The order was abrupt and final – 45 minutes to pack up and leave Pakistan for good.
Sher Khan, a 42-year-old Afghan born and raised in Pakistan, had just returned from a long shift at a brick factory when a plainclothes officer knocked on his door with the chilling command. Stunned, he struggled to process how he could uproot an entire life in under an hour.
In a frantic blur, Khan and his wife gathered what little they could – a few kitchen essentials, clothes for their nine children – and abandoned everything else in their home in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
Afghan children from families repatriated from Pakistan carry pillows as they are relocated to their new residence, Kabul, Afghanistan, June 3, 2025. (AP Photo)
Born to Afghan refugees who fled the Soviet invasion in 1979, Khan is now among the hundreds of thousands caught in Pakistan’s sweeping crackdown on undocumented foreigners launched in October 2023.
