MURREE: Afghan delegates who gathered for a peace summit in Pakistan’s lush hill station of Bhurban two hours north of the capital said on Saturday that the window to find a solution to end Afghanistan’s lengthy civil war was fast closing.
The inaugural session of a two-day moot hosted by Pakistan kicked off with an address by Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi who called for rebuilding trust between Islamabad and Kabul.
The Afghan delegation is expected to meet Prime Minister Imran Khan on Sunday (today), ahead of President Ashraf Ghani’s visit to Pakistan next week.
Over 50 Afghan delegates from various political groups are attending the conference, but there are no representatives of the Afghan Taliban, the primary stakeholders in the peace process who have been fighting against foreign troops and the US-backed civilian government for years. The Kabul government is also not in attendance.
“The moment of this opportunity is brief,” said Ahmad Wali Massoud, an Afghan politician and diplomat who served as Afghanistan’s ambassador to the United Kingdom. “I think if we cannot achieve a peace settlement in the next two months, we may miss this opportunity,” he said, adding that Pakistan had a major role to play alongside other countries in the region in ensuring a negotiated settlement.
The conference, called the “Lahore process,” is one of many initiatives taken by Afghanistan’s neighbors and allies aimed at bolstering a faltering peace process to reach an intra-Afghan solution to a war entering its eighteenth year.
Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have been tense in recent years with Kabul accusing Pakistan of sheltering Taliban militants since US-led forces removed them from power in 2001. Islamabad denies the claims, but the US has been pushing Pakistan to use its influence over the insurgents to open direct negotiations with the Kabul government, something the Taliban have so far refused to do. Pakistan says it no longer has enough sway over the Taliban.
A conference organizer, Dr. Maria Sultan, told Arab News on Saturday that the next peace summit organized by Pakistan would include the Afghan Taliban.
Viable paths to peace and stability in Afghanistan, trade, economy, health, women’s empowerment, reconstruction, development, and regional connectivity were discussed in three sessions of the conference and were followed by a state dinner hosted by Pakistani President Dr. Arif Alvi.
Foreign Minister Qureshi said all countries involved in the Afghan multilateral peace process were “on the same page” for peace and reconciliation despite a “global flux and heightened tensions.”
“Here is an opportunity that should not be wasted and should be seized,” he said.
The conference’s most notable delegate, former Afghan Prime Minister and warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, said Pakistan had the will and influence to help negotiate a settlement with the Taliban and had shown its sincerity.
“No war can last forever,” Hekmetyar told Arab News. “All Afghans need to have a consensus for mapping the future of Afghanistan but unfortunately foreign interference and our government taking dictation from foreign forces has been an obstacle in reaching an understanding.”
“The next coalition government should be formed with the consent of the Afghan people, based on our values and through transparent elections,” he said.
Sayyid Hamid Gailani, leader of the National Islamic Front of Afghanistan, a party known for its religiously moderate views, said he welcomed Pakistan’s initiative to host the peace conference.
“The cream of the Afghan political and jihadist leaders have gathered here,” he told Arab News, saying they were all keen to make the intra-Afghan process successful and settle differences including with the Taliban.
“We have an extreme time constraint to achieve our objective before it’s too late. If it doesn’t bear productive results, then it runs out of steam,” he said. “And we don’t want that to happen.”
Pakistan has 'will and influence' to help negotiate settlement with Taliban – ex-PM
Pakistan has 'will and influence' to help negotiate settlement with Taliban – ex-PM
- Two-day peace conference in Murree brought together more than 50 Afghan factional leaders
- The moot lacked representation from Taliban and Kabul government
Pakistan PM visits Azerbaijan embassy, condoles loss of lives in Kazakhstan plane crash
- At least 38 people were killed when Azerbaijan Airlines passenger plane crashed in Kazakhstan’s Aktau city
- Shehbaz Sharif says ties between Pakistan and Azerbaijan rooted in shared religious and cultural values
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif visited Azerbaijan’s embassy in Islamabad on Thursday to condole over the loss of lives in the Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash in Kazakhstan, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said.
At least 38 people were killed when an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger plane with 67 people on board crashed near the Kazakhstan city of Aktau on Wednesday. The Embraer 190 aircraft was en route from the Azerbaijani capital of Baku to the Russian city of Grozny in the North Caucasus.
The Pakistani prime minister visited the Azerbaijan embassy in Islamabad where he met Khazar Farhadov to offer his condolences over the incident.
“In this hour of grief, the government of Pakistan and the people of Pakistan express their complete solidarity with the brothers and sisters of Azerbaijan,” Sharif was quoted as saying by the PMO.
The Pakistani prime minister prayed for the speedy recovery of all injured in the blast.
