ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s caretaker government has decided to evict 1.1 million ‘illegal foreigners’ because of what it calls their involvement in “funding, facilitating terrorists and other illegal activities,” state-owned APP news agency reported on Monday, in a decision that will likely hit Afghans. 

Afghans have poured into Pakistan in the millions during decades of successive wars, many living in aid camps with restricted access to education, health care and employment. Around 1.3 million are registered refugees and 880,000 more have legal status to remain in Pakistan, according to the latest United Nations figures.

But since last month, police have launched a widening crackdown against those they say are without legal status and in response to rising terror attacks, crime and poor regulation of immigration that is straining resources. A majority of those arrested in the latest crackdown are Afghans.

“In the first phase, illegal residents, in the second phase, those with Afghan citizenship and in the third phase, those with proof of residence cards will be expelled,” APP reported.

“Illegally resident foreigners pose a serious threat to the security of Pakistan. A plan for eviction of illegally residing Afghan citizens has also been approved as this lot is involved in funding, facilitating and smuggling terrorists whereas 7 lacs [0.7 million] Afghans have not renewed their proof of residence in Pakistan.”

APP reported that illegal residents and those who had not renewed their visas would be deported in the first phase.

“In the second phase, those with Afghan citizenship will be deported, in the third phase, those with proof of residence cards will be deported,” the news agency said, adding that the plan had been prepared by the interior ministry in consultation with all stakeholders, including the Afghan government.

Kabul has not yet responded to the announcement of the eviction plan.

“The [interior] ministry has also issued directives to the concerned to compile a record of Afghans living without permits and prepare a transportation plan to bring them to the Afghan border,” APP said. 

“Apart from checking the records of all the Afghans residing in the country the concerned officials were directed to quickly deal with the applications filed regarding the registration of Afghans.”

The crackdown comes amid a rise in terror attacks in Pakistan, mostly by militants belonging to the Pakistani Taliban. Pakistan says the Pakistani Taliban, or TTP, have become emboldened since the Afghan Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021 as US and NATO troops were in the final stages of their pullout from the country after 20 years of war. Authorities say the insurgents, who are allied but separate from the Afghan Taliban, have found sanctuaries and have even been living openly in Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover.

The TTP has especially stepped up its attacks on Pakistan since November last year when it unilaterally called off a tenuous peace deal that had been brokered by Kabul.

The Afghan government says it does not permit its soil to be used by armed groups against other nations.

At least 700 Afghans had been arrested since early September in Karachi alone as part of the latest crackdown — 10 times more than in August — and hundreds more in the other cities, according to official police figures.

Afghans say the arrests have been indiscriminate. They accuse police of extorting money and ignoring legal documents, while pointing to rising anti-Afghan sentiment as prolonged economic hardship burdens Pakistani households and tensions rise between Islamabad and Kabul’s new Taliban government.

PESHAWAR: The administration of Charbagh in Pakistan’s northwestern Swat valley said on Monday a girls’ cricket match scheduled to be held last week had been called off due to “security reasons” and not because of concerns over immodesty by local clerics.

Swat valley, in Pakistan’s deeply conservative Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, was previously long controlled by Taliban militants before they were flushed out in a military operation in 2009. Swat is also the hometown of Nobel Laureate Malala Yousafzai, who was shot by Taliban militants in 2012 for advocating for girl’s education.

On Sunday, a cricket match between two local girls’ teams was not allowed to take place over what the organizer of the match, Ayaz Naik, said were concerns from local clerics and elders that it defied “traditional values.” 

The match’s cancelation was widely reported by media and debated on social media, where users called for women from Swat to be allowed to exercise their right to play sports.

Assistant Commissioner Charbagh, Muhammad Yar Khan, denied the match was called off over concerns it was “immodest and inappropriate.”

“A wrong information has been spread in the media that the females were barred from playing the cricket match,” he told Arab News. 

“The match was canceled for security reasons in the locality and because the organizers had not taken the administration in confidence to provide any security … We have decided to reschedule the match at a safer place and a better locality.”

Naik, the match’s organizer insisted it had been called off due to pressure from local elders, despite the fact that male spectators were not allowed on the Charbagh ground where the game was scheduled to be held on Sunday.

“Despite all the arrangements, wrong information was spread about the match on social media that it was against the traditional values owing to which the locals reacted and the game was not allowed to be played,” Naik said, adding that police and local elders were already present on the ground when the teams reached there on Sunday morning and were informed the game could not be held.

But given the outpouring of support on social media, Naik said he was hopeful the match would be allowed to take place soon:

“The district administration called me for a meeting today and it was decided that the girls will be able to play this week after all the security arrangements have been made.”

Sheema Ghafar, a high school student and a player on one of the teams, expressed disappointment over the match’s postponement.

“We were so excited for the match, we waited a lot but as we reached the ground, there was a mess inside, so many people were gathered there,” she told Arab News.

“When we saw the situation, we were so depressed and returned disappointed from the ground.”

Pakistan’s security situation has deteriorated since late last year when the Pakistani Taliban called off a truce with the government and vowed to launch attacks.

In two separate incidents, suicide bombings ripped through two mosques in Pakistan last week, killing over 60 people as believers marked the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh).