Afghan Refugee Subjected to Torture in Iran

These operations are taking place after Pakistan has decided to deport Afghan refugees who do not have legal documentation.

An Afghan migrant in the city of Karachi told Afghanistan International that Pakistani police officials enter houses of Afghan immigrants in the middle of the night without prior notice.

According to him, the purpose of house-to-house search operations is to identify Afghan refugees.

Afghanistan International has also received a video of one such night raid by the Pakistani police at an Afghan immigrant’s house in Karachi.

Pakistan has announced that 1.7 million Afghan immigrants live in Pakistan without legal documentation.

Afghan immigrants in Pakistan said that the new policy of the Pakistani government towards refugees and immigrants has made life difficult for them.

The government of Pakistan has given all the immigrants it considers "illegal" until November 1 to leave the country.

Pakistan's Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti said in a press conference in Islamabad last week that Afghans have been involved in terrorist attacks in various areas of Pakistan.

Pakistan's interior minister has emphasised that the property of illegal immigrants in the country will be confiscated after the deadline for departure is over.

International organisations and human rights groups have criticised the Taliban’s deportation of Afghans. United Nations human rights experts have urged Pakistan to refrain from deporting Afghans.

The Taliban has also asked Pakistan to reconsider its decision about Afghan refugees. Earlier, Mullah Yaqoob, Taliban’s Defence Minister, called Pakistan's treatment of Afghan immigrants as "barbaric" and said that the deportation of Afghan immigrants harms the relations between the two countries.

Despite these widespread criticisms, Pakistan has deported thousands of Afghans so far. In the latest case, the Ministry of Refugees of the Taliban announced on Saturday, the return of 6,450 Afghan refugees from Pakistan to Afghanistan.

The donation will be sent to the World Food Programme (WFP) to support approximately two million girls and boys in elementary schools in Afghanistan.

According to the EU statement, with this funding, the WFP will be able to provide snacks for nearly 900,000 boys and more than 850,000 girls in elementary schools.

The aid will support elementary school students in Nangarhar, Ghor, Jowzjan, Nuristan, and Farah provinces during the next two years.

WFP will distribute biscuits, cookie rolls, dried fruit and nuts, and bread to these students during the summer break.

In a statement, the group stated that these refugees entered Afghanistan through the Torkham border crossing on October 19 and 20.

The Taliban said that the refugees who returned to Afghanistan include 1,062 families and have been referred to the International Organisation for Migration for assistance.

The Pakistani government has asked 1.7 million migrants and refugees without legal documentation to leave the country by November 1. In the past few months, Islamabad police have detained and forcibly deported thousands of Afghans for not having official residency documents.

In a statement on Friday, the UK Foreign Office wrote, "Terrorists are very likely to try to carry out attacks in Afghanistan."

The statement specifically warned of the risk of "terrorist attacks" around religious sites throughout Afghanistan as well as airports.

While the Taliban have been talking about providing security across Afghanistan for more than two years, the British Foreign Office’s statement stated that the security situation in Afghanistan is unstable.

It also warned about the risk of arrest and detention of British nationals in Afghanistan. The statement added that the British government may not be aware of the detention of its citizens, and as there are significant challenges in communication and consular services, detainees may not be able to contact their relatives and the period of detention may be very long.

Over the last two years, the Taliban has arrested dozens of foreign citizens, including American, British and French nationals.

Detainees in Taliban prisons can hardly contact their family members or have access to a lawyer.

Previously, international human rights organisations have said that the principles of fair trial are not observed in Taliban detention centres and courts. Access to a fair trial is more difficult for Afghan citizens who are imprisoned in Taliban prisons than foreigners.

The statement of the British Foreign Office states that there is no British consular official in Afghanistan and the ability of the ministry to provide consular assistance is severely limited.

It added, "If you are a British national already resident in Afghanistan, you should carefully consider the risk to your safety and security from staying there. The situation could change quickly and without warning."

AFF said that three members of the Taliban had been killed and five others were injured after the explosion at the group’s outpost in police district 7 of Mazar-e-Sharif.

In a statement, AFF stated that following the incident, the Taliban blocked access to the incident site and retrieved their dead bodies and injured personnel from the area.

Residents of Mazar-e-Sharif said that two explosions were heard in the city on Friday evening October 20.

The Taliban have not commented on these explosions so far.

A video clip that reached Afghanistan International shows moments after the explosion in PD7 of Mazar-e-Sharif.