Pakistan will close down four Afghan refugee camps this year as part of its bid to stop Taliban militants launching cross-border attacks in Afghanistan, officials said yesterday.
The decision to wind up the camps, with a population of 236,000, was taken for "security and development reasons" at a meeting of Pakistani, Afghan and UN refugee agency (UNHCR) officials held on Wednesday, the UNHCR said in a statement.
Girdi Jungle and Jungle Pir Alizai camps in southwestern Baluchistan Province, and Katchagari and Jalozai in North West Frontier Province had already been slated for closure as far back as 2004, it said.
"We understand that security near the border is a top priority and stress that refugee camps must retain their civilian nature," said Guenet Guebre Christos, the UNHCR representative in Pakistan. "At the same time, the authorities should recognize genuine humanitarian needs, as they have done in the last 30 years, and offer options to Afghans affected by camp closure."
The Minister of States and Frontier Regions Sardar Yar Muhammed Rind later told a joint press conference that the four camps would be closed this summer.
Katchagari and Jungle Pir Alizai will close by June 15, while Jalozai and Girdi Jungle will wind up by August 31, Rind said.
Afghan refugees would be given a choice between voluntary repatriation assisted by the UN and, for those who cannot return in the immediate future, relocation to existing camps in Pakistan, he said.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, under international pressure to stop the infiltration of Taliban militants into Afghanistan from his country, last week said that many of the insurgents were Afghan refugees.
Taliban rebels crossing the long and porous border that includes Baluchistan and North West Frontier Province have been blamed for an escalation of the insurgency in Afghanistan that claimed around 4,000 lives last year.
More than 2.8 million Afghans who fled a quarter-century of instability in their homeland have returned from Pakistan since 2002 under a UN-assisted voluntary scheme, but almost the same number remain there.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS