Pakistan NSA to visit Kabul after border tension

It was decided during a high-level meeting in Islamabad on Thursday that NSA Yusuf would visit Afghanistan amid tensions along the Durand Line.

A meeting of the Afghanistan Inter-Ministerial Coordination Cell (AICC), presided over by Pakistan National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser, took the decision, according to an official statement, the report said.

"A senior delegation of Pakistani officials, headed by the NSA, is scheduled to visit Afghanistan soon for further engagement with the Afghan government on all assistance-related prospects," the statement said.

No date for the NSA's visit was announced during the meeting. However, an official told the Pakistani media that the visit would probably take place on January 17-18. 

"We will finalise the delegation in a couple of days and then decide the date," the official said.

Meanwhile, Asad Qaiser said that the world must not abandon the people of Afghanistan in their time of need. He said that peace and stability in Afghanistan offers enormous opportunities not only to the Afghan people but also to Pakistan in terms of access to Central Asian countries for greater trade and connectivity.

In the meantime, Abdul Qahar Balkhi, spokesman of the Foreign Ministry of Afghanistan, and the Foreign Minister of Pakistan, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, have called for engagement from both sides to discuss the issue.

However, on Thursday, Inter-Services Public Relations of Pakistan (ISPR) Director, Major General Gen Babar Iftikhar, stated that the fencing of the Durand Line would continue as planned, adding that the fencing was 94 per cent complete.

This comes as over the past few weeks, videos have surfaced on social media purportedly showing Islamic Emirate fighters uprooting a portion of the fence along the Durand Line, claiming that the fencing had been erected inside Afghan territory, the report said.