Stuck in Afghanistan, Pakistanis Want Border to Finally Reopen
Nearly three months since border clashes prompted the closure of land crossings between Pakistan and Afghanistan, university students, merchants and families are left hanging with no way of getting back.
“We miss our parents and relatives,” said Shah Faisal, 25, who studies medicine in an Afghan university and was hoping to visit his family back in Pakistan during winter break.
But the border has been shut since October 12, leaving many like him with no viable option of making it home, reported AFP.
Flights are prohibitively expensive, and smuggling routes come at too great a risk.
A student representative said there were around 500 to 600 Pakistanis at universities in one Afghan province alone, Nangarhar, who were looking for a way back.
Shah Fahad Amjad, 22, who attends medical school in the provincial capital Jalalabad, called on “both countries to open the road” and let students visit their families.
As the border closure drags on, some are also concerned about their visa status or financial situation.
The crisis has caused problems “for us, who are students in Afghanistan, but also for Afghans who are students in Pakistan”, said 23-year-old Barkat Ullah Wazir, who studies in Jalalabad.
The colonial-era border between the South Asian neighbors stretches more than 2,600 kilometers (1,600 miles) across mountainous terrain.
Known as the Durand Line, it is normally a conduit between the Pakistanis and Afghans who live near it and share deep cultural, economic and even family ties.
It also divides Pashtun communities who live on either side — the ethnic group from which the Taliban, which returned to power in Kabul in 2021, draws much of its support.
