ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Monday thanked Saudi Arabia, in its capacity as chair of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Summit, for convening an emergency meeting to discuss the situation in Afghanistan.
An ‘extraordinary’ meeting of the 57-member body was held on August 22 in which the OIC said it expected a comprehensive dialogue and national reconciliation from the authorities in Afghanistan, and urged the Taliban not to allow Afghan soil to shelter “terrorist organizations.”
On Monday, Qureshi spoke with the foreign minister of Saudi Arabia, Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, and thanked him for taking the initiative on Afghanistan.
“The two Foreign Ministers exchanged views on the latest situation in Afghanistan and also discussed a number of issues of bilateral importance,” a statement from the Pakistani foreign office said, adding that Qureshi “expressed the hope that Afghan parties would work for an inclusive political settlement to ensure sustainable peace and security in the country and the region.”
Qureshi also stressed the importance of the international community’s “active and sustained engagement” with the Afghan people.
He updated his Saudi counterpart on Pakistan’s efforts to facilitate the evacuation of personnel and staff of diplomatic missions, international organizations, media and others from Afghanistan.
Taliban insurgents captured Kabul on August 15, after taking over Afghanistan city by city in the last few weeks. They have since announced an “amnesty” across the country and urged women to join its government, but many are skeptical of the promises.
Pakistan thanks Saudi Arabia for helping convene OIC’s emergency meeting on Afghanistan
https://arab.news/jr288
Pakistan thanks Saudi Arabia for helping convene OIC’s emergency meeting on Afghanistan
- An ‘extraordinary’ meeting of the 57-member body was held on August 22
- OIC has urged Taliban not to allow Afghan soil to shelter “terrorist organizations”
UN rights chief says 56 Afghan civilians killed since Pakistan conflict escalates
- Death toll includes 24 children and six women, with 129 others injured
- UN says about 115,000 Afghans, 3,000 Pakistanis displaced by fighting along border
GENEVA::The United Nations rights chief said Friday that 56 Afghan civilians had been killed — nearly half of them children — since hostilities with neighboring Pakistan intensified last week.
“I plead with all parties to bring an end to the conflict, and to prioritize helping those experiencing extreme hardship,” Volker Turk said in a statement.
The neighbors have clashed along the frontier since February 26, when Afghanistan launched a border offensive in retaliation for Pakistani air strikes.
Islamabad has hit back along the border and with fresh air strikes, bombing multiple sites including the former US air base at Bagram, the capital Kabul and the southern city of Kandahar.
Turk said that since the intensification of hostilities, “56 civilians, including 24 children and six women, have been killed.”
“A further 129 people, including 41 children and 31 women, have been injured,” he said.
And since the start of the year, the numbers are even higher, with 69 civilians killed in Afghanistan and 141 injured, he said.
Pakistan insists it has not killed any civilians in the conflict. Casualty claims from both sides are difficult to verify independently.
The UN refugee agency said Thursday that around 115,000 Afghans and 3,000 people in Pakistan had been displaced by the fighting in the past week.
“Civilians on both sides of the border are now having to flee from air strikes, heavy artillery fire, mortar shelling and gunfire,” Turk said.
He lamented that a new wave of violence was affecting people “whose lives have been tormented by violence and misery for so long.”
He highlighted that over two million Afghans had returned to Afghanistan since Pakistan started to implement its “Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Plan” in September 2023.
And nearly as many were believed to remain in Pakistan, “where many face hardship and constant fear of arrest and deportation,” he said.
“As a result of the violence, humanitarian assistance is unable to reach many of those desperately in need. This is piling misery on misery,” the rights chief said.
He called on “the Pakistan military and Afghan de facto security forces to end immediately their fighting, and to prioritize helping the millions who depend on aid.”
