Logo of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence organization(wikipedia)
It is widely perceived in Pakistan that politicians need the military’s backing to come to power, but many now fear that bureaucrats could also need the same support for their appointment and postings…..reports Asian Lite News
Pakistani politicians and activists have raised fears about the military increasing its control over the country’s public life after the new prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, gave the ISI spy agency vetting power over civil service appointments.
The move has placed the verification and screening of government officials in charge of postings, appointments and promotions in ISI hands, leading to concerns of a shrunken civilian space.
Pakistan’s powerful military, which ruled the country directly for three decades, and its premier intelligence agency have a long history of meddling in politics and controlling politicians.
It is widely perceived in Pakistan that politicians need the military’s backing to come to power, but many now fear that bureaucrats could also need the same support for their appointment and postings.
“If we keep in mind Pakistan’s history of takeovers and the sway that military has over our politics, this decision will weaken civil bureaucracy and compromise their independence,” said senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar. “We have shot ourselves in the foot and it’s a decision worth reconsidering,” The Guardian reported.
Raza Rabbani, the former chair of the senate, called Sharif’s decision an attack on the constitution. “The concept of civilian supremacy is tarnishing,” he said.
Before ousting the former prime minister, Imran Khan, in a no-confidence vote in April, opposition parties now in power had criticised the military for its meddling in politics, rigging elections and bringing Khan into office.
Ayesha Siddiqa, an author and expert on military affairs of Pakistan, said it was depressing that none of the senior leadership of the major political parties had condemned Sharif’s move, The Guardian reported.
“The government’s notification has legalised military intelligence’s power over other institutions,” she said. “At the same time [it has] sown seeds for a long-term disempowerment of the political class to strengthen its position and that of the parliament to weaken the military’s control over politics.”
They also expressed their best wishes on his new assignment as the Peshawar Corps Commander…reports Asian Lite News
The Director-General of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Lieutenant General Faiz Hameed, on Thursday held separate farewell meetings with Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi in Islamabad, The News reported.
In the farewell meetings, both Imran Khan and Qureshi appreciated the efforts and services of Faiz Hameed as ISI DG.
They also expressed their best wishes on his new assignment as the Peshawar Corps Commander, the report said.
A day earlier, the Hameed paid a farewell visit to Pakistan President Arif Alvi at the President House, where Alvi too appreciated the efforts and services of Hameed as ISI DG for the country’s security.
Hameed will serve as ISI DG till November 19, after which Lt Gen Nadeem Anjum will take charge of the post on November 20, the report said.
Lt Gen Anjum was appointed the new ISI DG by Imran Khan on October 26.
“The Prime Minister has seen and approved the appointment of Lt Gen Nadeem Ahmed Anjum as Director General of Inter-Services Intelligence with effect from November 20, from the panel of officers at Para 6 of the summary,” read the notification from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
Lt Gen Nadeem Anjum, who was commissioned in service in September 1988, earlier headed Corps V in Karachi.
imran (ANI)
Gen Anjum commanded a brigade in Kurram Agency, led Frontier Corps (North) in Balochistan and remained commandant of Command and Staff College Quetta before becoming corps commander Karachi in December 2020.
After days of speculation on October 12, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry had said that the authority to appoint the ISI chief lay with the prime minister, and that the set procedure would be followed for the purpose.
“The legal procedure will be followed in the appointment of the new DG ISI, for which both [Gen Bajwa and Prime Minister Imran Khan] are in agreement,” he had said, the report added.
The ongoing anti-terror operation in Poonch has indicated the preparation level of these terrorist groups, they added…reports Asian Lite News…reports Asian Lite News.
Following the recent civilian killings in the Kashmir, Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) is now pushing the terrorists and overground workers, as well as hybrid terrorists, to hit the security forces’ camps and posts in the valley, sources said.
The sources quoting intelligence inputs, have confirmed that the ISI has asked the handlers of terror outfits active in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) such as Lashakar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad and the newly-floated ‘The Resistance Force’ to instruct its cadre to hit the security forces’ camps and posts.
They also said that some heavily-armed terrorists who might have sneaked into the valley earlier, may sprawl on security establishments, therefore, extra vigil have been instructed without any laxity.
The ongoing anti-terror operation in Poonch has indicated the preparation level of these terrorist groups, they added.
