Health of dozens of stranded Afghan patients, male and female, has further deteriorated as the Torkham border remains closed on the 14th consecutive day on Thursday. Most of the patients suffer from kidney, cancer, hepatitis diseases beside major surgery patients.
Fazal Haq, a resident of Kabul said that his father, Hamesha Gul was kidney patient and he was brought to Hayat Teaching Hospital, Peshawar for medical treatment; he was discharged from the hospital after the treatment and necessary medication. However, he said due to suspension of Torkham border, they were not allowed to cross back into their country.
"My father is being laid on bare ground for last few days that affects his deteriorating health and his body has swelled up which requires an immediate dialysis", Fazal Haq regretted. Holding his father's medical tests and relevant receipts in his hands, he lamented that if they were not allowed to cross back into Afghanistan his ailing father could breathe his last prior to reaching his home. He maintained that agency headquarter hospital lacked dialysis facility to provide emergency medical assistance and implored Pakistani authorities to at least let the patients travel back to their native towns in Afghanistan.
Another patient, Mubaais, a resident of Nangarhar said that he had an open fracture to his right hand and for last one year he had been undergoing multiple surgeries in private hospitals in Dabgari garden, Peshawar. Last week the doctors discharged him from the hospital after putting in rods in his hand but ironically the border had been closed down and he is stranded on the roads under open sky without facilitates and in cold weather which has returned the pain in his hand and he find himself helpless and at the mercy of authorities.
For the last two weeks, Landi Kotal bazaar shopkeepers and local philanthropists are supplying cooked food to the Afghan citizens stuck in Pakistan; these Afghans have taken refuge in under construction buildings without facilities. It merits a mention that the number of stranded Afghan citizens in Landi Kotal has crossed the figure of six hundred because the government has launched a massive search operation across the country and the Afghanis who fear detention have fled the cities and have come to Khyber Agency to return back to Afghanistan.