Families migrate from Kurram Agency to Afghanistan

By Daud Khattak

Daily Times, Wednesday, January 02, 2008

PESHAWAR: The ongoing sectarian clashes in Kurram Agency have forced hundreds of people to migrate to the border provinces of Afghanistan, Daily Times reliably learnt. Sources said some 520 families have migrated and taken refuge in the Aryub Zazai and Dand Patan districts of Paktia province in Afghanistan. The two neighbouring countries are sharing around 2,640-kilometre ill-defined border straddled by Pashtun tribes, like Mohmand, Wazir, Shinwari, Yousafzai and Mehsud.

Although officials in the troubled Kurram Agency were unavailable for comments, locals confirmed the migration but would not give the exact number. Dozens of people have been killed and scores more injured in the Shia-Sunni clashes erupted about one and half month back in the Kurram Agency. Dozens of houses, shops and other buildings have been torched by the rival sects while the clashes are still going on.

According to sources, the migrated families are mostly Sunnis and they are stationed in the Kotaki and Ahmad Khel areas of the two districts of Paktia province. The families have no roofs and the locals have provided them with tents which are not enough to guard them against the tattering cold, said an Afghan official.

A source in the agency, however, said those migrated were Afghan residents living on this side of the border since long. Contacted for comments, local journalist Ahmad Jan Siddiqi confirmed the migration of some families, but said those were Afghans who were living in the border villages of Bagzai, Tangai and Inzari. There might be some locals but most of them were Afghans and nomadic people, who left those areas after the breaking out of hostilities about one and a half months ago.

Meanwhile, a local Afghan news agency reported that Afghan President Hamid Karzai had ordered immediate assistance for around 520 families migrated from Pakistan.The Kurram Agency borders the Khost and Paktia provinces of Afghanistan.