ISLAMABAD: As the deadline set for illegal aliens to leave Pakistan expired on October 31, law enforcement agencies swung into action to catch and shift illegal foreigners, especially Afghans, to holding camps set up for them in different cities across the country before their deportation.
In a major crackdown, an operation was carried out to demolish illegal structures of Afghans in I-12 sector of Islamabad inhabited by hundreds of families.
Officials said that at least 800 houses were razed to the ground in the operation conducted by the CDA with the help of the capital police and district administration.
One observer on the occasion said that it seemed the main objective behind the government action to evict illegal foreigners was to retrieve land occupied by them in Islamabad where cost of land is too much high.
Meanwhile, hundreds of Afghan nationals were rounded up from different parts of Khyber Pakthunkhwa, Punjab and Sindh for shifting to the designated centers.
The government says these Afghans will ve sent to their country in phases in buses and trucks.
During the four weeks given to the illegal foreigners, a little over 100,000 Afghan nationals were reported to have left the country through the Torkham and Chaman borders of KP and Balochistan.
Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti on Tuesday directed officials concerned not to disrupt Afghans who would voluntarily leave the country even on November 1.
All those being shifted to the holding centers should be treated with respect, he told the officials.
On the other hand, a group of human rights activists headed by former senators Farhatullah Babar and Afrasiab Khattak have asked the government not to evict vulnerable asylum seekers and vulnerable Afghans.
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