Police officials told reporters on Tuesday that the Afghan nationals were trying to reach Karachi from Hub, the border town of the Balcohistan province that lies next to Karachi.

They were in Raees Goth on the Hub River Road and were detained when they failed to produce identification documents, the officials said.

A photo obtained by Aaj News shows about two dozen men, most of them in their twenties, in police custody.

Officials said the men had recently arrived in Pakistan from Afghanistan.

Police have booked the Afghan nationals under the foreigners act and other laws.

Authorities in the Sindh province have arrested a number of Afghan nationals since the Taliban takeover of Kabul in August 2021 which sparked an exodus from Afghanistan.

Hundreds of Afghan nationals were sent back to Afghanistan earlier this year after serving their sentences in Pakistan.

In December 2022, social media users claimed that hundreds of children were languishing in Sindh jails. Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Memon denied the reports.