Pakistan reopens Torkham border crossing with Afghanistan, allows students to return home

In a major development, the Torkham border between Pakistan and Afghanistan has been reopened for travellers with visas and stickers, Tolo News reported citing border officials on Thursday. Since the fall of Kabul to the Taliban, Islamabad has shut down major commercial borders with its neighbouring country-including the Chaman border, which it shut down last month. Notably, Torkham is the largest commercial crossing between the two countries and connects Nangarhar province in Afghanistan with Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Meanwhile, the report stated that Pakistan has also allowed two batches of students to cross over to Afghanistan. All the students were stranded in Pakistan for over two months and waiting to return home. Later a report in Khaama Press stated that “up to a thousand students” returned to their native land on Friday. 

Tokhram crossing has been used by the Imran Khan administration to supply succor to hundreds of thousands of Afghan residents. Last week, Pakistan’s envoy to Afghanistan Mansoor Ahmad Khan said that 148 tons of rice were delivered to the Afghan Ministry of Refugees via the border. A separate report by Geo TV said that Islamabad had used the border to send 17 trucks, all loaded with flour, cooking oil, rice, sugar, and pulses under the Pak-Afghan Cooperation forum.

Taliban tears Pak flag at the border 

In September, Pak PM Imran Khan was faced with ridicule after the Taliban, whom he considers his friend, unfurled their true colors. In a development coming from Afghanistan's Torkham, a border city between both countries, the terrorist group removed a flag from a truck carrying aid supplies and tore it apart. According to a video widely shared on social media platforms, Taliban terrorists can be seen taking down the Pakistan flag from a truck carrying Pakistan's aid to the war-torn nation. After removing it, the extremists tore apart the flag and chanted "Nara e Takbeer, Allahu Akbar" (God is great) slogans. Reportedly, one of the Taliban terrorists also said that the flag should be burnt.

Representative Image: AP