“Azerbaijan and Pakistan have strong relations of brotherhood based on shared religious and cultural values,” Sharif said.
Pakistan has eyed closer economic cooperation with Central Asian states such as Azerbaijan in recent months as the South Asian nation faces an economic crisis.
During Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev’s two-day visit to Pakistan in July, both nations agreed to enhance the volume of bilateral trade to $2 billion, vowing to strengthen ties and increase cooperation in mutually beneficial economic projects.
They also signed the Pakistan-Azerbaijan Preferential Trade Agreement to boost economic cooperation through the reduction of tariffs on goods like Pakistani sports equipment, leather, and pharmaceuticals as well as Azerbaijani oil and gas products.
Pakistan reports two new polio cases as 2024 tally surges to 67
- Pakistan detects poliovirus cases from Kashmore in southern Sindh and Tank in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces
- Efforts to eradicate polio have been undermined by misinformation, opposition from religious hard-liners
KARACHI: Pakistan reported two new polio cases on Thursday, pushing this year’s tally of the infection to 67, the country’s polio eradication program said amid Islamabad’s struggle to contain the spread of the disease.
Pakistan, along with neighboring Afghanistan, remains the last polio-endemic country in the world. The nation’s polio eradication campaign has faced serious problems with a spike in reported cases this year that have prompted officials to review their approach to stopping the crippling disease.
The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at Pakistan’s National Institute of Health confirmed that two wild poliovirus type 1 cases, one each from Tank in northwestern Pakistan and Kashmore in Sindh were reported on Thursday.
“Pakistan is responding to the resurgence of WPV1 this year with 67 cases reported so far,” the Polio Eradication Programme said. “Of these, 27 are from Balochistan, 19 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 19 from Sindh, and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.”
It said that this was the fourth case reported from Tank and second from Kashmore this year.
Pakistani authorities last week conducted a large-scale sub-national polio vaccination campaign in Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan and Islamabad, vaccinating over 42 million children.
The second phase of the campaign is scheduled to begin on Dec. 30, covering Balochistan province.
Poliovirus, which can cause crippling paralysis particularly in young children, is incurable and remains a threat to human health as long as it has not been eradicated. Immunization campaigns have succeeded in most countries and have come close in Pakistan, but persistent problems remain.
In the early 1990s, Pakistan reported around 20,000 cases annually but in 2018 the number dropped to eight cases. Six cases were reported in 2023 and only one in 2021.
Pakistan’s polio program began in 1994 but efforts to eradicate the virus have since been undermined by vaccine misinformation and opposition from some religious hard-liners, who say immunization is a foreign ploy to sterilize Muslim children or a cover for Western spies. Militant groups also frequently attack and kill members of polio vaccine teams.
UN calls for investigation into Pakistan’s alleged air strikes on Afghanistan border
- UN mission in Afghanistan says dozens of civilians killed in airstrikes this week by Pakistan in Paktika province
- Islamabad accuses Kabul of harboring militant fighters, allowing them to strike on Pakistani soil with impunity
KABUL: The UN mission to Afghanistan on Thursday called for an investigation into Pakistani air strikes in Afghanistan, in which the Taliban government said 46 people were killed, including civilians.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said it had “received credible reports that dozens of civilians, including women and children, were killed in airstrikes by Pakistan’s military forces in Paktika province, Afghanistan, on 24 December.”
“International law obliges military forces to take necessary precautions to prevent civilian harm,” the agency said in a statement, adding an “investigation is needed to ensure accountability.”
The Taliban government said the 46 deceased were mainly women and children, with another six wounded, mostly children.
An AFP journalist saw several wounded children in a hospital in the provincial capital Sharan, including one receiving an IV and another with a bandaged head.
A Pakistan security official told AFP on Wednesday the bombardment had targeted “terrorist hideouts” and killed at least 20 militants, saying claims that “civilians are being harmed are baseless and misleading.”
On a press trip to the area organized by Taliban authorities, AFP journalists saw four mud brick buildings reduced to rubble in three sites around 20-30 kilometers (10-20 miles) from the Pakistan border.
AFP spoke to multiple residents who said the strikes hit in the late evening, breaking doors and windows in villages and destroying homes and an Islamic school.
Several residents reported pulling bodies from the rubble after strikes targeted houses, killing multiple members of the same families.
Afghanistan’s Minister of Borders and Tribal Affairs Noorullah Noori called the attack “a brutal, arrogant invasion.”
“This is unacceptable and won’t be left unanswered,” he said during the site visit.
Pakistani foreign ministry spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch did not confirm the strikes but told a media briefing on Thursday: “Our security personnel conduct operations in border areas to protect Pakistani from terror groups, including TTP.”
She was referring to the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) — Pakistan’s homegrown Taliban group which shares a common ideology with its Afghan counterpart.
