Khyber   -    A shocking human trafficking operation has been uncovered at the Torkham border, where individuals were being trafficked between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Citizens raised concerns about the security threat posed by this heinous crime, which reportedly had the support of several government officials. Abdullah, an Afghan national, urgently needed to travel from Afghanistan to Pakistan via the Torkham crossing for important work but lacked the necessary travel documents.

Desperate, Abdullah contacted an agent in Afghanistan who facilitated his crossing to Pakistan with the help of a colleague on the Pakistani side of Torkham. In exchange for their assistance, Abdullah paid the agent eighty thousand rupees as per their agreement. Upon reaching the taxi stand on the Pakistan side of Torkham, Abdullah realized the full extent of the human trafficking network.

An anonymous Pakistani agent revealed that a comprehensive network of human traffickers, consisting of both Pakistani and Afghan citizens, operated on both sides of the border.

These traffickers used fake travel documents prepared in Jalalabad to facilitate illegal border crossings. The agent disclosed that when pedestrians approached the border on foot and crossed the Amarate Islami Afghanistan commissioner checkpoint, they were charged eighty thousand rupees per person. If someone was unable to reach the crossing independently, the fee increased to 0.120 million rupees.

According to the agent, human trafficking was also aided by certain doctors at the Pak-Afghan friendship hospital located at zero point Torkham border. These doctors issued false prescriptions and medical recommendations to healthy passengers, pretending they were patients in need of treatment.

When contacted, Assistant Director Yasir Arafat of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in Torkham denied any unauthorized border crossings. He asserted that no one was allowed to cross without legal documents.