Afghan nationals recently deported from Pakistan reported a sharp escalation in arbitrary detentions, midnight home raids and financial extortion in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, following the federal government's enforcement of governor's rule and a state of emergency in the province, TOLO News reported, in reporting carried by ANI on October 27.
Source: ANI via New Kerala, citing TOLO News
Deportees said routine life had become increasingly hostile, with police conducting frequent searches of their residences and severely curtailing their freedom of movement, and that detentions on what they described as flimsy pretexts had become commonplace, often accompanied by demands for bribes in exchange for release, ANI reported. These are the deportees' allegations as reported by TOLO News; the ANI reports carried no response from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police or the provincial authorities.
Source: ANI via Indian Economic Observer, citing TOLO News
Mohammad Rahman, a returnee, told TOLO News that his family had originally shifted from Punjab to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during former Prime Minister Imran Khan's tenure because of relatively better conditions, but that the situation deteriorated after Islamabad declared an emergency and imposed governor's rule, leaving refugees unable to step outdoors without facing the threat of arbitrary arrest and coercion, ANI reported.
Source: ANI via New Kerala, citing TOLO News
Another deportee, Sohail Khan, said authorities carried out nocturnal raids on residential premises while targeting and intimidating refugees at local bazaars during the day to extort money, and displaced families described being picked up from their workplaces and enduring humiliating treatment before being deported, ANI reported.
Source: ANI via Indian Economic Observer, citing TOLO News
Returns continue through Torkham
Officials stationed at the Omari Temporary Settlement near Torkham confirmed that administrative mechanisms, including twelve dedicated support committees, remain operational to deliver essential relief and handle a potential rise in arrivals, ANI reported. The Taliban-led Ministry of Urban Development and Housing said more than 74,000 residential land plots have been distributed to returning families across 22 provinces, with land earmarked in 27 dedicated townships and 37 master development blueprints approved to facilitate reintegration, according to the same reporting.
Source: ANI via New Kerala
The deportee accounts sit inside a wider, documented arrest and returns pattern. Dawn reported on October 24, citing a joint IOM and UNHCR report, that 517 Afghans were arrested from October 11 to 17 in three districts of Balochistan, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, that 3,883 Afghans returned through the Torkham, Chaman and Bahramcha crossings in that week, including 499 deportations, and that cumulatively about 2,744,068 Afghans have been sent back from Pakistan since September 15, 2023 — yaani, about 27.44 lakh people in total.
Source: Dawn, via South Punjab News
What is solid
- Nearly 27,000 Afghans crossed back through Torkham in the past three months, with 12 support committees operating at the Omari settlement (officials, via ANI / TOLO News)
- A joint IOM and UNHCR report counted 517 arrests of Afghans in October 11-17 across Balochistan, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa districts (Dawn)
What is only claimed
- The claims of midnight raids, arbitrary detention and bribe demands in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are allegations by deported Afghans reported by TOLO News via ANI — the reports carried no response from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police, so they are presented as allegations, not settled fact