ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi urged the international community on Saturday to benefit from the emerging “hope for peace” in Afghanistan during a meeting with a top official from Kabul.
Amir Khan Muttaqi, the acting foreign minister of Afghanistan, arrived in Pakistan earlier in the day to attend the 17th Extraordinary Session of the Organization of Islamic Corporation’s Council of Foreign Ministers.
The session will also be attended by high-profile dignitaries from other Islamic countries along with major international stakeholders and focus on the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan.
“The hope for peace in Afghanistan, which has arrived after 40 years, is quite significant and this opportunity should not be wasted,” Qureshi was quoted as saying by the foreign office of Pakistan.
“We are giving this message to the international community through this [OIC] conference that it should learn from its past mistakes and facilitate peace and stability in Afghanistan,” he added.
He maintained Pakistan had been trying to bring the world’s attention to the grave humanitarian and economic situation in the war-battered country since August, as it tried to supply food and medicines to Kabul on its own to help the people of the neighboring state.
Earlier, the foreign minister told a group of journalists he was sure the OIC members would reach a consensus on how to deal with the situation in Afghanistan during the summit.
The acting foreign minister of Afghanistan thanked Qureshi for supporting the war-battered country and convening the extraordinary session of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers.
Pakistan wants international community to benefit from emerging ‘hope for peace’ in Afghanistan
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Pakistan wants international community to benefit from emerging ‘hope for peace’ in Afghanistan
- FM Qureshi held a meeting with Afghanistan’s acting foreign minister ahead of the OIC meeting on Sunday
- Says international community should learn from its past mistakes and facilitate peace and stability in Afghanistan
Pakistan says 641 Afghan Taliban members killed, over 855 injured in ongoing conflict
- Both neighbors have been engaged in fierce fighting since Feb. 26 after Afghan forces launched retaliatory attacks against Pakistan
- Pakistan information minister says 243 Afghanistan checkposts destroyed, 65 “terrorists and terror support locations” targeted by air
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has killed at least 641 Afghan Taliban operatives and injured more than 855 in the ongoing conflict between the two sides since last month, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said on Wednesday.
Fresh clashes between the two neighbors began on Feb. 26 after Afghanistan’s border forces launched attacks against Pakistani military installations. Kabul said the attack was in retaliation for Islamabad’s airstrikes earlier in February. Both forces have since then engaged in the worst fighting between them in decades.
Islamabad has said its airstrikes, which have at times directly targeted the Afghan Taliban government, are aimed at ending Kabul’s support for militants carrying out attacks on Pakistan. The Taliban has denied aiding militant groups.
“Summary of Fitna Al Khawarij/Afghan Taliban losses: 641 killed, 855+ injured, 243 check posts destroyed,” Tarar wrote on social media platform X.
The minister said Pakistani security forces have destroyed 219 tanks, armored vehicles and artillery guns in the operation so far, and also decimated 65 “terrorists and terror support locations” across Afghanistan by targeting them with airstrikes.
Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have remained strained since the Afghan Taliban seized power in August 2021. Pakistan has witnessed a surge in militant attacks across the country in recent months that it blames on militants it alleges are based in Afghanistan.
Kabul denies the allegations and insists that its soil is not used by militant groups for attacks against other countries.
While Afghanistan has voiced the desire for dialogue, Pakistan has repeatedly ruled out talks, saying it will continue targeting militant hideouts in Afghanistan through “Operation Ghazab lil Haq” till Kabul desists from supporting militants.
The ongoing conflict between both sides has put the region on heightened alert, as it already suffers from the ongoing US-Israel war against Iran.
