Afghan female footballers and families granted temporary visas by Pakistan
RECEIVE EMERGENCY HUMANITARIAN VISAS FOR THEIR FAMILIES TOO
Pakistan government has granted temporary visas to 32 Afghan female footballers and their families on a humanitarian basis.
The female football team of Afghanistan arrived in Pakistan along with their families — a group of 115 people. They crossed the Torkham border to reach Pakistan on Tuesday night after the government issued emergency humanitarian visas. They were received by a representative of the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF).
Warm welcome
“We welcome Afghanistan women football team, they arrived at Torkham Border from Afghanistan,” said Pakistan’s information minister Fawad Chaudhry.
Assistant Commissioner Akbar Iftikhar told local media that the team and their family members were allowed to enter Pakistan via the land route after verification of valid documents. The swift arrangement was made after the girls sought urgent help from Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan for temporary visas for them and their families.
Their evacuation was made possible with the joint efforts by London-based NGO Football for Peace in cooperation with the Pakistan government and PFF. President of PFF Ashfaq Hussain Shah said that they rushed to make arrangements for the travel of the Afghan women team soon after learning about their request.
The players and their family are expected to stay in Peshawar before proceeding to Lahore under strict arrangements. However, their stay in Pakistan is expected to be temporary as they are seeking refuge in a European country or the US.
The Afghan national junior girls team were reportedly due to travel to Qatar but their trip was cancelled after the Aug. 26 bomb blast at Kabul airport which saw foreign forces speed up the airlift operation, leaving many behind, especially those who did not have passports.
Several female athletes have fled Afghanistan, fearing that they would not be able to continue their career in sports under the Taliban regime. However, Afghanistan Cricket Board chairman Azizullah Fazli said that he is hopeful women will be able to play cricket as the organisation has not received any Taliban directive to restrict women from playing cricket.