ANP: If Afghans are evicted, Kashmiris must follow suit

ATLANTA (Pajhwok): If Afghan refugees are facing eviction from Pakistan, Kashmiris and Indians too have no right to stay in the country, the president Awami National Party (ANP) said on Saturday.

ANP shared a video clip on its X handle showing Aimal Wali Khan addressing a gathering in Peshawar on Friday.

Aimal strongly criticised the interim Pakistani government’s deadline for the deportation of Afghan refugees. He argued the caretaker government had been formed to conduct elections and had no authority to decide on issues like refugee deportations.

The Pakhtun nationalist alleged such decisions were taken behind the scenes by powers that be and the interim government only announced them.

He insisted: “If the refugees are being evicted, all of them must be expelled. In addition to the Afghans, refugees from Kashmir and India must also be deported.”

Millions of Kashmiris and Indian Muslims had been accepted as refugees and granted Pakistani citizenship, he pointed out.

Aimal Wali Khan explained the Afghans were not living voluntarily in Pakistan, as war was raging in their country. They had migrated to Pakistan during Gen. Ziaul Haq’s dictatorship.

At that time, Aimal recalled, Afghan refugees had been welcomed warmly and showered with flowers because dollops of aid and funds were poured into Pakistan in the name of Afghan refugees.

ANP head said if Afghans were behind 12 of 30 suicide attacks, the remaining 18 were Pakistanis. He asked what the government would do with the Pakistanis.

Earlier in the week, Pakistan set a month-long deadline for undocumented Afghan refugees to leave and launched raids to evict illegal aliens.

Pakistani media reported a thousand Afghan refugees had been arrested. The security forces resumed operations on Thursday and demolished a number of refugee houses.

aw/mud