The home secretaries and IGs, who attended a high-level meeting here on Monday to review law and order, were instructed to locate missing persons in their jurisdiction and report the latest position to the Interior Ministry by April 26. Interior Minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao stated this while talking to reporters at the Parliament House.
Pakistan has decided to close down four Afghan refugee camps in the NWFP and Balochistan and action would be taken against Afghan refugees who do not possess the proof of residence (POR) documents.
"Since the facility of providing financial help for those Afghan refugees with no Proof of Residence has lapsed, it has been decided to take action against those who do not possess POR.
Giving details of meeting, the Minister said that the government was committed to solve the issue of Jamia Hafsa peacefully.
On the issue of shifting Jamia Faridia, he said that no decision has been taken in this regard. The administration of Lal Masjid would have to put an end to militancy as a first step. He said that the government also wanted to get the children library vacated from "illegal" occupation of Madrassah students.
To a question the Minister refrained to officially confirm that the Jamia Hafsa was literally involved in training militants. "By using the term militancy, I mean the students of the Jamia laced with dandas, the Minister said adding, "this is actually militancy."
To another question the Minister was again cautious to confirm that Afghan refugee camps are used as dens by terrorists. "We have done investigations, but at this point in time I do not want to go in details," he remarked.
The meeting was attended by Chaudhry Zafar Iqbal Warraich, Minister of State for Interior, Syed Kamal Shah, federal secretary, Ministry of Interior, Sajid Hussain Chattha, secretary for states and frontier region (SAFRON), Imtiaz Kazi, additional secretary, Ministry of Interior, provincial home secretaries, IGPs, representatives of intelligence agencies and IGs Frontier Corps.
According to an official statement, the meeting decided that the Afghan refugee camps located at Jungle Pir Alizai and Girdi Jungle in Balochistan and Jalozai and Kacha Garhi camps in NWFP should be closed. The inhabitants of these camps will be repatriated with the help of UNHCR. The meeting also decided to impose strict border control at Torkham and directed the provincial governments and the IGs FC to ensure that no unauthorised person from Afghanistan enters the Pakistani territory. The provincial governments were advised to initiate immediate steps to implement above decisions.