Sale, purchase of Afghan currency 'banned' in Pakistan

KARACHI: A ban has been imposed on the sale and purchase of Afghan currency in Pakistan after the developing situation in Afghanistan that saw the Taliban taking over the capital city of Kabul, ARY NEWS reported on Monday.

There will be a complete ban on the sale and purchase of Afghan currency in the wake of the ongoing developing situation, the forex association said.

The announcement came after President Ashraf Ghani fled the country on Sunday as the Taliban entered the capital city, saying he wanted to avoid bloodshed, while hundreds of Afghans were desperate to leave flooded Kabul airport.

The Taliban declared the war in Afghanistan was over after they took control of the presidential palace in Kabul as US-led forces departed and Western nations scrambled on Monday to evacuate their citizens.

It took the Taliban just over a week to seize control of the country after a lightning sweep that ended in Kabul as Afghan forces, trained for years and equipped by the United States and others at a cost of billions of dollars, melted away.

A US State Department spokesperson said early on Monday that all embassy personnel, including Ambassador Ross Wilson, had been transferred to Kabul airport to await evacuation and the American flag had been lowered and removed from the embassy compound.

Hundreds of Afghans invaded the airport’s runways in the dark, pulling luggage and jostling for a place on one of the last commercial flights to leave the country before US forces took over air traffic control on Sunday.