The Pakistani police carried out overnight raids in Argentina Park, Islamabad, beating, dispersing and detaining a number of Afghan migrants and women activists, according to sources who provided video footage to Amu.
The sources said around 1:30 a.m., police surrounded the park without prior notice, swept through tents set up by about 200 Afghan families and activists who have camped there for roughly four months, and forcibly removed them under the use of physical force.
One migrant, speaking in a video message, said, “They came, gathered everyone, dismantled all tents and loaded us into vehicles. Some children are injured. We don’t know where they’re taking us.”
Another activist, with visible injuries to her eye and forehead, said she was beaten by police. “I am here for rights of women, for human rights. Because I am Afghan. Because I am a woman,” she said.
The migrants and the activists also say that police threatened to forcibly relocate about 400 vulnerable families to Afghanistan, raising concerns among rights groups that the actions violate international standards for refugee protection.
Pakistani authorities have not issued a statement in response to the allegations.
Activists have appealed to international human‑rights organizations and media to amplify the migrants’ voices, warning that continued silent acceptance of their treatment “means abandoning people whose only weapon is the cry for justice.”
One activist claimed the authorities threatened to force around 400 vulnerable families back to Afghanistan, a move she said would violate international protection standards for refugees.
A statement by the group “Friends and Supporters of Argentina Park Islamabad” urged global civil‑society organizations and media to raise the voice of the “defenceless” migrants, stating that “silence in the face of this systematic violence means abandoning people whose only weapon is the cry for justice.”
Pakistan has intensified the arrest and deportation of Afghan migrants since the beginning of the month. Many migrants have reported incidents in which police allegedly took bribes to avoid detaining them.
