530 Afghan immigrants released from prisons in Sindh

• Prisoners include relatives of cricketer Fazalhaq Farooqi.
• 800 Afghanis are still imprisoned in different jails.
• Department directed to inform Afghanistan Consulate.

KARACHI: At least 530 Afghan immigrants have been released from various prisons in Sindh after their sentences ended, Bol News reported.

Documents obtained by Bol News revealed that 169 Afghan men were released from Hyderabad jail, 148 from Karachi jail, 41 children were released from children jails of Karachi and Hyderabad. At least 56 Afghan women were freed from Karachi women jail, while 32 from Hyderabad women jail.

84 children along with their mothers were released from Karachi and Hyderabad women jail.

The documents revealed that 800 Afghanis are still imprisoned in different jails of Sindh. The documents said that all those released have served their sentences.

The released prisoners include three nephews and a sister of Afghanistan cricketer Fazalhaq Farooqi.

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The Sindh Home Department has directed police officers to take the Afghan prisoners to Chaman border under custody. The Home Department directed to inform the Afghanistan Consulate in Karachi about deporting of the Afghan citizens.

On December 30, 2022, Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon had denied reports that Afghan children had been arrested and kept in jails in Karachi.

Addressing a press conference, Memon had said that 129 Afghan women were imprisoned for illegally living in Pakistan but children were not under arrest.

The minister had said that 178 children were being kept with their mothers as the law stated that children under seven were to be kept with their mothers.

“Let me tell you these children are not arrested. Our law says that if a woman [prisoner] has a child aged less than 7 years, then they should be allowed to stay with their mother,” the provincial minister had said. “Where will the child go if their father and mother are in jail? They are kept in prison, but not as a prisoner.”

Stressing that the minors were not arrested, the information minister had said those children were kept with their parents, but they were not prisoners. He had added that women belonging to other countries, living illegally in Pakistan, were also in jails.

In response to a question, Memon had said the pictures of children in jail being circulated on social media were fake. He had said that none of the pictures on social media was of Sindh jail, adding that they had checked all the prisons. There was no jail for children in Landhi, he had added.