ISLAMABAD, Oct. 9 (Xinhuanet) -- Tens of thousands of Afghan refugees living in Pakistan Saturday went to the polling stations to vote in Afghanistan's historic presidential election.

    The polls opened early in the morning and about 740,000 registered Afghan refugee voters would cast their ballots amid intimidation. The ousted Taliban and other extremist groups have vowed to disrupt the election process.

    Security was beefed up around the polling stations with the deployment of thousands of Pakistani policemen and commandos around the polling stations.

    An inter-govermental group, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), has been entrusted to conduct the out of country presidential election by the Afghan Joint Electoral Management Body and the UN Assistance Mission to Afghanistan.

    It has established over 1,650 polling stations in around 300 locations in the refugee camps of the North West Frontier provinceand Balochistan as well as in the urban areas of Peshawar, Quetta and Islamabad. About 11,000 staff recruited from the Afghan community have been trained and employed for the election.

    Immediately after the close of polls and under international supervision, voter list data and ballots from Pakistan will be collected and transferred to Kabul for counting. Enditem