The authorities in north-west Pakistan say they are pushing hundreds of Afghans back into their own country.

A senior official in North West Frontier Province the home affairs secretary, Mazhar Ali Shah told Reuter news agency he would not allow unregistered Afghan refugees, and those who were suspected of involvement in crime, into Pakistan.

He said that about four-hundred-and-fifty Afghans were detained in the Khyber area on the Afghan border on Thursday, and were immediately deported back to Afghanistan.

Government officials in Peshawar say more than three-hundred-thousand unregistered Afghan refugees are living in the region.

The UN refugee agency estimates that up to a-hundred-and-twenty thousand Afghans, fleeing from a severe drought and continuing civil war, have arrived in Pakistan since September.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service