QUETTA, Oct 21: Several thousand desperate Afghans pushed their way into Pakistan on Sunday after border guards on both sides —Pishin Scouts on Pakistan side and Taliban on Afghanistan side— failed to contain the crowd even after baton-charge and firing shots in the air.

“Five persons, including a young boy, were injured” a senior officer of Pakistan border force told Dawn on telephone from Chaman. He made it clear that all these persons received injuries from intense stoning of the unruly crowd.

“The crowd became unruly and violent” the source said. He said the crowd ransacked a tent used by the immigration officials, removed girders and pulled out the barbed wires on the border. Taliban baton charged the crowd but could not contain them. Eventually gun shots were fired in the air by Taliban as well as Pakistani security forces.

Reports from Chaman said that Taliban authorities and the Pakistani border security forces were locked in consultations to take measures to prevent the outbreak of unpleasant incidents in the coming days. The border guards foresee pressure of incoming Afghans mounting if the US pursues its intense air attacks as well as deployment of the ground forces.

Balochistan government, at a high level meeting on Saturday had reiterated Islamabad’s decision not to allow fresh Afghan refugees enter in to Pakistan. The border at Chaman had been closed down since Sunday morning.

Sources in Chaman said that Afghans started trickling in at the border check post since early morning on Sunday. With the passage of time, their number swelled into several thousands. By noon, the crowd became unruly. They raised slogans and started pelting stones.

Pakistan border security guards deployed armoured personnel carriers (APCs). But this deployment also failed to disperse the crowd as the crowd became more violent and threatening. Taliban and Pakistan border guards fired gun shots in the air. Eventually, late in the afternoon a large number of the displaced Afghans pushed their way in to Pakistan.

“None of them could be taken to assigned camp sites for Afghan refugees” a source said. Many of them are now on their way to Quetta and other places. No one was available in the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) camp office in Quetta for the whole day. There was no one from Balochistan government to offer any comment on this situation.

Mounting pressure of Afghan refugees influx is pushing up the house rents and cost of living in Chaman. “Cost of all essential items is going up” Haji Mohammad Ali founder President of the Chaman Chamber of Commerce and Industry told Dawn by telephone.

He said it was a day-long trouble at the Chaman check post. He blamed the arrival of foreign media teams at the check post as one of the causes. “Presence of TV cameramen provoked the crowd” he said and resulted in the subsequent outbreak of disorder.\

The UNHCR in its Saturday press release quoted fresh arrivals from Afghanistan as saying that “Kandahar is now an empty town.” They reported that fuel was not available and food was scarce.

The UNHCR is planning to send several trucks to Chaman with tents, food, blankets and other essential items to help the needy and vulnerable persons.

10,000 REFUGEES: The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has estimated that at least 10,000 refugees were massed on the other side of the border, adds AFP.

Before the influx started at Chaman early last week, many Afghans were bypassing the post and crossing nearby mountain ranges during the night.

The UN agency is pressing the Pakistani authorities to allow them to establish temporary reception camps for the desperate Afghans.

Ten trucks including tents, blankets and other supplies for the proposed interim camps were dispatched on Sunday. The World Food Programme also said it was sending extra food.

“They are not allowing refugees in and they do not want refugees. That is the reality,” said UN spokeswoman Fatoumata Kaba. “But we will continue to press the government.”

US bombing, years of drought and a looming tough winter is expected to propel 300,000 Afghans towards the Pakistan border in the next few weeks, half of them through Chaman.

The UN has warned that figure could reach 1.5 million if US reprisals for the September 11 destruction in New York and Washington continue. Pakistan is already home to three million long-term Afghan refugees.

“We are concerned that thousands of people are approaching the border,” UNHCR spokesman Peter Kessler said. “We haven’t seen a refugee flood yet but all the ingredients are there.”

And Kessler said there were most likely millions of Afghans in remote areas of Afghanistan who were too poor, sick and hungry to travel to Pakistan or another neighbouring country.

Those who have already made it to the 200-metre wide no man’s land on the Durand Line that separates Pakistan and Afghanistan at Chaman have become prey to human smugglers and corrupt guards.

Border officials have claimed those who crossed were Pakistanis returning home but one foreign aid worker said: “Everyone we spoke to said they were Afghans and said they were fleeing American bombs.”

The UNHCR has said security guards are taking bribes.

According to the UNHCR, Chaman locals are taking Pakistan travel papers off those who made it across, smuggling them back to Afghanistan and renting the documents for others to use.

Tearful, hungry children with overburdened mothers make-up the majority of those who have fled Kandahar.