ISLAMABAD, 8 February 2007 — Four of the largest camps for Afghan refugees in the North West Frontier Province and Balochistan will be closed down this year, according to a decision taken at the Tripartite Commission meeting here yesterday.
Pakistani, Afghan and the UNHCR officials also discussed the repatriation of some 2.4 million Afghans displaced by conflicts. Two camps in Balochistan and two in the NWFP that hold 240,000 people will be shut by summer — a step the Pakistan’s government says will help stop Taleban militants recruiting on its territory.
“We understand that security near the border is a top priority and stress that refugee camps must retain their civilian nature,” Guenet Guebre Christos, representative in Pakistan of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees told journalists.
“At the same time, the authorities should recognize genuine humanitarian needs, as they have done in the last 30 years, and offer options to Afghans affected by camp closure,” she added.
Refugees who accept the offer to leave will receive a one-time relocation payment of $100 and a place in one of 100 special townships being built for the returning population. While many refugees who previously returned suffered adaptation hardships, 90 percent find some form of work within six months, according to UNHCR.
Those who do not wish to leave will be housed in more than 80 other refugee camps that sprang up in Pakistan after the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in 1979 and during the civil war that followed. President Pervez Musharraf recently said closing the camps were a top priority in curbing the insurgency in Afghanistan, calling them a “safe haven of all Taleban activity.”
The federal minister for states and frontier regions told journalists that 2.1 million Afghan refugees have been registered and the remaining would be registered soon. Under the new arrangement Pakistan and the UNHCR will jointly finance the expenses of the camps’ closure.
Intelligence Official Killed
Suspected pro-Taleban militants yesterday shot dead a Pakistani intelligence official near a weapons market in a lawless tribal region near Afghanistan, security officials said.
Nazar Mohammad, an inspector in Pakistan’s civilian-run Intelligence Bureau, was killed while returning from a meeting of tribal elders convened by local authorities to discuss steps against “anti-social elements” operating in the area, a security official said.
When he came close to Zarghun Khel checkpoint, 45 kilometers south of the provincial capital, Peshawar, two young men opened fire on his car, killing the inspector on the spot, the official said, requesting anonymity.
His driver was injured, while a colleague in the car who survived the attack later told officials that “the gunmen fired a Kalashnikov burst and fled on a motorbike.”
“It seems the attackers were linked to militants in North Waziristan,” he added, referring to the restive tribal region bordering Afghanistan where pro-Taleban militants are active.
