Pakistan’s borders with Iran, Afghanistan, India to remain shut for another 2 weeks

ISLAMABAD: The government on Friday decided to keep Pakistan’s western and Indian borders closed for another two weeks as part of precautions to stem the novel coronavirus.

The decision came at a meeting of the National Coordination Committee held in Islamabad with Prime Minister Imran Khan in the chair today.

In a tweet after the meeting, Special Assistant to PM on National Security Division and Strategic Policy Planning Moeed Yousuf said: “In the NCC for COVID-19 meeting on the 26th, we have decided to keep Pakistan’s western [border with Iran and Afghanistan] and Indian borders completely closed for another 2 weeks.”

In the NCC for COVID-19 meeting on the 26th, we have decided to keep Pakistan’s western and Indian borders completely closed for another 2 weeks.

— Moeed W. Yusuf (@YusufMoeed) March 27, 2020

The meeting took an overview of the situation arising out of coronavirus and measures to cope with it.

Read More: PM announces corona relief fund, orders release of lockdown detainees

The participants gave a practical demonstration of the precautionary measures to avoid coronavirus by observing social distance in their seating arrangement.

Earlier, on March 13, the federal government had decided to seal Pakistan’s western border with Afghanistan and Iran in an attempt to contain the spread of novel coronavirus (COVID-19).

Read More: Coronavirus pandemic: NCC decides to lift ban on goods transport

Later on March 20, Prime Minister Imran Khan announced the opening of the Chaman-Spin Boldak border to Afghanistan for trucks to crossover to the other side.

He tweeted: “Despite global pandemic of COVID 19, we remain committed to supporting our Afghan brothers & sisters. I have given instructions to open the Chaman-Spin Boldak border & let trucks crossover into Afghanistan. In time of crisis, we remain steadfast with Afghanistan.”