Local sources in Islamabad report that Pakistan’s police forces raided a gathering of Afghan refugees in one of the capital’s parks last night, brutally beating them before detaining all the women and children and transferring them to a migrant holding facility.
These refugees had, in recent months, set up makeshift tents in a corner of a park in Islamabad, spending their nights there. However, with increasing security pressure on undocumented migrants, the police dismantled the tents and forcibly relocated the families.
According to refugees who were beaten, police officers entered the area without warning and acted with “unrestrained brutality.” One woman, whose body shows visible signs of assault, said in a video:
“Pakistan’s police cannot confront the Taliban, so they take their anger out on us refugees. We came to this country to survive, not to be humiliated and tortured.”
Other refugees described the police behavior as “inhumane and degrading.” They say families were separated without any process, and children were violently dragged into vehicles.
A man whose wife and two children were detained said:
“We came to Pakistan for work and safety. But now we are treated worse than by the Taliban. We have committed no crime except for being Afghan.”
This incident comes as the Pakistani government has intensified its policy of forcibly deporting undocumented migrants in recent months, detaining or expelling thousands of Afghan families. Human rights organizations have repeatedly raised concerns about the violent conduct of Pakistan’s police toward refugees.
Afghan refugees are calling for an end to the violence, urgent intervention from human rights organizations, and humane conditions for the families currently in detention.
