Pakistan to deport all Afghans from Bajur region

About 50,000 Afghan refugees to be removed amid an offensive against al Qa'eda and the Taliban.

Afghan refugees sit at a bus station as they flee from the troubled area in the Bajur tribal region.

KHAR, PAKISTAN - Pakistan ordered the deportation of about 50,000 Afghan refugees in an insurgency-wracked tribal region amid a major military offensive against al Qa'eda and Taliban fighters. The government said it was expelling all Afghan refugees in the Bajur tribal region, alleging many of them have links to militant groups. Police in the town of Khar in Bajur arrested 25 Afghans and said they would soon be deported.

"The orders have been issued to the tribal police to push all of them (refugees) out," said Abdul Haseeb, a local government official, adding that their homes would be bulldozed to keep them from returning. A government offensive in Bajur that began in early August has claimed some 1,000 lives. It comes amid increased US pressure on the government of the President Asif Ali Zardari to tackle militants in the restive border region where the al Qa'eda leader Osama bin Laden is believed to be hiding.

Washington has long complained Pakistan is unwilling or unable to take strong action against the extremists. Mr Zardari has pledged his co-operation in the fight against terrorism, but must tread carefully given strong domestic opposition to his country's alliance with Washington. This balancing act has become increasingly complicated by an increase in US missile strikes against suspected al Qa'eda and Taliban hide-outs in the north-west. Meanwhile, police are pursuing DNA tests to identify the suicide bomber who wounded a politician and killed 16 people in the east of the country, an official said today. The attack on the home of Rasheed Akbar Niwani in the Bhakkar area in Punjab province was the latest in a string of bombings against government, military and Western targets in Pakistan. Pakistani leaders insisted the attack would not deter them from eliminating the militant threat facing their country. Parliament is to get a private briefing tomorrow from intelligence agencies about domestic insurgent activity. Mahar Khadim Hussain, a senior police official, said dozens were wounded and 16 dead in the attack in Punjab, Pakistan's most populous province. Mr Niwani of the opposition League-N party was wounded but stable, he said. "It was an act of terrorism, and officers have collected remains of the suicide bomber for DNA test," the police official said. *AP