PESHAWAR: “What Eid! I have spent my whole life under the shadow of fear, frustration and war ravages.

I have seen my country being devastated by warlords. For us Eid has lost its meaning. I spent years to build walls of my rented mud house in Board Bazaar in Peshawar. Also, I set up a small juice point to feed my seven-member family.

I belong to a war generation. Happiness for me, my family and my Afghan brethren is a far-fetched idea,” Mazar Gul Baba, narrated his tale of miserable life.

The story of 65-year old Mazar Gul Baba is no different from hundreds and thousands of other Afghan refugees who are evacuating camps, open areas, cities and slums soon after Eidul Azha.

According to Afghan consulate sources in Peshawar, around 10,000 Afghan families will be repatriated to Afghanistan soon after Eidul Azha. The Afghan consulate staff has been doubled to facilitate the repatriating families and help them redress their numerous issues regarding their safe and smooth return to their homeland after they have spent over three decades in Pakistan.

Around 10,000 Afghan families to be repatriated soon after Eidul Azha

“We have doubled our staff working in two shifts to provide possible assistance to our repatriating Afghan families, to resolve their issues regarding various valid documents, to ensure their safe and smooth return and their problems are being addressed on priority basis,” a source privy to the Afghan consulate in Peshawar told Dawn.

Afghan refugees used to offer Eid prayers in Board Bazaar, Kacha Garhi, Shamshatu and Jalozai refugee camps but on the Eid, their prayers would be restricted to local mosques because of their mass return prior to Eidul Azha. “This will be my final Eid in KP, my family has left for Afghanistan, I am just staying here to celebrate Eid with my childhood friends,” 18-year old Ahmad Shah told.

Raishama Amin, a resident of Peshawar said that her Afghan spouse had already gone to Afghanistan. She said her family was worried whether or not Pakistani authorities would issue legal status to him. He said he didn’t know how Afghan government would respond to youth who had been born and bred in Pakistan.

Farid Jan, another 56-year-old Afghan refugee who was busy dismantling his mud home on Pandhu Road in Peshawar said that Afghans were the most unfortunate nation on God’s earth as they had been to suffer forever. “We are born to suffer, not to celebrate Eid. Four members of my family were killed in 1987 in airstrikes on Eid day in Kunar province. For me, Eid is rather a nightmare,” Mr Jan recalled with tearful eyes.

“I am not the lone Pakistani married woman who will suffer this mental agony. The number possibly runs in thousands. My cousin has married an Afghan woman. He is facing the same problem in Kabul. In such a bizarre situation how can a family think of celebrating Eid,” the disgruntled woman questioned.

For most Afghan refugees this Eid would be the last one on the Pakistani soil as thousands of Afghan families plan to pack up on the second and third day of Eidul Azha. For many Afghans refugees, this Eid brings frustration, confusion and an endless trail of grief as the news to immediately ‘pack up’ proved just like a thunderbolt. They were not mentally prepared to leave for their homeland in such a short span of time.

Mohammad Ibrahim Zazai, chief of Afghan Students Union (ASU), told this scribe that this time around Afghan refugees would celebrate Eidul Azha being overwhelmed by a sense of alienation and utter confusion in the wake of sudden eviction orders by the Pakistani authorities. He said his organisation was in direct contact with Afghan consulate officials to facilitate repatriating Afghan families and also address Afghan students’ issues forthwith.

“Around 7,000 Afghan students are studying in various educational institutions of Pakistan, majority being in KP.

The repatriating Afghan families are in hot waters these days as they had never thought of such a sudden and forced repatriation. I think even shifting from one room to another is difficult, one can imagine how horrible it is to pack up from country to another,” Mr Zazai remarked.

Not only repatriating Afghan families are undergoing ordeal of pack up but also host families are suffering pain of separation as they had been living together at one place for decades. Most localities where Afghan refugees were living now give a deserted look.

Published in Dawn September 13th, 2016