Afghan Refugee Slum Bulldozed İn Pakistan Capital

Afghan refugees wielded sticks and hurled stones at Pakistani security forces and authorities tearing down refugee settlements in Pakistan's capital Islamabad. 



TV footage showed heavy bulldozers entering the Afghan Katchi Basti unofficial refugee camp on the edges of Islamabad and tearing down the mud homes after a month-long deadline to vacate the camp expired Thursday. 



Women and children threw stones from the roofs of their homes as refugees and police clashed in parts of the sprawling camp, which police claim has been a safe haven for criminals and gangsters. The angry crowds also set fires with wood and dry grass in an attempt to block the police. 



Apart from several policemen, a reporter and a cameraman from local Neo TV were injured as police fired tear gas and used baton charges to disperse the crowd. More than 50 protesters, including three women, were arrested. 



"We are avoiding use of force because of the presence of a large number of women and children among the protesters. Security forces have been strictly ordered in this regard," said Sadiq Khan, a city police chief.



Security around the capital has also been tightened in order to prevent the dispersing crowds from protesting in the city, police said.



A spokesman for the Capital Development Authority (CDA), which deals with Islamabad's municipal affairs, said the refugees had been given three deadlines to voluntarily vacate the settlement over the last six months.



He said the CDA would provide residential plots to those who had legal settlements but said nothing would be offered to those who had unofficially settled on government land. 



According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Pakistan hosts over 1.5 million Afghan refugees.



Pakistan has however clamped down on the refugees since Pakistani Taliban militants killed more than 140 people in a raid on a school in the city of Peshawar in December. The refugees have claimed that they are often treated as scapegoats in the aftermath of violent militant attacks in Pakistan. - Lahor