ISLAMABAD: The space in which refugee Shaharzad has to live has shrunk to the small courtyard of a guesthouse in Pakistan’s capital, reminiscent of her life under Taliban rule in Afghanistan.

She fears being swept up in a wave of anti-Afghan sentiment, including reports of harassment, extortion and arrests by Pakistan authorities who have cracked down on mainly undocumented families living there.

“For Afghans, the situation here is terrible and the behaviour of the Pakistani police is like that of the Taliban,” said Shaharzad, who lives in constant fear of being deported with her children.

Her son was recently detained while walking in a park, when “the police asked him for money instead of documents,” she said.

The government cited spiking militant attacks claimed by Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, also known as the Pakistani Taliban, for a campaign last summer that evicted some 750,000 Afghans, mostly undocumented.

In recent months, however, Islamabad and the police have also started alleging Afghan involvement in opposition unrest over the imprisonment of former prime minister Imran Khan.

Afghans who are waiting to be relocated to Western nations say they are being caught up in the political tensions.

“After coming here, we feel like we are out of the frying pan and into the fire,” said Afghan Mustafa, who is waiting with his family for visas to the United States.

The 31-year-old said his family cannot go out freely to buy groceries and medicine for fear of arrest.

“If they know you are an Afghan, whether you have the visa or not, they will arrest you or will extort you,” he said.

More than three years after the Afghan Taliban returned to power in Kabul, the United States and European countries have yet to reopen their embassies there, forcing Afghans to complete their applications from within Pakistan.

Shaharzad was told to travel to Pakistan by a European nation that said it would process her onward visa from the capital Islamabad.

Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry called on Western nations in July to expedite the relocation of more than 44,000 Afghans living in Pakistan and awaiting relocation to the United States, Australia, Canada, Germany and Britain.

Millions of Afghans have traveled to Pakistan over the past four decades, fleeing successive conflicts including the Soviet invasion, a civil war and the post-9/11 US-led occupation.

Some 600,000 Afghans have fled to Pakistan since the Taliban government took over again in August 2021 and implemented their austere version of Islamic law.

According to UNHCR, Pakistan currently hosts some 1.5 million Afghan refugees and asylum-seekers, alongside more than 1.5 million Afghans of different legal statuses.

A campaign to deport undocumented Afghans was launched as political ties between the neighboring governments frayed and Pakistan’s economic and security woes worsened.

A wave of political protests in the capital in support of jailed former premier Khan last month saw a new spike of about 30 arrests of Afghans, according to officials.

Khan’s heartland is in the ethnic Pashtun belt of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which shares close cultural and linguistic ties with Afghan Pashtuns.

Muhammad Khan, an Afghan community leader in Islamabad, said the protests were used as a cover to intimidate Afghans.

Clashing with the official account, he claimed close to 200 Afghans were arrested over several days, including during raids on guesthouses.

“Afghan refugees are the sacrificial lambs for Pakistan’s domestic problems and the tensions between the governments in Islamabad and Kabul,” Khan said, denying the involvement of Afghans in Pakistani political activities.

Pakistan’s interior ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

Imaan Mazari, a human rights lawyer who defends arrested Afghans in Islamabad courts, said the protests have led to a spike in “racial profiling (of Afghans) in Islamabad and Rawalpindi,” just south of the capital.

The police have been given “a completely free license to pick up whoever they want, extort them (and) exploit them.”

The provincial Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur, who led the recent protests, said hostility toward Afghans has spread to Pakistani Pashtuns.

In a letter to Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, he accused the police of the “arbitrary rounding up” of “Pashtun laborers in Islamabad” and warned that “such actions risk fostering a sense of alienation and exclusion among communities.”

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said it was “deeply concerned by the alleged ethnic profiling of ordinary Pashtun citizens” and called on Islamabad police to refrain from actions “that create divisions among various communities living in the country.”

The Afghan embassy in Islamabad has denied any involvement by Afghans in political activities in Pakistan.

“This policy (of blaming the Afghans) brings no benefit to Pakistan and will only deepen the mistrust between the two neighboring countries,” it said in a statement.

For Afghans in limbo as they wait to be relocated, life has become similar to what they left behind in Afghanistan.

“We have become like prisoners, we go out very rarely and only when we really have to,” Mustafa said.

DUBAI: From fortune-making franchises to family-friendly fun, here are some of the biggest films coming out in the next few months.

