Taliban Never Sought Reconsideration of Afghan Immigrants’ Deportation, Says Pak Minister

Sarfraz Bugti, Pakistan's interior minister, said that the deportation of Afghan immigrants was an internal issue and emphasised that the Taliban has not requested Pakistan to reconsider its decision.

In an interview with Afghanistan International, Bugti added that the purpose of this decision is to deport "foreigners" who do not have residence permits in Pakistan.

He stressed that the deportation of illegal immigrants is not limited to "one or two million Afghan nationals", but is a matter related to 220 million Pakistani citizens.

The interior minister of Pakistan added that according to the plan of the interim government of Pakistan, any foreigner who entered Pakistan illegally will be deported.

Bugti considered the decision to deport migrants to be somehow related to Pakistan's security issues and said that Afghan citizens were involved in 14 suicide attacks of 24 in Pakistan last year.

This Pakistani official emphasised that the decision was made to establish law and order in Pakistan and safeguard the interests of its people.

He also addressed speculation that the interim government of Pakistan might have made this decision to settle scores with the Taliban and said that they have no scores with the Taliban at all.

Bugti added that in his recent meeting with the Taliban ambassador in Islamabad, there was no request made to stop the deportation of the immigrants. Instead, the primary focus of their discussion was to "facilitate and expedite the repatriation" of immigrants from Pakistan to Afghanistan.

Recently, several Taliban officials have voiced their objections to Pakistan's decision, which has fuelled speculation that the Taliban may be opposed to Pakistan's stance.

Meanwhile, the Pakistani interior minister said that the group's ambassador in Islamabad did not make any request to reconsider the decision to deport the immigrants.

On October 3, Bugti announced the interim government's decision to deport undocumented immigrants and said that the deadline for voluntary departure would expire on November 1.

As per the interim government of Pakistan's announcement, there are approximately 1.7 million undocumented immigrants in the country, with the majority being Afghan citizens.