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LOWER DIR: A total of 135 Pakistani medical students, most of them belonging to Upper and Lower Dir districts, returned home on Tuesday after remaining stranded in Afghanistan for nearly nine months.
Speaking at a press conference at the Timergara Press Club, representatives of Pakistani students in Afghanistan, Idrees Khan and Fayaz Yousafzai, said the students, enrolled in various Afghan universities, crossed into Pakistan through the Torkham border and safely reached their hometowns.
They said the students’ return was made possible through the efforts of Pakistan’s Consul General in Jalalabad, Shafqat Ullah and Afghanistan’s Ministry of Interior, which granted the necessary travel permissions.
The representatives said the latest repatriation followed an earlier initiative under which 68 Pakistani students crossed the Torkham border on July 11, 2026, with the support of the Pakistani Consulate in Jalalabad and Afghan authorities.
