C. Afghan Refugees in Pakistan

Submitted by Mike Harman on December 4, 2018

The following table was compiled by the Chief Commissionerate for Afghan Refugees, Islamabad, from figures received from the provincial commissioners.

According to Zia al-Din Mojaddidi, Afghan refugees in Pakistan, registered and unregistered, totaled approximately 0.5 million in Baluchistan and 1.8 million in the rest of the country. In Iran there were approximately 1 million. Thus, the total number of Afghan refugees in Pakistan and Iran was approximately 3.3 million, much less than the official figures given by these two countries and noted in this book on p. 344 n. 12. Also according to Mojaddidi, internally displaced Afghans numbered approximately 5 million. Further, he believes that the CIA handed over approximately 900 shoulder-fired Stinger missiles to the ISI and that the latter delivered only 300 of them to the mujahideen.

A former junior professor at Kabul University, Mojaddidi was the correspondent for the Voice of America in Quetta, Baluchistan, during the entire resistance period. He now lives with his family in San Diego. (Personal communication, September 1994, San Diego.)

Registered Population of Afghan Refugees in Pakistan as of August 30, 1988[1][2][3][4][5]
  No. of Camps Total Population Male Female Children Total Families
FRONTIER PROVINCE (NWFP)
Settled Districts
    Abbotabad 18 143,459 22,095 32,854 88,510 23,834
    Bannu 7 73,418 15,381 19,480 38,557 10,546
    Chitral 3 38,530 8,784 11,953 17,793 6,625
    Dir 10 89,654 16,731 25,546 47,377 15,733
    D. I. Khan 11 88,082 18,144 24,379 45,559 13,010
    Kohat 18 232,604 58,225 65,608 108,771 32,248
    Mansehra 9 71,965 9,088 14,252 48,625 10,195
    Mardan 17 106,578 22,610 28,318 55,650 17,998
    Peshawar (1) 31 280,921 65,686 73,876 141,359 57,648
    Peshawar (2) 29 225,518 56,279 53,423 115,816 41,694
    Swat 2 14,334 2,564 4,194 7,576 2,579
      Total 155 1,365,063 295,587 353,883 715,593 232,110
Tribal Agencies
    Bajaur 25 197,646 49,426 58,867 89,353 28,425
    Kurram 34 347,790 99,759 96,983 151,048 50,759
    Malakand 3 54,966 7,615 14,392 32,959 7,906
    Mohmand 2 15,807 4,525 5,006 6,276 2,644
    N/Waziristan 24 184,528 48,496 43,356 92,676 26,256
    Orakzai 2 13,356 2,685 4,922 5,749 1,973
    S/Waziristan 6 56,423 11,611 13,725 31,087 8,954
      Total 96 870,516 224,177 237,251 409,148 126,917
        Total NWFP 251 2,235,579 519,704 591,134 1,124,741 359,027
BALUCHISTAN
    Chagai 21 171,980 41,275 48,154 82,550 28,577
    Gulistan 12 171,556 41,173 48,036 82,347 26,476
    Loralai 10 105,041 25,210 29,411 50,420 16,940
    Pishin 19 168,534 40,448 47,190 80,896 25,589
    Quetta 5 121,365 29,128 33,982 58,255 20,454
    Zhob 5 55,267 13,264 15,475 26,528 9,113
    Chaman Sub Division 5 41,638 9,993 11,659 19,986 6,069
        Total BALUCHISTAN 77 835,381 200,491 233,907 400,982 133,215
PUNJAB
    Kot Chandna 16 180,428 29,550 40,630 110,308 31,840
SIND
Karachi 1 18,674 4,481 5,229 8,964 2,997
Grand Total 345 3,270,122 754,226 870,900 1,644,995 527,079

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