The sources also said that despite the high security apparatus that have activated in Jammu and Kashmir especially after the recent visit by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, these inputs are a matter of concern.
However, officials involved in the operations said that adequate security arrangements have been put in place to prevent untoward attempts.
“Barricades and fortified bunkers have been placed at the security forces’ camps and residential complexes have been tightened, adequate security deployments have been deployed at the entry and exit points of the cities in the Union Territory including Srinagar,” the security officials said, adding that similar arrangement have also made for defence establishments, while joint patrolling by the army and CRPF have already been intensified.
Khan has refused to accept the appointment of the new DG ISI and is not going to back down. Bajwa in turn has stuck to his guns that Lt. Gen. Faiz Hameed cannot continue as the Director General of ISI….reports Mrityunjoy Kumar Jha
How long will the Imran Khan government last? This is the big question being asked in Pakistan after the headline grabbing standoff between the Prime Minister Imran Khan and the Pakistani army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa became open.
Though Khan’s cabinet colleagues insist that the differences between the PM and army chief have been sorted out amicably after both had a 3-hour marathon one-on-one meeting on Monday night, Pakistani sources think otherwise.
Khan has refused to accept the appointment of the new DG ISI and is not going to back down. Bajwa in turn has stuck to his guns that Lt. Gen. Faiz Hameed cannot continue as the Director General of ISI.
Sources claim that work on a plan-b is also in the works. A fresh summary pertaining to the appointment of the new DG ISI will be jointly prepared by the defence ministry and the military, in which three new names for DG ISI would be presented to Khan and Bajwa, but neither Lt Gen Faiz Hameed nor Lt Gen Nadeem Anjum’s name will not be in the list.
Earlier Bajwa had appointed Nadeem as the chief of the ISI replacing Hameed who was sent to Peshawar as a corps commander.
While Hameed’s transfer was the prerogative of the army chief, on paper the appointment of the chief of ISI is done by the PM in consultation with the army chief. Khan told Bajwa that he was not consulted for the appointment of Nadeem as the ISI chief. Sources claim that Bajwa told Khan that it was a strategic military decision and the civilian government should not get involved. But Khat insisted that Hameed should continue as the ISI chief. On that, Khan was told bluntly that someone whom he likes can’t continue on his post “forever”.
“The new DG would be appointed and neither General Faiz nor General Nadeem Anjum would be considered for the post anymore. But the relation between the civilian head and military head.fault lines are hard to fix,” said Pakistani journalist Rauf Klasra.
Pakistani analysts say that PM khan, by interfering in the “internal” matter of the army, may have crossed the red line. They are also wondering why Khan is insisting to keep Faiz Hameed as the ISI chief ?
There is a perception in Pakistan that Imran Khan asked Bajwa to let Hameed continue till December but Bajwa refused. Earlier, he first proposed making the ISI chief’s rank equivalent to that of corps commander ,and then proposed Hameed take on the role of Corps Commander Peshawar as an additional charge. However, Bajwa did not agree to the proposal because this would have led to resentment among his top military leadership.
Pakistani observers say Khan and Bajwa have not been on the same page in the handling of critical foreign and security matters. How to deal with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), has become a major friction point, with PM Khan seen as too eager to reconcile with the militant outfit which is responsible for killings of thousands of Pakistani soldiers and civilians.
But in the present geopolitical situation, neither the army chief Bajwa nor Imran Khan are in a position to go for a full showdown and both understand this .So shadow boxing is the only available option.
Yet, Khan himself is well aware that he was “selected” or made “puppet” prime minister because it was the army who rigged the elections to make him a winner. In Pakistan, it is clear as daylight that when push comes to shove, it is the iron-hand of the military, which finally prevails.
(The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com)
This follows a reported impasse between the civil and military leadership over the appointment of DG of the ISI…reports Asian Lite News
Amid “differences” with his Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) General Bajwa on the issue of appointment of new Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Director-General, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan received a summary carrying names of candidates for one of the most powerful positions in the country.
This follows a reported impasse between the civil and military leadership over the appointment of DG of the ISI, Dawn reported.
On Monday, the Pakistan military’s media wing, the Inter-Services Public Relations issued a notification regarding the appointment of Lt General Nadeem Ahmed Anjum as DG ISI despite the fact that his appointment was not issued by PM Khan’s office.
The law in Pakistan states that the appointment of the ISI Chief falls under the Prime Minister’s decision in consultation with the COAS.
