International
First International flights land in Kabul airport from Pakistan
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.
READ ALSO: Domestic flights resume at Kabul International Airport
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.
Join the conversation
Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism
Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.
As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.
If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.
Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.
German Police bust alleged Nigerian scam dating ring
German authorities have arrested eleven individuals suspected of being members of a Nigerian mafia group involved in a large-scale dating...
INVESTIGATION: In Kwara, multimillion-naira milk processing plant is abandoned, converted to a chicken outlet
After the government spent millions of naira to establish a milk processing plant in Kwara State that would provided jobs...
SPECIAL REPORT: For Sokoto communities, promise of healthcare is akin to death sentence
In this story, ABDULRASHEED HAMMAD delves into the dire realities of Primary Health Care services in Sokoto State, shedding light...
ICYMI…SPECIAL REPORT: NNPCL hides behind PIA to frustrate disclosure, accountability
Nigeria’s major oil company, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL), in what appears to be a common practice of disregard...
INVESTIGATION: Multi-million naira Ekiti resort center remains uncompleted a decade after
The multimillion-naira project, expected to comprise recreational buildings, now consists of cassava farmland, a bush used for excretion, and a...