Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) with the support of the Pakistan embassy in Kabul and local authorities brought back another 350 passengers from Kabul to Islamabad on Friday.
The 350 passengers including foreigners and local Afghans attached with the World Bank and other international organisations were evacuated from Kabul, according to a statement.
Pakistan’s Ambassador to Kabul Mansoor Ahmad Khan said the embassy had made special arrangements for the safe passage of the people from Afghanistan.
Earlier, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry had said that Pakistan’s state-run airline has resumed special flights for Kabul in order to evacuate Pakistanis and foreigners stranded in Afghanistan.
In a tweet, Chaudhry had said Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) will send its two planes to the Afghan capital on Friday to evacuate 350 passengers, adding that Pakistan’s interior ministry is also facilitating the evacuation of Pakistanis and foreigners from Afghanistan through border crossings.
The latest development comes days after PIA halted all flights to Kabul to protect passengers, the crew and the planes after consulting the Afghan civil aviation authorities.
Pakistan’s government has been trying to evacuate its citizens and foreigners by air and land routes since the Taliban took over Kabul.
For this purpose, Pakistan is issuing visas upon arrival to all diplomats, foreigners and journalists who want to leave Kabul over security concerns.
Separately, Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN Munir Akram in an interview with CNN said that Pakistan has evacuated about 1,100 people including diplomats, staff of diplomatic missions and international agencies and journalists from Kabul.
He said that the Pakistan embassy in Kabul is open and extending facilitation to all those seeking visas and want to utilise Pakistan as a transit point to leave Afghanistan. He said, “We are flying three flights into Kabul airport each day to get out about five hundred to six hundred people.”
