Members of Afghan settlements in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa border province hurriedly packed up belongings this week while others hid at home as police launched a “large-scale crackdown” on undocumented residents.
Authorities in the northern province carried out housing demolitions, roadside identity checks and told Afghans to leave as part of a broader government pushback, community members and officials said.
Residents of Mattani, a short drive from the provincial capital Peshawar, said that authorities had demolished many of the Afghan settlement’s 200 houses this month.
Najeeb Rehman, 50, said he first tried to retrieve his father’s medication and children’s school certificates from his home. “But the officers didn’t listen to us and just said to demolish the house,” he said, in the remains of the settlement where the walls of many homes were now in rubble.
Young men nearby loaded household belongings including beds and solar panels into trucks to cross the border.
In June, Pakistan’s interior ministry ordered law enforcement nationwide to arrest Afghan citizens without visas from July 10. The ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the demolitions.