ISLAMABAD: Pakistani citizens belonging to the North Waziristan Agency who had moved to Afghanistan during operation Zarb-e-Azb, are moving back to their homeland, reads a statement from the office of the Political Agent of North Waziristan.
The government has made preparations to receive 4,329 displaced families arriving from Khost, Afghanistan, starting today. While the second phase of the homecoming of Pakistani families was scheduled to begin on Feb. 6, the families were turned away at the border by Afghan authorities.
The statement added that the families were returning to Pakistan as a result of successful negotiations with Afghanistan and would enter Pakistan via the Ghulam Khan border.
All families returning will be provided with food and transportation facilities from the border town of Ghulam Khan all the way to Bannu, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, claimed the political agent.
The statement further confirmed that, as previously practiced, the displaced families would stay at the government’s relief camp at Bakkakhel, Bannu, for debriefing before being allowed to return to their homes.
According to official estimates, 12,000 Pakistani families had migrated from North Waziristan to Afghanistan.
The political administration, however, has yet to receive the pre-registration forms of the remaining Pakistani families living in Afghanistan. “Once these forms are received, the families will be brought home on the conclusion of the second phase of repatriation when the third phase is launched,”the statement added.
The remaining Pakistani families staying in Afghanistan will be brought back in the third phase of the repatriation.
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More than 4,000 Pakistani families to return from Afghanistan
More than 4,000 Pakistani families to return from Afghanistan
US heading to ‘authoritarianism’, warns Human Rights Watch
- HRW: US President Donald Trump has shown ‘blatant disregard for human rights and egregious violations’
WASHINGTON: Human Rights Watch warned Wednesday that President Donald Trump was turning the United States into an authoritarian state as democracy declines globally to its lowest ebb in four decades.
Trump’s return to the White House has intensified a “downward spiral” on human rights that was already under pressure from Russia and China, the New York-based advocacy and research group said in its annual report.
“The rules-based international order is being crushed,” HRW said.
In the United States, the group said, Trump has shown “blatant disregard for human rights and egregious violations.”
In descriptions that would have been unthinkable in the US section of its previous annual reports, the group pointed to the deployment of masked, armed agents — the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency — which has carried out “hundreds of unnecessarily violent and abusive raids.”
“The administration’s racial and ethnic scapegoating, domestic deployment of National Guard forces in pretextual power grabs, repeated acts of retaliation against perceived political enemies and former officials now critical of him, as well as attempts to expand the coercive powers of the executive and neuter democratic checks and balances, underpin a decided shift toward authoritarianism in the US,” the report said.
Human Rights Watch repeated its finding that the United States engaged in enforced disappearances — a crime under international law — by sending 252 Venezuelan migrants to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador.
Trump’s return to the White House has intensified a “downward spiral” on human rights that was already under pressure from Russia and China, the New York-based advocacy and research group said in its annual report.
“The rules-based international order is being crushed,” HRW said.
In the United States, the group said, Trump has shown “blatant disregard for human rights and egregious violations.”
In descriptions that would have been unthinkable in the US section of its previous annual reports, the group pointed to the deployment of masked, armed agents — the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency — which has carried out “hundreds of unnecessarily violent and abusive raids.”
“The administration’s racial and ethnic scapegoating, domestic deployment of National Guard forces in pretextual power grabs, repeated acts of retaliation against perceived political enemies and former officials now critical of him, as well as attempts to expand the coercive powers of the executive and neuter democratic checks and balances, underpin a decided shift toward authoritarianism in the US,” the report said.
Human Rights Watch repeated its finding that the United States engaged in enforced disappearances — a crime under international law — by sending 252 Venezuelan migrants to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador.
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