10/14/2021 Afghanistan (International Christian Concern) – Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) ceased flights to Afghanistan, citing issues with a very heavy-handed Taliban. The context had grown so difficult that the airline deemed it unworkable for the airline to operate. Since the hardline Taliban government took over in August, conditions have grown worse to the point of being inoperable. PIA said that commanders were “changing regulations and flight permissions at the last moments or deciding at a whim rather than meeting international regulations.” To add insult to injury, PIA said that the company’s country representative was “held at gunpoint for hours when he left Pakistan embassy compound.”
Earlier this week, the Taliban prohibited almost half the passengers checking into flights from boarding, causing the airlines severe financial loss due to lost ticket sales and higher insurance costs.
The hardline Taliban government’s litany of self-imposed disasters is only growing and is compounded by the looming humanitarian disaster on the horizon. Food prices are surging and hunger problems are growing all around the country. The Taliban’s inability to implement sound governance and strict adherence to their brutal from of Islam and Shariah leaves the country’s future uncertain at best.
The religious minorities of Afghanistan have faced fear and uncertainty ever since the Taliban assumed control of the country. Now, as PIA discontinues their flights, yet another avenue for exiting the country has been eliminated. Christians especially are in severe danger; their community—numbering roughly between 8,000 and 12,000 people—is predominantly composed of converts from Islam making them subject to Shariah’s deadliest consequences. Taliban will view them as apostate and thus subject to the death penalty.
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