KHYBER: Police on Thursday arrested 12 undocumented Afghan nationals in Landi Kotal tehsil of Khyber tribal district and deported eight of them to Afghanistan through the Torkham border crossing, officials said.
According to local authorities, the action followed warnings issued to Afghan nationals residing in various localities of Landi Kotal, asking them to either return to Afghanistan voluntarily or obtain valid travel and residence documents. Afghan traders and shopkeepers were also directed to wind up their businesses and leave the area.
Officials said the crackdown was launched in Landi Kotal Bazaar, where police and district administration personnel detained at least 12 Afghan shopkeepers during an operation. Of them, eight were deported to Afghanistan via the Torkham border. The deported individuals were identified as Abu Bakar, Farman, Waris, Awozubillah, Nasaruddin, Adam Khan, Najeebullah and Hayat Mohammad.
Four other Afghan nationals — Mohammad Adnan, Yar Gul, Zahidullah and Abdur Rehman — were not deported as their cases are pending before the Peshawar High Court, officials added.
Authorities said this was the first such operation targeting undocumented Afghans in Landi Kotal tehsil. Prior to the crackdown, local officials had visited areas where Afghan families were residing and asked them to leave Pakistan, citing pressure from both federal and provincial governments to ensure the departure of undocumented foreign nationals.
Officials said the administration had completed mapping of Afghan families living in different parts of Khyber district and stressed that efforts would be made to persuade them to return “in a dignified manner”. They acknowledged that many Afghans had been residing in the area for decades, with some allegedly holding Pakistani identity cards obtained illegally.
However, sources in Landi Kotal Bazaar said the deportations had caused concern among Afghan traders who had been living and doing business in the area for nearly 30 years. They said many traders had invested millions of rupees in local businesses and would find it difficult to wrap up their operations within a short timeframe.
You May Also Like: Teenage maid kidnapped and sexually assaulted in Karachi’s Gulshan-i-Maymar
Meanwhile, sources at the Torkham border said Afghan authorities were not allowing hundreds of stranded Pakistani nationals to cross back into Pakistan. The stranded individuals reportedly include students, women and children who have been stuck in Afghanistan since the closure of border crossings on October 12.
The officials said that the crackdown was initiated on Thursday at the Landi Kotal Bazaar.https://t.co/VthjBx3Qf2
— Dawn.com (@dawn_com) January 16, 2026
The sources said Pakistan had allowed 28 medical students enrolled in Afghan medical colleges to return on January 12, but since then around 1,000 more Pakistani nationals had gathered on the Afghan side of the border seeking permission to enter Pakistan.
One stranded Pakistani, Zahidan Khan of Landi Kotal, told Dawn by phone that he and others had repeatedly contacted the Pakistan Embassy in Kabul and the Foreign Office in Islamabad for a one-time renewal of expired visas, but had received no response. He urged the federal government to consider their cases on humanitarian grounds, citing financial and health difficulties.
Check out our latest video:
