ISLAMABAD: Afghanistan summoned a senior Pakistan diplomat in Kabul on Wednesday and handed a demarche to protest over the alleged ‘harassment’ of its Consul General in Peshawar a day earlier, the Afghan Foreign Ministry said.
“Pakistan’s charge d’affaires Muzam Ali was summoned today in the afternoon and a strong protest was lodged with him over the mistreatment by security personnel with the Afghan Consul General when he was heading to his residence in Peshawar,” the Afghan Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
On Tuesday, vehicles belonging to the diplomatic staff from Afghanistan’s consulate in Peshawar were stopped at a security checkpoint in the city and searched. Terming it “mistreatment of diplomats”, officials at the consulate said they had closed the facility for an unspecified time in protest and had lodged a formal complaint against it with the Foreign Office in Islamabad.
The incident was also strongly condemned by the first political office in the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs Moosa Arefi calling it “against the diplomatic and consulate relations and international conventions.”
Arefi, who conveyed Afghanistan’s serious concerns to the Pakistani diplomat, said such incidents should not be repeated as they had the potential to harm relationships between the two neighbours.
“Pakistani chargé d’affaires promised to convey Afghanistan’s concerns and demarche to the concerned authorities in Pakistan,” the statement said.
Afghanistan’s top diplomat in Islamabad on Wednesday criticised new travel curbs Islamabad introduced for Afghans on Tuesday.
“We do not see the wisdom of such a restriction at a time what we really need more is to build bridges and improve our relations, not creating further irritants, grievances and distances,” Afghan Ambassador Dr Omar Zakhilwal told The Express Tribune on Wednesday.
He claimed that Islamabad had not taken Kabul into confidence before mandating visas for all travellers entering Pakistan from Afghanistan through Torkham and other crossing points.
Pakistani officials have defended the decision to implement the new visa regime stating that border management is necessary to check the movement of militants who take benefit of loose controls.
Officials say Islamabad has on a number of occasions shared several proposals with the Afghan government to improve border management; however, the Afghan side had not agreed to any proposal.
http://tribune.com.pk/story/1114853/harassment-diplomat-kabul-issues-diplomatic-demarche/
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