KHYBER: Six men from the Federal Investi­gation Agency (FIA) were injured during an altercation with Pakistani border guards at Torkham on Sunday.

The incident caused the border crossing to remain shut for over four hours as immigration staff refused to continue their duties in protest against the assault on their colleagues and interference in their work.

The FIA and the Fro­ntier Corps gave conflicting accounts of the incident, both accusing each other of malpractice and undue interference in their official responsibilities.

The immigration staff, including one of the inju­red, accused the border guards of forcing them to allow an Afghan national to cross without undergoing the necessary immigration formalities. They clai­med that the Afghan nati­onal in question possessed a fake travel document.

They said that security personnel first thrashed the FIA officer who refused to allow the Afghan national to cross, then a group of security personnel armed with rifles and batons entered the FIA premises and started beating up their staff, injuring six of them.

Video footage shared on social media showed security personnel beating FIA staff with sticks, with some of the injured screaming in pain.

Labourers and porters, as well as returning Afghan nationals accompanied by children and women, could also be heard screaming and running for safety in the video.

The injured FIA staff members were identified as Arif, Amjad, Zulfiqar, Mehmud, Anbar Shah and Herpal Singh. Three of the injured were taken to the District Headquarters Hospital in Landi Kotal.

The other three were detained by security forces, but were later handed over to FIA officials. One of them was later shifted to Peshawar for treatment of his injuries.

On the other hand, an FC statement accused the FIA staff of allowing Afghan nationals to enter Pakistan without legal travel documents after taking bribes.

It claimed that two days ago, border forces had arrested two Afghan nationals who had been ‘cleared’ by FIA immigration staff without being entered in the official record.

The FC further said that in retaliation for the arrest of illegal Afghans by the security forces, the FIA staff restricted the approach of security officials to its premises, which also resulted in an increase of number of Afghans at the immigration centres.

“The immigration officials misbehaved with security officials and used objectionable language when they were asked to expedite the immigration process,” the statement said, adding that an effort was also made to approach FIA high-ups and apprise them of the situation, but to no avail.

The statement said that investigations had been initiated to ascertain the actual reason for Sunday’s incident, while efforts were underway to pave the way for smooth immigration process and stop all types of illegal border crossings.

The border crossing was reopened around midday after a series of meetings between the FC and FIA officials, with a resolve to evolve a strategy to avoid such incidents in the future.

Published in Dawn, March 25th, 2024