Pakistan has ordered all illegal immigrants, including more than 1.7 million Afghan citizens, to leave the country after a series of attacks. “We have given them a deadline of November 1,” Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti said in Islamabad on Tuesday. “And if they don’t get out in time, every law enforcement agency in our states will launch a full-throttle operation to deport them.”
From November, Afghans will only be able to enter Pakistan with a valid passport and visa. Both states share a border that is almost 2,600 kilometers long. Bugti estimated the total number of Afghan refugees in his country at 4.4 million. He emphasized that Afghans living legally in the country are not targets of the deportation campaign.
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The crackdown on undocumented Afghans follows the growing number of terrorist attacks in Pakistan in recent months. “We have seen 24 suicide attacks since January, 14 of which were carried out by Afghans,” Bugti said on Tuesday.
According to authorities, these are organized from Afghanistan. Bugti announced that Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry would discuss the issue with the Taliban who rule Kabul.