India working on modalities for shipping wheat to Afghan people

Taliban has been facing humanitarian crises ever since the Taliban took control and is set to become the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

Days after Islamabad said it gave clearance for shipment of wheat to Afghanistan from India through land route via Pakistan, India said while it is working out modalities, there should be no conditions attached.

"… We believe that humanitarian assistance should not be subject to conditionalities," MEA spokesman Arindam Bagchi told reporters at the weekly briefing.

He said India is "examining the response of the government of Pakistan." "We are also working on the modalities with the Pakistan side." 

"This was about humanitarian access into Afghanistan for the delivery of the 50,000 metric tonnes of wheat and life-saving medicines we are supplying to the people of Afghanistan," the MEA spokesperson said.

Pakistan had informed India on Wednesday that it would allow the shipment of the wheat and medicines to Afghanistan via the Wagah land border as a goodwill gesture.

India's willingness to supply wheat and medicines comes when Afghanistan is virtually on the brink of a major and unprecedented humanitarian crisis.

Taliban rule in Afghanistan, which began on August 15, completed 100 days, and there were reports of an immense financial and humanitarian crisis in the war-ravaged country. During his visit to Islamabad, Taliban foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi raised the issue of allowing the shipment from India with the Pakistani leadership.

Ten out of 11 of Afghanistan's most densely populated urban areas are expected to be at emergency levels of food insecurity. There are also reports of destitute parents even promising baby girls for future marriage in exchange for dowries. Crippled by drought and economic collapse, Afghanistan is set to become the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

There are also reports of destitute parents even promising baby girls for future marriage in exchange for dowries. UNICEF has said there were "credible reports of families offering daughters as young as 20-days old for future marriage in return for a dowry."