At the moment, no notification has been issued by the Prime Minister’s Office for the appointment of the incoming ISI chief, Dawn reported. (ANI)
The incumbent Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa is on extension till 2022….reports Asian Lite News
The first and foremost priority of Lieutenant General Nadeem Anjum, who has been appointed as the new Director General of Pakistan’s external spy wing Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), is to crush the Balochistan freedom movement.
Following his appointment on Wednesday, Lt Gen Anjum replaced Lieutenant General Faiz Hameed, who was seen with the Taliban after the fall of Kabul on August 15.
Lt Gen Hameed, who was heading the spy agency since June 16, 2019, has now been appointed as Commander of the Peshawar Corps, which would make him eligible for the next Pakistan Army chief.
The incumbent Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa is on extension till 2022.
As the Peshawar Corps Commander, Lt Gen Hameed would also be working with the US and the Chinese as both are playing a major role in Afghanistan after its fall to the Taliban.
Lt Gen Anjum had previously worked in Balochistan as Inspector General of the Frontier Corps Balochistan for a while and has been infamous for stalling and disrupting freedom movement in the region through militia.
He had also served as the commander of Karachi Corps and it was in 2019 that he was promoted as Lieutenant General. He has also held command postings near the Line of Control.
The new ISI DG hails from the Pakistan Military Academy’s (PMA) 78th Long Course and the Punjab Regiment.
He also served as the commandant of the Command and Staff College in Quetta and was also the commander of a brigade in Kurram Agency, Hangu.
Lt Gen Anjum graduated from the Royal College of Defense Studies in the UK and also holds a degree from the Asia-Pacific Centre for Security Studies, Honolulu.
He had entered the office with the same perception about his personality, which dated back to his days at the ISI as head of internal security….reports Asian Lite News
Faiz Hameeds tenure as new Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief was marred by controversies both internal and external, which often kept the spy agency under media spotlight, Dawn news reported.
He had entered the office with the same perception about his personality, which dated back to his days at the ISI as head of internal security.
The timing of the change at the ISI, however, took many by surprise. It was generally believed that Gen Hameed would hold the position till April next year though he had completed his two-year tenure.
Some are looking at the change from the angle of the upcoming race for the next army chief in 2022. Gen Hameed, who would be one of the contenders, was yet to command a corps. Therefore, it is thought that he has been moved to a corps to meet that requirement for the four-star position, the report said.
Gen Hameed’s new place of posting, Peshawar, would, moreover, keep him relevant to the developments in Afghanistan. During his over two years’ tenure, he remained closely associated with Pakistani efforts for peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan.
Gen Hameed’s visit to Kabul on September 4, weeks after the Taliban takeover, had led to renewed allegations about Pakistan’s involvement in Afghanistan’s internal affairs. People came to know about his trip after he was spotted having tea with Pakistani envoy at a Kabul hotel where many foreign journalists were staying.
The Express Tribune reported he remained head of the ISI for 27 months and oversaw the US exit from Afghanistan and was involved in behind-the-scenes talks aimed at seeking a rapprochement between Pakistan and India.
Previously he served as DG Counter-Intelligence within the ISI, a key position that looks after the internal security.
The reshuffle and appointment of DG ISI was due since Gen Faiz hasn’t yet commanded a corps, a prerequisite for being eligible for the slot of the army chief. He will be among the four senior-most generals in November 2022, when the incumbent army chief’s extended tenure ends.
Pakistan generals including former ISI director general are using offshore accounts to enrich themselves … writes Sanjeev Sharma. Please click here to read the full report
The window into the personal finances of individual Pakistani generals is especially rare and provides a glimpse at how top military officers – known in Pakistan as “The Establishment” – use offshore system to quietly enrich themselves while maintaining, until now, the military’s image as a bulwark against civilian corruption.
The revelations are part of the Pandora Papers, a new global investigation into the shadowy offshore financial system that allows multinational corporations, the rich, famous and powerful to avoid taxes and otherwise shield their wealth. The probe is based on more than 11.9 million confidential files from 14 offshore services firms leaked to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and shared with 150 news organisations around the world.
The Pandora Papers investigation exposes civilian government and military leaders who have been hiding vast amounts of wealth in a country plagued by widespread poverty and tax avoidance.
