Pakistanis in Afghanistan
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Pakistanis in Afghanistan are mostly refugees, but also include laborers, traders, businesspersons, and small number of
diplomats A diplomat (from grc, δίπλωμα; romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state or an intergovernmental institution such as the United Nations or the European Union to conduct diplomacy with one or more other states or internatio ...
. Those working in white-collar professions include doctors, engineers, teachers and journalists. Because
Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...
and
Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
are neighbouring states with a loosely controlled
border Borders are usually defined as geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other subnational entities. Political borders c ...
, and a distributed population of ethnic
Pashtuns Pashtuns (, , ; ps, پښتانه, ), also known as Pakhtuns or Pathans, are an Iranian ethnic group who are native to the geographic region of Pashtunistan in the present-day countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan. They were historically r ...
and
Baloch people The Baloch or Baluch ( bal, بلۏچ, Balòc) are an Iranian people who live mainly in the Balochistan region, located at the southeasternmost edge of the Iranian plateau, encompassing the countries of Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan. There ...
, there is constant flow of population between the two countries.


History

Dynasties, such as those of the Delhi Sultanate and the
Mughals The Mughal Empire was an early-modern empire that controlled much of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries. Quote: "Although the first two Timurid emperors and many of their noblemen were recent migrants to the subcontinent, the d ...
, as well as nomad people from the
Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a list of the physiographic regions of the world, physiographical region in United Nations geoscheme for Asia#Southern Asia, Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian O ...
(including modern-day Pakistan) have been invading and coming to Afghanistan for the past many centuries. Before the mid-19th century, Afghanistan and some regions of Pakistan were part of the Durrani Empire and ruled by a successive line of Pashtun kings who had their capitals in Afghan cities. In 1857, in his review of J.W. Kaye's ''The Afghan War'',
Friedrich Engels Friedrich Engels ( ,"Engels"
'' Second Anglo-Afghan War The Second Anglo-Afghan War (Dari: جنگ دوم افغان و انگلیس, ps, د افغان-انګرېز دويمه جګړه) was a military conflict fought between the British Raj and the Emirate of Afghanistan from 1878 to 1880, when the l ...
, the
Durand Line The Durand Line ( ps, د ډیورنډ کرښه; ur, ), forms the Pakistan–Afghanistan border, a international land border between Pakistan and Afghanistan in South Asia. The western end runs to the border with Iran and the eastern end to th ...
was established in the late 1800s for fixing the limits of
sphere of influence In the field of international relations, a sphere of influence (SOI) is a spatial region or concept division over which a state or organization has a level of cultural, economic, military or political exclusivity. While there may be a formal a ...
between
Mortimer Durand Sir Henry Mortimer Durand, (14 February 1850 – 8 June 1924) was a British Anglo-Indian diplomat and member of the Indian Civil Service. Background Born at Sehore, Bhopal, India, he was the son of Sir Henry Marion Durand, the Resident of ...
of
British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...
and Afghan
Amir Emir (; ar, أمير ' ), sometimes transliterated amir, amier, or ameer, is a word of Arabic origin that can refer to a male monarch, aristocrat, holder of high-ranking military or political office, or other person possessing actual or cer ...
Abdur Rahman Khan Abdur Rahman Khan GCSI (Pashto/Dari: ) (between 1840 and 1844 – 1 October 1901) was Emir of Afghanistan from 1880 to his death in 1901. He is known for uniting the country after years of internal fighting and negotiation of the Durand Line Ag ...
. When Pakistan inherited this single-page agreement in 1947, which was basically to end political interference beyond the frontier line between Afghanistan and what was then colonial British India, it divided the
indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention *Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band *Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehorse ...
ethnic
Pashtun Pashtuns (, , ; ps, پښتانه, ), also known as Pakhtuns or Pathans, are an Iranian ethnic group who are native to the geographic region of Pashtunistan in the present-day countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan. They were historically re ...
and Baloch tribes. During the 1980s Soviet war, a large number of Pakistan-backed Mujahideen forces fought the Soviets and the Soviet-backed
Afghan government The government of Afghanistan, officially called the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is the central government of Afghanistan, a unitary state. Under the leadership of the Taliban, the government is a theocracy and an emirate with political powe ...
. After the death of Massoud and the removal of the Taliban regime of Afghanistan in late 2001 by US-led coalition forces, members of the Taliban regrouped and began a strong
insurgency An insurgency is a violent, armed rebellion against authority waged by small, lightly armed bands who practice guerrilla warfare from primarily rural base areas. The key descriptive feature of insurgency is its asymmetric nature: small irr ...
campaign inside Afghanistan. The insurgents are members of Afghan-based and Afghan-led militant groups such as the Afghan Taliban (including the Quetta Shura chapter), the
Haqqani network The Haqqani network is an Afghan Islamist group, built around the family of the same name, that has used asymmetric warfare in Afghanistan to fight against Soviet forces in the 1980s, and US-led NATO forces and the Islamic Republic of Afghanist ...
, or
al-Qaida Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military targets in various countri ...
and others. The militant groups include a small number of Pakistanis and other Muslim foreigners among their ranks.


Refugees

In January 2008,
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
reported that about 6,000 Pakistanis from
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (; ps, خېبر پښتونخوا; Urdu, Hindko: خیبر پختونخوا) commonly abbreviated as KP or KPK, is one of the Administrative units of Pakistan, four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the Geography of Pakistan, ...
crossed into Afghanistan, which included women and children. While fighting in northwest-Pakistan between the
Pakistani Armed Forces The Pakistan Armed Forces (; ) are the military forces of Pakistan. It is the world's sixth-largest military measured by active military personnel and consist of three formally uniformed services—the Army, Navy, and the Air Force, which are ...
and the
Pakistani Taliban The Pakistani Taliban (), formally called the Tehreek-e-Taliban-e-Pakistan (Urdu/ ps, , lit=Student Movement of Pakistan, TTP), is an umbrella organization of various Islamist armed militant groups operating along the Afghan–Pakistani bor ...
may have been one reason, Sunni Shia sectarian strife was also suggested as a possible driver for their flight. They were able to receive medical aid in
Khost Khōst ( ps, خوست) is the capital of Khost Province in Afghanistan. It is the largest city in the southeastern part of the country, and also the largest in the region of Loya Paktia. To the south and east of Khost lie Waziristan and Kurram ...
and Paktika provinces. By September 2008, their number had reached 20,000, and about 70% of the refugees were Pakistanis while the rest were Afghans who had settled in Pakistan during the last 20 or so years. More Pakistani refugees went to Afghanistan after the
2010 Pakistan floods The floods in Pakistan began in late July 2010, resulting from heavy monsoon rains in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, Punjab and, Balochistan regions of Pakistan, which affected the Indus River basin. Approximately one-fifth of Pakistan's tot ...
. As of 2015, around 221,432 Pakistanis are found living in Afghanistan. Most of them are in
Khost Province Khost ( Pashto/ Dari: ) is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the southeastern part of the country. Khost consists of thirteen districts and the city of Khost serves as the capital of the province. To the east, Khost Province is ...
and
Paktika Province Paktika (Pashto/Dari: ) is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the eastern part of the country. Forming part of the larger Loya Paktia region, Paktika has a population of about 789,000, mostly ethnic Pashtuns. The town of Sharan ...
. There are also a small number of Pakistani Baloch migrants, mainly concentrated in the southern parts of Afghanistan like
Nimruz Nimruz or Nimroz (Dari: ; Balochi: ) is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the southwestern part of the country. It lies to the east of the Sistan and Baluchestan Province of Iran and north of Balochistan, Pakistan, also borde ...
. A large number of Pakistani refugees have returned from Afghanistan following the end of
Operation Zarb-e-Azb Operation Zarb-e-Azb (Pashto/ ur, ALA-LC: ) was a joint military offensive conducted by the Pakistan Armed Forces against various militant groups, including the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, the ...
.


