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AFGHANISTAN

Pakistan to free Swede held in terror probe

The 19-year-old Safia Benaouda and her two-year-old son, who have been imprisoned in Pakistan since August, are to be released “shortly”, according to the Swedish foreign ministry.

Published: 7 October 2009 17:30 CEST

Two other Swedes who were arrested at the same time as Benaouda, her 28-year-old boyfriend, Munir Awad, and Mehdi Gezhali, a Swedish national once imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay, are not going to released, however, said foreign ministry spokesperson Anders Jörle to the TT news agency.

It remains unclear when the remaining two Swedes, who have been the subject of a terror investigation, may be released.

Pakistan’s Minister of the Interior Rehman Malik announced the impending release of Benaouda and her son when he met with Sweden’s ambassador in Islamabad, Ulrika Sundberg.

There have been several previous reports that Benaouda had been released or was about to be released, but Wednesday’s news is the first time the information has been confirmed by both Swedish and Pakistani officials.

Malik, who is in charge of Pakistan’s police force, said on Tuesday that he would receive a report about the detained Swedes on Wednesday, at which time he would made a decision about their fate as soon as possible.

The Swedes have been detained since August 28th when they were arrested in northern Pakistan, along with seven Turks, an Iranian, a Russian, and one Pakistani, according the police.

The police reported that the group was arrested in a prohibited area near a nuclear power facility.

Police suspect the group was on its way to rendezvous with representatives from the Taliban in southern Waziristan, long considered a Taliban stronghold.

One of the Swedes claimed the group was in fact on its way to a meeting with a Muslim revivalist movement in the city of Lahore.

It took until September 16th for Swedish authorities to receive formal confirmation that the Swedes had in fact been arrested.

According to foreign ministry spokesperson Anders Jörle, personnel from Sweden’s embassy in Pakistan were able to meet the four Swedish detainees on one occasion.

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AFGHANISTAN

Spain starts evacuating Afghan employees via Pakistan

Spain was on Monday evacuating via Pakistan Afghan helpers left behind when western forces quit Kabul, a government source confirmed on condition of anonymity.

Published: 11 October 2021 15:58 CEST
A group of Afghan nationals stand on the tarmac after disembarking from the last Spanish evacuation flight at the Torrejon de Ardoz air base near Madrid in August. Photo: PIERRE-PHILIPPE MARCOU / AFP)
A group of Afghan nationals stand on the tarmac after disembarking from the last Spanish evacuation flight at the Torrejon de Ardoz air base near Madrid in August. Photo: PIERRE-PHILIPPE MARCOU / AFP)

The government source declined to give any details of the move, citing security concerns.

But Spanish media, including daily El País and National Radio, reported that Madrid would bring close to 250 Afghan citizens, who had already crossed into Pakistan and would be flown out on military transport planes.

The first flight was expected to arrive on Monday evening.

Spain’s evacuations have been weeks in the making, with Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares visiting Pakistan and Qatar in early September to lay the groundwork.

Madrid evacuated over 2,000 people, most of them Afghans who had worked for Spain and their families, during the western withdrawal as the Taliban seized power in Kabul in August.

But the flights had to stop once the final American troops that had been protecting the Afghan capital’s airport left.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said in August that Spain would not “lose interest in the Afghans who had remained” in their country but wanted to leave.

The European Union’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, on Friday urged the bloc’s member states to host a “minimum” of between 10,000 and 20,000 more Afghan refugees.

“To welcome them, we have to evacuate them, and we’re getting down to it, but it’s not easy,” he said in Madrid.

The EU has said a demand by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to take in 42,500 Afghan refugees over five years can be achieved — although any decision lies with member states.

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