200 more illegal immigrants held

Published November 15, 2003

QUETTA, Nov 14: The police have arrested 200 more Afghan nationals in the city during their operation against illegal immigrants.

“The campaign against illegal immigrants is on and over 400 Afghans have been rounded up in Quetta during the last week,” a police official said on Friday.

“We have booked them under the Foreigners Act as they crossed into Pakistan without the required legal travelling documents,” he said and added that they were handed over to the authorities concerned for interrogation.

Those arrested by the police and other law enforcement agencies were not refugees as they were not registered with the UNHCR in any refugee camp, they said.

“We are not arresting those living in the refugee camps. All the arrested people failed to justify their stay in the country,” police sources said.

Sources said it was not clear if any of the arrested people had links with the Taliban.

They said the police were scrutinizing the record of the Afghans who had remained involved in subversive activities to trace out the gang involved in recent rocket attacks and bomb blasts.

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