ISLAMABAD: A Cabinet minister from Afghanistan’s Taliban-led government attended a trade meeting in Pakistan despite tensions over the expulsion of Afghans living in the country illegally, officials said Wednesday.
Around 300,000 Afghans have returned home since last month, when Pakistan launched a nationwide crackdown on undocumented foreigners. The crackdown mainly affects about 1.7 million Afghans who fled during the 1979-1989 Soviet occupation of their country and after the Taliban takeover in 2021.
The Taliban-led administration in Afghanistan has denounced the crackdown.
However, this week the Taliban government sent Commerce and Industry Minister Nooruddin Azizi to Islamabad for a meeting of commerce and trade ministers from Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Pakistan. Aziz met separately with Pakistani officials to discuss trade issues and the expulsion of Afghans.
In a statement on X, previously known as Twitter, the Afghan Embassy in Islamabad said the three sides agreed to expand trade, improve transit facilities, increase joint investments and enhance transportation.
Pakistan this week opened three more border crossing points to expedite the deportation of Afghans, many of whom are unable to take their belongings with them.
The embassy and the Taliban government have accused authorities in Pakistan of seizing their property and money, a charge Pakistan denies.
The Taliban-led government has set up camps in Afghanistan for the returnees, who analysts say are being deported because of the Taliban-led administration’s backing of the Pakistani Taliban, who are known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, and are hiding in Afghanistan.
TTP is a separate militant group but a close ally of the Afghan Taliban. Authorities say the insurgents have become emboldened while living openly in Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover of that country in 2021.
Pakistan’s military often carries out operations against the insurgents.
In the latest such operation, troops raided a militant hideout in the district of Tank in the northwest bordering Afghanistan early Wednesday, killing seven insurgents, the military said. In a statement, it said a search operation was still underway in the area.