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Tag: Afghanistan

  • Taliban free of Guantanamo, claims exchanged for American 

    A senior Taliban detainee held for years at Guantanamo Bay mentioned Monday he used to be launched and passed over previous within the day to the Taliban in Kabul, in alternate for an American prisoner held in Afghanistan.

    Bashir Noorzai, a infamous drug lord and member of the Taliban, instructed newshounds in Kabul that he spent 17 years and 6 months within the U.S. detention heart at Guantanamo Bay, and that he used to be the closing Taliban prisoner there.

    The Taliban-appointed overseas minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, additionally spoke on the press convention along Noorzai and welcomed the alternate, pronouncing it marked the beginning of a “new technology” in U.S.-Taliban family members.

    Muttaqi mentioned the launched American used to be Mark Frerichs, a Military veteran and civilian contractor abducted in Afghanistan on Jan. 31, 2020.

    Frerichs used to be closing noticed in a video disbursed previous this 12 months, pleading for his unencumber in order that he will also be reunited together with his circle of relatives, consistent with a recording posted through The New Yorker mag on the time.

    There used to be no unbiased affirmation or phrase from Washington on Frerichs’ unencumber.

    “It is a new bankruptcy between Afghanistan and america, it will open a brand new door for talks between each international locations,” Muttaqi mentioned on the Kabul presser.

    “This act displays us that every one issues will also be solved via talks and I thank all sides’ groups who labored so arduous for this to occur,” Muttaqi added.

    Frerichs, of Lombard, Illinois, used to be believed to be held through the Taliban-affiliated Haqqani community, and U.S. officers throughout two presidential administrations had attempted unsuccessfully to get him house.

    Within the video, which marked the primary time Frerichs used to be noticed since his abduction, he says it used to be filmed closing November.

    Movies of hostages are infrequently launched to turn evidence that they’re alive and to facilitate negotiations for a unencumber, even though it used to be no longer right away transparent if that used to be the case right here.

    The New Yorker mentioned it bought the clip from an unidentified person in Afghanistan.

    On the time, the FBI declined to remark at the video’s authenticity, however a sister of Frerichs, Charlene Cakora, issued a observation thanking the Taliban for freeing the video and describing it as “public affirmation of our circle of relatives’s long-held trust that he’s alive after greater than two years in captivity.”

    Since their takeover of Afghanistan in August closing 12 months, the Taliban have demanded america unencumber Noorzai in alternate for Frerichs amid expectancies of such exchanges for U.S. electorate held in Afghanistan.

    On the other hand, there was no public signal of Washington shifting ahead on any kind of prisoner business or alternate.

    The Taliban additionally posted a short lived video Monday on social media appearing Noorzai’s arrival on the Kabul airport the place he used to be welcomed through most sensible Taliban officers, together with Muttaqi. On the press convention, Noorzai expressed thankfulness at seeing his “mujahedeen brothers” — a connection with the Taliban — in Kabul.

    “I pray for extra luck of the Taliban,” he added. “I’m hoping this alternate may end up in peace between Afghanistan and The usa, as a result of an American used to be launched and I’m additionally unfastened now.”

    Noorzai made no point out of his remedy at Guantanamo Bay, the detention heart used to deal with Muslim militants, together with al-Qaida opponents, the Taliban and suspects captured through U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Iraq, and in different places following the 9/11, 2001 terrorist assaults within the U.S.

    The ability become the focal point of globally controversy over alleged violations of the criminal rights of detainees below the Geneva Conventions and accusations of torture or abusive remedy of detainees through U.S. government.

    After 9/11, a U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan toppled the Taliban who had harbored al-Qaida leader Osama bin Encumbered and his fans. Bin Encumbered used to be killed in a U.S. raid in Pakistan in 2011.

  • UN: Exclusion of Afghan ladies from prime faculties ‘shameful’

    The United International locations on Sunday known as for Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers to reopen faculties to ladies in grades 7-12, calling the anniversary in their exclusion from highschool “shameful.”

    The UN mentioned it’s an increasing number of involved that the coverage, in conjunction with different restrictions on elementary freedoms, will give a contribution to a deepening of the rustic’s financial disaster within the type of better lack of confidence, poverty and isolation.

    “It is a tragic, shameful, and completely avoidable anniversary,” mentioned Markus Potzel, performing head of the UN undertaking in Afghanistan.

    A yr after the Taliban took energy in Afghanistan, hard-liners seem to carry sway within the Taliban-led executive. Teenage ladies are nonetheless barred from college and ladies are required to hide themselves from head to toe in public, with simplest their eyes appearing. The non secular workforce has didn’t ship on quite a lot of guarantees to allow ladies’ go back to the study room. The ban objectives grades 7-12, basically impacting ladies age 12 to 18.

    The Taliban re-opened prime faculties to boys whilst educating ladies to stay at house. The U.N. estimates that greater than 1,000,000 ladies had been barred from attending highschool during the last yr.

