KABUL, 9 April, 2021 (TON): Thursday’s cancelling of Pakistani Parliament Speaker Qaiser’s visit was due to the unexploded ordinance found at the airport, said the commander of Hamid Karzai International Airport.

While commenting on the three-day visit of the Pakistani official Asad Qaiser, Riaz Arian the commander of Hamid Karzai International Airport (HKIR) said that Qaisar’s flight was diverted because of the relocation of an unexploded ordinance from under a building near the airport.

Meanwhile, an official from NATO’s Resolute Support Mission said that a digging crew uncovered unexploded ordinance that appears to have been buried "for quite some time" in the area.

The RS official said, “During construction at HKIA international airport, a digging crew uncovered unexploded ordinance that appears to have been buried for quite some time. The explosives were uncovered in an unoccupied area far from any active runway. Turkish military explosives experts conducted a controlled detonation to render the device safe. Flight operations resumed shortly thereafter.”

Riaz Arian said, “We have a team which works in coordination with the Americans. At around 10:30 am they told us that an explosive device had been placed near the runway, but when we visited the site where we are constructing a new building, we saw the explosive material.”

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s ambassador to Afghanistan Mansour Ahmad Khan has said that he had a phone conversation with the speaker of Afghan parliament Mir Rahman Rahmani about the cancellation of the flight.

However, the analysts believe that Qaisar’s trip was important for peace in Afghanistan as Pakistan is one of the important neighboring countries that has a direct role on the peace process in Afghanistan.