DUBAI, MARDAN: More than 100 pilgrims returned to Pakistan on Thursday from Iran, immigration documents show, despite the border being sealed by the Pakistan government to try to halt the spread of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
The pilgrims entered Pakistan via a land border crossing at Taftan in southwestern Balochistan province.
Pakistan and Iran, one of the countries worst hit by the outbreak, share a 900 km border, which is frequently used for trade and by Pakistani Shiites, who travel to Iran for religious pilgrimages, often crossing at Taftan.
But in recent weeks, errors in the testing and quarantine of travelers who recently returned from Iran have turned Taftan into a hotbed of coronavirus.
The number of confirmed virus cases in Pakistan climbed above 1,200 on Friday, health officials said. On Tuesday, when Pakistan had 892 confirmed cases, health chief Dr. Zafar Mirza said that 78 percent of the victims had a history of travel to Iran.
Infections in Iran began to rise rapidly last month, but the Pakistan government only officially closed the border on March 16 — and the Taftan crossing remains porous.
On Thursday, despite the border closure, 113 pilgrims crossed into Balochistan from Iran, according to immigration documents seen by Arab News. The influx brought the total number of people to enter the country through Taftan since February to 6,080.
Of that figure, 4,596 have been sent to their home provinces, while 1,484 remain in quarantine at Taftan, figures from the Balochistan chief minister’s office show.
The Iranian Embassy in Islamabad did not respond to emailed questions about the continued movement of pilgrims from Iran into Pakistan and whether it had screened pilgrims before sending them home.
In an interview with Arab News on Wednesday, Balochistan Home Minister Mir Zia Ullah Langove said that the provincial government had contacted federal authorities when the outbreak began last month, asking them to tell Iranian authorities not to send pilgrims back to Pakistan without proper screening. Local government officials also met Iranian authorities to communicate their concerns.
But thousands of pilgrims still arrived in Balochistan without having been screened in Iran, Langove said, adding: “We were left with no choice but to let them enter and quarantine them on our side of the border.”
He said the provincial government fulfilled its responsibility of quarantining the pilgrims and returning them to their home provinces with complete records.
“When they (Pakistanis returning from Iran) came back, we quarantined them, and once they had completed their quarantine, we transported them in very special conditions, under security, to different provinces where they belonged,” Mirza told Arab News in an interview.
But health and government officials have said that thousands of people were released from quarantine in Taftan without being properly tested or even isolated, leading to the spread of the virus.
FASTFACT
Balochistan province’s Home Minister Mir Zia Ullah Langove says Pakistan has ‘no choice’ but to let travelers enter.
Unverified video clips on social media showed four or five people lodged in a single tent at the border quarantine site, according to a Reuters report. Others showed scores of people lying close together on the floor of a single corridor of Pakistan House, a building at Taftan built to house pilgrims going to or returning from Iran.
In a media briefing on Friday, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan admitted that the Balochistan government lacked sufficient funds to provide adequate facilities for travelers arriving from Iran.
Balochistan remains Pakistan’s poorest region despite its vast mineral wealth.
This week, the Islamabad High Court issued notices to top government officials in a petition seeking the setting up of a high-level judicial commission to fix responsibility for the spread of the virus in Pakistan.
According to reports in Pakistani media, the petition says the federal government failed to exercise its diplomatic privileges and convince the Iranian government not to send pilgrims back to Pakistan.
A senior Balochistan government official said Iranian authorities had kept sending pilgrims and other Pakistanis to the Taftan crossing despite Islamabad having officially communicated that the border was closed. The official declined to be named as he was not authorized to speak to the media about the issue.
“International borders with both Iran and Afghanistan have been closed since March 16, 2020, and the same has officially been communicated to Iran but it continues to send pilgrims,” the official said.
The Pakistani foreign office did not respond to questions on whether it had officially asked Iran not to return Pakistanis in Iran, as it had to Chinese authorities when the coronavirus outbreak broke out in December and Islamabad ruled out bringing back more than 1,000 students from China.
The Balochistan government official said 20-50 Pakistanis had been arriving at Taftan each day, a figure confirmed by immigration records seen by Arab News.
The official added that the Balochistan government had “no option” but to accept the Pakistanis and send them onwards to their home provinces.
Earlier this month, Balochistan government spokesman Liaquat Shahwani told a local media outlet that at least 5,000 Pakistanis were stranded in Iran after the border closure, and that a final decision to open the border or allow them in would be made by the federal government.
At a media briefing on Thursday, foreign office spokesperson Aisha Farooqui said that Pakistan was working closely with Iran on the movement of pilgrims.
“Every effort is being made to sort out issues, if any, through mutual coordination,” she said.
Farooqui did not explain why people were still entering Pakistan despite its borders being closed.
A senior official based in Islamabad, who declined to be named, told Arab News he was privy to a recent intelligence assessment presented to the federal government by Pakistan’s top spy agency, which had recommended changes in troop deployment on the Iran-Pakistan border in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. The report also suggested the reshuffling of custom’s officers posted at the Taftan border.
A second official confirmed the intelligence report, but Arab News was unable to obtain a copy of the original document.
The first official added that the report said that hundreds of people coming from Iran after the coronavirus outbreak had been allowed to cross into Pakistan by “influential” people in the government and the provincial bureaucracy who prevailed upon the Balochistan government to allow entry.
Last week, opposition politicians and journalists said Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Overseas Pakistanis, Sayed Zulfikar Abbas Bukhari, had used his “influence” with the Balochistan chief minister to ensure the unchecked entry of pilgrims into Pakistan.
“Neither I have been involved with Taftan nor (have I) any influence,” Bukhari told Arab News, adding that the allegations against him were “completely baseless.”