The TTP last week claimed a raid on an army outpost near the border with Afghanistan in which Pakistan said 16 soldiers were killed.
Baloch said Pakistan prioritized dialogue with Afghanistan, and that Islamabad’s special envoy, Sadiq Khan, was in Kabul meeting with officials where “matters of security” and “terror groups including TTP” were discussed.
The strikes were the latest spike in hostilities on the frontier between Afghanistan and Pakistan, with border tensions between the two countries escalating since the Taliban government seized power in 2021.
Islamabad has accused Kabul’s authorities of harboring militant fighters, allowing them to strike on Pakistani soil with impunity — allegations Kabul denies.
Army major, 13 militants killed during separate operations in northwestern Pakistan — military
- Major Muhammad Awais, 31, killed while battling militants in South Waziristan district, says military
- Sixteen soldiers were killed on Saturday in northwest Pakistan as Islamabad grapples with militancy
ISLAMABAD: An army major and 13 militants were killed during three separate intelligence-based operations in northwestern Pakistan, the military’s media wing said on Thursday, vowing to eliminate militancy from the country.
Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which lies on the country’s border with Afghanistan, has witnessed frequent attacks by the Pakistani Taliban, or the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and other militant groups that targeted security forces convoys and check posts in recent months.
The latest killings were reported after three separate gunbattles between militants and Pakistani security forces from Dec. 25-26, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said. Two militants were killed in Bannu district while five others were killed in the North Waziristan district in a separate operation.
“However, during this operation, Major Muhammad Awais (age: 31 years, resident of District Narowal), a brave officer, who was leading his troops from the front, having fought gallantly, paid the ultimate sacrifice and embraced Shahadat [martyrdom],” the ISPR said.
In the third operation in South Waziristan district, six militants were gunned down by the security forces while eight others were injured.
“Security forces of Pakistan are determined to wipe out the menace of terrorism and such sacrifices of our brave soldiers further strengthens our resolve,” the military said.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif paid tribute to Pakistan’s security forces for battling militants and offered condolences for Major Awais’s killing.
“The entire nation salutes martyred Major Owais,” he said in a statement. “We remain resolute in our desire to eliminate all forms of terrorism.”
Pakistan has struggled to contain militancy in its northwestern KP province. Sixteen Pakistani soldiers and eight militants were killed in a gunfight on Saturday in South Waziristan, the military reported.
The attack was claimed by the Pakistani Taliban.
Islamabad has frequently accused neighboring Afghanistan of sheltering and supporting militant groups that launch cross-border attacks. Afghan officials deny involvement, insisting Pakistan’s security issues are an internal matter of Islamabad.
KSrelief distributes food aid to displaced persons from Pakistani district facing sectarian clashes
- 500 food packages distributed to people from Kurram district currently residing in Tehsil Thall and facing urgent food insecurity
- KSrelief has implemented 210 projects in Pakistan worth millions of dollars to improve the lives of vulnerable communities
ISLAMABAD: Saudi Arabia’s King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSrelief) on Thursday launched a food security initiative in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, distributing food packages to people from a district marred by sectarian clashes since last month.
Kurram — a tribal district of around 600,000 in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where federal and provincial authorities have traditionally exerted limited control — has frequently experienced violence between its Sunni and Shia communities over land and power. Travelers to and from the town often ride in convoys escorted by security officials. The latest violence erupted on Nov. 21 when gunmen ambushed a vehicle convoy, killing 52 people, mostly Shias.
The assault triggered road closures and other measures that have disrupted people’s access to medicine, food, fuel, education and work. Over 130 people have been killed in the fighting that has ensued after the convoy attack, according to police records.
“As part of this effort, 500 food packages were distributed to displaced beneficiaries from Kurram district, who are currently residing in Tehsil Thall and facing urgent food insecurity,” the Saudi charity KSRelief said in a statement.
“The distribution took place in a camp in District Hangu, providing timely relief to displaced families in need.”
The initiative is part of KSrelief’s first phase of the Food Security Support Project for 2024-25, which aims to distribute 10,000 food packages among poor people across 14 districts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
KSrelief has implemented 210 projects in Pakistan worth millions of dollars to improve the lives of vulnerable communities. Efforts include emergency relief for natural disasters, and long-term projects addressing food security, health care, education, and shelter. Shelter NFI and Winter Kits Project are notable initiatives providing essential items to families in harsh weather conditions, and food distribution programs that combat hunger and malnutrition.
In partnership with UNICEF, KSrelief supports critical health initiatives, such as vaccination campaigns to prevent polio and measles, safeguarding millions of children. The Noor Saudi Volunteer Project provides free eye care through eye camps, combating blindness among underprivileged populations.
