Afghan Tragedy Unfolds in Pakistan
By Asad Mirza, New Age Islam
4 December 2023
The deportation of Afghan refugees from Pakistan back to
Afghanistan, as per a government directive is causing untold suffering and
miseries to the Afghans living in Pakistan for the last 20 years or so. It
seems that the decision is based on financial woes currently faced by Pakistan
yet it involves other elements too.
For the last two months the international attention has been
focussed on the continuing Gaza crisis, yet in its background another human
tragedy has been unfolding in Pakistan, noticed by few except the humanitarian
agencies.
Reportedly, more than 370,000 Afghans have fled Pakistan
since 1 October, after Pakistan vowed to expel more than a million undocumented
refugees, mostly Afghans.
However, in a significant ruling the Supreme Court of
Pakistan observed on 2 December 2023, that Pakistan is a signatory to United
Nations’ conventions safeguarding the rights of refugees and these agreements
bind Pakistan.
Earlier, an apex committee, chaired by Caretaker Prime
Minister Anwaar ul Haq Kakar, on 3 October 2023 had issued a deadline for
foreign nationals to depart voluntarily or risk deportation by Pakistan by 31
October.
Reportedly, this was to affect some 1.7 million Afghan
refugees in Pakistan but also members of other persecuted communities including
China’s Uyghurs and Myanmar’s Rohingyas.
While the majority of the over 4 million Afghans living in
Pakistan has been in the country since the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan,
between 600,000 and 800,000 Afghans are believed to have arrived in Pakistan
after the Taliban 2.0 took over power in 2021.
Pakistani Crackdown
As per media reports, Police and other officials have
carried out mass detentions, night raids, and beatings against Afghans. They’ve
seized property and livestock, and bulldozed homes. They’ve also demanded
bribes, confiscated jewellery, and destroyed identity documents. Pakistani police
have sometimes sexually harassed Afghan women and girls and threatened them
with sexual assault.
Among those being deported or coerced to leave are people
who would be at a greater risk of persecution in Afghanistan, including women
and girls, human rights defenders, journalists, and former government employees
who fled Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover in August 2021.
Some of those at risk had previously been promised
resettlement in the US, UK, Germany, and Canada, but resettlement processes are
not proceeding quickly enough.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has said that the
arrival of hundreds of thousands of people into Afghanistan “couldn’t have come
at a worse time,” as the country faces a prolonged economic crisis that has
left two thirds of the population in need of humanitarian assistance, and now,
winter is setting in.
The new arrivals often come with almost nothing, because
Pakistani authorities have prohibited Afghans from taking out more than 50,000
Pakistani rupees (US$ 175) each. Humanitarian agencies have described shortages
of tents and other basic services for those arriving.
The area of Torkham - the crossing point between Pakistan
and Afghanistan -, lies just outside the city of Jalalabad. The Taliban
government has converted this area into a massive tent city, bereft of civic
amenities, to accommodate the influx from Pakistan.
Souring of Pak-Afghan Relations
Since 2021, Islamabad has attempted to close its border with
Afghanistan with little success. Apparently, as expected the bilateral
relationship between the two countries after the Taliban’s takeover of power in
Afghanistan didn’t worked out on expected lines.
The Taliban 2.0 were not the same lot as the earlier
Taliban. This time around they were surer of themselves and instead of
following Pakistani diktats through ISI, the Taliban charted a new course of
their own.
The relationship even soured more, once the new Taliban
government started fencing along the border on the Durand Line. Added to that
was the issue of free trade between the two countries, which stopped flow of
goods into Afghanistan via Pakistan twice over the last two years. Pakistan has
also implemented several measures to tighten the Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit
Trade Agreement (ATTA), which critics say has been misused, for smuggling goods
back into Pakistan.
Additionally, over the past year, there has been a surge of
militant attacks inside Pakistan, with most claimed by Tehreek-e-Taliban
Pakistan (TTP), a close ally of the Afghan Taliban. Pakistani authorities have
blamed Afghan migrants in part for the rise in attacks.
Only last week, an air force base was attacked in Mianwali,
the capital of the Punjab province, though most attacks take place near the
long border with Afghanistan, where Islamabad says the TTP has safe-havens.
When the decision to deport refugees was announced, Interim
Minister Sarfraz Bugti had stated that out of the 24 suicide bombings in
Pakistan this year, Afghan nationals carried out 14.
The Taliban government in Kabul has denied involvement and
has done little to allay Islamabad’s security concerns. Refusing to take back
any refugees, Kabul also disapproves of Islamabad’s repatriation plan.
As tempers rise, the Afghan interim Prime Minister Mullah
Mohammad Hassan Akhund has criticised Pakistan’s decision to expel refugees,
saying that Islamabad had violated international laws, while his deputy Sher
Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai has warned Pakistan “not to force their hand to react
over the move”.
Hostility is so deeply entrenched against Afghans that Jan
Achakzai, caretaker minister in Balochistan province, has said that the
expulsion of refugees would continue, “no matter which political government
comes to power after the elections.” The tenure of the current caretaker
government ends in February 2024.
Perhaps the Pakistan government can take lessons from the
practice of the Prophet with regard to immigrants from the early history of
Islam. The teaching of Islam has very important foundations for providing
mutual help among immigrants and citizens. The Holy Qur’an and the sayings of
the Prophet contain many examples of peaceful societies made of immigrants as
well as regular citizens. The Prophet says, “You cannot be a real believer
unless you want for your brother what you want for yourself.” If indeed they
take lessons from the Prophets tradition, then they could adopt a more humane
approach to the issue.
Though the current situation may have arisen due to
Pakistan’s own economic woes, in addition to its souring relationship with the
Taliban 2.0, yet, the major sufferer in this case is the common Afghan. In this
backdrop it becomes the duty of international humanitarian agencies and western
governments to take cognisance of the issue and start a slew of measures to
ensure care of Afghan citizens and also try to get relations patched up between
the two neighbouring countries.
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Asad Mirza is a Delhi-based senior political and
international affairs commentator
URL: https://newageislam.com/the-war-within-islam/afghan-tragedy-unfolds-pakistan/d/131253