Islamabad — As Pakistan reopens border crossings to facilitate the return of Afghan nationals, a parallel online debate has emerged portraying Afghanistan as a “Dar ul Islam” and “Dar ul Adal”, a supposed refuge of justice for returning Muslims.
The narrative, amplified across Afghan-language social-media accounts, draws selective parallels with the Hijrat Movement of 1920, when thousands of Indian Muslims migrated from British-ruled India to Afghanistan believing it their religious duty to leave a land deemed Dar al-Harb (a territory under non-Islamic rule).
That exodus, inspired by the Khilafat Movement (1919 – 1924) and endorsed by several clerics including Maulana Abdul Bari of Firangi Mahal, Maulana Mahmud Hasan of Deoband, and other scholars of the Jamiat-ul-Ulama-e-Hind, ended in disillusionment when Afghan authorities refused mass settlement and most migrants returned impoverished.
Historians note that the theological debate underpinning the movement began more than a century earlier, after the British captured Delhi in 1803, when prominent South-Asian ulama, among them Shah Abdul Aziz Dehlavi, first declared that India under colonial domination could no longer be considered Dar ul Islam, a ruling that later provided the intellectual foundation for the 1920 migration.
Analysts say reviving that imagery today risks distorting history and deepening tensions between two Muslim neighbours. “Invoking the Hijrat analogy against Pakistan, a country that has hosted Afghans for four decades, turns faith into faction,” a South-Asian historian told the Hindukush Tribune Network (HTN).
Borders Reopen After Two-Week Closure
At the Torkham crossing, hundreds of Afghan families crossed into Nangarhar on Saturday after a 20-day closure. Officials said immigration desks and exit points had been reinforced to manage crowds and verify documents.
Local administrators in Jamrud and Landi Kotal provided temporary shelters, food and medical care for departing families, while the Frontier Corps coordinated convoys toward the Afghan side.
Authorities said those holding temporary registration cards, or lacking documentation entirely, were prioritised for return, while visa holders were advised to wait for normal travel resumption.
Government figures show that since the start of the 2023 repatriation initiative, more than 828,000 Afghans have returned, including 628,000 undocumented individuals. Nearly 10,700 people crossed through the Chaman border in a single day last week as the process expanded nationwide.
At its 1980s peak, Pakistan hosted over five million Afghan refugees. Even today, officials estimate 1.5 million registered and about 600,000 undocumented Afghans remain, one of the world’s largest refugee populations.
Crackdown and Coordination
Provincial governments have tightened residency checks. In Punjab, police filed cases against landlords renting to undocumented migrants, while awareness campaigns through mosques and social media warned citizens against employing foreigners without legal papers.
The authorities confirmed that more than 54,000 documented and 628,000 undocumented Afghans have been repatriated so far, in what authorities describe as an “orderly and dignified” process.
Islamabad insists the policy is a security-driven regulation, not a collective punishment. Officials say the move aims to regularise foreign residency, reduce cross-border militancy, and clear the ground for joint monitoring mechanisms now under discussion with Kabul.
Narratives and Neighbourhood Diplomacy
Pakistani diplomats view the online Dar ul Islam discourse as part of a broader pattern of hostile rhetoric emerging from Taliban-linked digital networks. The campaign, they argue, undermines goodwill at a time when Türkiye and Qatar are mediating a joint ceasefire-monitoring framework between the two neighbours.
“When theology becomes propaganda, both religion and refugees suffer,” said a senior Pakistani official, noting that Pakistan has facilitated the voluntary return of over 4.4 million Afghans since 2002. He added that no other country has hosted Afghan refugees “on this scale, for this long, and with this degree of public acceptance.”
Independent analysts say that while Pakistan’s enforcement measures are firm, the comparative standard of refugee care, education, healthcare, and community integration, has historically remained higher than in most regional host states.
Looking Ahead
The renewed repatriation coincides with preparations for principal-level talks in Istanbul on November 6, where Pakistan and Afghanistan are expected to outline implementation plans for their joint monitoring mechanism under Türkiye and Qatar’s mediation.
Diplomatic observers note that the return of Afghan refugees should be viewed as part of a natural post-conflict transition, following years of instability and the Taliban’s return to power in 2021. With Kabul itself claiming improved domestic conditions, officials say voluntary repatriation remains a logical outcome of normalization rather than a coercive measure.
