Aghan Refugees Start Leaving Pakistan After Being Told To Exit

Afghans who had originally fled the fighting in Afghanistan into Pakistan, were told by the Pakistani government to return back to their homeland the other day and that exodus has begun. The Pakistanis said in their announcement that they insisted that the Afghans were not to be trusted in the ongoing military operation that the Pakistanis are conducting against the Taliban in the NW tribal region. I have another idea why the Pakistanis are doing this, which I will share in a little bit here. Here are the story details out of Breitbart:

Afghan refugees were flowing over the border from a Pakistani battle zone Tuesday after officials accused them of links with Taliban militants and ordered them out, police said.
Pakistani authorities have told Afghans living in the Bajur tribal region to go back to their homeland and quit an area where troops have been fighting a bloody war with insurgents.
The order risked adding to the humanitarian crisis resulting from the two-month old military offensive in a long-neglected region that had become a base for militants fighting on both sides of the frontier.

Perhaps this is just wishful thinking on my part, but I have proposing that the Pakistanis have another reason for forcing out these Afghan refugees and that is the Pakistanis have plans to intensify the military operations in the NW tribal area of Pakistan. And when I say "intensify" I'm meaning bombing. It's my contention that if the Pakistanis were to start some serious air strikes against the Taliban, trying to uproot them from this area, and accidentally had 20, 30 or more Afghan refugees killed in those operations, then Pakistan could find itself in even hotter water with the Afghan government.

Again, that may be wishful thinking on my part but at the same time, I have been impressed with the sustained military operations against the Taliban. It will be interesting to see if within the next couple of months if U.S. and NATO commanders in Afghanistan notice any lightening up of Taliban activity in Afghanistan with all of the pressure that the Taliban are under in that NW area of Pakistan.

Unwelcome Afghans quit Pakistan battle zone

Bacha Khan, a police official at the Toorwandi border post in Bajur, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that refugees had been crossing steadily into Afghanistan, while others had moved to other parts of Pakistan.
He had no figures for how many Afghans had left since officials distributed leaflets in Bajur last week telling them to go.
However, he said an estimated 20,000 refugees had returned home in recent weeks. Thousands more had moved to other parts of Pakistan, he said.
An Afghan community leader in Khar, Bajur's main town, urged the government to provide transport to the refugees who complied with the order.
"We are poor people, and we don't have enough money to pay for the buses," Ghulam Jan said.
Authorities threatened to deport those who resist. Iqbal Khattak, a government official in Khar said 45 Afghans had been detained so far and some Afghan-owned shops sealed.
Pakistani officials say the fighting in Bajur has displaced up to half a million people—roughly half the population of the region. Most have found refuge in nearby areas of Pakistan with relatives or in rough camps.
The U.N. refugee agency said last week that 20,000 people had moved into the neighboring Afghan province of Kunar. It described them as "Pakistani families" and forecast they would return when the fighting stops.
Kunar provincial police chief Abdul Jalal Jalal said Tuesday that a total of 30,000 people had arrived from Pakistan.
Sardar Khan, an official dealing with refugees in Kunar, said that of 4,140 families there, 70 percent were Pakistani and 30 percent Afghan.
He said seven families had arrived Monday.
"They are very poor families. The people are giving them shelter" in their homes, he said.