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Topic: Torkham

In the News (Wed 15 Feb 12)

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	Pakistan Link Headlines
		During a visit to Torkham, this scribe was informed by Bakhtiar Khan, Political Tehsildar, that so far 3,000 meters wall has been constructed while work is in progress on remaining portion.
		Tirah Valley which is considered a state was known for cultivation of quality poppy crops in all over the region, now could be considered a poppy-free zone, thus enabling the government of honouring its commitments with the global community.
		With construction of the wall at Torkham border could further cement influence of the government functionaries on Durand Line between the two countries.
	www.pakistanlink.com /headlines/Feb/10/11.html (496 words)

	Afghans stranded at Torkham border -DAWN - National; November 16, 2001
		MICHNI(Khyber Agency), Nov 15: Thousands of Afghans intending to enter Afghanistan were stranded at Torkham on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border as the new Afghan border guards closed the war-ravaged country’s border with Pakistan on Thursday.
		However, some of the people told this scribe at Landi Kotal, the headquarters of Khyber Agency, that Pakistani authorities were, too, were not allowing the trucks carrying goods to enter Afghanistan because of increasing insecurity in Jalalabad and rest of the Nangarhar province.
		A truck driver, who arrived at Torkham from Jalalabad on Wednesday, told this scribe that the four checkpoint — earlier manned by the Taliban guards on the main highway linking Jalalabad with Torkham — were without guards after the Taliban left the same on Wednesday.
	www.dawn.com /2001/11/16/nat8.htm (575 words)

	RAWA.org: Disappointed repatriates likely to re-enter Pakistan
		The mismanagement and rush was so severe that none of the officials on both sides of the border could check the movement of minor children, who usually cross the border while hanging from the snake-paced moving trucks.
		Realizing the nature of their job and the treatment being meted out to them by the unkind guards, the children cover their back with clothes and rubber sheets to bear the mighty sticks.
		The residents at Landi Kotal and Torkham complained that their business had been badly affected as trucks loaded with tyres and other material were stopped on the other side of the border and denied entry.
	www.rawa.org /border3.htm (1196 words)

	Boston.com / Fighting Terrorism / War in Afghanistan
		TORKHAM, Pakistan -- In a huge manhunt for a handful of Osama bin Laden loyalists, Pakistani troops patrol in trucks and helicopters and train machine guns on ravines and barren hills along the border with Afghanistan.
		Tirah lies southwest of Torkham, a border post on the historic Khyber Pass, a winding trail flanked by rocky cliffs and mud-walled tribal compounds.
		Khalil, the Afghan border chief at Torkham, said as many as 2,000 refugees had poured daily back into Afghanistan since last week, the end the end of Ramadan, Islam's holy month.
	www.boston.com /news/daily/23/attacks_pakistan.htm (706 words)

	USATODAY.com - Taliban troops take border positions (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-06)
		TORKHAM, Pakistan (AP) — Taliban troops have taken up positions in the jagged mountain peaks overlooking Afghanistan's border with Pakistan, border officials said as they built up their own forces on the slopes across the frontier.
		Fears of a U.S. assault have sent thousands of Afghans fleeing toward the borders, compounding a refugee crisis already in full swing before the terror attacks, with tens of thousands of Afghans on the run after two decades of war and three years of devastating drought.
		Saeed said the word in the market was that the Taliban have deployed the medium-range Scud missiles they inherited from the Soviet Union during its disastrous decade of occupation, which ended in 1989.
	www.usatoday.com /news/world/2001/09/21/taliban-readies.htm (826 words)

	BBC News \| SOUTH ASIA \| Explosion rocks Pakistan border
		The Torkham Gate is an important border crossing point between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
		About 460 Afghan refugees were repatriated through Torkham on Monday under a programme sponsored by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
		Torkham attracts both local and foreign tourists, who often come from Peshawar through the historic Khyber Pass.
	news.bbc.co.uk /1/hi/world/south_asia/693198.stm (301 words)

	Refugees the U.N. won't see - Salon (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-06)
		At the Torkham border, there was the usual dust, the men with guns, children begging for money.
		Jalalabad and Peshawar, Pakistan, were married to each other through the cash and the merchandise, which has been the situation for centuries, and so they thrived.
		What he said put the fear of God in me, reviving the perpetual question, "What lifesaving piece of information does he have that I don't." The night before, Id gone up to the fifth-floor lounge of the P.C. looking to bum a ride in a convoy, but had no luck.
	dir.salon.com /story/news/feature/2002/01/19/afghanistan/print.html (680 words)

	Khyber Gateway >> Pashto Places >> Khyber Agency
		Numerous memorials were carved on the rock faces to the british Indian regiments who gradually wrested the pass from the Pathans and the afghans.
		The immigration and customs checkposts are at Torkham; the border town here, which has shops, hotels, cafes, restaurants, banks, bakeries and government offices, most of the buildings are low roofed and seem to huddle together as if for security.
		On a hilltop to the left of Torkham is the ruined Kafir Fort, a Hindu relic of the ninth century AD.
	www.khyber.org /pashtoplaces/khyber.shtml (2237 words)

	Afghanistan’s objections over gate at Torkham -DAWN - Top Stories; August 23, 2006
		LANDI KOTAL (Khyber Agency), Aug 22: The design of a gate to be built at the Torkham border has become a bone of contention between the governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan and the latter has expressed reservations over its design.
		The crossing point between the two countries at Torkham has been without a gate for more than a month after the National Highways Authority removed the old gate as part of their plan to renovate and expand a kilometre-long road leading to the border from Landi Kotal.
		Afghan officials posted at Torkham raised objections about the design of the new gate when the NHA wanted to reconstruct the gate at its old location a month ago.
	www.dawn.com /2006/08/23/top13.htm (341 words)

	News (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-06)
		Humayun Akhtar Khan to discuss trade facilitation at Torkham border.
		Comprehensive discussion was made on the establishment of warehousing facility, heavy vehicles terminals, etc at Torkham, to facilitate and enhance transit trade with Afghanistan.
		Torkham, Chaman and Ghulam Khan are the exit and entry points for Afghan Transit cargo.
	www.pakistanlink.com /Headlines/Apr05/13/13.htm (117 words)

	RSF - Press releases - Afghanistan - October 7 2001
		On 8 October, a Pakistani official present at the border town Torkham (50 kilometres from Peshawar) announced that journalist Yvonne Ridley for the Sunday Express was released by the Taliban after ten days in detention.
		There were no British officials awaiting for her in Torkham.
		She has been driven to Peshawar and Islamabad where a representative of the daily Express and British diplomats are staying.
	www.rsf.org /rsf/uk/html/asie/cplp01/cp01/071001.html (296 words)

	Pakistan bans Afghan trucker's entry
		TORKHAM, July 21 (SANA): Pakistani border guards at Torkham have slapped a ban on the entry of Afghan trucks, a step that led to long queues of heavy vehicles parked on both sides of the road.
		The restriction comes hard on the heels of a 10-day protest by Pakistani truckers against the attitude of Afghan officials, who allegedly tease them on their way to Kabul.
		He admitted the lorries failing to climb the mound were sent back to Torkham, because they could not ply the Lata Band Road - zigzagging through a long range of mountains.
	www.kashar.net /complete.asp?id=1888 (279 words)

	ReliefWeb » Professional Resources » Vacancies
		Torkham is not really a town but more the main commercial hub (of both legal and illegal goods) between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
		Cross-border traffic and smuggling at Torkham border have dramatic consequences on street and working children (very hard and harsh labour conditions for children; high number of children working there …).
		Part of the team will have to be recruited and should pursue their work on the programme of Street and working Children in Torkham.
	www.reliefweb.int /rw/res.nsf/db900SID/OCHA-6L8DFE?OpenDocument (748 words)

	Frightened Afghans flee city targeted by U.S. airstrikes \| Chron.com - Houston Chronicle
		TORKHAM, Pakistan -- When the bombing stopped and the curfew was lifted, Mazl Khan and his clan made their run for the border.
		Leaving the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad before dawn, Khan -- along with 10 female relatives and 30 children -- walked for 10 hours through the rugged mountains that separate Afghanistan and Pakistan, fearing constantly that Taliban troops would turn them back.
		They became separated and their mother was stopped by the Taliban.
	www.chron.com /disp/story.mpl/special/terror/front/1085203.html (746 words)

