Afghan refugees in the Kohat district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have urged the government to extend the deadline for them to leave the country.

They told Aaj News that the government should give them a year or six months instead of a month so that they can return to their homeland after resolving all the issues amicably.

Pakistan has set a November 1 deadline for illegal immigrants to leave the country. The government would start an operation next month and confiscate the properties and businesses of illegal immigrants, Caretaker Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti said on Tuesday.

At least 30 Afghan families arrived at the Torkham border in the Khyber district of KP on Thursday. The returning Afghan families comprised 350 people, according to the Commissionerate of Afghan Refugees.

The refugees in Kohat added that they have no nothing to do with the politics of Pakistan and demanded that their unregistered people should be registered so that they can have a peaceful life.

Pakistan has been a refuge for people fleeing from war in Afghanistan since the 1970s. Some 1.73 million Afghans in Pakistan have no legal documents, out of the total 4.4 million Afghan refugees, Interim Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti said on Tuesday.

At least 1,500 illegal Afghan nationals were living in refugee camps set up in Kohat, said Afghan leader Malik Mujahid Shinwari.