    “The continued exclusion of ladies from highschool has no credible justification and has no parallel anyplace on this planet. It’s profoundly destructive to a era of ladies and to the way forward for Afghanistan itself,” mentioned Potzel, who may be the U.N. secretary-general’s deputy particular consultant for Afghanistan.

    To mark the Sunday anniversary, 50 ladies despatched a letter entitled “A 12 months of Darkness: A Letter from Afghan ladies to heads of Muslim international locations and different global leaders.” The women hail from the capital Kabul, jap Nangarhar province and northerly Parwan province.

    “The previous yr, we now have been denied human rights, similar to the appropriate to score an training, the privilege to paintings, the freedom to reside with dignity, freedom, mobility and speech, and the appropriate to resolve and come to a decision for ourselves,” Azadi, an 18-year-old Eleventh-grade pupil from Kabul, mentioned within the letter. The women named within the letter gave simplest their first names.

    The U.N. mentioned the denial of training violates probably the most elementary rights of women and girls. The arena frame mentioned it will increase the danger of marginalization, violence, exploitation and abuse in opposition to ladies and is a part of a broader vary of discriminatory insurance policies and practices concentrated on girls and women because the de facto government assumed energy in the summertime of 2021.

    The U.N. once more known as upon the Taliban to opposite the slew of measures they have got presented proscribing Afghan girls and women’ enjoyment in their elementary rights and freedoms.

    Since taking energy, the Taliban have struggled to control and stay the world over remoted. An financial downturn has pushed tens of millions extra Afghans into poverty and starvation because the drift of overseas support has slowed to a trickle.

  • He Flew Business Planes In Afghanistan. Now He Has To Get started Over.

    Abdul Hafiz Akbarzada packed to depart Kabul the day the U.S. totally withdrew its forces on Aug. 30, 2021. He knew this was once his closing takeoff from the rustic he had at all times known as house.

    He wore his army blue, gold-striped pilot’s uniform and flight bag. He boarded the airplane, however this time, he sat within the passenger seat.

    When Kabul had fallen to the Taliban two weeks previous, many pilots stayed underground and refused to take flights. However Akbarzada, 32, was once one of the crucial few business pilots who persevered to function regardless of the chaos that plagued the airport.

    At a time when tens of hundreds of other people had been dashing to the airport to escape the rustic for worry of the Taliban’s retaliation, he felt his wisdom and revel in had been wanted. Throughout the frenzied evacuation, business airways supplied planes to airlift hundreds of other people to nations together with UAE, Qatar, Albania and Uganda. Akbarzada flew 4 flights to Qatar and UAE right through the closing two weeks of August and airlifted masses of Afghans.

    “There was once chaos far and wide,” Akbarzada recalled. He was once scheduled to fly a airplane to Ukraine the day Kabul fell. To get to the airport, he needed to stroll for an hour and a part since the roads to the airport had been full of automobiles. When he arrived, he discovered that not anything was once the similar anymore.

    “There was once no authority, no order, no not anything,” he stated. “The airport and the roads resulting in it had been clogged with individuals who had been looking to flee. The civilian facet of the airport was once left out of control, and everybody was once dashing to board any plane at the ramp. There have been shootings and screams far and wide,” he stated.

    He by no means prior to now thought to be leaving the rustic, despite the fact that he had a number of possibilities.

    However his dedication to staying had wavered sooner than one in all his closing business flights when Taliban individuals stopped Akbarzada and his captain as they had been strolling to the terminal for an evacuation flight to Qatar. They each wore their same old army blue pilot fits with golden stripes, white shirts and ties, wearing their iPads, headphones, licenses and flight paperwork of their baggage.

    When the Taliban individuals checked their baggage, Akbarzada attempted to give an explanation for that they had been handiest civilian pilots who had not anything to do with the army or former executive. However one of the crucial Taliban inspectors pointed a gun at him and yelled, “Close up, Infidel, I will be able to shoot you!”

    Akbarzada by no means concept the Taliban would threaten a civilian pilot. He couldn’t lend a hand however consider his circle of relatives, about his pregnant spouse and his unborn kid, about his more youthful siblings and their futures. “What would occur to them if I’m threatened and no longer revered as a pilot on the airport?” he requested himself.

    So he left. Akbarzada is now one of the crucial hundreds of Afghans within the U.S. who fled their nation when Kabul fell to the Taliban closing summer season to be able to keep away from revenge killing and persecution. Many extra predict to relocate this yr.

    Akbarzada flew four evacuation flights to Qatar and UAE prior to the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
    Akbarzada flew 4 evacuation flights to Qatar and UAE previous to the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

    A Dream Minimize Brief

    Akbarzada began out in 2011 as a check-in agent for Kam Air, the most important personal airline in Afghanistan. Sooner or later, when a captain and his cabin team had been passing during the terminal hallway, he spotted everybody status with their proper hand on their chest as an indication of appreciate, and that was once the instant he knew he sought after to be a pilot. His love of flying handiest grew after he joined the cabin team.

