• Police detain over 200 undocumented immigrants in twin cities
• 100 moved to ‘holding centre’ in Attock

ISLAMABAD/RAWALPINDI: As the police in the twin cities formed special teams to round up undocumented immigrants, the Islamabad police on Wednesday moved at least 64 Afghan nationals to the Torkham border crossing for deportation whereas the Rawalpindi police shifted more than 180 immigrants to a ‘holding centre’.

Islamabad police officials said a team of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and the capital police transported the prisoners in two buses from Adiala jail to the border under strict security measures. The remaining prisoners will be shifted to the border in different phases.

On Wednesday, the Shalimar police arrested over two dozen Afghan refugees on Wednesday and the process of their identity verification was underway.

“Those who will be able to produce valid documents will be set free while the others will be moved to a ‘holding centre’ in Sector I-14,” officials said.

The police have formed separate teams of the operations division and the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD), which will target locations, including Sabzi Mandi, Sangjani, and Bhara Kahu, where Afghan immigrants are reportedly concentrated.

“Police have also planned to raid some informal settlements on the outskirts of the federal capital to detain ‘illegal foreigners’,” the sources revealed.

It may be noted that the capital administration had announced a crackdown on undocumented immigrants from November 2 after the passage of the Nov 1 deadline set for the ‘voluntary repatriation’ of the ‘illegal foreigners’.

“The police will also conduct door-to-door searches in light of tenants’ data available with the CTD and Safe City Authority to identify and arrest undocumented immigrants,” sources added. The decision was ostensibly taken to discourage families from giving shelter to undocumented immigrants.

‘Extra caution’

In Rawalpindi, the police have formed special teams with a target to arrest 1,000 Afghan nationals till November 3, 2023.

The police had also planned a ‘grand operation’ in the vicinity of Pirwadahi to round up more refugees.

The raiding teams have also been directed to handle the detention of ‘illegal immigrants’ with “extra caution so that no one should record the arrests on camera”.

Following the government’s decision, City Police Officer Syed Khalid Hamdani called a special meeting on Wednesday to chalk out a strategy to handle the issue of Afghan nationals.

He also directed them to take the women police with them while rounding up refugee children and women. “And the SHO will be responsible for shifting the illegal immigrants to a ‘holding’ camp, established in Khayaban-i-Sir Syed,” the official said.

He further directed the police to arrest all those who “have POR and ACC cards or those that have expired”; the verification of those cards would be conducted by Nadra and FIA staff at the ‘holding centre’.

Officials have estimated that a total of 12,000 Afghans have been identified in Rawalpindi district, of which 6,000 are illegal, a senior official said, adding that the status of the remaining 6,000 was yet to be confirmed.

The Attock police, on the other hand, said over 100 Afghan migrants were rounded up from various parts of the district and shifted to “holding centres” while as many as 12 Afghan migrants were booked under the foreigners act.— Amjad Iqbal in Taxila also contributed to the story

Published in Dawn, November 2nd, 2023