ISLAMABAD, Aug 24 (NNN-APP) – Pakistan issued visas over the last few days to 4,000 people, including the Afghan cricket team, foreigners and Afghan nationals, in the wake of Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, Pakistani Interior Minister, Sheikh Rasheed, told the media, yesterday.
Applications of a total of 1,277 people, including Afghans and foreigners, have been accepted to immigrate to Pakistan, whereas 500 foreigners are in the process of transit, to check out from the country, Rasheed said, in a press briefing here.
He said, among those who have been issued visas, 853 people entered Pakistan from the Torkham border, in the country’s north-west Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, whereas trade with Afghanistan is underway from both Torkham and south-western Chaman border.
He added, several cases of COVID-19 were also found in the people coming from Torkham border, and they have shifted the infected people to quarantine in places near the border area.
Answering a query, the minister said that Pakistan has not decided about hosting a new wave of refugees, because it is already hosting about three million Afghan refugees in the country. “However, we are facilitating those who are reaching our borders.”
He said, Pakistan is in contact with Afghan Taliban leaders, following the release of members of the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) from Afghan jails, and the Afghan Taliban leaders assured them that they will not let their soil be used against Pakistan.– NNN-APP
