Uneasy relations: Pakistan summons Afghan envoy over torture of nationals

Pakistan on Saturday summoned Afghan Charge d’ Affaires for lodging a formal protest over torturing of a group of Pakistani nationals in Afghanistan.

Pakistani authorities had closed its border with Afghanistan after they received complaints of alleged Afghan torture against 29 Pakistani labourers in Kabul, official sources said.

“The Government of Pakistan takes serious note of the incident involving 29 Pakistanis who were returning from Afghanistan and were badly beaten en-route reportedly by Afghan forces despite having valid travel documents/passports,” the Pakistani Foreign Ministry said.

“The Afghan Charge d’ Affaires was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs this morning and a strong protest was lodged, seeking an investigation into the incident and action against those responsible,” a Foreign Ministry statement said.

The Afghan government was also asked to take appropriate measures to avoid recurrence of such incidents in future, it said.

A similar protest was lodged by the Ambassador of Pakistan in Kabul with the Afghan government, the statement said.

Official sources said that Pakistani forces shut its main Torkham border point with Afghanistan after the incident, which stuck of hundreds of people on both sides of the border.

Sources said that Afghan officials tore the documents of these labourers and their security forces subjected them to torture, after which they were sent back from Kabul.

Local media quoted locals at the border area as saying that closure of the Torkham gate resulted in a standstill of traffic on both sides of the border, stranding thousands of people.

Long lines of vehicles were seen on both sides, including trucks and cars. The closure of the Torkham Gate is also affecting NATO supply, the media reported.

Official sources say that there are nearly 70,000 Pakistani working in Afghanistan, mostly in building construction. They say that around 2000 Pakistani daily cross into Afghanistan for work.

Reports from Afghanistan suggest that Afghan police forces have badly assaulted some Pakistani workers in the Pol-e Charkhi area of Kabul, who had legal work documents. When the Pakistani workers reached Torkham yesterday, they complained there and asked the Pakistan government to block the Torkham crossing and the Pakistan government did block the crossing for an indefinite period in accordance with their request.

Afghan officials have not commented regarding the issue yet.

Afghan media say that about 12,000 people, 97 per cent of them Afghans, are travelling through the Torkham crossing every day.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=36475

Posted by Tahir Khan on Dec 22 2012. Filed under Latest News, National, Pakistan, Politics, South Asia, World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.