ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Interior Ministry on Friday said 48 additional border posts have been constructed on the border with Afghanistan to curb smuggling.
The smuggling of illegal weapons has been curtailed in Pakistan after the start of operations Zarb-e-Azb and Radd-ul-Fasaad, said National Assembly member Dr. Muhammad Afzal Khan Dhandla, adding that 207 illegal weapons were confiscated in the last year.
Items smuggled to and from Afghanistan include medicines, food items, used electronics, home appliances, clothes, automobile tires and spare parts, and cosmetics.
Pakistan recently opened the Ghulam Khan border crossing in North Waziristan, on the border with Afghanistan, in a bid to facilitate the movement of people on both sides and regulate trade to discourage smuggling.
Pakistan shares a 2,430-km long border with Afghanistan that is largely unmanned in many areas, providing opportunities for smuggling and terrorist infiltration.
In December 2017, Pakistan said it had completed almost 92 percent of a border fence that will be completed by the end of this year.
48 new border posts constructed on Pak-Afghan border
48 new border posts constructed on Pak-Afghan border
Norway launches probe of Middle East diplomat and husband over Epstein links
- Mona Juul resigned from her position as ambassador to Jordan and Iraq
- Juul and her husband Terje Rod-Larsen played key roles in the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations which led to the Oslo Accords
OSLO: Norwegian police said Monday they have launched an “aggravated corruption” investigation against a high-profile diplomat, Mona Juul, and her husband Terje Rod-Larsen, over the couple’s links to late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The police economic crime unit Okokrim said in statement that the probe began last week and that an Oslo residence was searched on Monday, as well as a residence belonging to a witness.
“We have launched an investigation to determine whether any criminal offenses have been committed. We are facing a comprehensive and, by all accounts lengthy investigation,” Okokrim chief Pal Lonseth, said.
Juul, 66, and Rod-Larsen, 78, played key roles in the secret Israeli-Palestinian negotiations which led to the Oslo Accords of the early 1990s.
Epstein left $10 million in his will to the couple’s two children, according to Norwegian media.
“Among other things, Okokrim will investigate whether she received benefits in connection to her position,” the statement said.
On Sunday, the foreign ministry announced that Juul had resigned from her position as ambassador to Jordan and Iraq.
“Juul’s contact with the convicted abuser Epstein has shown a serious lapse in judgment,” Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said in connection to the announcement.
She had already been temporarily suspended last week pending an internal investigation by the ministry into her alleged links to Epstein, who died in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking.
Norway’s political and royal circles have been thrust into the eye of the Epstein storm, including the CEO of the World Economic Forum Borge Brende.
Former prime minister Thorbjorn Jagland, is also being investigated for “aggravated corruption” over links to Epstein while he was chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee — which awards the Nobel Peace Prize — and as secretary general of the Council of Europe.
Norway’s Crown Princess Mette-Marit has also come under scrutiny for her relationship with Epstein, which on Friday she said she “deeply regretted.”
On Monday, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store voiced support for the establishing of an independent commission set up by Parliament, to fully examine the nature of the ties between these figures and Epstein.