‘Snow White’ 

Director: Marc Webb 

Starring: Rachel Zegler, Gal Gadot, Andrew Burnap 

The latest in a flurry of live-action remakes of classic Disney animated movies (see also “Lilo & Stitch,” due out in late May) sees Zegler take on one of the most iconic fairytale princesses from the company’s considerable catalogue. Disney has certainly invested wisely in its writers — the musical fantasy was penned by Erin Cressida Wilson (“Secretary”) and Greta Gerwig (“Lady Bird,” “Barbie”) — and with a nostalgia-hungry audience pretty much guaranteed to turn up in theaters, this will likely be one of the year’s biggest hits with families. 

‘Paddington in Peru’ 

Director: Dougal Wilson 

Starring: Ben Whishaw, Hugh Bonneville, Emily Mortimer 

This third instalment of the hugely popular franchise based on Michael Bond’s children’s books sees Paddington and his adoptive family, the Browns, head to Paddington’s homeland of Peru, where — they have learned — Paddington’s Aunt Lucy is pining for him. When they arrive, though, Aunt Lucy has gone missing in the jungle, and during their search for her, Paddington and the Browns are separated. 

‘Captain America: Brave New World’ 

Director: Julius Onah 

Starring: Anthony Mackie, Danny Ramirez, Shira Haas 

Onah says this fourth installment in the “Captain America” film series will show Sam Wilson (previously The Falcon) “stepping up to be the leader as Captain America” having been handed the iconic shield by Steve Rogers in “Avengers: Endgame.” When Wilson finds himself at the center of an international incident involving the president, he must use everything he’s learned about being a hero to put things right. 

‘Mickey 17’  

Director: Bong Joon-ho 

Starring: Robert Pattinson, Mark Ruffalo, Toni Collette 

This long-delayed feature from acclaimed South Korean director Bong Joon-ho (whose 2019 black comedy “Parasite” picked up Best Picture and Best Director Oscars) keeps the dark humor, but shifts to a sci-fi setting. It stars Robert Pattinson as the title character, an ‘expendable’ space traveler sent on a dangerous mission to colonize an ice planet. When one Mickey dies, another is cloned with most of his memories intact. But when the titular 17th iteration accidentally survives, problems naturally arise. 

‘Black Bag’ 

Director: Steven Soderbergh 

Starring: Cate Blanchett, Michael Fassbender, Marisa Abela 

Modern indie cinema pioneer Soderbergh has become one of the planet’s finest crime-thriller directors, so giving him actors of the caliber of Blanchett and Fassbender for this spy thriller about a pair of married intelligence agents — George and Kathryn Woodhouse — should pay off handsomely. When Kathryn is accused of betraying her country, George’s loyalties are tested to their limits. 

‘The Amateur’ 

Director: James Hawes 

Starring: Rami Malek, Rachel Brosnahan, Caitriona Balfe 

British director Hawes helms this adaptation of Robert Littell’s 1981 novel. It’s a thriller about a CIA cryptographer Charles Heller (Malek) whose wife is killed in a terrorist attack. Realizing that his bosses are paralyzed by conflicting priorities, Heller blackmails them into training him as a field agent, then sets out to exact his revenge on those responsible for his wife’s death. 

‘Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning’ 

Director: Christopher McQuarrie 

Starring: Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames 

Ethan Hawke and the gang return (and, despite the title, probably not for the last time) in this direct sequel to 2023’s “Dead Reckoning — Part One.” It continues the story of Hawke’s battle against the Entity, a rogue AI capable of controlling Earth’s defense and financial networks. Cruise will be hoping that the relatively disappointing box-office performance of “Dead Reckoning” was just a blip in the long-running franchise’s success.  

‘A Minecraft Movie’ 

Director: Jared Hess 

Starring: Jack Black, Jason Momoa, Emma Myers 

Given the success of films based on video games or board games in recent years, a movie based on “Minecraft” — the pop-culture phenomenon sandbox game that has sustained its popularity for more than a decade now — was all but inevitable. The resulting adventure comedy centers around a team of misfits who are “pulled through a mysterious portal into the Overworld: a bizarre cubic wonderland that thrives on imagination,” according to a Warner Bros. synopsis. “To get back home, they’ll have to master this world … while embarking on a magical quest with an unexpected, expert crafter.”