Pakistan sends aid to Afghanistan, India may follow

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 30

The path for Indian humanitarian aid to Afghanistan may have opened after Pakistan sent its first consignment of 1,800 tonnes of wheat to its war-torn neighbour.

There has been little movement since Pakistan gave conditional permission to India on December 3 for the transit of 50,000 tonnes of wheat and life-saving medicines to Afghanistan.

Pakistan also put a condition that only Afghan trucks will be used for transportation from its Wagah border with India to Torkham. Since then, New Delhi has provided Pakistan a list of Afghan contractors and truck drivers who would transport the Indian consignment of 50,000 tonnes of wheat to Afghanistan as humanitarian assistance.

With Pakistan having begun the transportation of its wheat to Afghanistan, the expectations here are that permission for Indian aid may be granted in the coming days.

It has been three months since India announced the aid to Afghanistan.

Pakistan currently allows transit to Afghan goods

to India, but doesn’t permit any transaction from the opposite direction. Pakistan claims to be processing the Indian request by the Afghanistan Inter-ministerial Coordination Cell set up last month.