HARIPUR: On the federal government’s directives, the administrations of the districts bordering the federal capital have beefed up surveillance to prevent Afghans’ entry into the region, official sources said here on Saturday.

Sources in the district administration said the Prime Minister’s Office had constituted a committee under the chair of federal secretary interior and comprising deputy commissioners and district police officers of Rawalpindi, Attock and Haripur, with a mandate to repatriate Afghans living on the outskirts of Islamabad.

In the last meeting of the committee, the sources said it was decided that the DCs of the districts bordering the capital would ensure that no Afghan leaving the capital got refuge in their respective jurisdictions.

The sources said following these directives, the district administration and police in Haripur had established checkpoints bordering the capital and started verifying the documents of all the entrants.

The official sources said an Afghan family comprising four individuals had somehow sneaked into Ghazi tehsil and occupied a rented house in Mouza Essa area.

However, with the intervention of local administration, the family agreed to repatriate.

When contacted, Ghazi police and deputy commissioner Waseem Ahmed confirmed to Dawn the report of checkpoints and the Afghan family’s attempt to occupy a house in Ghazi.

The deputy commissioner said following the expiry of the last warning of August 31 for voluntary repatriation of all the Afghan refugees except those having valid visas, at least 1,522 refugees had left the camps while 61,900 were still living there.

Quoting the official statistics of the commissionerate of Afghan Refugees, the DC said a total of 63,422, including Proof of Registration and Afghan Citizenship Card holders, were living in the camps of Haripur, while around 10,000 were also living outside camps.

“But most of them are willing to repatriate and hopefully they would leave Pakistan in the days to come,” the DC said, adding efforts were underway to facilitate respectful and voluntary repatriation of Afghan refugees.

Published in Dawn, September 14th, 2025