Pakistan has agreed to allow wheat shipments from India to Afghanistan through its territory, as an exceptional concession, not as a precedent for further land transport. The Taliban have announced a commission on Shia rights; meanwhile, more than 100 members of the security forces of the previous government have been killed or disappeared.
Kabul (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Pakistan and India are arguing over how to get wheat and humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, which is on the brink of the worst economic crisis in its modern history with GDP possibly dropping by up to 20 per cent, with all that it entails at the humanitarian level.
Last week Pakistan decided to allow India to deliver 50,000 metric tonnes of wheat via Wagah, a town on the Indian-Pakistani border.
Pakistani authorities proposed to have the wheat carried by Pakistani trucks operated by the United Nations, but India, who is paying for the shipment, objected to this.
The Taliban, who requested wheat and other humanitarian aid, would like to see a land route for trade between India and Afghanistan. By contrast, Pakistan has agreed to the shipment on an “exceptional basis”.
The conditions set by Islamabad include a 30-day period for the shipment, and limited the transportation only to deal with the humanitarian crisis in the new Islamic Emirate, which should not be construed as a precedent for future shipments through its territory.
In Afghanistan, the Taliban have set up a commission to discuss the rights of the Shias living in the country, this according to Imam Sayed Muhammad Ali Jawid, leader of the Islamic Movement of Afghanistan, a Shia political party.
“The current government is temporary and transitory; in a month and a half or two a government will be formed in which all ethnic groups, including Shia brothers, will be present,” said Hafiz Zakhrullah, a Taliban official appointed to head the commission.
No further details were given about this body, but it is hard to believe Zakhrullah's words after Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported that more than 100 former members of Afghan security forces were killed by the Taliban or disappeared.
After the Taliban took Kabul, they pledged a general amnesty and asked that those who worked with the previous government to register in order to receive a letter guaranteeing their safety.
In reality, the HRW report notes that, in the provinces of Ghazni, Helmand, Kunduz and Kandahar, the information was used to identify people who had registered in order to kill them or make them disappear.