Police on Wednesday launched an operation to demolish hundreds of houses vacated by Afghans in Karachi’s Afghan Camp in the Sohrab Goth area to prevent “illegal occupation by rogue elements,” officials said.

The land belongs to the Malir Development Authority (MDA). It comprises 3,117 houses, including those of 200 to 250 Pakistani families. Around 15,680 Afghan nationals were previously residing in the camp. Of them, 14,296 have returned to Afghanistan, while the remaining 1,384 are still living there and are being repatriated in phases.

West Zone Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Irfan Ali Baloch told Dawn.com, “The government-owned land was spread over 200 acres, with 3,000 houses built to accommodate Afghans.”

DIG Baloch further said he had written a letter to police authorities to set up a special committee comprising representatives of the city administration, police and other relevant institutions to prevent illegal occupation of the vacated government land.

“It was the biggest camp of displaced Afghans where an estimated 30,000 Afghans used to live,” he said.

“They were repatriated to their home country recently in three phases as per the policy of the federal government. However, 2,000 Afghans are still living there.”

DIG Baloch said he talked with Karachi’s commissioner, and the operation was launched to demolish the houses to prevent the land mafia from occupying them. He added that structures built over 20 acres were demolished today.

“The operation would continue for the next three to four days,” DIG Baloch said.

In October 2023, the government gave an ultimatum to all undocumented immigrants to leave Pakistan by the end of that month or risk imprisonment and deportation to their respective countries.

The following month, the government initiated a nationwide operation to deport illegal foreign nationals, the majority of whom were Afghans, after the deadline to voluntarily leave the country had expired.

In March of the following year, Pakistan began preparations to launch the second phase of its repatriation drive to send nearly one million ‘documented’ Afghans back to their homeland, with directives to district authorities and police to map and collect data of their whereabouts across the country.

This year, March 31 was officially set as the deadline for Afghan Citizen Card holders to leave Pakistan voluntarily, with a renewed warning by the interior ministry that mass deportations would commence afterwards.