Remaining US Marines leave Pakistan after evacuation from Afghanistan
Remaining US Marines leave Pakistan after evacuation from Afghanistan
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – The 42 US Marines who had arrived in Pakistan under evacuation process for a temporary stay after withdrawal from Afghanistan have returned to their homeland on Tuesday.
Earlier today, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry had confirmed the presence of US troops in Pakistan.
He said the total number of persons, who had arrived in Pakistan from Afghanistan under evacuation process, was 10,302, whereas 9,032 had boarded for their respective countries.
Some 1,229 foreign nationals, out of which 545 were Afghans and remaining of other nationalities, were still here and would leave the country shortly, he added.
Out of 10,302, the number of total Americans who had arrived Pakistan was 155 who had proceeded now, while 42 people of American services were still here and would leave Pakistan at any time on Tuesday (today), he said.
Chaudhry also refuted the reports of prolonged stay of foreign nationals, evacuated from Afghanistan, in the country. “It is our commitment from the very first day that we will not only help evacuate citizens of all sort of nationalities, but also provide support for completing evacuation process,” Fawad said.
He said Pakistan was the only country which set up an air corridor to provide humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan. Today, a plane of Pakistan International Airlines, landed in Mazar-e-Sharif with aid, he added.
He said so far 2,421 people had been evacuated through Torkham border, out of which 821 were Afghans while 1,570 were Pakistanis.
At this moment, all the Pakistanis who wanted to be evacuated from Afghanistan had been brought back to the country. There were some Pakistanis who wanted to remain in Afghanistan and were still there, he added.
The minister said 17 people crossed Chaman border on valid visa, out of which 10 were Afghans. Other than that, people used to cross the crossing through ‘Tazkira’ (local travel document) for trade.
The people, who came on ‘Tazkira’ were not allowed to go beyond Chaman so that they could return Afghanistan after trading in the area, he noted.