One legacy of colonial rule is the military’s wealth. The military’s combined business holdings amount to Pakistan’s largest conglomerate, and it controls 12 per cent of the country’s land. Many of the landholdings are owned by current or former senior leaders.
The Pandora Papers reveal that in 2007, the wife of Gen Shafaat Ullah Shah, then one of Pakistan’s leading generals and a former aide to President Pervez Musharraf, acquired a $1.2 million apartment in London through a discreet offshore transaction.
In one of several offshore holdings involving military leaders and their families, a luxury London apartment was transferred from the son of a famous Indian movie director to the wife of a three-star general. The general told ICIJ the property purchase was disclosed and proper; his wife didn’t reply.
The property was transferred to Gen. Shah’s wife by an offshore company owned by Akbar Asif, a wealthy businessman who has opened restaurants in London and Dubai. Asif is the son of the Indian film director K. Asif.
Asif’s sister, Heena Kausar, is the widow of Iqbal Mirchi, a senior figure in a leading organised crime group, D-company. Mirchi was at the time under sanction as a drug trafficker by the US Before his death in 2013, Mirchi was one of India’s most wanted men.
The younger Asif once met Musharraf at London’s Dorchester Hotel to ask for an exception to Pakistan’s 40-year ban on Indian films to allow the release there of one of his father’s most acclaimed movies. Musharraf granted the exception and later lifted the ban.
The leaked documents show that Asif has owned a multimillion-dollar property portfolio through a web of offshore companies.
One of those companies, called Talah Ltd. and registered in the British Virgin Islands (BVI), was used to transfer the London apartment to Shafaat Shah’s wife. Talah bought an apartment near the Canary Wharf financial district in 2006. The next year, Asif transferred ownership of the company to Fariha Shah.
Shah said that his wife has never met Asif and that he met him just once, while an aide to Musharaff, when Asif briefly lobbied the president for his father’s film “in the corridors of Dorchester Hotel when he had accompanied the hairstylist, who had come to cut Mrs Musharraf’s hair”.
ICIJ revealed insights into the private wealth of top military officers and their families are exceedingly rare; journalists who have written about the military within Pakistan have been jailed, tortured and killed.
MQM stages protest in Washington DC against Pakistan atrocities on Mohajirs(ANI)
The Pandora Papers also reveal that Raja Nadir Pervez, a retired army Lt Colonel and former government minister, owned International Finance & Equipment Ltd, a BVI-registered company. In the leaked files, the firm is involved in machinery and related businesses in India, Thailand, Russia and China. Records show that in 2003, Pervez transferred his shares in the company to a trust that controls several offshore companies.
One of the trust’s beneficiaries is a British arms dealer. According to UK court documents, one of the trust’s other companies has helped broker arms sales from Belgian manufacturer FN Herstal SA to Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd, a state-owned Indian defence company.
While he owned International Finance & Equipment, Pervez also held several high-level positions in Pakistan’s government. He was elected to the National Assembly in 1985 and later joined Imran Khan’s party. Pervez did not respond to reporters’ questions.
Another influential former military leader who shows up in the leaked documents is Maj Gen Nusrat Naeem, the ISI’s onetime Director General of counterintelligence. He owned a BVI company, Afghan Oil & Gas Ltd, that was registered in 2009, shortly after his retirement. He said that the company had been set up by a friend and that he didn’t use it for any financial transactions.
Islamabad police later charged Naeem with fraud related to the attempted purchase of a steel mill for $1.7 million. The case was dropped.
The Pandora Papers also bring to light the notable offshore holdings of close relatives of three senior military figures.
Umar and Ahad Khattak, sons of the former head of Pakistan’s air force, Abbas Khattak, in 2010 registered a BVI company to invest what documents call “family business earnings” in stocks, bonds, mutual funds and real estate.
The Khattaks did not respond to reporters’ questions.
In an example involving intergenerational wealth transfer, Shahnaz Sajjad Ahmad inherited a fortune from her father, a retired lieutenant general, through an offshore trust that owns two London apartments, purchased in 1997 and 2011 in Knightsbridge, a short walk from Harrods. She, in turn, set up a trust for her daughters in 2003 in Guernsey, a tax haven in the English Channel. Her father was a favourite of Field Marshal Mohammad Ayub Khan, the country’s first military dictator (1958-1969). After her father retired from the army, he founded one of Pakistan’s biggest business conglomerates. Ayub Khan’s son later married into the family and sits on the boards of several of the group’s businesses.
