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Refugee registration drive

B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD: For the first time in over two and a half decades, Pakistan has decided to register Afghan citizens living in the country. The Government and the U.N. refugee agency signed an agreement as part of "efforts to document and manage" them. Though Afghans have been a major feature of Pakistani society since the intervention of erstwhile Soviet Union in Afghanistan in 1979, Islamabad never kept either a count of them or the nature of their activities. Part of the reason for the move is the heightened security concerns post 9/11. The Government also rehabilitated over three lakh Afghans from some of the urban centres and other sensitive zones.

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