Pakistan on Tuesday ordered all illegal immigrants to leave the country or face expulsion after revealing that 14 of 24 suicide bombings in the South Asian nation this year were carried out by Afghans.

Interior minister Sarfraz Bugti said all illegal immigrants should leave Pakistan by November 1 or face forcible expulsion. She said some 1.73 million Afghan nationals in Pakistan had no legal documents to stay.

Bugti was speaking in Islamabad after civil and military leaders met the Prime Minister and army chief to discuss law and order.

Two suicide bombings targeted religious gatherings in Pakistan last week, killing at least 57 people.

There was no immediate response from Kabul to Bugti’s comments. The Afghan Taliban have denied accusations that Afghan territory is used for militant activity and said Pakistan’s security is a domestic issue.

Militant attacks have surged in Pakistan since 2022 when a ceasefire broke down between the government and the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, an umbrella body of hardline Sunni groups.

Speaking at a news briefing after a high-level meeting of the Apex Committee chaired by caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul Haq Kakar and attended by Army Chief General Asim Munir among others, Bugti said that soon law enforcement agencies will get directions against the illegal immigrants.

He said that the meeting held at the PM House took the decision to remove illegal residents under the National Action Plan which was devised in 2015 to deal with the threat of militancy. “The first decision taken is about our illegal immigrants who are living in Pakistan through illegal means. We have given them a deadline of November 1 to willingly return to their countries and if they don’t, all law enforcement agencies (LEAs) of the state and provinces will deport them,” Bugti said.

Bugti said the meeting decided that the security of a Pakistani was the most important for the government.