Afghan musicians face peril as refugees forced out of Pakistan

Khaleej Times

02-04-2025

Ustad Nadeem Baksh, a classical singer from Afghanistan, paid Pakistani police a bribe to avoid deportation after law enforcement raided his home in the city of Rawalpindi.
But he worries the bribe of 50,000 rupees, or about $175, has only bought the family of 14 a limited amount of time.
"I don't know how long we will be safe here before we are forced to move to another city — or back to Afghanistan," Baksh told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone from his rented two-room home in Peshawar, near the Afghan border, where his family relocated after the raid last month.
Baksh is one of thousands of Afghan refugees in Pakistan who have gone into hiding or are preparing to leave after the Pakistani government on March 7 ordered Afghans without official permission to stay to leave the country by the end of the month. But, the government postponed the March 31 deadline due to Eid Al Fitr holidays, a government official said on Tuesday.
Afghan musicians have faced the ire of the Taliban, which follows a hardline interpretation of Islam, since it seized power in 2021. Music has been banned, and the authorities have destroyed instruments, closed music schools and assaulted musicians. They now fear imprisonment or violence if sent back.
Since the start of this year, more than 1,000 Afghans have been detained and more than 20,000 forced to leave Pakistan, according to Moniza Kakar, a Karachi-based human rights lawyer and head of the Joint Action Committee on Afghan Refugees.
Pakistan treats Afghan refugees like a "political football" to pressure the Afghan government, Kakar said.
"Their stay in Pakistan depends on the political climate," she said. "When relations are good, Pakistan extends kindness, even allowing refugees to open bank accounts, regardless of documentation.
"But when tensions rise between the two countries, they're mercilessly used as pawns."
About 3 million Afghans, half of whom are officially designated as refugees, now live in Pakistan, according to the UN refugee agency UNHCR. That figure also includes 800,000 Afghan Citizens Cardholders, who have temporary residency in Pakistan, while the remaining 700,000 people are undocumented migrants.
An estimated 600,000 Afghans arrived in Pakistan since 2021, the UNHCR has said, citing Pakistani government data.
Some 850,000 Afghans have left Pakistan since the government introduced the Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Programme in 2023, said Qaiser Khan Afridi, a UNHCR spokesman based in Islamabad. Most of the returnees lacked the documentation to reside in Pakistan, he added.
The UNHCR has said it is "seeking clarity" on the latest deportation programme, while rights groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have said refugees will face persecution if they are forced back to Afghanistan.
'HUMILIATING'
The Interior Ministry and the Information Ministry did not respond to requests for comment on the repatriation programme.
For Baksh, 52, returning home would mean quitting a generations-old tradition of music. He belongs to the Patiala gharana style of Hindustani singing that was founded by one of his forebears, Ali Baksh Khan, in the 19th century.
"Music is in our blood," he said.
In 2022, the Taliban raided Baksh's home and destroyed his instruments, then jailed and beat him and his sons.
"It was humiliating," Baksh said. "We were told to abandon music and sell vegetables on a pushcart instead."
The Taliban's prohibition of music and art stems from its claim they cause moral corruption.
After fleeing Afghanistan, Baksh and his family lived without visas, which would have cost the family more than $1,000, including the fees demanded by agents, said Nazim Baksh, Nadeem's 24-year-old son and a tabla drum player.
"We don't even have enough for our rent and food, let alone money for our visas," said Nazim.
Since the crackdown on Afghan refugees, Nadeem Baksh said he no longer is able to make music. "I need peace to do that," he said.
FEAR FOR LIFE
Mohammad Yaser Howayda, 26, and his family of four fled to Pakistan in 2022 after he was jailed and assaulted for being at a party where friends were playing music.
His family's sole breadwinner, Howayda had already lost his income as a teacher at his small music school when the Taliban destroyed its instruments in 2021.
Howayda fears he could be killed if he returns to Afghanistan.
"They despise me because I'm Hazara, a Shia minority known for our art, music, and dance - everything the Taliban considers haram," or forbidden, he said.
Hazaras have faced persecution in Afghanistan for more than a century, including by the Taliban when it was in power in the 1990s. Since its return, more than 700 Hazaras have been killed in attacks claimed by an Islamic State affiliate in Afghanistan, Human Rights Watch has said.
Mohammad Suhail Shaheen, a spokesman for the Taliban, said Hazaras had no reason to fear the administration.
Hazaras "can live normal lives like other Afghans," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
But he reiterated the Taliban position that "music is prohibited in Islam" and suggested musicians "pursue other occupations to contribute to the country."
Once in Islamabad, Howayda began teaching lessons in guitar and dombra, the long-necked stringed instrument played by Hazaras. That has all but come to end, save for a few online classes he continues to give.
His students, most of them fellow Afghans, have abandoned their lessons since Pakistan began its crackdown on migrants, with many either deported or detained or afraid to come out of hiding, Howayda said.
Howayda has also struggled to secure the paperwork necessary to remain in Pakistan, but in the current climate in Pakistan, he questioned if a visa is still a guarantee of protection.
"You cannot even imagine what it's like to be living in constant fear of being deported," he said.
"If you take away music from me, it will be like taking my soul away."