PESHAWAR, Oct 8: Islamabad is likely to relax restrictions on the entry of Afghans during the next couple of days as a large number of internally displaced people from Afghanistan have started heading for Pakistan after the US attacks, official sources told Dawn on Monday.
The NWFP government, said the sources, issued instructions to the administrative heads of all the seven agencies forming the Federally Administered Tribal Areas to let the injured persons enter Pakistan.
“The step has been taken to help the injured take medical treatment in the wake of US attack on Afghanistan,” said a senior officer.
A good number of people from Kabul, Kandahar and Jalalabad were reported to be travelling towards Pakistan.
Official sources told Dawn that a large number of Afghans had already arrived at the Ghakhay Pass and Nawa Pass in Bajaur Agency.
Independent sources from Miramshah, the headquarters of North Waziristan Agency, said that many Afghan families had encamped at Ghulam Khan on the border inside Afghanistan, seeking refuge in Pakistan.
Senior officials said that restriction on the entry of Afghans would be relaxed after the presently under-establishment camps in Fata were ready to house refugees.
“The camps would be ready shortly and restrictions on the entry of refugees are likely to be relaxed in the next couple of days,” said an officer of the home and tribal affairs department.
Some 4,000 tents, according to official sources, were sent to Kurram, Bajaur and Mohmand Agencies where the Commissionerate for Afghan Refugees and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees are jointly setting up camps to accommodate the expected over one million refugee.
The tents were meant for the six camps to be set up in Kurram Agency, three in Bajaur Agency and six in Mohmand Agency.
Tents had already been sent to the Malkana village in Khyber Agency, sources said.
The authorities have planned to house 10,000 refugees in the Malkana refugee camp.
The chief of the Afghan Refugee Commissionerate, Naeem Khan, and head of the UNHCR’s Peshawar office, Roy Herman, visited the site at Malkana to inspect the preparation in connection with the setting up of a new refugee dwelling there.
Despite ban on their entry, a large number of internally displaced people are finding their way into Pakistan through unfrequented routes in Federally-administered Tribal Areas.