Shahnaz did not respond to ICIJ’s requests for comment.
Taken together, the findings offer a portrait of an unaccountable military elite with extensive personal and family offshore holdings.
Since ISIS-K specialises in mass casualty attacks, Kashmir is likely to witness attacks against security forces or installations, government offices and tourists. These attacks could be in the form of suicide bombings, bomb blasts in public places or transport, all intended to attract global attention. While ISIS-K would claim responsibility for such attacks, JeM and LeT would remain quiet and Pakistan and Taliban would be the first ones to condemn such attacks …. A special report by Dr Sakariya Kareem
The Taliban victory in Afghanistan has given Pakistan a new set of hard-core trained and experienced jihadis, newer weapons, strategy and offensive tactics in urban warfare, especially in holding against a military force. These assets will form part of Pakistan’s attempts to stoke militancy in Kashmir in the coming weeks, before the winter sets in.
One of the key elements of this new strategy would be to send cadres from JeM and LeT under the banner of Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISIS-K), a convenient way for Pakistan to claim deniability and avoid sanctions.
Since ISIS-K specialises in mass casualty attacks, Kashmir is likely to witness attacks against security forces or installations, government offices and tourists. These attacks could be in the form of suicide bombings, bomb blasts in public places or transport, all intended to attract global attention. While ISIS-K would claim responsibility for such attacks, JeM and LeT would remain quiet and Pakistan and Taliban would be the first ones to condemn such attacks.
In the past two years, thousands of LeT and JeM cadres were trained in heavy weapons, armed assaults, urban warfare and grenade attacks by Pak Army and sent to bolster the Taliban offensive in Afghanistan. These cadres were trained in camps set up largely in Nangarhar, Kunar and Kandahar provinces of Afghanistan. Nangarhar is the base of operations for the Haqqani Network as well as ISIS-K. In fact, most of the leadership of ISIS-K come either from the Haqqani Network or from LeT. The cadres are trained in JeM-run camps. JeM is ideologically close to the Taliban and has been a conduit for recruitment and training of Taliban cadres for several years now.
Now that the Taliban has taken over Kabul, their new assignment would be Kashmir. While ISIS-K has tenuous moorings in Kashmir, both LeT and JeM, especially the former, have been able to consolidate their support and influence in Kashmir in the past few years. LeT in particular have been able to build a base of local support which was evidenced in the recent past by incidents of eulogising killed terrorists as martyrs and locals resorting to violence to give the terrorists a proper burial.
The fact that LeT could foster foreign militants in areas like Hajin, Srinagar and Baramulla, before they were ousted or killed in military operations, showed the growing capability of the group to foster local support. These areas overlooked infantry positions and were not easy to be infiltrated. But the fact that the local people hid and supported terrorists, amidst heavy military presence, showed the strength of the support.
The rising number of local recruits–38 in 2013 to 88 in 2016–amply projected the increasing hold of militant groups in Kashmir. A demographic profile of 393 local militants killed in encounters in J&K, from January 2017 to June 2019 showed that nearly 43 per cent of them were recruited by the LeT and JeM, and another 45 percent joined Hizb-ul Mujahideen. LeT and JeM cadres would be reassigned to join ISIS-K in Kashmir to carry out spectacular attacks in Kashmir, quite similar to the Kabul airport attack.
Besides direct attacks, the ISIS-K would be more emboldened to take on the security forces in isolated mountainous areas as well as crowded urban centres. The LeT, JeM and ISIS-K cadres have gained considerable experience in this regard while ousting the Afghan forces. Although the Indian security forces are battle-hardened and more experienced than the Afghan forces, the terrorist cadres from Pakistan, with new tactical weapons and strategies learnt in Afghanistan in the past few months, will present a stronger challenge than in the past. Groups like LeT and JeM would fall back on their local support network to plan and attack new targets, and escape, waving the flag of ISIS-K.
Not only is the dreaded ISI chief patron of the Haqqani Network, a proscribed terror organisation, the ISI boss equally wants to resolve the widening differences between Mullah Yaqub of Quetta Shura and Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, and the Haqqani Network, reports Asian Lite News
In a significant geopolitical development and revealing its hand, ISI chief Lieutenant General Faiz Hameed arrived in Kabul with a high-level delegation from Islamabad on Saturday.
