Pakistan on Tuesday ordered all illegal immigrants, including 1.73 million Afghan citizens, to leave the country or face expulsion after revealing that 14 of the 24 suicide bombings in the country this year were carried out by Afghan citizens.
It has not been clear how Pakistani authorities will be able to ensure that illegal immigrants leave, or how they will be able to find them to expel them.
Islamabad's announcement marks a new low in its relations with Kabul, which deteriorated after border clashes between the South Asian neighbors last month.
"We have given them a deadline of November 1," Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti said, adding that all illegal immigrants should leave the country voluntarily or face forced removal after that date.
Bugti said some 1.73 million Afghan citizens in Pakistan did not have legal documents to stay, adding that a total of 4.4 million Afghan refugees were living in Pakistan.
"There is no doubt that we are being attacked from within Afghanistan and that Afghan citizens are involved in the attacks against us," he said. "We have proof."
Islamabad has received the largest influx of Afghan refugees since the Soviet invasion of Kabul in 1979.
Bugti spoke in Islamabad after civilian and military leaders met the prime minister and army chief to discuss security after a recent series of terrorist attacks.
Violence has seen an unusual spike since local Taliban militants known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), an umbrella group of hardline Sunni Islamist militants, revoked a ceasefire with the government late last year. The TTP wants to overthrow the Pakistani government and replace it with its strict rule under Islamic law.
Last week two suicide bombings targeted religious gatherings in Pakistan, killing at least 57 people. The TTP denied its involvement. Bugti said one of the suicide bombers had been identified as an Afghan national. Islamic State also operates in the Afghan border regions and has been involved in attacks in Pakistan.
The Pakistani military has carried out several offensives against Islamist militants, mainly in the rugged mountainous region along the Afghan border, which it says forced them to flee to Afghanistan.
Islamabad alleges that militants use Afghan soil to train fighters and plan attacks inside Pakistan, a charge Kabul denies and says Pakistani security is an internal matter.
