Pakistan to expel 11,000 Afghan refugees from Azad Jammu and Kashmir

By MIRWAIS ADEEL -KHAAMA PRESS

At least 11,000 Afghan refugees will be expelled from Azad Jammu and Kashmir which is an administrative territory of Pakistan.

According to reports the Afghan refugees will be expelled under a national anti-terror plan announced in the wake of the country’s worst evern militant attack.

The announcement was made by a police official in Azad Kashmir Faheem Ahmed Abbasi during a press conference, the local media reported.

Over 30,000 Afghan refugees were forced to leave Pakistan and return to Afghanistan amid fears of persecution by Pakistani authorities following a deadly attack on a school in Peshawar city last year.

According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) more than 22,000 undocumented Afghans flocked across the border at Torkham in January.

Following a deadly attack on an army-run school in Peshawar city of Pakistan, the federal government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa set a deadline for the expulsion of Afghan refugees on 20th December last year.

Authorities in Pakistan also ordered to take immediate actions for the expulsion of nearly 300 religious clerics from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.

According to the local media report the National Action Plan against terrorism also involved the outlawing of militant groups, including al Qaeda, TTP, Laskhar-e-Taiba, Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.

At least 154 people, many of them school children were killed after a group of Pakistani militants launched coordinated attack on an army-run school in Peshawar city of Pakistan in December last year.