	Bird Report: Afghanistan, 2002
		With this bulbul, we come to one interesting phenomenon: There seems to be a general westward and northward invasion of many originally Indian human habitation-bound bird species.
		Some words about the habitats in Afghanistan: Most of the country is very arid and desolate mountainous semi-desert or desert.
		Common in Torkham and throughout in the Khyber Pass; also seen in Kabul.
	www.camacdonald.com /birding/meafghanistan(AnssiTripReport).htm (1066 words)

	EC funds reconstruction of Kabul-Torkham road (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-06)
		After 20 years of war, the Kabul to Torkham highway requires extensive repair, including reconstruction of a series of tunnels and bridges between the two cities.
		The second stage of the EC-funded project will rehabilitate the 70-km mountainous section of the road between Sarowbi and Kabul and is expected to begin next spring.
		Work on this section of the road is expected to begin at the end of this year.
	www.irinnews.org /print.asp?ReportID=38233 (539 words)

	TIME.com Print Page: Attacks on World Trade Center/Pentagon -- Escape from Jalalabad
		The gunfire was distant, at first, and we took it to be Taliban anti-aircraft firing at high-flying U.S. jets.
		He was moving street to street searching for a safe passage out of town, and it appeared gunmen were everywhere — on foot, on Toyota pickups and so on.
		Moments later we were back on the road to Torkham.
	www.time.com /time/nation/printout/0,8816,184930,00.html (1217 words)

	Dispatches - Gerald Herbert - The Digital Journalist
		I was in the first wave of journalists to arrive in Jalalabad on November 15th, just a few days after the Taliban retreated from the region.
		We came in a convoy of fifteen buses from Peshawar, Pakistan on the first day that the Torkham border crossing was opened.
		He said he was pretty sure he would get off at Torkham because things didn't feel right.
	digitaljournalist.org /issue0112/herbert.htm (1331 words)

	RADIO FREE EUROPE/ RADIO LIBERTY
		The day after the 21 November killings, which came after several incidents of armed robberies on the road, only a handful of people and trucks were waiting at Torkham to cross into Afghanistan.
		One of those waiting was Issa Khan, an independent trucker who, with his partners, regularly carries food and other humanitarian supplies to Kabul on contract for the UN.
		With so few people crossing, most of the men in the streets of Torkham on this day are vendors waiting for customers.
	www.rferl.org /features/2001/11/22112001082909.asp (1457 words)

	CNN.com - Pakistan closes Afghan border - September 18, 2001
		Thousands of refugees fleeing hunger and drought and fearing a U.S. military strike tried to cross into Pakistan at the border town of Torkham but were turned away.
		About two dozen supply trucks were stopped at Torkham, in northern Pakistan, unable to cross into Afghanistan.
		In addition to the border closure, the United States requested the use of Pakistan's airspace and soil, as well as an exchange of intelligence material.
	archives.cnn.com /2001/WORLD/asiapcf/south/09/17/pakistan.border (515 words)

	The Advocate - The Pakistani village of Torkham (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-06)
		The Advocate - The Pakistani village of Torkham
		View of the Pakistani village of Torkham, right in the Pakistan-Afghan border.
		Journalists are not allowed beyond the spot where this photograph was taken.
	www.stamfordadvocate.com /news/nationworld/ny-passphoto9,0,7727817.photo (32 words)

	Afghan Families Flee War-Torn Nation
		TORKHAM, Pakistan –– Scores of Afghan families fled over the Khyber Pass into Pakistan this weekend, bringing with them pots, rice, clothes and anything else they could carry to survive as refugees.
		Some children even brought along pet sparrows – considered good luck symbols – and cassette players for music, which is banned by the Taliban in Afghanistan.
		"I brought her because she's my friend and because this bird informed me before the bombings," Hazarat Mir, 10, said after he and his uncle – and a pet bird – arrived late Saturday night at the border town of Torkham.
	www.washingtonpost.com /wp-srv/aponline/20011104/aponline133531_000.htm (602 words)

