Jirga agrees on security plan for Torkham border

By Ashrafuddin Pirzada
LANDIKOTAL: A tri-partite jirga of the Pakistan Army Engineering Corps, Khyber Agency administration and elders of Khugakhel Shinwari tribe has agreed on a new mechanism to regulate cross-border movement of pedestrians and traffic flow.
Assistant Political Agent of Landikotal, Muhammad Tayyab Abdullah, told reporters after the jirga that representatives of all the Khugakhel sub-tribes were present in the jirga.
He said that after a successful jirga, Khugakhel tribesmen had agreed to give a piece of land for the road widening. He said a plan had been prepared through which all the vehicles and pedestrians movement would be regulated from and to Afghanistan.
To keep watch on the pedestrians and for uninterrupted traffic flow, the official said footpaths had been constructed on both sides of the road, which would help the security agencies monitor the cross-border movement at Torkham border.
The APA said Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Sardar Mehtab Ahmad Khan had directed them to start construction work on the Torkham-Peshawar terminal without any further delay. He said all the shops situated on the both sides of the road in Torkham bazaar would be demolished.
Tayyab said that soon construction work on the road widening and renovation would be started. He added that the Pakistan Army Engineering Corps and Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) would initiate the project.
He also announced an international-standard First-Aid Centre, a water filtration plant and 70 new shops for the shopkeepers affected by road widening in Torkham bazaar.
Tayyab Abdullah thanked elders of Shinwari tribe for cooperation with the administration and said that despite ups and downs, the local people didn't challenge writ of the government.