'1,458 Afghan citizen card holders, over 2,600 undocumented migrants deported from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa'

At least 1,458 Afghan nationals holding citizen cards were deported from Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province through the Torkham border crossing, according to the country’s Interior Ministry, as reported by ARY News. An additional 2,656 undocumented Afghan migrants were also repatriated during the same operation, including 1,245 who returned voluntarily and 213 who were forcibly deported.
The repatriation drive extended beyond Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. In Islamabad, authorities deported 15 Afghan citizen card holders and 92 undocumented individuals. From Punjab, 198 card-holding and 451 undocumented migrants were sent back, while 195 cardholders were deported from Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir. Sindh saw the deportation of 44 undocumented Afghan nationals.
Since September 2023, Pakistan has expelled a total of 527,705 undocumented Afghan migrants, ARY News reported.
Amidst the deportation campaign, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur distanced his government from the forced removals. “We could not throw them back on the border,” he said, adding, “We will not send Afghan migrants back until the Afghan government consents to accept them.” He stressed that Afghan refugees would not be coerced into leaving.
Addressing the issue of Afghan nationals allegedly taking up arms, Gandapur said, “We have to see, why they have taken arms. They are our own people, we have to own them.” He added, “We have solution of terrorism,” underlining his preference for negotiation and reconciliation over force.
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