	USATODAY.com - Fear of U.S. attack starts exodus (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-06)
		TORKHAM, Pakistan, on the Afghan border, Sept. 18 (UPI) —The road that links Pakistan and Afghanistan through the historic Khyber Pass remained open Tuesday for supply trucks moving into Taliban territory, and for trucks returning empty.
		Asked about conditions inside Afghanistan, one Afghan refugee stalled behind the Torkham fence was evasive, "We can neither tell you the truth nor can we tell you a lie," he replied cryptically.
		The Taliban — the Islamic fundamentalist group that controls more than 95% of the rugged, impoverished country — has set up roadblocks on all major routes out of their cities.
	www.usatoday.com /news/world/2001/09/18/afghanistan-exodus.htm (1080 words)

	ONLINE - International News Network
		Commenting on speculations regarding closure of the border during the landmark polls in the landlocked country, a Pakistani official Gulsam Khan insisted no such decision had been taken at official level.
		An official of the Interior Ministry told Pajhwok News Agency they were planning to close the Torkham border as they had done at Chaman to ensure peace in Afghanistan during the parliamentary elections.
		However, the official said Torkham border might not be sealed to ensure maximum number of Afghans participate in the elections.
	www.onlinenews.com.pk /details.php?id=86786 (165 words)

	Afghan forces close Torkham gate -DAWN - National; July 28, 2002
		LANDI KOTAL, July 27: Afghanistan’s border security forces closed the Torkham gate on Saturday after they developed differences with Pakistan’s security guards over the deportation of Afghans who had entered the country illegally.
		Reports reaching here said the Torkham-Jalalabad road remained closed since the morning as the Afghan forces had placed containers and erected hurdles on the highway.
		They claimed that Pakistani authorities had forced the displaced people to pay them illegal gratification at one checkpoint and detained them at the next checkpoint for their illegal entry into the country.
	www.dawn.com /2002/07/28/nat23.htm (290 words)

	freedomforum.org: Taliban releases French journalist
		Peyrard's two Pakistani journalist companions, Mohammad Arfan and Mukrram Khan — also arrested on Oct. 9 — were also expected to be released, but at the last minute were ordered back to the Afghan city of Jalalabad, the French reporter said.
		Peyrard described his near monthlong detention as "manageable" after some initial harsh treatment, according to the French news agency Agence France-Presse, which also reported that the journalist was greeted at the Torkham crossing point in northwest Pakistan by the French ambassador to Pakistan, Yannick Gerard, and Pakistani officials.
		His release was accompanied by a stern Taliban warning to foreign reporters not to enter the country without papers, AFP reported.
	www.freedomforum.org /templates/document.asp?documentID=15298 (738 words)

	Harkat killing: Red faces in Pak (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-06)
		Pakistani border officials on Wednesday fired tear gas to disperse stone-throwing demonstrators in Karachi after 35 Harkatul Mujahideen militants were killed by US bombing in Kabul, witnesses said.
		Border officials at Torkham crossing in North West Frontier Province had prevented the entry of eight bodies from among at least 20 members of the Pakistani-based militant group which is active in the Kashmir Valley.
		An official at Torkham said the bodies had arrived but been refused entry.
	www.hvk.org /articles/1001/396.html (694 words)

	The News - International (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-06)
		KARACHI: Unabated smuggling of dairy animals from Pakistan to Central Asian States via Afghanistan through Quetta and Torkham borders is creating acute shortage of milch as well as meat animals in the domestic market.
		An average buffalo, which was being sold for Rs30,000 to Rs40,000, is being sold at Rs60,000-70,000 in rural Punjab and Sindh.
		He said that some nine animals are shipped in a single truck after payment of Rs20,000 as bribe to officials of border security forces which are responsible to curb illegal trade.
	www.thenews.com.pk /daily_detail.asp?id=26261 (1153 words)

	::: Ministry of Finance (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-06)
		He was of the view that the government should further improve the facilities at Torkham and Ghulam Khan customs stations instead of opening new points.
		Presently customs stations at Torkham, Ghulam Khan and Chaman looking after country’s major trade with Afghanistan that is on the rise as during last financial year the country’s overall export to Afghanistan stood $ 1.166 billion that is $ 166 million higher than the set target.
		Similarly, Pakistan has imported from Afghanistan goods amounting to Rs 3.488 billion during the last fiscal year 2004-05 against the imports of Rs 2.619 billion during 2003-04, indicating an increase of Rs.869 million in the last fiscal year.
	www.mof.gov.af /eng/Press%20Review.asp (5216 words)

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