Pakistan had on Tuesday ordered all “illegal immigrants” (Afghan nationals) to leave the country by November 1, claiming that 14 of 24 suicide bombings that occurred in the country this year were carried out by Afghan nationals. Islamabad warned that strict action would be taken against them after the expiry of the deadline.
The policy of eviction through force has marked a new low in Islamabad’s relations with Kabul which deteriorated after clashes between forces of the two countries along the Durand Line, a 2,640-km disputed border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. A spike in terrorist attacks, which Islamabad blames on Afghanistan-based operatives, has also fuelled resentment in Pakistan, prompting authorities here to take strict action.
The Taliban government has urged Pakistan to reconsider its “unacceptable” move. “Afghan refugees are not involved in Pakistan’s security problems. As long as they leave Pakistan voluntarily, that country should tolerate them,” Afghan Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on microblogging platform X (formerly Twitter).
Pakistan-based Afghan officials said that local authorities had already launched a crackdown rounding up Afghans living with and without legal status in the country. In a statement on X, the Afghan embassy in Islamabad said more than 1,000 Afghans had been detained in the past two weeks.
State-run Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) reported on Wednesday that Islamabad eventually wanted all Afghans in the country to leave — even those with legal status and Pakistan’s residence cards.
Pakistan has taken in hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees during decades of war particularly since the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in August 2021.
A day earlier, Pakistan’s interim home minister Sarfaraz Bugti said around 1.73 million Afghan nationals in Pakistan have no legal documents to stay and claimed that a total of 4.4 million Afghan refugees live in the country.
According to the United Nations, about 1.3 million Afghans are registered as refugees while another 8,80,000 have received the legal status to remain in the country.
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