Islamabad/Kabul: It has been announced by the Afghanistan authorities that henceforth, Pakistani citizens who enter Afghanistan will have to produce valid visa and other relevant documents. After the announcement made by the Afghanistan authorities, hundreds of of Pakistanis have returned to their homeland.
For the past several years, thousands of people had been travelling daily and freely across the Afghanistan and Pakistan borders. There were no specific restrictions on such travel. However, from 1st January, 2017, the related Afghanistan authorities have made the border travel between the two countries more rigorous. It has been made mandatory that any Pakistani citizen entering Afghanistan should possess the ‘Computerized National Identity Card’ (CNIC) issued by his/her own country. The Afghanistan authorities have clearly stated that no Pakistani citizen will be allowed to enter Afghanistan without ‘CNIC’.
To implement this rule, Afghanistan has increased its military strength in Torkham and other border areas. The Afghan authorities made it clear that this military deployment has been done taking in view the daily to and fro travel of people and vehicles across the Afghanistan-Pakistan borders.
However, an exemption to this rule has been made to the residents of ‘Landikotal’ a region along the Pakistan border. On the basis of simple identity papers the residents here would be permitted entry in Afghanistan. The concession to these people was justified, as they being natives of Afghanistan, imposing visa requirements would be inappropriate.
Day by day the border issue between Afghanistan and Pakistan is becoming more tense. A few weeks back, there was a dispute between the two countries over the ‘Durand line’. Pakistan, violating the International law, has constructed wire fence and a wall across the Afghanistan border. This decision by Pakistan resulted in tensions at the borders of the two nations for a few days. In the military operations between the two countries, one Pakistani military officer and seven jawans were killed. Pakistan had strongly criticized this action taken by the Afghan military.
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Indeed a great and much awaited decision taken by Afghanistan. Terror state Pakistan is capable of spreading terrorists activites accross the countries and in order to avoid such terror attacks, such steps are very important. National security always comes first.