No wave of Afghan refugees so far in Pak: Military

Islamabad, Aug 29 (IANS) There is no influx of Afghan refugees along the borders with Pakistan, and the people who have valid documents to enter Pakistan are being allowed to pass, a top military official said here.The border crossings and other border posts are open for trade with Afghanistan as it is a landlocked country, and on humanitarian grounds, it is improper to keep the borders closed indefinitely, Xinhua news agency quoted the Inter Services Public Relations' (ISPR) Director-General Babar Iftikhar said in a media briefing.The official said that the biggest base in the near-immediate vicinity of Afghanistan to evacuate foreigners from Afghanistan is in Pakistan, and to help the international community take its nationals back home, 113 flights have been landed from Afghanistan in Pakistan including military and commercial aircraft, and 5,000 foreigners have been evacuated.He said that Pakistan played its due role in the peace process, and always supported peace in Afghanistan because the people of Pakistan suffered the most after Afghanistan in the war and unrest."We have faced a massive brunt...more than 86,000 lives have been lost and 152 billion PKR ($912 million) in economic losses and counting."At the peak of the last two decades while we were involved in this war on terror, there were more than 90 terrorist incidents taking place in a year in Pakistan," Iftikhar added.
--IANS ksk/