Hundreds of Afghans waiting at border as Pakistan seals crossing point at Torkham

Hundreds of Afghans including scores of patients have been waiting behind border gate at Torkham since early Friday morning after Pakistani government sealed off the crossing point in the wake of terrorist attack in Pakistan that claimed scores of lives on Thursday.

"I have been waiting to since early morning to take a patient to Peshawar of Pakistan but the border gate is closed," an Afghan citizen Noor Gul told Xinhua.

He said that he was unaware of border closure.

Rahman is another Afghan citizen who was waiting behind the gate to cross the border point and visit a doctor in Peshawar city of Pakistan.

Another person, Hashmatullah of Kabul also complained that he was waiting to receive the coffin of a relative who passed away in a hospital in Peshawar Thursday night and has been taken by other relative behind the border gate.

Hundreds of Afghans cross the border point at Torkham daily to visit their relatives or take their patients to Pakistan for medical treatment.

In the wake of a deadly suicide bombing in a shrine in Pakistan on Thursday which reportedly claimed the lives of some 80 people and injured more than 200 others, Islamabad shut down the border crossing point at Torkham for an indefinite period of time.

Torkham border point connects Nangarhar province of Afghanistan to Pakistan.

Militants loyal to the Islamic State (IS) group have reportedly claimed of responsibility for the deadly attack on the shrine.

Pakistani government, according to media reports, believes that the attack was organized in Afghan soil and thereofore summoned officials from Afghanistan embassy on Friday and handed down a list of 76 wanted terrorists to be handed over to Islamabad. Endit