Pakistan to expel 11,000 illegal Afghan refugees in PoK

ISLAMABAD: Authorities in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir today said they will expel about 11,000 illegal Afghan refugees living in the disputed region under a national anti-terror plan chalked out after one of the deadliest terror attacks in the country.

The decision has been taken after Pakistan launched a crackdown on illegal refugees in the wake of the deadly Taliban attack on an army school in Peshawar that killed more than 150 people, including 136 children, in December.

Senior police official Faheem Abbasi said in PoK capital Muzaffarabad that "some 11,000 Afghans would be expelled" from the region.

There are about 3 million Afghan refugees in Pakistan who fled to the country during the Soviet invasion in the 1980s.

A majority of them have permission to live under agreement with the UN and Afghan government and are issued special cards. They live in designated camps and are also allowed to work.

But about 1.4 million are illegal refugees and they are targeted by security forces and are being asked to leave or register to become legal refugees.

Pakistan recently decided to take action against illegal Afghan refugees and about 30,000 have already left after the Peshawar school attack.