CHITRAL: At least 14 Pakistanis who crossed the border to join the
Afghan police force have resigned from their jobs and returned home, officials said on Sunday, amid simmering tensions with Afghanistan.
The men, belonging to Chitral, are among a number of jobless Pakistanis in border areas who fled to neighbouring Afghanistan to escape grinding poverty and hunt for employment, officials said.
Nearly three-dozen joined the ranks of Afghan security forces last year, a trend that has set off alarm bells in the Pakistani security establishment.
Afghanistan
and Pakistan blame each other for a number of recent cross-border
attacks that have killed dozens and displaced hundreds of families.
"At
least 14 Pakistanis have reached back after resignation. We are
expecting a dozen more this week," said Rematullah Wazir, a top government official in Chitral.
They
returned after authorities warned their families of stern actions
against the men, Wazir said. "We were worried that some anti-Pakistan elements could use them against their own country," he told AFP.
Afghanistan
shares a disputed and unmarked 2,400-kilometre border with Pakistan,
and Taliban and other al Qaeda-linked militants have carved out
strongholds on either side.
Afghanistan earlier this month sacked two top security ministers after lawmakers charged that they had failed in their handling of cross-border shelling barrages blamed on Pakistan.