PESHAWAR: Akber Khan is seeing a brisk trade at his restaurant in the northwest Pakistani city of Peshawar. Staff fan skewers of grilled meats and dole out rice and salad.
As an Afghan, Khan ought to be leaving as part of a nationwide crackdown on foreigners the Pakistani government says are living in the country illegally. But the only heat he feels is from the kitchen.
“I have been here for almost 50 years. I got married here, so did my children, and 10 of my family members are buried here. That’s why we have no desire to leave,” he said.
Khan is one of more than 3 million Afghans that Pakistan wants to expel this year. At least a third live in the northwest province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and that’s just those with documents like an Afghan Citizen Card or proof of registration.
It is not clear how many undocumented Afghans are in the country.
Shared cultural, ethnic and linguistic ties
The provincial government — led by the party of imprisoned former premier Imran Khan — appears reluctant to repatriate Afghans. Mountainous terrain, sectarian violence and an array of militant groups have also challenged the central government's expulsion ambitions.
“Afghans can never be completely repatriated, especially from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, as they return using illegal channels or exploiting loopholes in the system despite fencing at the border,” said Abdullah Khan, managing director of the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies. “Many villages along the border are divided between Pakistan and Afghanistan, and people in the past three or four decades were never stopped from visiting either side.”
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s proximity to Afghanistan, together with shared ethnic, cultural and linguistic ties, make it a natural destination for Afghans. The province has hosted significant numbers since the 1980s.
Many Afghans have integrated, even marrying locals. The region feels familiar and it’s easier to access through legal and illegal routes than other parts of Pakistan.
While the provincial government was cooperating with federal counterparts, policy implementation remained slow, analyst Khan told The Associated Press.
“The (local) government is sympathetic to Afghans for multiple reasons," he said. "They share the same traditions and culture as the province, and former Prime Minister Imran Khan during his days in power consistently opposed coercive measures toward Afghan refugees.”
Authorities are also wary about unrest, with Afghans living in almost all of the province’s cities, towns and villages.
A slow repatriation rate
Although police were raiding homes in Islamabad, Rawalpindi and other cities in Punjab and Sindh province farther from the border, the “lack of aggressive enforcement” was the main reason for the slow repatriation rate, analyst Khan said.
Pressure on Pakistan to have a change of heart — from rights groups, aid agencies and Afghanistan's Taliban government — could also be a factor.
More than 35,000 Afghans have left Pakistan since the start of April through the northwest Torkham crossing. It’s a far cry from the volume seen in the early phases of the expulsion campaign in 2023, when hundreds of thousands fled to beat a government-imposed deadline to leave.
Many recent deportations have been from eastern Punjab, which is hundreds of kilometers from the border and home to some 200,000 Afghans with documents.
‘We are going under duress’
At a highway rest stop on the outskirts of Peshawar, a truck carrying 30 Afghans stopped to give passengers a break before they left Pakistan for good. They had come from Punjab. Families nestled among furniture, clothes and other items. A woman in a burqa, the covering commonly seen in Afghanistan, clambered down.
Ajab Gul said the actions of Pakistani officials had forced them to leave: “We didn’t want to go. They raided our houses two or three times. We are going under duress.”
Another truckload of passengers from Punjab pulled over by the Torkham border crossing to speak to the AP.
Jannat Gul outlined the dilemma that awaited many. “Our children’s education (in Afghanistan) has been destroyed. We’re going there, but we have no connections, no acquaintances. In fact, people often call us Pakistanis. No one regards us as Afghan.”
‘If they take him, I will stop them’
There were happier scenes at the Kababayan refugee camp in Peshawar, where children played and ate ice cream in the sunshine. The camp, established in 1980 shortly after the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, is home to more than 15,000 people and has schools, a health center, electricity and drinking water.
School is a crucial reason Afghans want to stay in Pakistan, because the Taliban have barred girls from education beyond sixth grade.
Muhammad Zameer, a camp resident, said girls’ education was “non-existent” across the border.
Other camp residents have a different concern: their Afghan husbands. Afghan men face deportation, and their local wives are unhappy.
Some are fighting to get their husbands a Pakistani identity card, which unlocks basic public services as well as indefinite stay, property ownership, bank account access and employment.
Some wives said they are willing to fight anyone deporting their husbands.
“I never imagined the government would treat my husband like this,” said one, Taslima. “If they take him, I will stop them."
Pakistan aims to deport millions of Afghans but local ties and resistance stall the campaign
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Pakistan aims to deport millions of Afghans but local ties and resistance stall the campaign
- The provincial government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa appears reluctant to repatriate Afghans
- More than 35,000 Afghans have left Pakistan since the start of April
- Many recent deportations have been from eastern Punjab, which is hundreds of kilometers from the border and home to some 200,000 Afghans with documents
Australian Prime Minister Albanese proposes tougher national gun laws after mass shooting in Sydney
- He said Monday he would propose new restrictions including limiting the number of guns a licensed owner can obtain
SYDNEY: Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Monday proposed tougher national gun laws after a mass shooting targeted a Hanukkah celebration on Sydney’s Bondi Beach, leaving at least 15 people dead.
Albanese said he would propose new restrictions, including limiting the number of guns a licensed owner can obtain. His proposals were announced after the authorities revealed that the older of the two gunmen — who were a father and son — had amassed his six guns legally.
