Balochistan repatriated 80,000 illegal aliens

Balochistan Caretaker Information Minister Jan Achakzai on Thursday said that with 80,000 illegal Afghan immigrants sent back to Afghanistan from Balochistan so far, the process of deportation would be accelerated in coming days.

Talking to the media at the Karachi Press Club, Achakzai said the terrorists were using the Afghan soil to target “our security forces and that is why we have decided to send illegal immigrants to their home countries”.

He said all the six terrorists killed in Zhob last week, “were Afghan nationals.” With the new government set-up taking charge in Afghanistan two years ago, the incidents of terrorism in Pakistan had increased.

Minister Achakzai said it was the decision of a sovereign state to repatriate all illegal immigrants, 92 percent of them were Afghan nationals, to their home countries.

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To a question, he said the provincial government had got some 100,000 fake Computerised National Identity Cards (CNICs) blocked in two districts. Action would be taken against the officials found responsible for the issuance of fake CNICs to the illegal immigrants, he added.

Similarly, he said, some 20,000 fake CNICs had reportedly been blocked in Sindh. He thanked the National Database Registration Authority in helping the Balochistan government tracing the illegal immigrants and blocking their CNICs.

He said the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) was fully collaborating with provincial in tracing out the whereabouts of the illegal immigrants. Jan Achakzai said operation against terrorists would be continuing till the elimination of last one from the country.

Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar on Wednesday spoke openly about non-cooperation of the Afghan Taliban regime in stemming the recent spike of terrorist incidents in the country, particularly the activities of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

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Addressing a news conference in Islamabad before his departure for Tashkent to attend the 16th Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) Summit, Kakar linked the increase in terror incidents in Pakistan to the Afghanistan Taliban’s return to power in 2021.

He stressed that the move to expel hundreds of thousands of undocumented Afghans was a response to the unwillingness of the Taliban-led administration to act against terrorists using their soil to carry out attacks in Pakistan.

He said Pakistan had continuously conveyed concerns about militant safe havens in Afghanistan but, despite repeated assurances, the Taliban-led administration had not taken any action, adding that 15 suicide bombings in recent months had been carried out by Afghans.

The Afghan Taliban returned to power in August 2021 after the US drawdown following two decades of war.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 10^th, 2023.