Now, Pakistan's PIA suspends flights to Afghanistan citing Taliban's ‘heavy-handedness’

Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) on Thursday, 14 October suspended operations in Kabul after the Taliban threatened to slash the ticket prices. Republic Media Network sources have revealed that one Pakistani official was held for hours at gunpoint in Kabul by the Taliban members. Notably, the PIA staff was only set free after the Pakistani embassy in Kabul intervened. Additionally, multiple incidents of the airlines’ staff being threatened were reported.

Separately, CNN reported that the PIA suspended operations due to “heavy-handedness”. The media outlet added that it was PIA’s country representative in Afghanistan who was held on gunpoint for several hours on accusations of abetting people from leaving the war-ravaged nation. 

PIA spokesperson Abdullah Khan told the media outlet that it “was tough for PIA to fly into Kabul against all odds” adding that the decision to keep flying into Kabul was taken on “purely humanitarian grounds.” PIA suspension of its flights from Kabul came after just this week, Afghanistan’s Aviation Minister without any prior notice reduced 50% manifest from a flight on which people were already in the process of checking in.

This further resulted in 176 people being sent back home and causing nearly half a million-dollar loss to the Pakistani airline. Earlier, the Taliban had warned the PIA as well as the Afghan carrier Kam Air that Afghan operations risked being suspended unless they agreed to the reduction in ticket prices that were spiking away from the reach of Afghans. 

While PIA was one of the few airlines operating in the war-torn country after the Taliban took over in August, the tickets for its flights were reportedly selling for prices as high as $2,500. The Afghan transport ministry in the Taliban government had previously said in a statement that prices on the route from Kabul to the Pakistani capital Islamabad should “be adjusted to correspond with the conditions of a ticket before the victory of the Islamic Emirate" or the flights would be stopped.

Notably, the flights between Afghanistan and Pakistan have been significantly restricted since Kabul airport was reopened last month following the chaotic evacuation missions for tens and thousands of foreign nationals in the wake of the Taliban takeover on 15 August. 

IMAGE: ANI/AP