Evacuated from Afghanistan arrived in Sofia by plane from Islamabad
Yesterday morning at 5.00 am a plane arrived at Sofia Airport with a group of 22 Afghan and Bulgarian citizens on board, who were evacuated from Islamabad, Pakistan, to Sofia. This was announced at a briefing in the Council of Ministers by the Minister of Defense Georgi Panayotov, who was also on board the plane. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs assisted in organizing the flight.
The minister praised the work of the Military Intelligence Service in the operation to withdraw the group from Afghanistan to Pakistan. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs assisted in organizing the flight from Sofia to Islamabad and back.
During his stay in Islamabad, the caretaker Minister met with his Pakistani counterpart Pervez Hatak, with whom they discussed the possibilities for deepening bilateral defense cooperation between Bulgaria and Pakistan. I received interesting information, assessment and analysis from the Pakistani side on the situation in Afghanistan, Panayotov said. According to him, the leadership of Pakistan has a very clear idea of what is happening in their neighboring country. “According to the minister, the Taliban leadership, which currently controls Afghanistan, is trying to build a new image of the movement in front of the world. A more liberal, more humane, more human image,” Panayotov said. “I am not ready to share Minister Hatak’s optimism so far, but time may disprove me,” he added. According to the minister, it is necessary to wait and see what the results of the Taliban rule are, how they treat the rights of women and girls, the rights of the various ethnic minorities in Afghanistan.
