Pakistani border police have refused to allow an Afghan family to return to Afghanistan with the body of their son who died in Peshawar earlier this week.
The family has attempted to cross at the Torkham border gate twice with the body of their eight-year-old son Yasin who died while receiving cancer treatment at a Peshawar hospital.
Yasin’s father Gul Mohammad said they want to bury their son back home at Nangarhar province, but the ongoing dispute between border officials over an exchange of fire has trapped them in Pakistan.
The family has returned Yasin’s body to a morgue in Peshawar to await the reopening of the Torkham gate.
Gul Mohammad said the border situation as well as the death of his child from cancer has deeply affected him and all the family.
The Torkham border crossing is a key transit point for land travel between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Hundreds of travellers and freight trucks carrying perishables, goods and equipment have been stranded on either side of the crossing since it closed on September 6.
Both Pakistan and Afghanistan authorities have blamed the other for the closure.