TOLO News reported that the Pakistan spymaster and his team were invited by the Taliban. The timing of this visit is very important for speculation has been rife that it is the ISI which has major influence over the Taliban.
Not only is the dreaded ISI chief patron of the Haqqani Network, a proscribed terror organisation, the ISI boss equally wants to resolve the widening differences between Mullah Yaqub of Quetta Shura and Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, and the Haqqani Network.
The Pakistan spymaster is playing mediator at a time when vital hectic negotiations are underway between the Taliban top deck leadership and the Haqqani Network over the formation of government in Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, the US has, as per leaked documents, urged Pakistan to fight the terror groups as the crisis in Afghanistan spirals.
As per a set of leaked documents and diplomatic cables to a prominent US media outlet, President Joe Biden’s administration is quietly pressing Islamabad to cooperate on combating dreaded terrorist groups such as the ISIS-K and Al Qaeda following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.
The Dawn newspaper on Saturday carried a report quoting a news published on Friday by the Politico on a slew of diplomatic messages exchanged between Washington and Islamabad recently, after the Taliban insurgents seized power in Afghanistan.
Late Taliban founder Mullah Omar’s son Mohammad Yaqoob and Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, who served as the deputy foreign minister when the insurgents last controlled power between 1996 and 2001 in Afghanistan, will reportedly have prominent roles in the new government.
‘To push for Haqqanis’
Former woman Afghan MP, Mariam Solaimankhil said on Saturday that Pakistan intelligence chief Lt Gen Faiz Hameed had arrived in Kabul to make sure that Abdul Ghani Baradar does not lead the new Afghanistan government.
“From what I am hearing DG of ISI has come into Kabul to make sure Baradar doesn’t lead this government and Haqqani does,” tweeted Mariam Solaimankhil, Member of Afghanistan’s Parliament representing the Kuchis.
She also informed that there were a lot of disagreements amongst the Taliban factions and the Talian co-founder Mullah Baradar.
“There are a lot of disagreements amongst the Taliban factions and Baradar has called all his men off of attacking Panjshir. #SanctionPakistan #FreeAfghanistan” tweeted Solaimankhil.
Earlier, there were reports that Mullah Baradar would lead the upcoming government in Afghanistan where the group seized control last control following months of offensives.
Pakistan journalist Hamza Azhar Salam said that Hameed is visiting Afghanistan at the invitation of the Taliban to discuss the future of the two countries.
“DG ISI, Lt Gen Faiz Hameed has arrived in #Kabul leading a delegation of Pakistani officials on the invitation of the Taliban to discuss the future of #Pakistan and #Afghanistan ties under the new Taliban government,” he tweeted.
(Image Source ANI)
Taliban meet Pak officials in Doha
A senior Taliban delegation led by Sher Muhammad Abbas Stanekzai met with the Pakistani Embassy officials in Qatar on Friday where the two delegations discussed issues concerning the current developments in Afghanistan.
Taking to Twitter, Taliban spokesperson Suhail Shaheen said the two sides held talks over humanitarian aid to Afghanistan and issues related to facilitating people’s movement at Torkhan and Spinboldak.
“Sher M. Abbas Stanikzai, Deputy Director of the Political Office and his delegation met Pakistan Ambassador to Qatar and his delegation. Both sides discussed the current Afghan situation, humanitarian assistance, bilateral relations based on mutual interest and respect, reconstruction of Afghanistan and issues related to facilitating people’s movement at Torkhan and Spinboldak,” Shaheen tweeted.
This meet comes following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan and subsequent refugees crises caused due to the weeks-long intense violence. Earlier this week, Pakistan closed its Chaman border with Afghanistan citing security concerns.
“We want peace and stability in Afghanistan. We have put up a fence on the border,” the Pakistan Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid said, as quoted by The Express Tribune.
Rashid added that “due to some concerns” the border at Chaman was being closed temporarily. “However, we will not allow chaos to spread. There are no Americans left in Pakistan. Those who came have left”, he said.
Pedestrian traffic through Pakistan’s south-western Chaman border crossing has swiftly increased after the Taliban’s hostile takeover of Afghanistan over the last few weeks.
The situation on the Afghan-Pakistani border has remained tense due to the influx of refugees from Afghanistan. Multiple reports said that the Pakistani forces had opened fire at the Afghan refugees at the Torkham border crossing. (IANS/ANI)
