Islamabad: Citing “garbage” on the tarmac of the Kabul international airport, Pakistan on Sunday temporarily suspended international flights and evacuation operations to Afghanistan, local media reports stated. State-run Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) was the only commercial airline operating flights to and from Kabul during the past few days to facilitate the evacuation of diplomats and foreign nationals from the war-torn nation after the Taliban seized power last week.
PIA has “temporarily suspended Kabul flight operations owing to lack of facilities and heaps of garbage at Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport tarmac”, Geo News reported last evening.
Quoting sources privy to the development, the report said there were no immigration officials and security checks at the Kabul airport. Sanitation workers were also not performing their duties since the Taliban took control of the country.
The security of Kabul airport is with the US and they were interested in military aircraft only, the report quoted the sources as saying.
PIA spokesperson Abdullah Hafeez told Geo News that flight operations will remain closed for a couple of days.
“We have talked to Afghan Civil Aviation Authority for restoration of all required facilities at Kabul airport as soon as possible so that PIA could resume its flight operation,” Hafeez said, adding that PIA has so far evacuated 1,500 people, including journalists, UN officials and Pakistani national, in five flights.
The Taliban seized power in Afghanistan last Sunday, two weeks ahead of the deadline for the US troop withdrawal agreement, which intended to end a two-decade war. The insurgents stormed across the country, capturing all major cities in a matter of days, as Afghan security forces trained and equipped by the US and its allies melted away.
With PTI inputs