Pakistan asks hotels to make rooms for evacuees from Afghanistan

Authorities in Pakistan’s capital have asked hotels not to accept local guests for the next three weeks to accommodate thousands of people expected to be evacuated from Afghanistan.

A magistrate at the Islamabad Capital Territory authority asked hoteliers to book all the vacant rooms for the government for next 21 days in an order issued overnight Friday.

The order said thousands of evacuees and passengers of transit flights were expected to come to Islamabad and authorities needed rooms to house them.

The efforts to evacuate Western citizens and Afghans at risk of revenge from the Taliban were expected to pick up from Friday after deadly bombings at one of the entrances of Kabul airport on Thursday.

Separately, officials at Pakistan’s Civil Aviation Authority said Afghan interpreters who had worked with international forces and are now seeking evacuation would be brought to Pakistan.

The arrangements were being made to temporarily host interpreters in the southern city of Karachi, Peshawar in the north-west and in some towns in the central province of Punjab, the authority said.

Thousands of Westerners and at-risk Afghans had been evacuated through Kabul airport since the Taliban took over the country earlier this month.

There are fears the Taliban would harm those who aided international troops and organisations in the past two decades, including human rights defenders, officials of the ousted government and journalists. (dpa/NAN)