WASHINGTON: US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman will travel next month to Pakistan and India, bitter rivals that have clashed on the way forward in Afghanistan, the State Department announced Monday.
Sherman, after CIA chief Bill Burns, will be one of the first high-level officials under President Joe Biden to visit Pakistan, which has long irritated the United States over its relationship with the Taliban.
Sherman will meet senior officials in Islamabad on October 7-8 after an earlier visit to New Delhi and Mumbai on October 6-7, when she will meet officials and civil society leaders and address the US-India Business council’s annual “ideas summit,” the State Department said.
The trip comes as India, one of the top allies of the Western-backed Afghan government that collapsed last month, urges the world to pay closer attention to Pakistan’s role in the turmoil .
Pakistan was the primary backer of the 1996-2001 Taliban regime, and has been accused by US officials of keeping the insurgents alive through covert support. Islamabad vehemently denies the charge.
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, in an opinion piece published Monday in The Washington Post, called his country a “convenient scapegoat.”
“In Afghanistan, the lack of legitimacy for an outsider’s protracted war was compounded by a corrupt and inept Afghan government, seen as a puppet regime without credibility, especially by rural Afghans,” he wrote, elaborating on themes in his address Friday to the UN General Assembly.
He urged the world to engage the Taliban government “to ensure peace and stability.”
Biden, who like his predecessors has called for strong relations with India, has yet to speak to Khan, although Secretary of State Antony Blinken met his Pakistani counterpart on the sidelines of UN meetings last week and thanked Islamabad for help in evacuating Americans from Afghanistan.
State Dept No. 2 to visit Pakistan, India after Taliban takeover
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State Dept No. 2 to visit Pakistan, India after Taliban takeover
- Wendy Sherman, after CIA chief Bill Burns, will be one of the first high-level officials under President Biden to visit Pakistan
- Sherman will meet senior officials in Islamabad on October 7-8 after visit to New Delhi and Mumbai on October 6-7
Pakistan arrests two suspected human smugglers amid ongoing crackdown
- Islamabad has intensified crackdown on human trafficking after multiple boat tragedies involving Pakistani migrants in recent years
- This week, crew members of humanitarian rescue ship Ocean Viking rescued several Pakistanis among 44 migrants off the coast of Libya
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has arrested two human smugglers from the eastern province of Punjab, the agency said on Sunday, as part of an ongoing nationwide crackdown to dismantle trafficking networks and curb illegal migration.
Islamabad has intensified its crackdown on human trafficking networks after multiple boat tragedies resulted in its citizens getting killed in recent years. This week, crew members of humanitarian rescue ship Ocean Viking rescued Pakistanis among 44 migrants off Libya’s coast.
The FIA said it had conducted raids in Punjab’s Okara and Mianwali districts and arrested two suspects involved in visa fraud and human smuggling, who had swindled a few individuals out of Rs1.15 million ($4,142) on pretext of sending them to Oman.
“The suspects had gone into hiding after receiving money from citizens,” the agency said in a statement. “An investigation has been launched after the arrest of the suspects.”
Several Pakistanis attempt the dangerous and illegal journey each year in a bid to escape surging inflation and opt for a better life as the cash-strapped country navigates a tricky path to economic recovery from a macroeconomic crisis.
In 2023, hundreds of migrants, including 262 Pakistanis, drowned when an overcrowded vessel sank in international waters off the southwestern Greek town of Pylos, marking one of the deadliest boat disasters ever recorded in the Mediterranean Sea.
Other incidents have also seen Pakistani migrants perish in shipwrecks off Italy, Tunisia and Libya, highlighting the persistent risks faced by people attempting irregular sea crossings to Europe.
Pakistani authorities have repeatedly urged citizens not to undertake such perilous journeys, while international agencies warn that smugglers continue to exploit economic hardship and conflict to lure migrants onto unsafe boats.
