By IANS
Islamabad : The United Nations High Commission for Regugees (UNHCR) has temporarily suspended voluntary repatriation of Afghans through Pakistan's North West Frontier Province Friday due to heavy rains and floods.
Incessant rainfall has resulted in damage to several bridges between Peshawar and the Torkham border crossing into Afghanistan, and Afghans wishing to return through the UNHCR Voluntary Repatriation Center (VRC) in Peshawar should not move until further notice, the UNHCR said in a statement, according to Iranian news agency IRNA.
The VRC will not process anyone for departure until the roads and bridges are repaired and fit for travel, it said.
Locals in the flood-hit Khyber tribal area say that floods have washed away four bridges between the border point of Torkham and Peshawar, causing stoppage of traffic between Pakistan and Afghanistan through this route.
Officials have confirmed 22 deaths in flood-related incidents in the Khyber area, but locals have put the death toll in two days at 38.
Hundreds of trucks, carrying goods for Afghanistan, are stranded along the main highway between Pakistan and Afghanistan, and many people are having to walk to reach their destination.
Heavy rains, which started Thursday, have also disrupted phone, electricity and water supply lines. Floods have also displaced thousands of people who have been shifted to safer places.