Islamabad (dpa) - Pakistan's military ruler, General Pervez Musharraf, called Thursday on the United Nations and international aid groups to provide assistance to displaced Afghans inside their own country in order to stem the influx of refugees into Pakistan.

Musharraf told Onder Yucer, head of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), that he was concerned at the ''grave humanitarian situation'' caused by the recent influx of Afghan refugees into Pakistan.

Some 60,000 Afghan refugees are estimated to have arrived in the past few weeks, adding to the country's burden of two million Afghan refugees who have been in Pakistan for the past 20 years, mainly in the northwestern frontier province (NWFP) bordering Afghanistan.

Musharraf's remarks came after NWFP governor Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah said his government would not let in any more Afghans.

Pakistan has already closed its Torkham border crossing point with Afghanistan to stem the flow of Afghans.

Only those holding residential permits in Pakistan were being allowed in.

Afghans are fleeing drought and renewed factional fighting between the ruling Taliban militia and an alliance of forces resisting it in the country's north. dpa ig ms

Copyright (c) 2001 dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH
Received by NewsEdge Insight: 02/01/2001 07:26:01