LAHORE: Caretaker government officials are refusing to disclose any information to back up their oft-repeated claim that Afghan nationals were involved in 14 out of 24 suicide bombings in Pakistan this year.
On October 3, the interim interior minister Sarfraz Bugti revealed in a televised press conference that from January till October there have been 24 suicide bombings in Pakistan.
“Of those 24 bombings, 14 have been carried out by Afghan nationals,” he added, “Afghan people attacked us. This includes the Peshawar mosque bombings and the one in Qilla Saifullah and Hangu, amongst others.”
Bugti further claimed that the government had all the necessary proof.
“Afghan nationals are involved in the attacks on us. We have evidence. We have evidences of everything,” he stated.
The interior minister has repeated the claim in several interviews to international and Pakistani news organisations.
These purported statistics have been used by the interim government to justify ordering all undocumented immigrants, including 1.73 million Afghan citizens, to leave the country or face deportation.
Till now, over 400,000 Afghan nationals have left Pakistan, the interior minister said last week.
