Unwelcome Afghans quit Pak battle zone

ISLAMABAD (Agencies) - Afghan refugees were flowing over the border from a Pakistani battle zone Tuesday after officials accused them of links with Taliban militants and ordered them out, police said.

Pakistani authorities have told Afghans living in the Bajaur tribal region to go back to their homeland and quit an area where troops have been fighting a bloody war with insurgents.

Bacha Khan, a police official at the Toorwandi border post in Bajaur, told an American news agency on Tuesday that refugees had been crossing steadily into Afghanistan, while others had moved to other parts of Pakistan.

He had no figures for how many Afghans had left since officials distributed leaflets in Bajaur last week telling them to go.

However, he said an estimated 20,000 refugees had returned home in recent weeks. Thousands more had moved to other parts of Pakistan, he said.

Iqbal Khattak, a government official in Khar, said 45 Afghans had been detained so far and some Afghan-owned shops sealed. Police chief of Afghanistan’s Kunar province Abdul Jalal Jalal said Tuesday that a total of 30,000 people had arrived from Pakistan. Sardar Khan, an official dealing with refugees in Kunar, said that of 4,140 families there, 70 per cent were Pakistani and 30pc Afghan.

He said seven families had arrived Monday. About 2,800 Pakistani families - which could number up to 20 people each - have crossed into northeastern Kunar province, according to the Afghan govt.

Pakistan has ordered around 60,000 Afghan refugees to leave Bajaur where security forces are battling Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants, officials said Tuesday.