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Pakistan deports 69 Afghans arrested in North Waziristan

MIRANSHAH: Sixty-nine Afghans detained in a crackdown against suspected militants in North Waziristan were freed on Monday and returned home, an official said.

Authorities detained 150 Afghans in North Waziristan on suspicion of fighting alongside local militants in battles earlier this month against security forces in the region, a local government official said.

Afghans had been ordered to return home or face punishment following the violence, which killed scores of militants and at least eight soldiers.

On Monday, the 69 refugees among those arrested were released after they were cleared of involvement in the fighting by the government, the local government official said.

They were driven by security forces in several pickup trucks to Ghulam Khan, a border crossing with Afghanistan and released inside Afghan territory, he said. “They were told not to return,” the Afghan official said.

Also on Monday, 13 more Afghans were detained and their shops sealed for disregarding orders to return, he said.

Late on Sunday, a rocket fired by suspected militants slammed into an airfield in Miranshah but no one was injured, an intelligence official said on Monday.

Meanwhile, Radio Kabul reported that around 20,500 Afghan families had returned home from Pakistan and Iran last year. Around 400,000 refugees from Pakistan and 50,000 from Iran are expected to be repatriated by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. Agencies

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