Afghan | Pakistan

Foreign Office Spokesperson Tahir Hussain Andrabi on Friday said that transit trade with Afghanistan would remain suspended for the foreseeable future till the current security situation was evaluated. Questioned about the status of trade with Afghanistan during his maiden weekly press briefing, Andrabi said: “Afghan transit trade is closed, is not taking place. It is not taking place because of the factors that you were aware of. There was considerable discussion on this question during last week’s briefing as well. Till the evaluation of the security situation, this transit trade will remain closed.” He said there had been continuous attacks on trading points at the border from the Afghan side that killed Pakistanis, adding that the lives of citizens were “more important than any commodity trade”. Andrabi added that Afghan soil should not be used for fomenting and sponsoring terrorism in Pakistan. Questioned about reports of the Taliban supreme leader ordering the construction of a dam on the Kunar river, t...

Islamabad police on Monday arrested 17 Afghan nationals residing illegally in the federal capital during an operation conducted in the Bari Imam area.

Security forces have arrested an Afghan suicide bomber from South Waziristan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, in an operation conducted by the Frontier Corps, uncovering links between the Afghan Taliban and the militant network “Fitna al-Khawarij.

Afghanistan pulled out of the series, citing the deaths of three Afghan cricketers killed in recent strikes

PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mohammad Sohail Afridi on Friday declined to attend a top-level huddle chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to chalk out a course of action regarding the future of Afghan refugees. However, Mr Afridi was represented by Muzzamil Aslam, former adviser to the chief minister on finance, in the meeting. In a statement on X, the chief minister said that he had declined to attend a federal government’s meeting about agriculture and Afghan refugees on the ground that attending such meetings without policy guidelines from detained PTI founder Imran Khan would be an insult to people’s mandate. He hoped that the federal government would resolve the issue of his meeting with Mr Khan and direct relevant authorities to arrange his regular meetings with the party’s founder. Mr Afridi said that his legal team was approaching the Islamabad High Court and other forums on the matter. Hopes Centre will ensure his meeting with Imran in jail Earlier in the day, he was denied a meetin...

Federal govt orders repatriation of illegal Afghan nationals without any further extension ISLAMABAD - The federal government on Friday decided to ensure expedited and dignified repatriation of Afghan nationals without further extension.

Foreign Office says strikes in Afghanistan undertaken in self-defence Media reports claim Pak, Afghan talks set to start in Doha Defence Minister says no delegations will go to Kabul Wherever the source of terrorism lies, it will have to pay heavy price: Kh Asif.

Warns against harbouring or sheltering illegal Afghan residents

K-P CM defends skipping federal meeting on Afghan refugees

Federal Information Minister Attaullah Tarar has criticized Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi for skipping a high-level meeting on the repatriation of Afghan refugees, calling his absence “political point-scoring.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has directed all the provincial governments as well as federal and provincial institutions to work together to ensure the swift repatriation of Afghan nationals residing illegally in Pakistan.

Shehbaz Sharif says Pakistan wants permanent end to terrorism originating from Afghanistan Pak Armed Forces forcefully responded to Afghan aggression under leadership of Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir.

An Afghan man accused of a deadly knife attack on a group of toddlers in Germany went on trial on Thursday, nine months after an incident that inflamed a heated pre-election debate on immigration. Germany was shocked by the stabbing spree that killed a two-year-old boy and a 41-year-old man who tried to protect the children and left three others wounded in the southern city of Aschaffenburg. Five toddlers from a kindergarten class were in a public park, accompanied by two teachers, when the assailant attacked them with a kitchen knife. The suspect arrested at the scene of the January 22 attack has been only partially named, in line with usual practice by the German judiciary, as 28-year-old Enamullah O. He has a long history of mental illness, and prosecutors said an expert assessment concluded his psychiatric state meant he was not criminally responsible. The public prosecutor’s office has previously said there was no indication the suspect acted out of extremist or terrorist motivation, and they were seekin...

Pakistan’s federal authorities have ordered the immediate closure of all Afghan refugee camps in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, directing refugees to return to Afghanistan.

The Federal Ministry of Interior has convened a high-level meeting today to decide the future of Afghan nationals residing in Pakistan under Proof of Registration (POR) cards.

PESHAWAR - The recent unprovoked cross-border firing by Afghan forces on multiple Pakistani checkposts has sparked serious concerns among foreign relations and defense experts, who have termed it a blatant violation of the United Nations (UN) Charter and the Doha Agreement.

In response to unprovoked firing by Afghan forces along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, the Pakistan Army launched a decisive retaliatory operation early Sunday, destroying several Afghan posts and capturing 19 key positions, besides inflicting heavy losses on Afghan troops and militants.

Pakistan Army, in a retaliatory response to unprovoked aggression by Afghan forces, has destroyed multiple posts used to facilitate terrorist activities against Pakistan.

The Foreign Office (FO) on Saturday night censured Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi for remarks during his visit to India and said “deflecting” the responsibility of controlling terrorism could not absolve the Afghan authorities of their responsibilities towards regional peace. Muttaqi visited India earlier this week, marking India’s first high-level engagement with the Taliban government since it took power in 2021. Speaking about a Thursday night explosion in Kabul during a press conference in New Delhi a day ago, Muttaqi had condemned the incident and Pakistan for its alleged role in it, saying: “Whatever the problems are in each country should be solved by themselves.” He said there was no terrorist organisation or group left in Afghanistan. “If other countries achieve peace themselves as we did in Afghanistan, then there will be peace in the entire region. Since the last eight months, there has not been even a small incident in Afghanistan. In four years, no one has been harmed from Afghanistan’...

Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan Amir Muqam on Monday pressed the international community to help Pakistan in repatriating Afghan refugees to their country. Muqam was speaking at the 76th Session of the Executive Committee of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva, which is running from October 6-10, according to a press release from the ministry. “It is now our shared responsibility to facilitate safe and dignified return of displaced Afghans to their country. However, durable returns require investments, in countries of refugee origin for peace, stability, schools, clinics, and livelihoods to make return viable,” he was quoted as having said. Pakistan announced the phased repatriation of millions of Afghans in 2023 over security concerns and reasoning that the decades-long conflict had ended in Afghanistan. Currently, the repatriation of nearly 1.3 million registered Afghans is underway. Muqam said repeated calls for such support, alongside predict...