Islamabad [Pakistan], November 3 (ANI): Pakistan on Friday opened more border centres to expedite the return of tens of thousands of undocumented Afghan nationals, an official said, Dawn reported.
Dawn is a Pakistani English-language newspaper.
Deputy commissioner for the Khyber district Abdul Nasir Khan said that facilities at the northwestern border crossing of Torkham, where most immigrants are re-entering Afghanistan, have been increased three times to cater to the rising number of returnees.
As per Dawn, those arriving in Afghanistan complained of the hardships they had to face to move out of Pakistan and uncertainty over their future.
Mohammad Ismael Rafi, 55, who said he lived for 22 years in Chaman where he had a retail business, said: “We spent three days on the border in Pakistan. We had a very bad situation.” “Thank God that we have arrived back in our country,” he said. It took him six days to leave his home in Pakistan with his 16 family members and belongings to reach a makeshift tent village on the other side of the border.
Rafi accused Pakistani officials of taking bribes to process his repatriation. Pakistan authorities, however, deny the allegations. Rafi rented a house in Kandahar to live temporarily before moving to his ancestral home in Helmand province, as per Dawn.
Meanwhile, Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid recently called on countries hosting Afghan refugees to not forcefully deport them as the migrants do not have any preparation for it yet. Mujahid also called for tolerance based on Islamic and neighbourly manners, TOLO News reported.
TOLO News is an Afghan news channel broadcasting from Kabul.
The Taliban spokesperson said Afghans have been forced to migrate to various countries due to the wars over the past 45 years in Afghanistan. As per Mujahid’s statement, Afghans have not created problems or destabilization in host countries. He urged neighbouring countries to treat them properly, TOLO News reported.
This comes as the Pakistan caretaker government announced October 31 as the deadline for Afghan refugees to leave the country. The deadline called for nearly 2 million Afghan refugees to leave Pakistan or they will face forced deportation. (ANI)
Taliban terms Pakistan’s treatment of Afghan refugees as “cruel”
Kabul [Afghanistan], November 3 (ANI): Afghanistan‘s Taliban-appointed acting Defense Minister Mawlawi Mohammad Yaqoob Mujahid has criticized the Pakistan caretaker government’s treatment of Afghan refugees. He said the decision to expel Afghans was taken unilaterally and Pakistan should consider the consequences of such actions, TOLO News reported. TOLO News is an Afghan news channel broadcasting from Kabul.
Mujahid in an audio clip, called on the Pakistan government to not “be cruel to the Afghans, not seize their personal property and assets.” “They cannot do it by any law or rule. Such actions will be questioned,” he said, adding, “We will attempt with all our capacity to prevent it and will not allow anyone to seize and steal the personal property of our Afghan brothers.”
He also urged the international community, UN and other organizations to press Pakistan to end “the current situation towards refugees.” “Even though it sends the refugees to their country, they [refugees] should be sent to the country with dignity and return to their homeland,” he said, as per TOLO News.
The Taliban-appointed Acting Defense Minister said the ongoing situation is severely damaging the relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan. “So, the Pakistani regime should think of the consequences of whatever it is doing. It should plant as much as it will be able to reap,” he added, according to Tolo News.
He also called the decision by Pakistan‘s caretaker government to deport Afghan refugees unilateral, saying that “we do not accept at all.” Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid recently called on countries hosting Afghan refugees to not forcefully deport them as migrants, as they were not prepared to take them back.
Mujahid also called for tolerance based on Islamic and neighbourly manners, TOLO News reported. The Taliban spokesperson said Afghans have been forced to migrate to various countries due to the wars over the past 45 years in Afghanistan.
Mujahid, in his statement, said Afghans have not created problems or destabilisation in host countries. He urged neighbouring countries to treat them properly, TOLO News reported. Pakistan‘s caretaker government, earlier, announced October 31 as the deadline for Afghan refugees to leave the country. The government called on nearly 2 million Afghan refugees to leave Pakistan by the deadline day, failing which they would face forced deportation. (ANI)
