary pause” in the ongoing Operation Ghazab lil-Haq against the Afghan Taliban in view of Eidul Fitr and “at the request of brotherly Islamic countries”. The dead body was spotted by locals, who had recorded videos and reported the matter to security officials. The delegation of local elders, comprising Malak Tajuddin, Mufti Ejaz, Shah Khalid, Qari Jihad Shah, Qari Nazeem Gul and Saeed Khan, visited the Torkham border to retrieve the body. Khalid, told Dawn that the delegation remained in contact with the local security officials and Afghan delegates during the last week despite the security situation. He said that their Afghan counterparts on March 13 had acknowledged that the dead man was an Afghan national and a dai...

KHYBER: Pakistan and Afghanistan border forces on Thursday agreed on a brief pause amid ongoing clashes to identify and collect a dead body lying at Zero Point at Torkham for the last few days. However, the body, identified by Afghan authorities as a national, could not be retrieved from the location due to delayed consultation among the Afghan authorities and the time for the pause in fighting lapsing, sources told Dawn. They said that local residents had spotted the body and reported it to the security officials, while videos and pictures of the dead body were also shared on social media. Sources said that soon after, security officials from both countries agreed to constitute delegations of local influentials to identify and remove the dead body from the border crossing. The Pakistan side comprised eight persons, including Malak Tajuddin, Shah Khalid, Murad Hussain, Mufti Ejaz, Saeed Khan, Qari Nazeemgul, Mulana Aaqib and Qari Jihad Shah. From the Afghan side, the delegation comprised 11 persons, including...

After nearly 50 days of closure, Pakistan has partially reopened the Torkham and Chaman border crossings with Afghanistan to allow United Nations humanitarian cargoes.

Officials from Pakistan and Afghanistan said on Saturday that the Torkham border crossing in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had been reopened for Afghan refugees returning to their country. Speaking to Dawn, Khyber Deputy Commissioner Bilal Rao confirmed that the Torkham border crossing had been reopened earlier today for the resumption of Afghan refugees’ repatriation. Khizer Shah, the spokesman of the Pakistani embassy in Kabul, and Afghan officials also confirmed the development. “Torkham gate is now open for refugees. We welcome our countrymen,” Qureshi Badloon, head of the Information and Culture in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province, told Dawn. The repatriation of Afghan families with or without any travel or identity documents was abruptly suspended on October 11 following border clashes between Pakistan and Afghanistan, which continued for days before a ceasefire was formalised in Doha on October 19. Pakistan had closed all its borders with Afghanistan for all types of movement. Since then, a large number of return...

KHYBER - The unstable relations due to the tension between Pakistan and Afghanistan at the Pak-Afghan border has severely affected the bilateral trade at Torkham border.

Amid renewed firing and escalating tensions between Pakistani and Afghan forces, the Torkham and Chaman border crossings have been closed for trade and pedestrian movement from both sides, officials confirmed on Sunday.