Displaced persons from NWA denied entry via Torkham border

Told to return to Pakistan via Ghulam Khan post

LANDIKOTAL: The Pakistani authorities at the Torkham border refused entry to some of the displaced persons from North Waziristan who had shifted to Afghanistan when the military operation was launched there in June 2014, sources said on Sunday.

The sources said the uprooted families, who were few in number, were not allowed to enter Pakistan via the Torkham border.They said Pakistani border authorities asked them to enter North Waziristan via the Ghulam Khan border with Afghanistan as arrangements had been made there for their registration and entry back home.

Three days ago, the sources confirmed, around 60 displaced persons from North Waziristan wanted to enter Pakistan, but officials at Torkham border didn’t allow them.

“They were around 60 people, including women and children, who waited for a day on the Afghan side of the border and then went back to somewhere in Afghanistan as they were not permitted to cross the Torkham border,” an official told The News on the condition of anonymity.

He said they had been directed to send back the North Waziristan people to Afghanistan and tell them to use the Ghulam Khan border for their return.The government has been trying to persuade the Pakistani families from North Waziristan and other areas to return home from Afghanistan and jirga of elders was also sent there to talk to them.

However, they were required to come from Paktika, Khost and other Afghan provinces where they had been living to the border town of Ghulam Khan in North Waziristan where they would screened and registered and then transported to the relief camp in Bannu. After background security checks, these families would be allowed to return to their villages in North Waziristan.

It was learnt that some displaced North Waziristan families earlier managed to enter Pakistan via Torkham, but those who came subsequently were turned back. There have also been unconfirmed reports that in some cases the Pakistanis seeking to return home were harassed by the Afghan security forces.