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ISLAMABAD: Senior air force officials of Pakistan and Turkiye on Wednesday agreed to enhance cooperation in joint training, mutual exercises and multi-domain operations, the Pakistani military media’s wing said in a statement.

The statement was issued after a meeting between Ziya Cemal Kadıoğlu, commander of the Turkish Air Force, and Pakistan’s Air Chief Marshal Zaheer Ahmed Baber Sidhi. Kadıoğlu was leading a Turkish delegation during a visit to the Air Headquarters in Islamabad to discuss the regional security environment and progress in ongoing defense collaboration, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the Pakistani military media’s wing, said.

“Both commanders reaffirmed their commitment to enhancing cooperation across multiple spheres, with particular emphasis on joint training, mutual exercises and multi domain operations,” the ISPR said.

Kadıoğlu commended the Pakistan Air Force for its “outstanding operational performance” during Pakistan’s military conflict with India in May, praising its state of operational readiness, the ISPR said.

“The Turkish Air Force leadership also expressed its earnest desire in studying the operational lessons derived from the military standoff between Pakistan and India, with the aim to further strengthening its own doctrine and enhancing overall preparedness,” the military’s media wing said.

Pakistan said it downed six Indian fighter jets after India attacked several locations in the country with missiles in May. Indian officials have accepted the country lost fighter jets during the standoff but reject Islamabad’s claims that six were shot down.

Turkiye, along with China and Azerbaijan, publicly supported Pakistan during its conflict with India. Islamabad and Ankara have grown closer in recent months, stressing the need to increase trade, defense and economic cooperation.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and Defense Minister Yaşar Güler arrived in Pakistan in July for high-level discussions with political and military leaders.

The visit was described by Pakistan’s foreign office as a sign of “deepening strategic ties” with Ankara. It said the visit included consultations on regional stability, trade expansion, and defense modernization.

PESHAWAR: Thousands of Afghans who were registered as refugees have surged over the border from Pakistan in recent days, with officials telling AFP returns have escalated despite the weekend’s deadly earthquake in Afghanistan.

Pakistan has hosted Afghans fleeing violence for more than four decades, from the Soviet invasion to the 2021 Taliban takeover.

Various cohorts of Afghans have found differing degrees of stability, including access to work and education, in neighboring Pakistan. Some were born and raised there, while others transited en route to resettlement in the West.

However, Pakistan’s government, citing an uptick in violent attacks and insurgent campaigns, launched a crackdown in 2023 to evict them, painting the population as “terrorists and criminals.”

More than 1.2 million Afghans have since been forced to return from Pakistan, including more than 443,000 this year alone, according to the United Nations.

The crackdown has most recently targeted an estimated 1.3 million refugees with UNHCR-issued Proof of Registration (PoR) cards, with Islamabad setting a deadline of September 1 for them to leave or face arrest and deportation.

At the Chaman border crossing, “more than 4,000 people have left ever since the deadline ended,” local administrator Habib Bangulzai told AFP.

In Spin Boldak on the Afghan side, migrant registration official Abdul Latif Hakimi estimated that “250 to 300 families are returning” daily since August 31.

At the Torkham crossing further north, more than 6,300 PoR holders returned on Tuesday alone, according to authorities managing the terminal. They estimated that nearly 63,000 PoR cardholders have entered Afghanistan since April.

Afghan refugees, some awaiting relocation overseas, reported police raids as well as extortion and harassment by authorities in the lead-up to the latest deadline.

Convoys of Afghan families, fearing arrest, detention and separation, headed to the border.

The most recent data from the UNHCR shows an uptick of crossings in August, with a surge between August 24 and 30 of 25,490 Afghan returnees, of which 13,525 were PoR holders.

Afghan returnee Khan Wali told AFP he was unable to work in the eastern city of Lahore and faced constant harassment.

“Police used to detain us repeatedly. They seized our belongings,” he said from the Spin Boldak crossing.

An Afghan PoR holder in Peshawar told AFP the situation was easier in that city, which borders Afghanistan and is held by Pakistan’s political opposition.

However, she said “people are facing hell” in the capital Islamabad.

The latest expulsions come as already impoverished Afghanistan responds to a devastating 6.0 earthquake that wiped out villages along the border that were home to many recently expelled migrants.

More than 1,400 people were killed in the disaster.

Analysts say the evictions are designed to pressure neighboring Afghanistan’s Taliban administration, which Islamabad blames for fueling a rise in border attacks.

The Afghan Taliban denies involvement.