EVERYONE seems to be in a hurry to forget Nov 26, from those who were behind it to those who faced the brunt of it. The government must be relieved it is spoken about so little, while the PTI leadership in parliament or in government in KP is also averse to agitating over the issue.

But other than the PTI-government tussle, this event had serious implications for a far more vulnerable group the Afghan refugees in Islamabad.

Their victimisation came to light soon after the protest had ended. For instance, in the aftermath of the event, human rights lawyers such as Imaan Mazari highlighted the discriminatory treatment being meted out to the capital`s refugee and Pakhtun population and accused the law-enforcement authorities of racial profiling.

Poor and vulnerable Pakhtun people were said to have been picked up from different parts of the city, as officials tried to demonstrate their efficacy in maintaining security and sending a message to all and sundry about the `hazards` of street protests.

Such claims were also lent credence by anecdotal accounts doing the rounds in the city, as friends and colleagues told stories of their friends and colleagues who were stopped by the police randomly all they had in common was their ethnicity. But even within this `racial profiling`, there is a hierarchy, as refugees are the most vulnerable. And this is highlighted in a draft report which has been prepared by the JAC for Refugees, Karachi. Based on documents such as FIRs collected from the various police stations in Islamabad, the report says 540 people were arrested during the PTI protest and later, of which 86 were Afghan nationals. According to the report, most of the refugees picked up were residents of Rawalpindi and Islamabad and were taken into custody during their commute to work or back. The majority of them were young men underthe age of25.

A 19-year-old quoted in the story explains howhe was picked up when he stepped out to visit the pharmacy. `I was going to the pharmacy in Sector I-10 Islamabad. A policeman stopped me outside the market and bundled me into a van without a word. Later in the day, I found myself at police station Shams in Islamabad and found out I had been booked for having participated in the PTI protest.

Some of those arrested were not even guilty of stepping out of their homes. A 20-year-old, according to the report, was picked up when a midnight raid was carried out on the basti he lived in. `I was thrown out of my bed by the police and arrested. I ended up in the lockup and later found out that I now faced terrorism charges.` He was picked up on Nov 29.

However, it seems the operation to pick up people began a few days before the PTI demonstrators entered Islamabad. For instance, one young man quoted in the report said he was picked up on Nov 23 when he was returning home. According to him, he was stopped by a policeman at a check-post; the refugee`s appearance was enough for the policeman to make the decision. When the 21-year-old tried to resist, he was threatened that he would be charged with a `non-bailable` offence. The young man spent three days at the police station before he was charged. The report points out that the majority of the refugees who were picked up were daily wage workers who earn a living in wholesale vegetable markets.

The draft report also quotes those who claim they were asked for bribes in exchange for being released and not charged with crimes. While a few of them were able to pay hefty amounts, many others could not and continue to make their way through the judicial process.

But more worrying is the assertion that arresting Afghan refugees and charging them with serious offences has become the norm, which implies this is not limited to a particular event.

And this is an issue that needs more attention.After all, since the change of the regime in Kabul and the decision in Islamabad to send refugees back, Afghan refugees have increasingly become part of the political discourse, in a way that was not apparent earlier. For instance, recent decisions to send them back to Pakistan were linked to terrorist attacks in Pakistan.

Government officials claimed that the decision was made because Afghan nationals had been involved in terrorist attacks; in 2023 when this decision was announced, then interior minister Sarfraz Bugti made this connection in his statements. Even though many analyses on the decision pointed out that it perhaps stemmed from Islamabad`s desire to pressure Kabul into stopping the TTP from targeting Pakistan.

It did not stop here. Before, during, and after Nov 26, the government and other officials, in their effort to undermine the PTI protest, played up the ethnic angle. And while there was and there continues to be the idea that one province, KP, is attacking the centre and/ or Punjab, officials also alleged that the PTI was bringing Afghans to Islamabad during the protest. In fact, once the dharna was over, a story made its way to electronic news channels in which different young men confessed on camera that they were illegal refugees who had been paid to take part in the protest; in addition, they also admitted to acts of violence during that period such as damaging property or attacking law-enforcement personnel.

Whether this was done to simply disparage the PTI or to undermine the protest without alienating the Pakhtuns remains unclear. However, what it has and will continue to do is to spread this idea that refugees are linked to violence.

And as both the tussle with the PTI and the government in Kabul continues, chances are this `targeting` of the refugees will not stop, verbally or in actions. • The writer is a joumalist.