“The government is prepared to take whatever action is necessary. Included in that is the need for tougher gun laws,” Albanese told reporters.
“People’s circumstances can change. People can be radicalized over a period of time. Licenses should not be in perpetuity,” he added.
At least 38 people were being treated in hospitals after the massacre on Sunday, when the two shooters fired indiscriminately on the beachfront festivities. Those killed included a 10-year-old girl, a rabbi and a Holocaust survivor.
The horror at Australia’s most popular beach was the deadliest shooting in almost three decades in a country with strict gun control laws primarily aimed at removing rapid-fire rifles from circulation. Albanese called the massacre an act of antisemitic terrorism that struck at the heart of the nation.
He pledged swift change, planning on Monday afternoon to present his gun law proposals to a national cabinet meeting that includes state leaders. Some of the measures would also require state legislation.
“Some laws are commonwealth and some laws are implemented by the states,” the Australian leader said. “What we want to do is to make sure that we’re all completely on the same page.”
Australia’s gun laws were revised after a 1996 massacre in the Tasmanian town of Port Arthur, where a lone gunman killed 35 people.
Jewish leaders lambast antisemitism measures
Meanwhile, the massacre provoked questions about whether Albanese and his government had done enough to curb rising antisemitism. Jewish leaders and the massacre’s survivors expressed fear and fury as they questioned why the men hadn’t been detected before they opened fire.
“There’s been a heap of inaction,” said Lawrence Stand, a Sydney man who raced to a Bar Mitzvah celebration in Bondi when the violence erupted to find his 12-year-old daughter. “But the people were warned about this. ... And still not enough has been done by our government.”
“I think the federal government has made a number of missteps on antisemitism,” Alex Ryvchin, spokesperson for the Australian Council of Executive Jewry, told reporters gathered on Monday near the site of the massacre. “I think when an attack such as what we saw yesterday takes place the paramount and fundamental duty of government is the protection of its citizens, so there’s been an immense failure.”
An investigation was needed, Ryvchin said, into “how that was allowed to take place.” Those investigations were beginning to unfold Monday.
More details about the shooters emerge
Little was publicly confirmed about the men. Police said they were a father and son but wouldn’t supply their names.
The father, 50, who was shot dead, had a gun license that allowed him to legally acquire the six firearms recovered from his property and also held a gun club membership, said Mal Lanyon, Police Commissioner for New South Wales state, where Sydney is located.
The particular gun license he held entitled an adult with a “genuine reason” to own a rifle or shotgun. Accepted reasons include target shooting, recreational hunting and vermin control, but self-defense is not an accepted reason.
The man arrived in Australia in 1998 on a student visa, authorities said, and was an Australian resident when he died. Officials wouldn’t confirm what country he had migrated from.
His 24-year-old Australian-born son, who was shot and wounded, is being treated at a hospital. Lanyon said the man “may well” face criminal charges and police wouldn’t divulge what they knew about him to avoid marring a prosecution case against him.
Victims included children and the elderly
None of the dead or wounded victims have been formally named by the authorities. Identities of those killed, who ranged in age from 10 to 87, began to emerge in news reports Monday.
Among them was Rabbi Eli Schlanger, assistant rabbi at Chabad of Bondi and an organizer of the family Hanukkah event that was targeted, according to Chabad, an Orthodox Jewish movement that runs outreach worldwide and sponsors events during major Jewish holidays.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry confirmed the death of an Israeli citizen, but gave no further details. French President Emmanuel Macron said a French citizen, identified as Dan Elkayam, was among those killed.
Larisa Kleytman told reporters outside St. Vincent’s Hospital that her husband, Alexander Kleytman, was among the dead. The couple were both Holocaust survivors, according to The Australian newspaper.
The violence erupted at the end of a summer day when thousands had flocked to Bondi Beach, an icon of Australia’s cultural life. They included hundreds gathered for the Chanukah by the Sea event celebrating the start of the eight-day Hanukkah festival with food, face painting and a petting zoo.
On Monday, hundreds arrived near the scene to lay flowers at a growing pile of floral tributes. There were words of pride, too, for a man who was captured on video appearing to tackle and disarm one gunman, before pointing the man’s weapon at him, then setting the gun on the ground.
The man was identified by Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke as Ahmed al Ahmed. The 42-year-old fruit shop owner and father of two was shot in the shoulder by the other gunman and survived.
Massacre followed a surge in antisemitic crimes
Australia, a country of 28 million people, is home to about 117,000 Jews, according to official figures. Over the past year, the country was rocked by antisemitic attacks in Sydney and Melbourne. Synagogues and cars were torched, businesses and homes graffitied and Jews attacked in those cities, where 85 percent of the nation’s Jewish population lives.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that he warned Australia’s leaders months ago about the dangers of failing to take action against antisemitism. He claimed Australia’s decision, in line with scores of other countries, to recognize a Palestinian state “pours fuel on the antisemitic fire.”
Albanese on Monday vowed the violence would be met with “a moment of national unity where Australians across the board will embrace their fellow Australians of Jewish faith.”
“There is no place in Australia for antisemitism,” he said.
Albanese in August blamed Iran for two of the previous attacks and cut diplomatic ties to Tehran. Authorities have not suggested Iran was linked to Sunday’s massacre.
