ISLAMABAD: Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan met on the sidelines of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) summit on Friday, raising hopes of better ties at a time when the Afghan government has been left out of crucial talks to find a negotiated settlement to the 17-year-long Afghan war.
Taliban representatives have been talking with US diplomats for months about withdrawing more than 20,000 US and NATO coalition troops in exchange for guarantees that Afghanistan will not be used as a base for militant attacks.
They have also met senior Afghan politicians and civil society representatives, most recently in Moscow this week, as part of a so-called intra-Afghan dialogue to discuss the country’s future.
But they have shown no sign of agreeing to demands for a ceasefire and formal negotiations with President Ashraf Ghani’s government, which the Taliban consider an illegitimate, foreign-appointed regime.
The prime minister’s office said on Saturday Khan had “underlined Pakistan's firm support for an Afghan-led and Afghan owned peace process for political solution in Afghanistan” during his meeting with Ghani.
Special Assistant to PM Khan on Political Affairs, Naeem Ul Haque, also took to Twitter to share details of the meeting: “Excellent hour long meeting of PM Imran Khan with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. The meeting was very cordial and touched all aspects of Pak Afghan relationship including economic relations as well as the role of Taliban in resolving the Afghan situation.”
Afghanistan has put a pause on bilateral meetings with Pakistan since November when officials of the two countries met in Islamabad to discuss the repatriation of approximately 1.4 million undocumented Afghan refugees who live in Pakistan. But President Ghani’s phone call to Imran Khan on May 5 marked the revival of high level interaction. Ghani has also accepted an invitation to visit Pakistan this month.
“The Afghan government has not been visible in the negotiation process between the Taliban and the US. The Afghan government feels Pakistan still has some clout with the Taliban even if some do not accept this notion,” retired Pakistani brigadier Muhammad Ishaq Khattak said.
Ghani’s phone call was followed by the visit to Pakistan of Afghanistan National Security Adviser Hamdullah Mohib for high level security talks with senior Pakistani defence officials, including Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa.
As relations between Pakistani and Afghan have seen some improvement in recent days, both sides have also agreed to revive a much-publicized bilateral Afghanistan Pakistan Action Plan for Peace and Solidarity (APAPPS), officials and Afghan diplomats say.
Afghan deputy foreign minister Idrees Zaman is expected to visit Islamabad soon after Eid-ul-Fitr, most likely on June 10, for a review meeting on the APAPPS with the Pakistani foreign secretary.
On Saturday, the head of the Afghan Taliban pledged to continue fighting until the movement’s objectives were reached and indicated it was still not ready to open talks with the Western-backed government in Kabul.
In his annual message ahead of next week’s Eid al-Fitr holiday, Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada sought to reassure Afghans that the Taliban wanted an end to decades of conflict and a government that represents all Afghans.
He also gave no sign the Taliban would repeat last year’s truce over the three-day Eid holiday that ends the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which led to unprecedented scenes of Taliban fighters and government soldiers mingling and even embracing in the streets of Kabul.
“No one should expect us to pour cold water on the heated battlefronts of Jihad or forget our 40-year sacrifices before reaching our objectives,” he said in the message, adding that the Taliban aimed for “an end to the occupation and establishment of an Islamic system”.
Meeting of Pakistani, Afghan leaders on OIC sidelines raises hopes of better ties
Meeting of Pakistani, Afghan leaders on OIC sidelines raises hopes of better ties
- PM Khan meets president Ghani in Saudi Arabia for hour-long sit-down, discuss peace talks with Taliban and economies ties
- Afghanistan has put a pause on bilateral meetings with Pakistan since November
Pakistan calls for calm after 16 people killed in Khamenei protests
- The violence came hours after Iranian authorities confirmed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was killed in coordinated US-Israeli strikes
- Nine people were killed in clashes in Karachi where protesters stormed US consulate, while UN offices were set ablaze in Gilgit, Skardu
ISLAMABAD/KARACHI/GILGIT/PESHAWAR: Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi on Sunday urged calm after at least 16 people were killed in protests linked to the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in joint US-Israeli strikes.
Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the US consulate in Karachi on Sunday morning. Videos showed protesters armed with sticks smashing doors and windows. Separate footage appeared to show property inside the consulate premises set on fire, prompting police to fire tear gas at them.
In Islamabad, protesters entered the Red Zone which houses key government and diplomatic offices in the capital, prompting authorities to fire tear gas to disperse the demonstrators. Similarly, people gathered outside the press club in the northwestern city of Peshawar, from where they were marching toward the US consulate.
At least nine people were killed and 60 others sustained injuries in clashes with law enforcement outside the US consulate in Karachi, according to authorities. Seven more were killed in the northern Gilgit-Baltistan region, where clashes left 45 people injured.
“After the martyrdom of Ayatollah Khamenei, every citizen of Pakistan is saddened in the same way as the citizens of Iran are grieving,” Naqvi was quoted as saying by his ministry.
“We are all with you. We request the citizens not to take the law into their hands, and to record their protest peacefully.”
Naqvi visited different areas of Islamabad and reviewed the law-and-order situation, according to the interior ministry. He ordered foolproof security arrangements at the Diplomatic Enclave, which is home to foreign missions, in Islamabad’s Red Zone.
PROTESTERS STORM US CONSULATE IN KARACHI
Additional Inspector General Karachi Azad Khan told reporters that protesters had managed to enter the US consulate from the outer gate before police dispersed them.
“Nine people are dead while 39 injured are being treated at the Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Institute of Trauma,” Karachi Police surgeon Dr. Summaiya Syed said in a statement.
She said seven others were injured at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center, among them five police personnel, while 14 others were receiving treatment for wounds at private hospitals in the city.
Separately, the Sindh provincial government expressed grief at the loss of lives in the clashes outside the US consulate in Karachi, saying it had constituted a high-level joint investigation committee (JIT) to carry out an impartial investigation into the incident.
“The JIT will determine the circumstances in which the incident occurred and what its causes were,” a statement by the provincial government said, adding that it respects the constitutional right of citizens to protest.
VIOLENCE IN GILGIT-BALTISTAN
In GB, protesters set fire to and vandalized several buildings, including United Nations (UN) regional offices, according to Shabbir Mir, who speaks for the GB chief minister. Religious leaders were trying to quell the protests.
“Seven people were killed and 45 were injured in today’s clashes in Gilgit,” Dr. Wajahat Hussain, a senior health official in Gilgit, told Arab News on Sunday.
Tufail Mir, a deputy inspector-general of police, told Arab News several people were injured in the Skardu district as well.
MIDDLE EAST TENSIONS
The violence came hours after Iranian authorities confirmed Khamenei was killed in coordinated strikes carried out by the US and Israel, dramatically escalating tensions in the Middle East and triggering protests in several countries.
According to US officials, the operation targeted Revolutionary Guard command facilities, air defense systems, missile and drone launch sites, and military airfields. The US military said it suffered no casualties and reported minimal damage to its bases despite what it described as “hundreds of Iranian missile and drone attacks.”
Iran retaliated by launching missiles and drones toward Israel and targeting US military installations in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE. The Emirati government said its air defense systems intercepted dozens of Iranian missiles and drones, but debris from the interceptions caused material damage in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, and at least one civilian, a Pakistani national, was killed. It issued rare emergency alerts urging residents to seek shelter, underscoring how the conflict has rippled far beyond Iran’s borders.
The Israeli military said dozens of Iranian missiles were fired toward Israeli territory, many of which were intercepted. Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service said a woman in the Tel Aviv area died after being wounded in a missile strike.
