Silk Way Weekly: The Pakistani government has begun the process of repatriating undocumented Afghans from Rawalpindi, Islamabad, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Tuesday (April 1, 2025).
An Afghan refugee in Pakistan, who did not want to be named, told the Silk Way that in the past month and a half, since the Pakistani government began the process of expelling Afghan refugees from the country, more than two thousand Hazara Ismaili families have moved to Karachi from Islamabad and Rawalpindi.
Sources say they traveled for more than two days and nights to reach the Hazara areas of Karachi, Pakistan. Hussain Hazara Gut and Mughal Gut are two Hazara areas in Karachi, Pakistan, where they have been living for many years.
The source says that guest houses in these two Hazara areas of Karachi are full, and people have also provided other facilities to the migrants and moved them into their own homes.
The person in charge of the Safari Guesthouse in Karachi told the Silk Way that out of the 2,000 to 3,000 Ismaili Hazara migrants who came to Karachi from Rawalpindi and Islamabad, about 700 to 800 of their families have been relocated to Hussain Hazara Gut. The source adds that all of them are Ismaili Hazaras.
Manager of Safari Guesthouse added that the Hazaras of Hussain Hazahgot have given shelter to the refugees, but he expressed concern that the Pakistani police have warned them to return to Afghanistan within a week.
The Ismaili Hazaras say that they have been persecuted by the Taliban since their return to power and that they are unable to return to their country.
Taliban forces attacked the congregational houses of the Ismaili Hazaras in the Sheghnan and Kishim districts of Badakhshan province and turned their religious centers into mosques.
some Ismaili Hazaras in Bamyan say that the Taliban have excluded them from all local administrations in Bamyan because they are Ismailis and have also been warned to convert.
The Ismaili Hazaras, who have now taken refuge in Karachi for fear of deportation by Pakistani police, say they will face persecution from the Taliban if they return to Afghanistan.
The source says that after the fall of Kabul to the Taliban, about 40,000 to 50,000 Hazara Ismailis have left the country and settled in neighboring countries of Afghanistan.
Official reports show that so far, 878,972 Afghan refugees who had illegally taken refuge in Pakistan have been returned to Afghanistan.
Pakistani government officials have said that the country still hosts 800,000 Afghan refugees with Citizenship Cards (ACCs) and 2.1 million Afghan refugees with legal documents.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) also said in a report that of this number, 1.3 million people have a Proof of Registration (PoR).
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