CHAMAN, Oct 18: Thousands of refugees were crossing the Afghan border into Pakistan on Thursday, carrying their wounded from Kandahar along with their possessions.

At the Chaman border post an AFP photographer witnessed about 300 families crossing without hindrance, on tractors, trucks and in cars.

Although the border remains officially closed, security guards have been exercising discretion on humanitarian grounds in allowing Afghans to cross.

The influx of refugees has shown a marked increase in recent days. Earlier this week, the United Nations estimated about 2,000 Afghan refugees were crossing into Pakistan each day — most of them illegally.

It now estimates that the daily figure has reached 8,000 as US strikes continue in retaliation for the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington.

The UN has forecast a mass migration in response to the US attacks which began on October 7. However, non-governmental organisations and the UN have struggled to find appropriate sites to establish refugee settlements.

The region around Chaman and Quetta is already overpopulated with refugees and is enduring a chronic water shortage due to the harshest drought in living memory.—AFP