ISLAMABAD, May 11: The federal government has directed the provincial governments to launch a crackdown on illegal immigrants and given police a two-week deadline to arrest them, an official source said on Saturday.

After the May 30 deadline, if any illegal immigrant was found in the country, the Station House Officers of the concerned area would face dismissal from service, while the Senior Superintendents of Police would also be served with “displeasure notice”, the source said.

The SHOs had been directed to submit a detailed report to the SSPs about all those foreigners who had a legal status as well as those had been living here illegally in two-week time, the source added.

He said the SHOs had also been told to submit a report to the provincial Home Department about the arrests and data of those foreigners who had legal status.

The SHOs would face a dismissal from service if any illegal immigrant was found in their area after the report had been issued by them.

The number of Afghans living in Islamabad alone has risen to over 81,000, the official source said.

A report compiled by the Special Branch of Islamabad police stated that 48 gangs of Afghan nationals had been operating in Islamabad. They were involved in cases ranging from shoplifting to house robberies, the report added.

The report maintained that 11,145 members of 725 Afghan families had been living in the federal capital without any legal documents.