Pakistani nationals describe travel chaos and missile launches as they flee Iran following US and Israeli strikes, with crowds overwhelming the remote Taftan border crossing.
TAFTAN: Pakistani nationals hauled suitcases across the border from neighbouring Iran, describing missiles being launched and travel chaos as they scrambled to leave the country.
The exodus followed US and Israeli strikes over the weekend, which rocked Iran’s capital Tehran with powerful explosions.
AFP journalists saw a steady trickle of people passing through large metal gates at the remote border crossing between Iran’s Mirjaveh and Taftan in Pakistan’s western Balochistan province.
“All our Pakistani brothers who were in Tehran and other cities had started to leave and were arriving at the terminal, which caused a lot of crowd pressure,” 38-year-old trader Ameer Muhammad told AFP.
“Due to the crowds, there were major transport problems.”
Most people wheeled bulky luggage over the frontier’s foot crossing, while freight lorries formed a long line.
Irshad Ahmed, a 49-year-old pilgrim, told AFP he was staying at a hostel in Tehran when he saw missiles being fired nearby.
“There was an army base near the hostel, and we saw many missiles being fired,” he said.
“After that, we went to the Pakistani embassy so that they could evacuate us from there.”
A teacher at Tehran’s Pakistani embassy, who gave his name as Saqib, said the strikes on Saturday “pushed us to leave the city”.
“The situation became bad on Saturday night, when attacks caused precious lives to be lost,” he added.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has said the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was a “violation” of international law.
“It is an age old convention that the Heads of State/Government should not be targeted,” Sharif wrote on X.
The “people of Pakistan join the people of Iran in their hour of grief and sorrow and extend the most sincere condolences on the martyrdom” of Khamenei, he added.