The upper house of Afghan Parliament “Misharano Jirga” has condemned the ‘arrests’ of Afghan refugees in Pakistan and has said it will closely assess the situation.

The Commission on International Relations of the Afghan Senate has announced that in the coming week a delegation of members of this house and Afghan Foreign Ministry officials will travel to Pakistan to talk with the Pakistani authorities on reports of mishandling and arrests of Afghan citizens and Refugees in Pakistan.

Earlier reports of arrests of tens of Afghan refugees as a result of a crackdown by Pakistani security agencies after a wave of violence and bomb blasts in Pakistan was heatedly debated in which Afghan senators strongly condemned the act.

Today’s Pakistani daily Urdu Newspaper “Mashriq” reported of 1500 arrests of Afghan refugees in the past one month. Meanwhile, Pakistani authorities have confirmed the arrests of several Afghans and Pakistanis due to the recent wave of violence in this country.

Last month, the Pakistani ambassador in Afghanistan was summoned to the Foreign Ministry and was asked to explain the reports of ‘arrests and harassment’ of Afghan refugees.

Currently over 1.5 Million registered Afghan refugees reside in Pakistan but statistics of illegal Afghan Refugees puts the number to more than 2 Millions. Earlier Afghan embassy in Islamabad had reported arrests of several Afghans in different cities of Pakistan. Pakistan has been the largest recipient of Afghan refugees in the past 30 years.

Moreover, hundreds of Afghans visit the border city of Peshawar for various purposes related to health, family and educational purposes. However, the defamed Pakistani Police relies heavily on taking bribe and instead of legal checking and handling of the illegal refugees; they receive their chunk of money in return. Cases of harassment of Afghan Passport holders and legal Afghan Refugees identified by UNHCR and the Pakistani government have been the main source of concern.

Now that a delegation of Afghan authorities is going to take up the matter with its Pakistani counter parts, hopes can be that the Pakistanis are convinced that it’s not the refugees who are behind the unrest in Pakistan but the trained international terrorists who have made Pakistani territory their safe haven.