No Succour, No Safety, No Sanction

Can you imagine that there is no safe place on earth for these people? How consumnately dreadful.

Afghan refugees say IDPs’ arrival will add to their miseries

By Fawad Ali Shah

KARACHI: Afghan refugees living on the outskirts of the city suspect that the issue of internally displaced persons (IDPs) would badly affect their lives and would add to their miseries.

Muhammad Ghaffar, a resident of Mohajir camp located outside Sohrab Goth, is already feeling the heat. “Prior to the IDP issue, the police would take bribes from the Afghan refugees one way or the other,” he said, however, for the past few weeks, he alleged that the police have doubled the bribe they ask for and have also started to torture the Afghan refugees. Ghaffar claims that at least 84 Afghan refugees have been arrested during the last two weeks.

Afghan refugees in Karachi have been alleging that the officials of the police are manhandling and abusing them. “We don’t want to be involved in the internal affairs of Pakistan,” said Ghaffar, who works as a rickshaw driver. Stating that the influx of IDPs has added to their miseries as they are finding it difficult to work in the city, Ghaffar reveals that during past week, he has paid Rs 800 as bribe to the police. Gul Mar Jan, an Afghan community elder, claims that members of his community have been attacked more than five times in the last two weeks. The attitude of the people towards the Afghan refugees is changing due to the political environment and the influx of IDPs. “The police and Rangers are treating us very badly,” the community elder said, adding that the lives of Afghan refugees residing in the city are no longer safe. “Yesterday, a policeman in Landhi arrested two Afghan youngsters without a reason,” Jan went on to say. He laments that after the influx of IDPs in the city, the people’s behavior towards Afghan refugees is rapidly changing. “The issue of Swat is Pakistan’s internal problem and we have nothing to do with it,” he says. “Please secure our lives,” he appealed to the provincial government.

However, Maulvi Nisar Ahamd, an Afghan religious leader, sees no change in the atmosphere. “This has been the attitude of the police towards Afghan refugees from the very beginning,” he revealed. When contacted West Zone DIG Zafar Abbas Bukhari told Daily Times that the police have taken stringent security measures to ensure that terrorists do not enter the city under the guise of IDPs. He said as there are more Afghans in the West Zone of the city, security has been heightened there and raids are conducted in Afghan localities following tip-offs regarding presence of terrorists in these areas.