UN: Sharp Drop in Afghans Returning From Pakistan

KABUL, Afghanistan-- The number of Afghan refugees returning home from Pakistan fell by almost 60 percent this year, the United Nations' refugee agency said Saturday, reflecting the reluctance of many to return to the war-ravaged country where security concerns abound a decade after a U.S.-led invasion to oust the Taliban.
The UNHCR said that 60,000 Afghans have returned so far this year under its voluntary repatriation effort -- 43,000 coming home from Pakistan and 17,000 from Iran.
While the number returning from Iran was double the level for the same period last year, 59 percent fewer returned from Pakistan, the agency said. In Pakistan, most of the Afghan refugees live in two trouble-prone northwest regions that border Afghanistan -- Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan.
A NATO push over the past couple of years forced the Taliban to shift operations outside its traditional strongholds in the south. Afghanistan's eastern provinces have become particular hotspots in the war-ravaged nation where U.S.-led NATO forces, for the past decade, have been battling the insurgents. More