Workers

Pakistani expatriates have been involved in the rebuilding and reconstruction of Afghanistan and have made contributions towards the Afghan economy. By 2006, there were about 60,000 Pakistanis working in Afghanistan; the exact number was unclear because of the lack of government records. Pakistanis could be found working not just in the main cities such as
Kandahar Kandahar (; Kandahār, , Qandahār) is a city in Afghanistan, located in the south of the country on the Arghandab River, at an elevation of . It is Afghanistan's second largest city after Kabul, with a population of about 614,118. It is the c ...
, but also less-accessible provinces such as
Ghazni Ghazni ( prs, غزنی, ps, غزني), historically known as Ghaznain () or Ghazna (), also transliterated as Ghuznee, and anciently known as Alexandria in Opiana ( gr, Αλεξάνδρεια Ωπιανή), is a city in southeastern Afghanistan ...
, Wardak, or
Helmand Helmand (Pashto/Dari: ; ), also known as Hillmand, in ancient times, as Hermand and Hethumand, is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, in the south of the country. It is the largest province by area, covering area. The province contains 13 ...
. Many work in the construction sector, while others have found white-collar jobs such as information technology professionals for United Nations organisations and foreign companies in urban areas; they have an increasing demand due to their skills and mostly originate from the northwest
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (; ps, خېبر پښتونخوا; Urdu, Hindko: خیبر پختونخوا) commonly abbreviated as KP or KPK, is one of the Administrative units of Pakistan, four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the Geography of Pakistan, ...
province. As many as one-sixth cross the border on any given day. In May 2011, several expatriate Pakistanis crossing the border at
Torkham Torkham (; ps, , translit=tūrxam) is a major border crossing between the Pakistani city of Torkham and Afghanistan, located along the Grand Trunk Road on the international border between the two countries. It connects Nangarhar province of A ...
were routinely being harassed and bothered by intelligence agencies in Pakistan; some were asked repetitive questions as to why they were going to Afghanistan while others had their materials and laptops searched. The expatriates sent a complaint and brought the issue to the notice of the Pakistani ambassador in Kabul, Muhammad Sadiq.


Crime

However, NATO and Afghan officials also blame Pakistan's
Inter-Services Intelligence The Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI; ur, , bayn khadamatiy mukhabarati) is the premier intelligence agency of Pakistan. It is responsible for gathering, processing, and analyzing any information from around the world that is deemed relevant ...
(ISI) spy network for being involved in terrorist attacks. Pakistan and Afghanistan have an irregular and poorly marked border. This allows militants to frequently cross back and forth across the border unchecked and undetected. A few of the insurgents and militants in Afghan resistance groups were of Pakistani origin. They have been arrested in the last decade and are held in different prisons across the country. They are usually from regions along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, including the
Waziristan Waziristan (Pashto and ur, , "land of the Wazir") is a mountainous region covering the former FATA agencies of North Waziristan and South Waziristan which are now districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. Waziristan covers some . ...
region, the city of
Quetta Quetta (; ur, ; ; ps, کوټه‎) is the tenth most populous city in Pakistan with a population of over 1.1 million. It is situated in south-west of the country close to the International border with Afghanistan. It is the capital of ...
and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan, and engaged in attacks against US-led NATO forces and the
Government of Afghanistan The government of Afghanistan, officially called the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is the central government of Afghanistan, a unitary state. Under the leadership of the Taliban, the government is a theocracy and an emirate with political pow ...
. NATO and Afghan officials also blame Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) spy network for being involved in some of the attacks. Besides the serious criminals, there are unknown number of Pakistani prisoners in Afghanistan who are held for visa violation or petty crimes.Pakistan, Afghanistan discuss prisoner swap
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See also

* Afghans in Pakistan * Sindhis in Afghanistan *
Afghanistan–Pakistan relations Afghanistan–Pakistan relations refer to the bilateral ties between Afghanistan and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. In August 1947, the partition of British India led to the emergence of Pakistan along Afghanistan's eastern frontier, and the ...
*
Punjabis in Afghanistan Punjabis in Afghanistan were residents of Afghanistan who were of Punjabis, Punjabi ancestry. There was historically a small Punjabi community in the country, mainly consisting of Afghan Sikhs and Punjabi Hindus, Hindus. History Punjab (region), ...


References

{{Ethnic groups in Afghanistan Ethnic groups in Afghanistan Immigration to Afghanistan