Pakistan to expel 11,000 'illegal' Afghan refugees in PoK

Authorities in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir on Thursday said they will expel about 11,000 'illegal' Afghan refugees living in the disputed region.

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 136 students 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.