September 29, 2006	Friday	Ramazan 5, 1427

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window).

QUETTA, Sept 28: Balochistan Chief Minister Jam Mir Mohammed Yousuf has said that relevant institutions are keeping a vigilant eye on suspect Afghans in the provincial capital.

He told the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Afghanistan Thomas Koenigs here on Thursday that all Afghan refugees living in Balochistan were not involved in criminal activities but some of them were involved in drug trade and gunrunning, causing serious problems for the provincial government.

“We have got evidence that some of the Afghan nationals are involved in subversive activities in Balochistan,” he said.

He appealed to the international community, the UN and the Afghan government to help the province deal with the problems.

The chief minister said: “There is a big difference between Afghan refugees and Taliban. Taliban are those Afghans who are involved in revolt in Afghanistan while refugees have been living since long in Pakistan after leaving their homes in their country.”

He said the Afghan refugees living in Balochistan had adopted local culture and traditions, they had been absorbed in the society and it was very difficult to differentiate between local people and the refugees.

Chief Minister Yousuf said a peaceful and stable Afghanistan was in the interest of Pakistan and other countries of the region.

He said it was the desire of the government and people of Pakistan that complete peace should be restored in Afghanistan and it should become a developed country so that a peaceful atmosphere could prevail in the region and all Afghans could go back to their homeland with honour.

He said Pakistan was playing its due role for bringing peace and prosperity to the Afghan nation and the government had taken effective measures for stopping illegal movement on both sides of the border.

The UN envoy said restoring peace in the region was a great challenge for the Pakistani and Afghan governments, for which they were enjoying cooperation of the international community.

He lauded the role Pakistan was playing in the reconstruction of Afghanistan and for improvement of the law and order situation in the border areas.

The UN official underlined the need for increasing regional cooperation at the provincial and local levels for maintaining peace in the region.

He said the UN would extend all possible help and cooperation to the government for the repatriation of Afghan refugees in a peaceful atmosphere. “All hurdles in the way of peaceful repatriation of the Afghan refugees to their homeland would be removed,” he said during discussion on the law and order situation, the condition of education, health and other basic facilities and non-availability of residential facilities in Afghanistan.

He agreed that the international community and the UN should help Afghanistan solve the problems.

Chief Secretary K.B. Rind said the provincial government would extend all possible help and security for the registration and census of the Afghan refugees in Balochistan, which would be launched on Oct 1.

He said a large number of refugees were living in cities.

The government had formed an effective system for keeping a vigilant eye on the refugee camps to curb crimes, he said.

He said the refugees found involved in criminal activities could be sent to their country according to the international law.