Some 10,000 people fleeing U.S. military strikes have assembled near the Chaman border checkpoint struggling to escape into Pakistan, foreign office spokesman Riaz Mohammad Khan told reporters. "There is a lot of pressure from them to get inside Pakistan."
Khan urged the UN agencies and other aid groups to disburse relief inside Afghanistan to keep the displaced Afghans on their own territory and prevent further strain on Pakistan, which already has about three million refugees.
Separately, Taliban Ambassador Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef made a similar appeal saying: "We want to serve the poor inside Afghanistan and discourage them from crossing the border."
But UN officials here said distribution of relief on the Afghan side of the border would be a risky undertaking because of the prevailing insecurity and lawlessness.
Pakistan has accepted thousands, mostly women, children and aged, on compassionate grounds over the past several days as Afghans continue to head toward the border.
Islamabad has, however, deflected calls by United Nations refuge agency UNHCR to reopen the closed border, saying it does not have the capacity to take more refugees. It insists the UN and others should provide relief to the people inside Afghanistan.
The U.S. has sent 35,000 blankets here for Afghan refugees, while Saudi Arabia and the UAE have also delivered plane-loads of relief supplies.
"There is a great concern everywhere that the number of refugees will dramatically swell in the months to come," Pakistan's Minister for Frontier Regions Sarfraz Abbas Khan said.
He thanked the U.S. and the international community for relief aid for the refugees. Despite the closure of border by Pakistan, tens of thousands have managed to cross the porous 2,500-kilometre mountainous border since the beginning of the U.S.-led military action on October 7.
Aid agencies estimate more than six million people inside Afghanistan will face starvation if adequate food supplies are not delivered before the harsh winter sets in, a task that is becoming more and more difficult due to the uncertain situation and the military operations.
