LAHORE: The Bahawalpur police took into custody 12 Afghan medical students for holding expired visas and Proof of Registration (PoR) cards but the government dropped the process of their repatriation and allowed them to continue their education ‘till further order’.

The students were enrolled with the Quaid-e-Azam Medical College, Bahawalpur, and the government provided them ‘temporary relief’, a period to complete their travel documents.

A senior police officer told Dawn the police acted on the instructions of the Punjab Home Department to investigate the medical students staying in Bahawalpur without valid documents.

He said the Foreign National Security Cell of the Punjab home department had communicated to the Bahawalpur Deputy Commissioner (DC) to engage the police to question the QAMC students for not possessing legal documents.

Visas of 12 QAMC students found invalid

The police visited the college for investigation, contacted the management and then sought from the Afghan students the documents they were possessing regarding their stay in Pakistan.

During investigation, it transpired that six of the students possessed expired visas while others had expired PoR cards, a sufficient and solid grounds to initiate action against them for violating the government policy introduced for the repatriation of the undocumented Afghans.

There were also some reports that the police took 12 Afghan medical students from the QAMC and shifted them to the area police station.

However, the police officer said that they were summoned by the police for holding expired visas and PoR cards.

The Bahawalpur police later intimated to the Punjab home department through the DC and submitted a report pertaining to the 12 students saying that they fell under the policy of deportation for not having valid documents.

During official communication, the Punjab government issued instructions to the police to allow the students in-question to continue their medical education and put them under observation till ‘further order’.

To a question, the police officer made it clear that no Afghan medical student was in the custody of the police, denying the reports emerging on social media that they were still with the police.

Majeed Gill also contributed to this report from Bahawalpur

Published in Dawn, February 26th, 2026