The Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) Peshawar branch on Thursday said it had arrested six Afghan nationals in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa over their alleged involvement in forging Pakistani identity cards.

A large number of Afghan immigrants, with an estimated 1.7m undocumented as of October 2023, reside in Pakistan.

To curb illegal activities, the government in November last year launched the first round of repatriation of what it called “undocumented aliens”. It has now decided to begin the second phase, targeting those with Afghan Citizenship Cards (ACC) and leaving out those with Pakistan Origin Cards.

“Six Afghan nationals involved in forging Pakistani identity cards have been arrested,” a statement issued today by the FIA spokesperson said.

According to the statement, one arrest was made at the Torkham border that connects Afghanistan and Pakistan, while five others were apprehended from a hostel in Peshawar.

Initially, an Afghan citizen named Najibullah was arrested at the Torkham border, the FIA statement said, adding that a Pakistani Computerised National Identity Card (CNIC), as well as an Afghan Tazkira (Afghan identity card), were recovered from Najibullah.

According to a preliminary investigation, the FIA said, the suspect had entered Pakistan via the Pak-Afghan border located in Balochistan’s Chaman district.

He then acquired a Pakistani CNIC and passport through a cleric in Quetta, the FIA statement added.

Using the information provided by Najibullah, five other Afghan nationals with forged Pakistani documents were arrested from Peshawar’s Usmania Hostel.

“Various Pakistani CNICs and passports, as well as Afghan Tazkiras, were recovered from the suspects,” the FIA spokesperson said in the statement, adding that raids were underway to arrest the agent aiding the forgery.

The FIA further said that according to the initial investigation, the detained suspects had planned to go to Saudi Arabia via Kabul by using forged Pakistani documents.

Any possible involvement of the employees of Nadra and the passport offices would be determined during the investigation, the FIA stated.

In September last year, Lt Gen Munir Afsar, chairman of the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) had told a Senate panel that some Nadra staff and external factors were involved in the issuance of fake CNICs to aliens.

Gen Afsar had also said that action was against Nadra employees and around 84 officials had been suspended for their involvement in illegal activity.

Raids are often conducted to nab those involved in forging Pakistani documents to stay in the country.

Last month, the Punjab Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) had arrested a senior Al-Qaeda leader, who according to a CTD official had managed to get a Pakistani identity card while being an Afghan national.

According to state-run Radio Pakistan, 675,190 Afghans have returned to their country as of August 4 as part of the deportation drive.