Pakistan releases more than 100 Afghan detainees

ISLAMABAD (Khaama Press): The Embassy of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan in Islamabad has announced that more than 120 Afghan nationals have been released from prisons in Sindh province Pakistan.

Afghanistan’s Diplomatic Mission in Islamabad said on Twitter that Afghan detainees were released on Tuesday. As per this announcement, some 130 more Afghan citizens will be released in the coming days.

Prior to this, the Afghan Embassy had announced that 1300 Afghan refugees had been released from Pakistani prisons.

According to Pakistani officials, during a special operation, police detained more than 1200 Afghan nationals including women and children across Pakistan due to not having legal residential permits (visas), and put them behind bars in the recent past.

The Afghan Embassy in Pakistan have confirmed that nearly 1500 undocumented Afghan refugees are still in prisons in Pakistan, and efforts are underway for their release.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reports, some 1.3 million legal Afghan refugees are currently residing in Pakistan, however, it is estimated that thousands of illegal Afghan migrants are living in different parts of Pakistan.

Since the beginning of political turmoil and civil war in Afghanistan, Pakistan has been one of the neighboring countries hosting millions of Afghans for more than three decades. For some Afghans, Pakistan is their second home, having the freedom to live, run their business and benefit from the privileges given by UNHCR and the Pakistani government.

However, due to the worsening security situation in the country over the past couple of months, the country’s ruling regime has taken serious security measures to fight terrorism and militancy across Pakistan. Therefore, police officials have put thousands of undocumented Afghan nationals behind bars in Sindh and other provinces of Pakistan.