March 13, 2002	Wednesday	Zilhaj 28, 1422

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ISLAMABAD, March 12: Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider has said that 10,000 Afghans stranded in Chaman will not be allowed to seek refuge in the country.

“There is no question of allowing them to stay in Pakistan”, he said, adding that the Afghans should go back to Afghanistan, where construction and rehabilitation work had already begun.

According to sources in the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), there were about 40,000 stranded Afghans in Chaman. But the government officials believe that their number is not more than 10,000.

The minister told Dawn that old, sick and destitute Afghan women would be allowed to stay in the country while rest of them would be sent back to Afghanistan for which necessary instructions had been issued to the Balochistan government.

He said Pakistan and other countries were providing all necessary financial support to Afghanistan to resume economic activities there.

“We hope that our Afghan brethren will make use of foreign assistance by going back to their country.”