QUETTA, Dec 21: The Balochistan National Party-Mengal, Baloch Republican Party, National Party and Shahwani Qaumi Ittehad have urged the government to cancel national identity cards issued to Afghan refugees and ask the United Nations to send them back to their country.

The parties took out a procession from Sariab chowk and held a public meeting in the Liaquat Park on Sunday. The protesters chanted slogans, demanding expulsion of Afghan refugees, end to the military operation and scrapping of the Gwadar project. They also urged the Baloch people not to sell their land.

Speaking at the public meeting, Shahwani tribe’s chief Nawab Mohammad Khan Shahwani, Shahwani Qaumi Ittehad chairman Mir Zafarullah Khan Shahwani, BNP-M secretary-general Habib Jalib Baloch, BRP vice-president Mir Hayatullah Jamaldini and National Party’s Mir Moheem Khan Baloch said purchase of land in Quetta, Gwadar and other areas of Balochistan by refugees and non-Baloch people was aimed at turning the Baloch majority into a minority in the province.

They said issuing national identity cards to Afghan refugees and allowing them to purchase land was a violation of international law.