The Afghan Embassy in Islamabad on October 11 condemned the overnight raid in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province’s capital, and accused the provincial government of making a “unilateral decision” regarding the long-standing dispute over the market’s ownership.
“Afghanistan’s flag was removed from the building,” the embassy said in a statement, adding that such actions were “against diplomatic norms.”
Kabul says the Afghan Market is the property of Afghanistan’s national bank.
However, a Pakistani court this week ruled that a Pakistani citizen, Shaukat Kashmiri, was the owner, and ordered the city authorities to vacate the building and hand it over to Kashmiri.