Pakistan announced on Tuesday “illegal immigrants” had until November 1 to leave the country or face being deported, with the interior minister saying 14 of 24 suicide bombings in the South Asian nation this year were carried out by Afghans.
Officials say hundreds of thousands of Afghans have traveled to Pakistan since foreign forces left Afghanistan and the Taliban took over Kabul in 2021. Even before then, Pakistan hosted some 1.5 million registered refugees, one of the largest such populations in the world, according to the United Nations refugee agency. More than a million others are estimated to live in Pakistan unregistered.
Grappling with an economic crisis of its own and a sharp rise in terror attacks, Pakistan’s government is increasingly anxious about the number of Afghans in the country.
Police last month launched a crackdown against those they say are living in Pakistan without legal documents, arresting hundreds of Afghans. “Illegal citizens, illegal immigrants that are staying in Pakistan via illegal means, we have given them a deadline of November 1,” Interior Minister Sarfaraz Bugti told reporters at a briefing after a meeting chaired by the prime minister.
The meeting was held days after suicide bombers separately hit two mosques last week in Mastung and Hangu, killing 65 people.“They [illegal immigrants] should return to their respective countries by November 1 voluntarily and if they don’t, the state’s law enforcement, whether they be provincial governments or federal government institutions, we will deport them via this enforcement.”
Bugti said after Nov. 1, foreign nationals would not be allowed to enter Pakistan without passports or a valid entry visa, and from Oct. 10 to 31, the government would allow only those Afghan nationals to enter Pakistan who possessed a computerized e-Tazkira (electronic identity card).
The minister said the government had formed a task force that would from Nov. 1 confiscate properties and businesses run by illegal migrants that were not part of Pakistan’s tax net. He said businesses jointly operated and properties that illegal immigrants owned with Pakistani citizens would also be confiscated. “Any Pakistani who is involved in this facilitation would be punished according to Pakistan’s law,” Bugti added.
The interior ministry would also set up a web portal and a helpline on which citizens would be able to inform the government about illegal immigrants, identity cards, and activities such as hoarding and smuggling.
“From January till now, there have been 24 suicide bombings [in Pakistan]. Of those 24, 14 suicide bombings were carried out by Afghan nationals. They were Afghans who attacked us,” Bugti said, naming a number of recent attacks in which he said Afghans had been found to be involved.
The Director (Repatriation) Afghan Commissionerate, Fazal Rabi, told Arab News provincial governments would collect data of all undocumented and illegal immigrants in their respective territories and prepare a proper transportation plan to take them to the borders for deportation.
“Under the law, the police and other law enforcement agencies can arrest and deport any foreigner living in Pakistan without a valid visa or valid registration in case of Afghans,” he said, adding that the registration cards of some Afghan refugees expired in June this year and they should be allowed “a grace time till renewal of their cards.”
In a crackdown against ‘illegally residing foreigners,’ Islamabad police said it had so far arrested 451 people and registered 65 cases. “This is an ongoing operation against all those living in Pakistan illegally without any valid visa and documents including Afghans without any discrimination,” Islamabad police spokesperson Taqi Jawad told Arab News.
“It is imperative to follow Pakistani laws to live in Pakistan,” he said. “This is a cognizable offense to provide job, shelter or extend any illegal assistance to illegally residing foreigners in Pakistan.”
Islamabad blames the surge in militant attacks on the Pakistani Taliban, saying that they have become increasingly emboldened with the Taliban in power and have launched attacks against Pakistan from Afghan soil.
Afghanistan says it does not allow its soil to be used by militants. The TTP has especially stepped up its attacks on Pakistan since November last year when it unilaterally called off a tenuous peace deal that had been brokered by Kabul.
The Pakistani Taliban, responsible for some of the bloodiest attacks in Pakistan since the group’s formation in 2007, have denied responsibility for Friday’s two blasts. No other group has claimed responsibility either.
“After Mastung blast, we are working on a multi-pronged strategy. We have to get the Afghans out. We have to enforce the law and [have] zero tolerance for lawlessness,” interior secretary Aftab Durrani told Arab News, referring to one of the attacks last week in which 60 people were killed in southwest Pakistan.
“We have to target militant groups. We have to target the political parties’ militant wings and basically our theme is hardening the state, hardening the writ of the state as this is not a soft state. We are a tough state. And we can take any action.”
