Pakistan guards resist refugees

CHAMAN, Pakistan -- Pakistani border guards opened fire Sunday to force back a crowd of hundreds of Afghans demanding to be allowed into the country. Doctors said a 13-year-old boy was wounded. \nPakistan relaxed border controls Friday to allow several thousand Afghans to enter the country without proper papers but clamped down again Sunday despite an estimated tens of thousands of people trying to escape U.S. bombing around Kandahar. \nAs the crowd surged forward and began throwing stones, Pakistani border guards opened fire. Officials said they fired in the air, but doctors at a local hospital said one boy was struck by a bullet. \nHis condition was not life-threatening, the doctors said. \nTwo border guards were slightly injured by stones, police said. \nU.N. workers say 10,000 to 15,000 Afghan civilians have crowded into the border "no man's land" between Afghanistan and Pakistan, seeking escape from the two-week-old U.S.-led bombardment. \nMany of those who managed to push through and enter Pakistan ended up stopped at a Pakistani checkpoint about three miles south of Chaman, where authorities inspected papers and decided who would be permitted to continue. \nThose who were turned back simply sneaked by through the nearby hills out of sight of the checkpoint guards and then returned to the main highway south toward Quetta. \nThe number of refugees has swelled as U.S. bombing intensified over the last week. \nPakistan allowed no refugees through Sunday, after letting about 5,000 cross the previous day. That was the biggest single-day influx since the U.S. military campaign opened Oct. 7. \nAfghanistan's neighbors have closed their borders to Afghan refugees, after previously taking in millions during two previous decades of conflict in that country.