New Delhi says Pakistan imposing conditions on Indian humanitarian aid to Afghanistan

ISLAMABAD: Indian officials said on Thursday they were trying to work out the modalities of sending humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan with the Pakistani government, saying that Islamabad should not attach conditions to the shipment of relief goods.
The administration in New Delhi recently offered to supply life-saving drugs and 50,000 tons of wheat to the war-battered country which is facing an economic meltdown and an impending food crisis.
The issue was also taken up by a Taliban ministerial delegation with the Pakistani authorities last month, making Prime Minister Imran Khan assure its members that his country would consider the transit of Indian wheat on humanitarian grounds.
The foreign office of Pakistan announced on November 24 it had allowed the transportation of Indian humanitarian aid "as a goodwill gesture towards the brotherly Afghan people."
However, Indian external affairs ministry complained Pakistan wanted to load the relief material on its own trucks from the border crossing.
"We have had discussions with Pakistan on the modalities of this supply," the spokesperson of the ministry Arindam Bagchi told Hindustan Times. "These discussions are ongoing. Let me reiterate our belief that humanitarian assistance should not be subject to conditionalities."
The newspaper reported that the Indian wanted to use its own trucks to ensure the relief materials directly reached the Afghan people without being diverted.
"The Indian side also envisages the aid will be distributed only through the UN," it added.
Pakistan, which has urged the international community to address Afghanistan's humanitarian needs, allowed the transportation of Indian wheat at a time when the two countries have almost ended their diplomatic engagements due to the situation in Indian-administered Kashmir.
Pakistan has also denied India commercial transport links to Afghanistan for a long time to block its access to the Central Asian region.