Displaced Pakistanis walk past tents in Kachagari camp in Peshawar November 19, 2008.(Ali Imam/Reuters)
From Yahoo News/Reuters:
KACHAGARI, Pakistan (Reuters) – Pakistan has reopened camps originally set up in the 1980s for Afghans who fled the Soviet occupation to provide shelter for those made homeless by offensives against Islamist militants on its northwest border.
"I never thought I would become a refugee in my own country. Never ever," Ghulam Ahmed told Reuters at Kachagari camp on the outskirts of the city of Peshawar.
Grey-bearded, illiterate, with no idea of his age, Ahmed said he could only hope it was a bad dream as he sat atop a pile of blankets grabbed from relief workers for his family of eight.
A few years back, authorities began dismantling camps in and around Peshawar in a bid to persuade the Afghans to go home.
Peshawar had been a focal point for Muslim volunteers for the guerrilla war, covertly funded by the United States and Saudi Arabia, to drive the Soviet Union out of Afghanistan.
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My Comment: These camps are a symbol of Pakistan's failed policy in dealing with Islamic militants, and not being able to control them when they started to work independently.