LANDI KOTAL: Pakistani border guards and Khasadar force jointly launched a search operation at the Torkham border after two workers of the Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) went missing here on Tuesday.

Officials said that sepoys Kamran and Jalat Khan were found missing after they finished day’s work on construction of a footpath and iron fence at the border.

The border guards and Khasadar personnel immediately sprang into action and started a search operation to locate the missing FWO workers. However, they were unable to trace any of them till filing of this report.

An FWO official, however, told Dawn that they held talks with Afghan officials at the border but they were reluctant to share any information about the missing workers.

The official feared that the Afghan border guards might have taken the two FWO workers into their custody to use them as a bargaining chip for stopping the construction of footpath and iron fence at the border.

Afghan authorities have reservations over the erection of fence near the border gate, as they don’t want any construction within 30 meter radius of border on both the sides. The border crossing was closed twice on Saturday and Monday over the said dispute.