PESHAWAR: Police are cracking down on Afghan refugees in Peshawar and they have arrested over 170 Afghans for their alleged involvement in various crimes. The NWFP government has also started a refugee registration drive in the province with the help of the National Database Registration Authority (NADRA) from today (Sunday). The government has asked all the Afghan refugees to register themselves before December 31, otherwise, their stay in Pakistan would be considered illegal and action will be taken against them.“The arrests came after four bomb blasts in different parts of Peshawar in a few weeks,” police sources said on Saturday. The police have arrested over 170 suspected Afghans from urban, suburban and rural localities of Peshawar city to check the rising number of kidnappings, car lifting incidents and robberies, police sources said.
A majority of the detained refugees have been charged with 14 Foreigners Act. Police said that after initial investigations, they had deported 40 of the detained men who were involved in criminal activities. The police officials said the arrested refugees, who had no criminal record were charged with sections 55 and 109 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).