A Pashtun leader Mahamood Khan Achakzai has said that he would not allow anyone to harass Afghan refugees in their “own land”. He directly said that Pshtoonkhwa (Khybar Pakhtunkhwa,Tribal area and parts of Baluchistan) belongs to Afghans and they can live there without fear and irritation.
“If Afghans are harassed in other parts of Pakistan, they should come here to the Pashtoonkhwa, where no one can ask them for refugee cards, because it also belongs to them,” Achakzai who leads the Pashtoonkhwa Millie Awami Party told VOA Radio Ashna.
In a crackdown launched against unregistered refugees, Khyber Pashtunkhwa (KP) police have arrested over 2,000 Afghan refugees in Peshawar.
The KP provincial government had set June 30 as a deadline for Afghan immigrants to get themselves registered in Pakistan.
With the deadline nearing its end, KP police began a crackdown against settlers avoiding registration in the provincial capital Peshawar.
“Kabul and Islamabad should exercise extreme caution to resolve Torkham crossing conflict. Otherwise, they should leave the issue to the US and China, and they would resolve it within two weeks,” Achakzai told Radio Ashna.
Pakistan paramilitary forces attempted to build a gate in the zero point of the crossing, that resulted in fight between Afghan and Pakistan forces. Both sides received casualties during fighting.
Torkham and forcefully repatriation of Afghan refugees are two separate issues. It not only raised concerns among Afghan officials in Afghanistan, but also made Pashtoon leaders concerned in here,” he added.
After Torkham tension raised, Pakistan forced the Afghan refugees to leave the country.
Putting pressure on Afghan refugees is not a new thing as in the past Pakistan was also hostile to refugees, where a large number of Afghan refuses returned home to avoid Pakistan forces harassment.
