We never got the little boy's name. The ill one-year-old was carried over the border into Pakistan at Chaman yesterday in the arms of his haunted mother, Sima, one of thousands fleeing war and hunger in Afghanistan. Trailing behind were Sima's four other children, the eldest only 11.
The widow was sweating under her long blue burqa. She told how she had come with her children from Herat through Kandahar and on to the border to escape the American bombs.
Her biggest concern was her youngest child, who was clearly very ill. The children were exhausted after their long journey. She spoke of houses in Herat being destroyed by nightly bombing. "There is nothing left. People are leaving."
But that is as far as the interview with Sima went. Border guards, armed and carrying sticks, told us our time was up and the helpless mother was ushered on.
"You have three minutes to interview refugees and then we will send them back to Afghanistan," a senior border guard said with a mean smirk.
This family was one of the lucky ones. They managed to get across the chaotic and unwelcoming south-western border crossing at Chaman, near Quetta, on the same day the Pakistan government announced it was not going to bow to UN demands to open the border to allow in those Afghans seeking asylum.
The flow of Afghans toward Chaman, in Baluchistan province, has risen significantly in the past week as more people poured out of the country to flee the US-led military onslaught.
But yesterday the Pakistan President, Gen Pervez Musharraf, said Pakistan already had 2.5 million Afghan refugees and would be taking no more. The Pakistan government said hundreds of newly arrived refugees are being repatriated back to Afghanistan in recent days to tented villages being set up with UN help just inside Afghanistan. Mr Shafi Kakar, a government official in Pakistan's Baluchistan province, said an agreement was reached with Afghanistan's Taliban rulers to accept the refugees' return. The Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mr Riaz Mohammed Khan, confirmed the arrangement. "The Taliban will keep refugees away from the borders, and they have agreed to set up two refugee camps inside Afghanistan," Mr Kakar said.
The scene at Chaman has become chaotic in the last week as thousands of Afghans press up against the border demanding sanctuary. Border guards opened fire on refugees in a bid to control the masses on Sunday and Monday.
Yesterday, while it was calmer, it was still menacing at the border which was clearly more tightly controlled after two days of clashes. The reported rush of refugees in previous days was reduced to a trickle.
But women and children and elderly were coming through, many carrying luggage and children in wheelbarrows.
In no-man's land scores of border guards could be seen roaming around with sticks and rifles. There were barbed wire fences everywhere. The guards chased and in some cases beat young children who dared to tease them.
A group of journalists given a pass to go to the Chaman crossing were stopped at a sentry point one mile from the actual border. The area between this point and the border is a desolate no-man's land, where up to 1,000 people are trapped waiting to cross over.
Thousands more are said by the UNHCR to be waiting behind the official border to pass into Pakistan. Despite being officially closed to refugees, the old and sick, especially women and children, were being let through. But they were discouraged from talking to journalists. Many were afraid to talk about the Taliban, and scampered off as soon as the Afghan ruling regime were mentioned. Beyond the border the white Taliban flag was flying.