PESHAWAR, Feb 7: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has asked the army to exempt Afghan refugees from the ban on use of Kohat tunnel by foreigners.

Sources have told Dawn that the provincial home and tribal affairs department recently contacted 11th Corps, Peshawar to direct its field formations to exempt Afghan refugees from the ban and facilitate them to travel through the tunnel, which links Peshawar with southern parts of the province and tribal areas.

They said besides the provincial government, the interior and Safron ministries had also given direct intimations to the field formation in Kohat to allow Afghans holding Proof of Registration Cards to use the tunnel, but in vain.

“Now, the government has approached the Corps Headquarters to stop security forces from harassing Afghan refugees and let them travel through the tunnel,” said an official in the know.

He said harassment of Afghan refugees for four months by police and other law-enforcement agencies was a matter of great concern for the provincial government and that Afghan embassy in Islamabad, UNHCR and Afghanistan’s refugees and repatriation ministry had formally lodged complaints in this respect with it.

The issue surfaced when the home and tribal affairs department decided that expatriates and locals working for various foreign humanitarian organisations, UN agencies and international non-governmental organisations would have to obtain NoC from the home and tribal affairs department for using the tunnel.

They were directed to inform the department 15 days before traveling through the tunnel.

Army and paramilitary forces had been deployed at the entry and exit points of the tunnel due to security reasons.

However, field formations also applied the decision to Afghan refugees with valid traveling documents.

An official said Afghan refugees living in southern districts were forced to travel to Peshawar via Punjab due to the ban.

The department also issued a statement here on Thursday, saying ban on the movement of the refugees through the tunnel had badly affected the ongoing repatriation process.

It said a large number of refugees living in Dera Ismail Khan, Tank, Bannu, Kohat and others areas expressed willingness to return to their country under the UN-sponsored voluntary repatriation programme, but the ban was hampering the process.

The federal government had extended validity of the PoR cards, which expired on Dec 31, 2012, until June next.

Over 1.6 million refugees have been living in Pakistan.

The statement said the federal cabinet had also instructed that all Afghan refugees be allowed to move from one city to another without restriction.