PUL-I-ALAM (SW): Hundreds of locals took to the streets in eastern Logar province on Monday against the persecution of Afghan refugees in neighboring Pakistan.
Lately, there have been multiple reports about camps dismantled and refugees forced to leave their homes and assets. In one such recent incident, a slum in Pakistan’s federal capital Islamabad was demolished by the Capital Development Authority CDA that was inhabited by the local internally displaced people and Afghan refugees.
According to the Awami Workers Party (AWP), a local organization fighting for the poor’s right to shelter, Punjab Police has fired rubber bullets and tear gas in the slums and has forcefully destroyed the mud houses.
Women have been beaten up, kicked off of roofs, with their clothing torn off their bodies. Several children, women and elderly critically injured. Police have set people's homes on fire. Over 80 people have been arrested, including AWP's Hassan Turi, it said.
Protesters in Pul-i-Alam chanted slogans against Pakistan and called upon Islamabad not to forcefully expel Afghan refugees.
The protesters also thrashed Pakistan for allegedly tempering the peace process in Afghanistan. Hasibullah Stanikzai, head of the provincial council said on the occasion the new Taliban leader was “an enemy of peace and Islam”. Maulvi Asadullah Hanif, head of the provincial peace council believed without a ceasefire, peace was not possible.
Seperately, civil society activists held demonstrations in Herat and Khost provinces against Pakistan for encroaching Afghan soil at the Durand Line in the loya Paktia region.
ENDS
