Stuck in Afghanistan, Pakistani students want border to finally reopen

Nearly three months since border clashes prompted the closure of land crossings between Pakistan and Afghanistan, university students, merchants and families are left hanging with no way of getting back.

"We miss our parents and relatives," said Shah Faisal, 25, who studies medicine in an Afghan university and was hoping to visit his family back in Pakistan during winter break. But the border has been shut since October 12, leaving many like him with no viable option of making it home.

Flights are prohibitively expensive, and smuggling routes come at too great a risk.

A student representative said there were around 500 to 600 Pakistanis at universities in one Afghan province alone, Nangarhar, who were looking for a way back.

Shah Fahad Amjad, 22, who attends medical school in the provincial capital Jalalabad, called on "both countries to open the road" and let students visit their families.

As the border closure drags on, some are also concerned about their visa status or financial situation.

The crisis has caused problems "for us, who are students in Afghanistan, but also for Afghans who are students in Pakistan", said 23-year-old Barkat Ullah Wazir, who studies in Jalalabad.

The colonial-era border between the South Asian neighbours stretches more than 2,600 kilometres (1,600 miles) across mountainous terrain.

Known as the Durand Line, it is normally a conduit between the Pakistanis and Afghans who live near it and share deep cultural, economic and even family ties.

It also divides Pashtun communities who live on either side — the ethnic group from which the Taliban, which returned to power in Kabul in 2021, draws much of its support.

The border has remained largely closed since the October clashes that killed more than 70 people, with the exception of Afghan refugees and migrants Pakistan has expelled.

Islamabad accused Kabul of harbouring militant groups that launch attacks on Pakistani soil, allegations that the Afghan Taliban denies.

Mediation efforts have failed to produce a lasting agreement, and both sides have warned fighting could still resume.

Pakistani shopkeeper Ehsanullah Himmat, 21, had travelled to the southern Afghan city of Kandahar with his family to attend a relative's wedding, but "now we cannot go back to our home," he said.

"Fighting broke out, the road was closed," he told AFP, turning the planned two-day trip into a lengthy ordeal with no end in sight.

"We cannot go via smuggling routes, and other routes exist but they are very long and cost a lot of money" that the family cannot afford, he said. Now "it is cold, it's winter, and we are displaced with our children," Himmat said.

Relatives in Afghanistan have hosted the family, but he said he felt a sense of "embarrassment" for overstaying their welcome.

Pakistan's foreign ministry said on Thursday that nearly 1,200 people had approached its embassy in Kabul requesting assistance to return home, including 549 students.

Just over 300 people had flown back by the end of December, according to the ministry.

Neither government has given any clear signal about when or under what conditions the border could reopen.

At the Spin Boldak crossing point, the road leading into Pakistan is blocked.

Truck driver Khan Muhammad, 39, has been there for weeks on end, unable to work or return to his city of Quetta, about 100 kilometres (62 miles) from the border.

"In these two-and-a-half months I haven't loaded even a single kilo of cargo. Work has come to a standstill," he said.

"All our livelihoods depend on this gate," he said, hoping the border would reopen soon. When it does, "everyone will be able to return to their homes," he said.

Agence France-Presse