You know your country is fucked when....

Posted September 30, 2008 to Pakistan category.

The BBC reports that Pakistanis flee into Afghanistan:

The UN says 20,000 people have fled Pakistan's tribal area of Bajaur for Afghanistan amid fighting between troops and militants in recent months.

The UN's refugee agency says almost 4,000 families have crossed north-west into Afghanistan's Kunar province.

The army began a sustained campaign against militants in Bajaur nearly two months ago.

Some 300,000 others have fled east within Pakistan in recent weeks with many of them living in temporary camps.

Afghanistan has been a failed state since the Soviets invaded, and sitting here in Pakistan people have always been thankful that at least it's not bad as Afghanistan... Well for at least 20,000 Pakistani's Afghanistan is now a safer, better place.

The areas on map marked FATA have never been part of Pakistan - the laws of the country don't apply there, nor is there a police system, or any of the other systems which together make up a country.

Today's news just hits home that fact.

Of course, one of the reasons militants from all over the world found it so easy to move into the tribal areas is that there is absolutely no govt. there. Sure, it looks like the Pakistan and American governments have finally sent in the army to deal with a portion of the many armies who live in those areas, but the massive elephant still remains in the room - that the tribal areas are not part of Pakistan, legally, economically, politically or any other which way you look at it.

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Ever thought that maybe these people fleeing Afghanistan were Afghan DPs anyways? Maybe they just need to go back. I might sound crass but we've supported the Afghans for too long and we haven't got anything in return. Not even proper diplomacy.

The people fleeing Pakistan are Pakistani's - and the Afghan refugees too are being forced to leave from Pakistan by the govt.

Pakistan hosted 5 million Afghan refugees at one point - and still has a lot of refugees - probably a million or so left in Pakistan. Sure, it hasn't gotten much appreciation from Afghanistan on that - but that's besides the point - now Pakistani's are fleeing to safer havens in Afghanistan!

If they were Pakistanis they could have migrated to other parts of Pakistan, that is possibility, a more logical one. Not all stuff that is thrown at us by the media is truth, a common reality ignored by most.

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Dear K O,
you are one of the few gifted and well read blogger. It was nice to surf through your bogs. Very few people have the guts to say a spade-a-spade.
I came across many commencts posted both by indians and pakistanis and it was painfull to know that how much hatred people have against each other. Among other thing which i noticed is that many pakistanis are very ill-informed about india. Similarly many indians are in the same state of mind. Can we ever expect the history books, text books and state media to repesent real history of indian sub-continent?

Any way

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