Earthquake in Afghanistan kills 1,150 and injured thousands: Taliban (symbolic photo)

Islamabad :

Finance and central bank officials of the ruling

Taliban -led government in

Afghanistan  left for

Qatar

 on Wednesday to meet with officials from the US Treasury Ministry

.

The meeting comes at a time when last week's devastating earthquake demonstrated how the country's collapsed economy has failed to carry out vital relief efforts.

According to United Nations (UN) data, about 770 people died in an earthquake in southeast Afghanistan last week.

But the Taliban put the death toll at 1,150, while thousands of others were injured.

According to the United Nations, 155 children were among those who lost their lives in the most devastating earthquake in the last two decades.

Due to the earthquake, about three thousand houses have either been demolished or badly damaged in Paktika and Khost provinces.

Taliban Foreign Ministry spokesman Hafeez Zia Ahmed confirmed the meeting between Taliban government officials and US officials.

He told that the Afghan delegation is being led by Foreign Minister Maulvi Amir Khan Muttaki.

Ahmed told that (Afghan) officials will meet with the appointed Special US Representative for Afghanistan and officials of the US Treasury Ministry in Qatar's capital Doha to discuss Afghanistan's economy and banking sector.

The Washington Post newspaper first reported on Tuesday that senior officials in (US President Joe) Biden's administration are working with the Taliban leadership on ways to allow the Afghan government to use central bank reserves to create severe starvation in the country. And to deal with the poverty crisis, along with security measures should be ensured so that this money is not misused.


It is worth noting that in August last year, after the Taliban took control of Kabul, the Biden administration had frozen the amount of $ 9 billion in the Afghan Central Reserve abroad.