The massacre of children in Peshawar was no doubt one of the most shameful and heinous events of history. This barbarous act was criticized by people of all the walks. However, the instant consequence of this has come as a series of actions creating a lot of disturbances and difficulties for Afghan refugees living in Peshawar and other cities of Pakistan.

As media reported and as was claimed by the security forces of Pakistan, terrorists were in continuous contact with a group of Taliban giving them directions from a bordering province of Afghanistan. Although it has been accepted by Pakistani authorities on the media that all the terrorists have been identified as Pakistanis and its responsibility was also claimed by Pakistani Taliban, their link with a group of Taliban functioning from bordering area of Afghanistan was really intolerable for Pakistani authorities. It is the reason why, right the next day, Chief of Army of Pakistan, General RahilShareef paid an urgent visit to Kabul where he met afghan president Dr. Ashraf Ghani and according the unofficial sources, provided the Afghan President with undeniable evidences of the involvement of Afghan Taliban as well in this sad incident and asked Mr. Ghani to take action against them. It was reason why, soon a wide-scale military operation was launched against terrorists in some of the provinces bordering with Pakistan.

With this, Pakistani police and security forces launched a mass operation against different terrorist groups and individuals in different parts of the country. In this connection, the intensification of attacks against Taliban in the on-going military operation of Pakistani army in northern parts of their country is an example that shows the anger of Pakistani leadership and military against the militants. At the same time, the incident was so tragic and horrible that it left the entire nation in a shock and surmounting public anger against militants forced the government and security forces to take hasty actions against the perpetrators of this attack. Till here, it is quite reasonable but then some wrong steps were taken in the name of revenging the Peshawar incident and targeting militants. Although Pakistani authorities accepted it on the media that all the terrorists were Pakistani and they could not come up with evidence of the direct orindirect involvement of any foreign hands behind this attack but a massive crackdown was launched against afghan refugees in different cities of the country.

According to Pakistani sources, more than a million of afghan refugees are illegally residing in Pakistan. It quite reasonable that Pakistani government deserves the right to take necessary action against these illegal refugees but doing so at such a time of frustration and tragedy was really inappropriate. Soon after the incident, the ban on death penalty was lifted up and immediately some criminals were hanged to death. In the same way, government ordered to immediately resume the functioning of special military courts to try the terrorists. Both the acts of government may sound reasonable for a nation that is burning with the desire of revenge and it may also be the part of the government’s policy to win the hearts of people but on the international arena, both of them have been regarded as inappropriate and hasty acts, taken without much consideration of their consequences.

According to the eye-witnesses and Afghans living in Peshawar and other parts of Pakistan, thousands of Afghans have been caught by police and other security organizations without any discrimination. Although there are also present some refugees caught without any document to stay in Pakistan but majority of them were having the refugee identity cards issued by the government of Pakistan but these cards have been given no importance by its own security institutes and they have been put behind the bars. It is reported that Pakistani police also tore away many Afghani passports having Pakistani visas on them, declaring them to be not valuable enough to provide them with a reason to stay in the country. Majority of these Afghans have been charged with the crime of illegal stay in Pakistan while many of them have also been charged with fake and baseless charges of terror activities or links with terrorists. In this regard, large numbers of people have also been caught who are permanently residing in Pakistan and who have established businesses or houses there. In the same way, these Afghans have not been caught from rural areas or from any madrasa or any place close to the tribal areas but caught from the civilized and big cities of Peshawar, Quetta and others.

In this regard, the silence of our government can be termed as a criminal negligence. If Pakistan has accepted that Afghans can stay on their soil and they have also been issued with a legal document by the government, it is totally unfair that they should be caught, imprisoned and harassed from time to time. In the same way, United Nations also needs to interfere in the issue as they are the brokers of the deal with the government of both the countries in assuring the safe stay of Afghans in Pakistan. Majority of Afghans are also angry with the laziness and lack of activation by the Afghan embassy in Islamabad and its Consulate Generals in Peshawar and Quetta. According to them, they have turned their ears deaf and provide with no assistance to any Afghans in any similar situation. It is our call to the government and especially the President and the Chief Executive to take personal interest in the issue so that the sufferings of Afghans in Pakistan may come to its end.