Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) announced Thursday that it was suspending flights to Afghanistan due to what it described as unworkable conditions imposed by the Taliban.
The airline said conditions had worsened since the Taliban formed a new Afghan government last month and that "PIA and its staff position in Kabul were dealt with very heavy-handedly by the new [Taliban] commanders." PIA said commanders had been "changing regulations and flight permissions at the last moments or deciding at a whim rather than meeting international regulations."
The statement also claimed that PIA's country representative was "held up at gun point for hours when he left the Pakistan embassy compound" on the Taliban's "suspicion of aiding and abetting" people seeking to flee Afghanistan.
PIA also accused Afghanistan's aviation ministry of slashing half the number of passengers from one flight this week that was already in the process of checking in. "This resulted in 176 people, fleeing for their lives, being sent back home by the airline officials, causing nearly half a million-dollar loss to the airline due to higher insurance costs," the airline said.
PIA resumed some charter flights into Kabul on September 13, almost a month after the Taliban swept into the capital and seized control of Afghanistan.
PIA spokesman Abdullah Khan told CNN on Thursday that the decision to resume flying into Kabul "was taken on purely humanitarian grounds, and on the strong insistence of friendly organizations."
Khan said the insurance premium on these flights is "so high" that it is "simply impossible to operate scheduled flights to Kabul, as it is still considered a war zone by aircraft insurance companies."
Khan also said that "it is very frustrating that the regulations keep on changing for each flight and the authorities always confuse charter permissions with schedule permissions."
Khan said PIA would reevaluate its decision to suspend flights "if the situation on ground improves and [becomes] more conducive for international operations."
The-CNN-Wire
And supposedly Afghanistan is safer under the Taliban? @Agha SherAfghanistan: Suicide attack hits Kandahar mosque during prayers
Explosions at a Shia mosque in Kandahar kill more than 40 people during Friday worship.www.bbc.com
Not to forget that this kind of thing is truly horrendous, no respect for people praying in peace.
If USA invaded and occupied Indonesia chances are it would be safer, more developed. economically prosperous with better infra. This also applies to most of Africa. Do you suggest there should be a new colonial age?And supposedly Afghanistan is safer under the Taliban?
Terrorist doesn't make a good CT forces, the Taliban is wrecked left and right and all they did is blame imaginary foreign actors like the imbecile they are. For the people mocking US intelligence failures in Afghanistan in particular during the last days of the evacuation, this shows just how hard it is to do CT operation which is a very complex operation which has to have good ISR which the Taliban lacks.
Now what the T'ban needs to do is:
1. Humble yourself and let go of hubris
2. Ask for help and guidance from actors who are particularly capable and experienced in CT, *wink NATO
3. Open up for intelligence cooperation
4. Stop making stupid gamble like randomly killing civilians.
which is ironically derived from the Taliban own playbook.
The Taliban could not engage NATO in a large scale battle, so they used bombings and IED to create chaos in the then Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.
Taliban main goal is to cause total instability and bring chaos to an already extremely poor nation. They have absolutely no sympathy.
This was ever happened. US helped Taliban fought against ISIS mainly in Kunar [1] which ANA were fought against ISIS in Nangarhar. And if I'm remember correctly, Russia were also helped Taliban fought against ISIS in Jawzan which many ISIS there were surrendered to then Afghan Govt for safety.Ask for help and guidance from actors who are particularly capable and experienced in CT, *wink NATO
Taliban hubris said NOThis was ever happened. US helped Taliban fought against ISIS mainly in Kunar [1] which ANA were fought against ISIS in Nangarhar. And if I'm remember correctly, Russia were also helped Taliban fought against ISIS in Jawzan which many ISIS there were surrendered to then Afghan Govt for safety.
Add : Something interesting from how US helped Taliban back then,
"But inside JSOC, the team working on this mission is jokingly known as the “Taliban Air Force,” one task force member told me. As negotiators closed in on their deal in Doha, officers repurposed tools honed against the Taliban: Reaper drones and an intelligence complex with nearly two decades of practice spying on Afghan guerrillas. Unwilling to communicate directly with Taliban commanders, the task force worked to divine where and how its old foes needed help by listening to their communications."
Pray for help and got the gift, no.
Made some random humming and got the gift. Taliban there must learned something lol.
Taliban hubris said NO