KARACHI/KANDAHAR, 21 October — Edhi Foundation, a private organization dedicated to humanitarian causes, has been allowed to operate its ambulance and hospital services inside Afghanistan, an official spokesman said in the southern port city of Karachi yesterday.
The Taleban government in Afghanistan has allowed Pakistan’s most prominent philanthropist and humanist to operate the ambulance service of his charity in Afghanistan to provide medical aid and help in shifting the injured to hospitals in Pakistan.
An Edhi Foundation delegation, comprising chairman Abdul Sattar Edhi, his wife Bilqees and their son Rizwan have met Maulvi Obaidullah Akhundzada, an official of Taleban’s government, to discuss the opening of a hospital and an ambulance service center in Kandahar.
The foundation has arranged a large number of doctors, volunteers, and medicines in huge quantity to help the injured and those needing medical help. Edhi has left for Torkham via Quetta, officials said, adding that the Taleban officials have received a truckload of medicine, blankets, tents, warm clothing and other medical accessories. The medical facility in Spin Boldak, a district in Kandahar province, comprises nine rooms.
Sources confirmed in Kandahar yesterday that the Pakistanis were allowed to come to Afghanistan via Chaman and it was during talks at the Bolshoi town that Edhi Foundation was given the green light to begin its operations immediately.
Edhi is acknowledged in the Guinness Book of World Records as operating the largest ambulance fleet in the private sector in the world. He is also the winner of the prestigious Philippines award, the Ramon Magsaysay.
Some Edhi ambulances have arrived in Kandahar and started shifting the injured to Pakistan. Edhi has also handed over 20,000 kg of flour to Maulana Najib Ullah, a Taleban representative, which would be distributed among the needy people in the landlocked country.
An Edhi official said that the ambulance service has also begun along the Torkham border and several injured have been shifted to Peshawar from Jalalabad and the adjoining areas.
