ISLAMABAD: Authorities in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province on Friday announced the establishment of camps for temporary displaced persons (TDPs) ahead of a possible operation in the restive Kurram district, which has been hit by deadly clashes in the last two months.
The announcement of the establishment of TDP camps came a day after militants ambushed a convoy bringing supplies to the region, killing 10 people, while there were reports of the kidnapping of another five drivers.
Kurram, a northwestern district of around 600,000 people in KP, has been rocked by tribal and sectarian clashes since November 21, when armed men attacked a convoy of Shia passengers, killing 52 people.
The attack sparked further violence and blockade of a main road connecting Kurram’s main town of Parachinar with the provincial capital of Peshawar, causing medicine, food and fuel shortages in the area, as casualties surged to 136.
“It is stated that LEAs [law enforcement agencies] is planning an operation in various areas of Lower Kurram... to counter terrorism,” the Kurram deputy commissioner’s office said in a notification on Friday.
“In order to ensure safety and support of the affected population during the expected operation, the following sites are proposed for establishment of camps for the TDPs of District Kurram,” it said, naming Government Boys Degree College, Government Technical College, Rescue 1122 Compound and Judicial Building in Tal area as the potential sites.
Feuding tribes have battled with machine guns and heavy weapons in Kurram, cutting off the remote and mountainous region bordering Afghanistan from the outside world.
Thursday’s ambush targeted a convoy of 33 vehicles set to resupply local traders in the region with rice, flour and cooking oil and two aid vehicles carrying essential medicine. It followed a similar attack on a supply convoy this month that injured five people, including a top administration official in the region.
The violence has continued despite a peace agreement signed between the warring tribes on Jan. 1. Under the peace agreement, both sides had agreed on the demolition of bunkers and the handover of heavy weapons to authorities within two weeks.
Since late last month, provincial authorities have been supplying relief goods and transporting ailing and injured people from Kurram to Peshawar via helicopters.
Authorities announce establishment of shelters ahead of possible operation in restive Pakistani district
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Authorities announce establishment of shelters ahead of possible operation in restive Pakistani district
- The announcement came a day after militants attacked a supply convoy in Kurram, killing 10 people and kidnapping five others
- Tribal and sectarian clashes since Nov. 21 have killed at least 136 people in Kurram and caused shortages of medicine, food and fuel
UN says 270,000 Afghans have returned from Iran, Pakistan this year
- UNHCR says 110,000 Afghans returned from Iran while 160,000 returned from Pakistan since start of 2026
- Return numbers seem to have risen since Gulf war erupted on Feb. 28, says UNHCR official in Afghanistan
GENEVA: Some 270,000 Afghans have returned to their country from Pakistan and Iran so far this year, the UN said Tuesday, warning that the escalating Middle East war risked pushing the numbers higher.
UNHCR, the United Nations’ refugee agency, said that 110,000 Afghans had returned from Iran and another 160,000 had returned from Pakistan since the start of 2026.
And the numbers seem to have risen since the Middle East erupted on February 28, with the United States and Israel unleashing a barrage of strikes on Iran, and Tehran responding with drone and missile strikes on Israeli and US interests across the region.
Since then, there have been some 1,700 returns from Iran to Afghanistan each day, Arafat Jamal, UNHCR’s representative in Afghanistan, told reporters in Geneva.
Speaking from Islam Qala, on the Afghan-Iranian border, he said the situation there was “deceptively calm.”
“Returns are orderly but freighted with tension and apprehension,” he said, adding that with the hostilities elsewhere escalating, “I do fear there is more to come.”
“We are preparing for massive returns.”
He pointed out that Afghanistan was “facing the ramifications of what is happening with Iran,” while clashes have erupted along the Afghan border with Pakistan.
The new Middle East war, he warned, was “layering itself on top of an existing war on another frontier,” Jamal said.
UNHCR highlighted that the latest crises came after returns to Afghanistan had already been “exceptionally high” in recent years.
More than five million Afghans had returned from neighboring countries in the past two years, including 1.9 million returning from Iran last year alone.
Jamal warned that “many Afghan families are now facing cycles of displacement: first forced to flee Afghanistan, later displaced again inside Iran due to conflict, and now returning once more to Afghanistan.”
“And upon return in Afghanistan, the triply-displaced enter a spiral of precarity and uncertainty.”
Returns from Pakistan had meanwhile stabilized in recent weeks, as the main crossing point at Torkham remained closed due to the tensions there, Jamal said.
But he warned that “movements could increase sharply once the border reopens.”
UNHCR and the UN children’s agency UNICEF said Tuesday they were working to strengthen their capacity to operate at the borders and within Afghanistan.
But “given the scale of returns and the financial constraints facing humanitarian operations, additional support will be needed if arrivals increase,” UNHCR said, without specifying the amount needed.
