Afghan minister in Pakistan for refugee talks

An Afghan minister is in Pakistan for talks over the arrests and expulsion of Afghan refugees, a media report said on Monday.

Sayed Hussain Alimi Balkhi, the Afghan minister for refugees and repatriation, is leading a nine-member delegation and would hold meetings with Pakistan officials to resolve the refugee issue, Xinhua reported.

Balkhi met representatives of the Afghan refugees on Sunday and assured them he would take up all their issues with the Pakistani leaders over the next few days, and that both sides would find a solution to the problem.

Balkhi told them that the new government of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has mapped out a comprehensive repatriation strategy.

He would also visit Afghan refugees in Peshawar.

The Afghan minister is scheduled to meet Pakistan's Minister of States and Frontier Regions Abdul Qadir Baloch later in the day.

Authorities in Pakistan's north-western Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province started a campaign against non-registered Afghan refugees after the Taliban attacked an army school in Peshawar on December 16 last year, that left dead over 150, including 135 children.

According to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Pakistan hosts about three million Afghan refugees, and almost half of them are non-registered.