KHYBER AGENCY - Health condition of dozens of stranded Afghan national patients further worsens as the Torkham border remained close on the 14th day.
Most of the patients are suffering from cancer, hepatitis and kidney diseases besides major surgery patients.
Fazal Haq, a resident of Kabul said that his father, Hamesha Gul was a kidney patient and he had brought him to Hayat Teaching Hospital, Peshawar for medical treatment, where the doctors discharged him after providing necessary medication. However, he said due to closure of Torkham border, they were not permitted to cross into their country.
“My father is being laid on bare ground for the last few days. This has deteriorated his condition. He needs immediate dialysis,” Haq regretted.
Holding his father’s test reports and other receipts, he lamented that if they were not allowed to cross the border, his ailing father would pass away prior to reaching to his home. He maintained that the Agency Headquarters Hospital lacked dialysis facility to provide emergency medical assistance. Haq asked the Pakistani authorities to allow the patients to move to their native towns in Afghanistan.
Mubaais, a resident of Nengarhar, said that his right hand had an open fracture and for the last year he has been going through multiple surgeries at a private hospital in Debgori, Peshawar.
Previous week, the doctor discharged him from the hospital after fixing rods in his hand. But ironically the border was closed and his hand was paining as he was serving stranded days and nights under an open sky in the cold weather, he added.
For the last two weeks, Landi Kotal bazaar shopkeepers and local philanthropists are supplying cooked food to the stranded Afghan citizens who have taken refuge in an under-construction building in the bazaar.
The number of stranded Afghan citizens in Landi Kotal has crossed the figure of six hundred, as the government has launched a massive search operation across the country and the Afghanis in fear of detention have fled and come to Khyber Agency to go home - Afghanistan.
AHMAD NABI