1698 Afghan refugees deported from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

PESHAWAR: The deportation of Afghan refugees continued as 1698 refugees with Afghan Citizen Card (ACC) have been deported from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, bringing the total number of deported Afghans to 4,84,975 since September 2023, ARY News reported.

According to the Interior Ministry, 3,268 illegal and undocumented Afghans were also repatriated via the Torkham border crossing.

Since April 1, 2025, at least 3,053 Afghan refugees with Afghan Citizen Cards have been deported. Of these, 160 were deported from Islamabad, 1,980 from Punjab, and one from Gilgit-Baltistan.

In total, since September 2023, 484,975 Afghan immigrants have been repatriated to Afghanistan.

A total of 11,134 illegal Afghans were deported from KP, 1,573 from Islamabad, 3,905 from Punjab, 38 from Azad Kashmir, and 44 from Sindh.

Earlier, Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur said that Afghan refugees will not be forced to leave or throw them on the border.

He opposed the government policy to tackle the people who resorted to arms.

“We have to see, why they have taken arms. They are our own people, we have to own them,” Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s CM here said. “We have solution of terrorism,” Gandapur claimed.

Talking on sending back Afghan refugees to home, KP chief minister said, “We could not throw them back on the border”. “We will not send Afghan migrants back until the Afghan government consents to accept them,” Gandapur said.

He said the KP government will not force any Afghan refugee to return. “We have to move ahead to negotiate with Afghanistan”, he said.

He said the PTI’s founder didn’t ask him for talks, “I am taking efforts in my personal capacity”. He said, he didn’t share several things with the party’s founder. “The PTI’s founder will not strike deal at any cost, I am fighting his battle and will do, what I can do”.

CM Gandapur also warned to hit the streets again if the National Finance Commission (NFC) not given to the province along with the people, police and the administration.