Afghanistan's acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi arrived in Islamabad on Wednesday evening on a three-day visit to Pakistan for wide-ranging talks on bilateral matters — the first visit to Pakistan by an Afghan minister since the Taliban seized control of Kabul on August 15.
Muttaqi is leading a 20-member high-level delegation comprising Minister for Finance Hidayatullah Badri, Minister for Industries and Trade Nooruddin Aziz and senior officials from the aviation ministry, according to a list of delegates available with media.
Pakistan's Special Representative for Afghanistan Mohammad Sadiq, Pakistan Ambassador to Afghanistan Mansoor Khan, Commerce Adviser Abdul Razak Dawood and senior officials welcomed the delegation upon their arrival at Nur Khan Airbase.
The Taliban's representative at the Afghan embassy in Islamabad, Shakaib Ahmad, was also present on the occasion.
During his visit, the Afghan minister will hold formal talks with Pakistani counterpart Shah Mahmood Qureshi. Muttaqi will also meet special representatives from China, Russia and the US, who are participating in the Troika Plus meeting scheduled for November 11 (tomorrow).
In a statement on Tuesday, the FO said that Muttaqi's visit was taking place as a follow-up to Qureshi's visit to Kabul on Oct 21.
“The exchanges will centre on Pakistan-Afghanistan relations with a particular focus on enhanced trade, facilitation of transit trade, cross-border movement, land and aviation links, people-to-people contacts and regional connectivity,” the FO statement said.
Kabul foreign ministry spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi had said that the visiting delegation will discuss bilateral ties between the two countries as well as the economy, transit, refugees and expanding facilities for the movement of people.
Pakistan has not officially recognised the Taliban government, however, Taliban officials have been allowed to take control of the Afghan embassy in Islamabad as well as consulates in Peshawar, Karachi and Quetta.
“It would be a substantive visit as Muttaqi is a key member in the Taliban set-up,” a Pakistani official, wishing to remain anonymous, had told Dawn.com a day earlier.
Qureshi had held detailed discussions with Muttaqi during his Kabul visit, which officials say laid the foundation of a multi-sectoral engagement between the two countries in the days to come which could usher in an era of enhanced bilateral economic cooperation and people-to-people ties.
Both sides had agreed to revive existing bilateral mechanisms and institutional frameworks such as the Afghanistan-Pakistan Action Plan for Peace and Solidarity (APAPPS) to sort out differences and to remove hurdles in the implementation of decisions on both sides.Spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told a news conference that IS was "not a great threat", adding that around 600 members or sympathisers had been arrested since the Taliban seized control of the country in mid-August.
He said there were even a few women among those captured, who would be questioned by other women.
"They are not many in Afghanistan, because they do not have the support of the people," said Mujahid, adding that the Taliban were continuing operations against their foes.
The IS came to prominence when it proclaimed a caliphate in Syria in 2014, inspiring a number of offshoots elsewhere including "Khorasan".
Mujahid said that unlike its counterpart in the Middle East, IS-Khorasan was mostly made up of local fighters, and that its presence in Afghanistan was not a threat to other countries.
Still, the group has claimed responsibility for a series of bloody attacks since the Taliban's return to power.
One of the latest, in early November, saw IS fighters raid the Kabul National Military Hospital, killing at least 19 people and injuring more than 50.
IS-K openly targets the Shia minority and in particular the Hazaras.
More than 120 people were killed in IS attacks earlier this year on two mosques popular with Hazaras.