By Mohammad Farshad Daryosh in TOLOnews, June 04, 2023 at 8:32 PM
The Islamic Emirate is planning to relocate the refugees alongside the Durand Line to other provinces in the country, an official said on Sunday.
The Islamic Emirate’s spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, said that the move aims to assure Islamabad that the refugees are not involved in attacks against the Pakistani government.
“To give a general assurance, the Islamic Emirate planned to take the refugees, who come from the other side of the Durand Line in Khost and Kunar provinces, to far provinces, so that they will be away from the (Durand) line … to show that they are not involved in the attacks that happen in Pakistan,” Mujahid said.
According to the Norwegian Refugee Council, in 2014, the Pakistan military operation in North Waziristan District, an area in the northwest of Pakistan and bordering Afghanistan, led to the displacement of thousands of civilians into Afghanistan, primarily into Khost and Paktika provinces.
“While many of these refugees have since returned – it is estimated that approximately 72,000 refugees remain, the majority living in Gulan Refugee Camp close to the internationally recognized border between Pakistan and Afghanistan in Khost. In addition, cross-border clashes around the Durand Line in May 2019 displaced a further 750 families from North Waziristan into Khost as well as over 400 refugee families who had been previously residing in Paktika,” the NRC said in a report published on October 5, 2019.
However, it has yet to be clear which refugees will be included in the shift.
“Even if it is the shifting of Pakistani Taliban, or if it is shifting of the displaced refugees alongside the Durand Line, it will cause integration of the population. According to their definition, the far areas are those areas without Pashtuns. In both cases it’s not benefiting the people and region,” said Asadullah Nadim, a military analyst.
Earlier, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs for the Cabinet of Pakistan, Hina Rabbani Khar, said that engagement with the interim government in Afghanistan is “preconditioned” on the issue of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
https://tolonews.com/afghanistan-183644
