Border crossing at the Pak-Afghan Torkham border will not be allowed without a passport, Daily Times learnt on Saturday.
| Most of these people cannot read or write, and have only one name. How will they know they have the correct papers? For that matter, what percentage of the border patrols can read? |
No one would be allowed to cross the border from Afghanistan to Pakistan and vice-versa without legal documents, including a passport. According to eyewitnesses, a person who was entering Pakistan from Afghanistan had been stopped at the Torkham border and was asked to show his passport. But he was allowed to go after he told the FC personnel that he belonged to the Tribal Areas. The local political administration had not issued any such orders, a government official said. A security official said that he was unaware of any orders to check passports of the people crossing the Pak-Afghan border at Torkham.
Another security official said that only suspicious people would be asked to show their passports and the masses would be exempted from such conditions. Local tribesmen criticised the condition saying that they had been exempted from showing their passports at the border crossing since several years. They said that the tribal people would not accept any such condition, as they visited businesses in Afghanistan. |