The United Nations today appealed for urgent funds to help some 7.5 million Afghan refugees survive the harsh winter, while Afghanistan's reclusive Taliban leader told his people to go back home.
With fears of US attacks on Afghanistan rising, Pakistan - already host to two million Afghan refugees - struggled to keep its border closed, but hinted it might have to open its gates if many more Afghans arrived seeking refuge.
UN officials said the number of Afghans who will need some help during the freezing winter could reach 7.5 million, from a previous estimate of 5.5 to six million.
Figures of those displaced internally, by conflict or drought, was expected to double to 2.2 million, Ms Stephanie Bunker, spokeswoman for the U.N. Office of Humanitarian Assistance for Afghanistan, told a news conference in Islamabad.
"The humanitarian situation in Afghanistan has reached a crisis point. Their grip on survival is tragically slipping," Ms Bunker said.
The prospects of an attack in the hunt for bin Laden after the US attacks on September 11th have sent hundreds of thousands of Afghans scurrying for safety to rural areas, and an estimated 1.5 million towards neighbouring countries such as Pakistan and Iran.
The United States accuses bin Laden and his network of being behind the suicide hijack attacks two weeks ago, which left nearly 7,000 people dead or missing.
However reclusive Taliban leader Mr Mullah Mohammad Omar ordered all Afghans to return home, saying an attack was unlikely.
"America has no reason, justification or evidence for attacking," he said in a message to his people.
"Therefore, all those who have been displaced internally or externally are instructed to return to their original place of residence," he said.
In Pakistan, Mr Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah, governor of the North West Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan, said the border would stay closed.
But Minister for Frontiers Mr Abbas Sarfraz hinted at a change in policy by admitting the border could be opened if the situation becomes untenable, or if there is an attack.
For Pakistan, hospitality fatigue is taking over. It says its refusal to accept more refugees is based on lack of resources and security concerns.
Mr Sarfraz warned it would cost 122 million to cope with one million Afghan refugees for six months, and that this figure did not include food support.
In Geneva, the UN refugee agency, the UNHCR, today appealed for 252 million in emergency funding for the refugees.
The UNHCR operation for Afghanistan is the biggest since the 1999 refugee crisis in Kosovo when hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanians were driven from their homes by Serb forces.