KABUL’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) chief minister Pervaiz Khattak on Wednesday said police in his country had been ordered not to harass Afghan refugees anymore.
Khattak, who arrived at the head of a 27-memebr delegation on Tuesday, was talking to reporters in Kabul after holding a series of meetings with Afghan leaders and officials, including President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Officer Abdullah Abdullah.
A statement from the Presidential Palace said President and Khattak discussed various issues of mutual interest.
The Pakistani delegation also met former president Hamid Karzai, a statement from Karzai’s office said. Karzai and Khattak specifically talked about the situation along the Durand Line.
The two voiced optimism that Pakistan and Afghanistan could ensure peace in both the countries by joining hands against the current challenges.
The chief minister, who was accompanied by some of his provincial ministers and media representatives, told reporters said the Pakistani police had been ordered not to harass Afghan refugees who possessed a special refugee card.
Authorities in Pakistan started arresting and sending back to Afghanistan thousands of Afghan refugees, who fled the 1980s and early 1990s unrest to the neighbouring country, after a bloody attack by Taliban insurgents on a Peshawar school in December last year, killing and wounding hundreds of students.
Khattak said specific cell phone numbers had been published in the media so that Afghan refugees could use them in case they faced harassment at the hands of security officials.
“The sole purpose of our visit to Afghanistan was to convey our message to the Afghans that we are one and want to work together in a brotherly environment in future.”
Haji Din Mohammad, a member of the High Peace Council, said the visit of the Pakistani delegation showed relations between the two countries had improved.
He termed the visit as fruitful for peace in Afghanistan and hoped that such contacts would continue in future to further bolster economic, social and trade ties between the brotherly nations.
nh/ma
