Taliban militants may have fled Malakand in refugees' guise

Islamabad, June 3 (ANI): Taliban militants may have escaped from conflict zones in the Malakand Division in the guise of refugees.

As there is no proper system for registering displaced people, the NWFP government has no idea about how many militants could have moved out.

The National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) had claimed that it had "full data and the number of internally displaced people is 1.73 million," while the Pak government says three million people had been displaced.

NADRA confirmed there were loopholes in the provincial government's registration process.

"The registration process carried out by the provincial government lacks detailed information. It contains only the name of head of families along with the total number of dependents," an official of NADRA said.

Meanwhile, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has asked the NWFP government to engage NADRA and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) for the quick registration of IDPs and find out how many of them were 'living inside and outside the camps'.

The federal government had earlier rejected fears that militants could have left the areas under cover of displaced people, claiming that people leaving in the Malakand Division were being properly screened and registered at all exit points.

An interior ministry official told the Dawn that there were 28 relief camps with 200,000 displaced people while 2.5 million of them were living outside camps. (ANI)