ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Afghanistan held the first round of peace talks on Wednesday, with China mediating to broker a durable ceasefire after weeks of fighting, two Pakistani officials said.
Representatives from the two countries were meeting in Urumqi, in northern China, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to brief the media. The first round of talks concluded on Wednesday afternoon and were expected to continue on Thursday (today), they said.
China has not commented. Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs neither confirmed nor denied the talks were taking place.
An Afghan official said the five-member Afghan delegation in Urumqi consisted of two officials from the foreign ministry and one each from the defence and interior ministries and from the country’s intelligence agency. The official provided the information on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to disclose details to the press.
The talks in Urumqi are seen as a potential relief for millions of people in Pakistan and neighbouring Afghanistan, the sources in Pakistan said, adding they may last for days and were only the beginning of a peace process between the two sides.
According to the sources, the latest round of talks began after both the sides accepted China’s offer to mediate to end the fighting.
China has urged both sides to resume dialogue since late February, and its special envoy, Yue Xiaoyong, met his Pakistani counterpart, Mohammad Sadiq, last month after visiting Kabul.
Pakistan’s former special envoy for Afghanistan, Asif Durrani, expressed hope that the talks, if officially confirmed, would lead to substantive progress.
“If both sides reach an agreement as a result of reported talks, the critical issue will be a verification mechanism to ensure Afghan territory is not used for attacks against Pakistan,” he added.—Agencies
News Desk adds: The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on Wednesday dismissed claims regarding the removal of barbed wire along the Pak-Afghan border as “fabricated and devoid of facts”.
The ministry’s fact-check X handle strongly condemned fake claims made by mouthpieces of the Afghan Taliban regime and India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).
The Pak-Afghan border spans over 2,640 kilometres of rugged landscape, which is guarded only by Pakistan, while the Taliban regime works hand in glove with terrorists, smugglers and criminal mafia to infiltrate, it added.
The ministry said that the complex dynamics of this border have already been explained multiple times by concerned security officials.
The social media post also referred to the November 29 press conference by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General (DG) Lt Gen
Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, during which he spoke about terrorist infiltration through the Pak-Afghan border.
“All the clips uploaded by Taliban regime outlets are staged, outdated and in line with the Khawarij and Taliban’s propaganda tactics of appearing briefly to record content and then fleeing,” it added.
The ministry said that such content creation confirms not only the cowardly nature of these Khawarij and the Taliban but also how they live in a make-believe world of propaganda and deceit.
“The Pak-Afghan border fence is fully intact and in fact all such attempts are given a heavy and disproportionate response there and then,” it added.
It said that frustrated by the destruction of more than 250 border posts, along with the capture of dozens of posts by Pakistan’s law enforcement agencies (LEAs) in precise and targeted operations under Operation Ghazab lil-Haq, the Afghan Taliban regime has resorted to a familiar litany of lies to satisfy their domestic audience.
The ministry further said that the Kabul regime and their Indian masters were internationally known for frivolous claims, ranging from capture of a Pakistani tank, to supposed successful drone strikes, and even capture of a Pakistani pilot in “shalwar qameez”, exposing their absolute lack of credibility. “Any claims by the Afghan Taliban or their media cannot be trusted,” the ministry added.
