What happened
Authorities on Sunday allowed an Afghan woman and her ailing child to cross the Torkham border on humanitarian grounds and enter Pakistan for treatment, according to border sources cited by Dawn.
The sources said the child was suffering from an undiagnosed ailment and needed urgent treatment at a hospital in Pakistan. The border authorities permitted the mother and child to enter when they were approached by a local human rights activist, Islam Badshah. Both were handed over to Badshah after crossing and were then taken to Peshawar. The names of the two Afghan nationals could not be established.
Why it matters
Dawn reported that it was the first time since the closure of the Torkham border in October last year that any Afghan national had been permitted to come to Pakistan through a land route. Afghan nationals with valid travel documents may currently travel to Pakistan by air only.
Torkham is one of the main crossings between Pakistan and Afghanistan, and its closure has restricted the movement of people and goods across the frontier. The one-off humanitarian passage for the mother and child did not signal a wider reopening, and the restrictions at the crossing remained in place.
Pakistani students return
In a separate development, another 100 Pakistani students who had been stranded in Afghanistan arrived in Pakistan on Saturday. Families of the students said their semesters had already been completed and that they were on vacation, but they could not return home earlier because of strict restrictions at the Torkham border.
Sources & reporting notes
This is a summary of published reporting, not independent reporting. Details are as carried by the cited source, which was reviewed on 3 August 2026.
- Dawn — "Afghan woman, ailing child allowed to enter Pakistan"3 August 2026 · The humanitarian entry through Torkham, the role of activist Islam Badshah, the first land crossing since the October closure, and the return of stranded Pakistani students.
