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First International flights land in Kabul airport from Pakistan

September 13, 2021 No Comments

A Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) passenger plane from Islamabad, touched down in Kabul on Monday morning, following the withdrawal of US and allied troops from Afghanistan.

It marks the first flight to land in Afghanistan from neighboring Pakistan since the chaotic final withdrawal of troops last month.

A statement by PIA spokesman, Abdullah Khan, said the service was a “special flight” to create “goodwill” with the people of Afghanistan and to “strengthen humanitarian efforts,” noting it was “not an aid flight” as wrongly speculated.

Khan said the Boeing 777 aircraft departed Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital city, at 6:45 a.m. local time after special arrangements had been made by Afghanistan’s civil aviation authorities and PIA’s staff.

Foreign journalists traveled into the Afghan capital on the flight while employees of the World Bank were brought back to Islamabad on the return leg, the spokesman said.

Last week, two Qatar Airways passenger planes, both carrying more than 100 foreign nationals, departed from Kabul and landed in Doha as the new Taliban regime begins a phased opening up to the outside world.

The flights signal that at least some foreign nationals who want to leave Afghanistan will be able to do so, following weeks of uncertainty, a Middle East security expert said while commending the PIA for the initiative.

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Kabul attack: Families bury schoolchildren of blast that killed 50

May 9, 2021 No Comments

Some of the children killed outside a secondary school in Kabul on Saturday have been buried – as other relatives are still searching for the missing.

More than 50 people – mostly girls – died in the explosions that occurred as students were leaving the building.

No-one has admitted carrying out the attack in Dasht-e-Barchi – an area often hit by Sunni Islamist militants.

Afghan government officials blamed Taliban militants for the attack, but the group denied any involvement.

Nobel Prize winner and activist Malala Yousafzai – who was shot in the head by the Taliban in 2012 – posted about the “horrendous attack” on Twitter.

“My heart is with the Kabul school victims’ families,” she wrote.

What happened on Saturday?

The explosions are believed to have been caused by a car bomb and two improvised explosive devices planted in the area.

One survivor, Zahra, told reporters she was leaving the school as the blasts took place.

“My classmate died. A few minutes later there was another explosion, and then another. Everyone was screaming and there was blood everywhere,” she said.

image captionA woman is carried to hospital after the attack

Several witnesses described hearing three separate explosions, while one woman, Reza, told AFP news agency she had seen “many bloodied bodies in dust and smoke”.

“I saw a woman checking the bodies and calling for her daughter,” Reza said. “She then found her daughter’s bloodstained purse after which she fainted and fell to the ground.”

More than 100 people were injured in the attack. Reports from Kabul say the city was busy with shoppers ahead of this year’s celebrations for Eid al-Fitr next week.

Najiba Arian, ministry of education spokeswoman, told Reuters news agency the government-run school was open to boys and girls. Most of the those hurt were girls, who study in the second of three sessions, according to Ms Arian.

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Two killed in Kabul shooting, bomb attack.

December 24, 2020 No Comments

Separate attacks on Wednesday, as violence continues amid speculation Taliban and Afghan government talks may be delayed further.

At least two people have been killed in a bomb attack that was followed by a shooting in Kabul.

Unknown gunmen shot and killed Mohammad Yousuf Rasheed, the head of an independent Afghan elections watchdog on Wednesday, said Ferdaws Faramarz, a spokesman for Kabul’s police chief.

The shooting took place when Rasheed, the executive director of the NGO, Free and Fair Election Forum of Afghanistan, was on his way to work.His driver was wounded and taken to hospital, Faramarz said.

In a separate attack, a police vehicle was targeted by a sticky bomb in the eastern part of the capital.

The blast killed one police officer and wounded two others, according to Faramarz. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks.

The ISIL (ISIS) group claimed responsibility for an attack in Kabul a day earlier in which a roadside bomb tore through a vehicle, killing five people, three of them doctors on their way to work at the city’s main prison.

Among those killed in Tuesday’s attack was Nazefa Ibrahimi, the acting health director of the prison. Another doctor was in a serious condition.

Their car, a white sedan, did not appear to have any markings on it that indicated its passengers were medical workers. The vehicle was almost completely destroyed in the blast.

ISIL has claimed responsibility for multiple attacks in Kabul in recent months, including on educational institutions that have killed 50 people, mostly students.

Violence in Afghanistan has spiked even amid the Taliban and Afghan government peace negotiations, which began in September.

The talks have been suspended until early January after some recent procedural progress, and there is speculation the resumption could be further delayed.