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Pakistan says needs Afghan cooperation for probe into envoy’s daughter’s kidnapping
Pakistan said on Monday it was waiting for information from the Afghan government in an investigation into the brief kidnapping of the Afghan ambassador’s daughter in Islamabad after Afghanistan raised questions over the credibility of the probe.
Silsila Alikhil, 26, the daughter of Afghanistan’s ambassador to Pakistan, told Pakistani police she was assaulted and held for several hours by unknown assailants on Friday, following which Kabul pulled out its diplomats from Islamabad.
“The investigation is ongoing and we are waiting for them to come and give their point of view; to say anything now would be premature,” Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi told a news conference on Monday in Islamabad.
Qureshi said Afghanistan should not have pulled out its ambassador and senior diplomats from Pakistan.
Earlier on Monday, Afghan Foreign Minister Haneef Atmar complained to Qureshi about the remarks of a senior Pakistani minister, according to a statement from Afghanistan’s ministry of foreign affairs.
“Atmar said unprofessional remarks and premature judgments could strongly affect bilateral relations and the credibility of the ongoing, and still incomplete, investigation,” it said.
On Sunday night, Pakistan’s Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid, to whom the Islamabad police reports, told Pakistani television channel Geo News that the probe so far had not shown that Alikhil was kidnapped.
“I want to tell the entire nation, this is an international racket, an international conspiracy,” he had said.
The Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences state hospital where Alikhil was treated had confirmed she had swelling and rope marks on the wrists and ankles as well as swelling in the brain’s rear occipital region.
Islamabad’s top police official, Inspector General Qazi Jamil-ur-Rehman, told reporters on Monday that more than 350 people were working on the case, and more than 700 hours of footage from more than 300 CCTV cameras had been examined.
Rehman said police had traced and questioned four men who drove taxis Alikhil took that day, but so far we’re not able to pinpoint when the kidnapping took place.
The incident has further eroded already frosty relations between the two neighbors at a time when Taliban insurgents have taken over territory in Afghanistan as U.S. troops withdraw.
Even the Taliban, whom Kabul alleges is supported by Pakistan – which Islamabad denies – expressed concern at the incident.
“We urge the government of Pakistan to step up its efforts to arrest and punish the perpetrators so that such acts do not give rise to hate between the two nations and the spoilers don’t have ground to misuse it,” a Taliban spokesman, Suhail Shaheen, wrote on Twitter.
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IEA urges World Bank to resume work on 7,000 incomplete projects
Officials at the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD) say 7,000 incomplete projects of the World Bank are at risk of destruction in Afghanistan. They call on the World Bank to resume the work of these projects.
According to them, discussions have been held with the World Bank about these projects, but there has been no result yet.
“7,000 incomplete projects are being destroyed, and if the work is not started, these projects will be destroyed. We ask the World Bank to resume the work of these projects as soon as possible,” said Noorul Hadi Adel, the spokesperson of MRRD.
Meanwhile, members of the private sector also ask international institutions to resume their work in Afghanistan.
According to the officials of this sector, with the start of these projects, job opportunities will be provided for thousands of people in the country.
“These projects create employment for our people and the country will grow a lot,” said Mirwais Hajizadeh, a member of the private sector.
However, economic experts stated if the work of these projects does not start soon, they will be destroyed and the investments made in them will be wasted.
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Ten people killed by floods in Helmand
Ten people have been killed and six others injured by floods in Helmand province in the past week, local officials said on Friday.
According to officials, seven of those were members of the same family, and they were killed in Kajaki district last night.
“Most of the people moved from vulnerable areas to high lands and mountains, and thanks Allah the number of casualties is low,” Sher Mohammad Vahdat, the head of information of the Directorate of Information and Culture in Helmand, said adding rescue teams and security forces have been dispatched to help people.
It is said that the telecommunication system has also been disrupted due to the effect of floods in Kajaki district. Floods have also destroyed thousands of acres of agricultural land.
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UN envoy meets Indian foreign minister to discuss Afghanistan
Roza Otunbayeva, the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, met with the Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar in New Delhi and discussed issues related to Afghanistan, it was announced on Thursday.
During the meeting, Otunbayeva thanked India for “its critical humanitarian support and longstanding friendship for the Afghan people” and discussed the importance of regional and international cooperation to address prevailing challenges in Afghanistan, UNAMA said on X.
Jaishankar also said on X that the sides exchanged views on the current situation in Afghanistan.
“Underlined that India has provided wheat, medicines, pesticides and school supplies. Appreciate the role of UN agencies as partners in these endeavors,” he said.
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