While official border crossings between Afghanistan and Pakistan remain closed, the UN High Commission for Refugees estimates that 135,000 Afghan refugees have entered Pakistan since the September 11th terrorist attacks on the US.
At the Torkham border crossing some 150 km from the Afghan capital Kabul yesterday, sick and injured Afghans crossed into Pakistan to attend an emergency clinic set up a month ago by a non-governmental organisation.
Dr Sarfaraz Akhtar estimated that 500 refugees have attended the border clinic in a former restaurant since the US strikes on Afghanistan began on October 7th. Up to 70 per cent of the patients had bomb-related injuries while the remainder were sick or malnourished, he said.
Shoeless and wearing a red peak cap, Dr Akhtar attempted to examine Muslim patients who, for religious reasons, would not allow him to remove their clothes.
A woman in her 50s and her son arrived, the woman coughing and spluttering beneath her black burqa, the traditional head to toe veil which she continued to wear while Dr Akhtar took her blood pressure and checked her heart and lungs.
Bibi Hussan and her son Mayan were allowed to cross the border as she had a doctor's letter from a Jalalabad hospital diagnosing her with a chronic eye duct disease. She lifted her burqa briefly to show her eyes, which, according to the letter, had been streaming for four years. Dr Akhtar diagnosed Bibi as having tuberculosis as well. She was referred to a hospital in the Pakistan city of Peshawar, 58 km east of Torkham.
Journalists who journeyed to the site yesterday were escorted through the Khyber Pass by armed guards and an official from the Ministry of Information.
Our movements were monitored and they were not allowed to approach the frontier. "The Taliban are just on the other side of the gate and if they see foreigners they will shoot," said Mr Hamayan Khan from the ministry.
Torkham is in the heart of Pakistan's Khyber Agency, one of seven tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. The areas are governed by the provincial authorities but have a strong sense of autonomy. Foreigners are not permitted to enter the agencies without permits. The permits issued by the provincial government yesterday instructed foreigners to enter the agency only through specified routes and not to travel before sunrise or after sunset.
Of the 135,000 Afghan refugees to have entered Pakistan since the attacks on the US, 75,000 are believed to have crossed the 1,400-mile border clandestinely through "uncommon routes" into the North West Frontier Province, with another 60,000 arriving further south in Baluchistan Province.
Meanwhile, Pakistan's president, Gen Perez Musharraf, who was visiting Iran yesterday again urged a halt to the US campaign against Afghanistan during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan which starts on November 17th. The US has said it will not call a halt to its air strikes during Ramadan.