Islamabad:
A plane carrying Pakistan’s Parliament Speaker and a delegation of lawmakers was not permitted to land in Kabul and was turned back due to safety motives following explosives, apparently years old, have been identified buried close to the airport.
National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser was heading a nine-member parliamentary delegation to Kabul for a 3-day stop by on the specific invitation of Speaker of Afghan Wolesi Jirga Mir Rehman Rehmani.
A spokesperson for the speaker stated that Qaiser along with the delegation had departed for Kabul from the Islamabad International Airport as per schedule but when their aircraft was nevertheless in the air, the delegation members have been informed that Kabul airport had been closed due to some “security reasons”, the Dawn News reported.
The plane was about to descend when the manage tower informed of the closure of the airport.
Riaz Arian, the commander of Hamid Karzai International Airport (HKIR), told Afghanistan’s Tolo News that Qaisar”s flight was diverted due to the fact of the relocation of unexploded explosives from below a constructing close to the airport.
An official from NATO’s Resolute Support Mission stated a digging crew uncovered explosives that appeared to have been buried “for quite some time” in the location, the news portal reported.
“During construction at HKIA international airport, a digging crew uncovered unexploded ordnance that appears to have been buried for quite some time. The explosives were uncovered in an unoccupied area far from any active runway. Turkish military explosives experts conducted a controlled detonation to render the device safe. Flight operations resumed shortly thereafter,” stated the official.
Qaiser later received phone calls from his Afghan counterpart as nicely as chairman of Afghanistan’s Senate Fazal Hadi.
During their phone conversation, the two Afghan leaders stated the Pakistani plane was not permitted to land at Kabul airport due to safety issues. They expressed the hope that the Pakistani delegation would quickly stop by Afghanistan, the Dawn News reported.
Qaiser vowed to stop by Afghanistan as quickly as the safety predicament enhanced. He also remarked that Pakistan would continue to play its function for peace in Afghanistan.
It was to be the 1st official stop by of the Speaker to Afghanistan on the specific invitation of his Afghan counterpart.
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