KABUL: The Taliban have urged Afghan refugees to refrain from participating in demonstrations in Iran and Pakistan.
Taliban’s Deputy Minister for Refugees and Repatriation Abdul Rahman Rashid said in a video message released that the ongoing demonstrations in the two countries were their domestic matter and asked Afghan refugees not to “ruin their lives” by being a part of such protests, reported The Khaama Press News Agency.
Ongoing protests in Pakistan, Iran
Women have been holding nationwide demonstrations for several weeks across Iran. The widespread protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, an Iranian woman who died in the custody of the Iranian Morality Police, are among the biggest challenges faced by the Iranian leadership after the 1979 revolution.
Iran’s judiciary announced on Tuesday that the government had detained 40 foreign citizens for being linked to the country’s recent protests. However, it did not reveal further information about the identity of the arrested individuals.
Before the Taliban formed government in Afghanistan last year, 3.4 million Afghan immigrants – nearly two million of whom were undocumented – lived in Iran, according to data from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), reported The Khaama Press News Agency.
However, the UNHCR said that hundreds of thousands of Afghans fled to Iran following Taliban’s takeover of Kabul.
Meanwhile, large-scale protests are also under way in Pakistan following the ouster of former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan. A long march called by the PTI chief is expected to reach Rawalpindi, a city adjacent to the federal capital Islamabad, on November 26.
According to the UN International Organization for Migration (IOM), currently there are 1.3 million Afghan refugees living in Pakistan lawfully, meanwhile, it is estimated that hundreds of thousands of Afghans are also illegally staying in the country.