    He made up our minds to start out saving as much as transfer out of the country and educate as a pilot. After speaking it over together with his boss and securing some investment, he in the end made it to the USA to finish his skilled aviation schooling. In 2017, he finished a rigorous two-year coaching program in Daytona Seaside, Florida, and earned his business pilot license from the Federal Aviation Management. He returned house as an authorized business pilot and made his first flight as a trainee pilot for Kam Air.

    “It was once a dream come true,” Akbarzada stated. “I used to be very excited. It’s probably the most superb feeling particularly when you are taking off and land for the primary time and you might be sitting within the cockpit controlling the plane.”

    Hafiz Akbarzada as a pilot in Afghanistan, where he worked for Kam Air.
    Hafiz Akbarzada as a pilot in Afghanistan, the place he labored for Kam Air.

    With greater than 3,000 hours of flight time as a primary officer pilot, Akbarzada was hoping to someday take a seat at the left facet of the cockpit as a captain. He sought after to shop for a space and lift his kid in Kabul. That dream died when he was once pressured to escape.

    “I had combined feelings,” Hafiz recalled of the instant his airplane took off from Kabul that day. “You’re unhappy since you left the whole thing you’d constructed, happy as a result of your circle of relatives’s secure, nervous since you don’t know what the long run holds for you.”

    After spending 9 months within the facility in Abu Dhabi referred to as the Emirates Humanitarian Town, which has housed masses of displaced Afghans since closing yr, Hafiz and his circle of relatives made it to the U.S. in July of this yr and settled in Denver. Hundreds of Afghans are nonetheless residing in transient housing in Abu Dhabi, looking forward to resettlement in the USA or different nations.

    Beginning Over Once more

    Akbarzada’s displacement value him his sense of normalcy and peace. He was once a a success pilot, about to turn into a father for the primary time, with a loving spouse and circle of relatives and a brilliant long term forward. Having his son in a short lived refuge with out a everlasting nation to name house was once the very last thing he ever anticipated.

    “There have been instances I believed perhaps I must have stayed and not left,” he stated. “However as I checked out my son once more, I knew I had made the best choice.”

    Akbarzada said his position as a check-in agent for Kam Air "taught me to be patient and work towards my goal slowly and consistently."
    Akbarzada stated his place as a check-in agent for Kam Air “taught me to be affected person and paintings in opposition to my purpose slowly and constantly.”

    Akbarzada’s arrival in the USA, alternatively, has given him renewed hope for a recent get started. Since he’s a licensed business pilot, he hopes to fly once more within the U.S. He speaks fluent English, a talent many Afghans lack and that stops them from getting higher jobs in The united states. Moreover, U.S. airways are experiencing a pilot scarcity, making Akbarzada’s hundreds of flying hours extremely fascinating.

    However for Akbarzada to get again to his occupation, he’ll want to spend hundreds of bucks and weeks acquiring a separate license known as an ATPL – Airline Delivery Pilot License.

    Akbarzada lately started running as a customer support agent for United Airways at Denver Global Airport — beginning in an entry-level place at an airline as soon as once more. “It strikes a chord in my memory of my early days as a check-in workforce at Kabul airport,” he stated. “I feel the ones days taught me to be affected person and paintings in opposition to my purpose slowly and constantly.”

    He hopes the task will lend a hand pay his expenses and fund the prices related to the ATPL.

    A flight certificate sits framed on Hafiz Akbarzada and his wife’s dresser in their new Colorado apartment on Sept. 12, 2022.
    A flight certificates sits framed on Hafiz Akbarzada and his spouse’s cloth cabinet of their new Colorado rental on Sept. 12, 2022.

    Like Akbarzada, hundreds of extremely professional fresh Afghan arrivals within the U.S. had been pressured to take low-paying occupations to make ends meet. Many of those people used to paintings in control, data generation, engineering, drugs or aviation.

    Akbarzada’s transient immigration standing may just additionally impede his occupation as a pilot. With out everlasting residency, he can’t fly in a foreign country. It would take years for Afghan arrivals to get their inexperienced playing cards except lawmakers enact the Afghan Adjustment Act offered closing month. The proposal would make it imaginable for Afghans to get everlasting standing out of doors of the lately backlogged asylum machine.

    However that hasn’t discouraged Akbarzada.

    “I’ll by no means surrender flying,” he stated. “My purpose is to get again within the air and someday turn into a captain within the U.S.”

  • Jaish-e-Mohammad leader Masood Azhar now not in Afghanistan, can perform in Pakistan, says Taliban

    Afghanistan’s Taiban govt on Wednesday firmly rejected media reviews in regards to the presence of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) leader Masood Azhar within the war-torn nation, pronouncing such terrorist organisations can perform on Pakistan’s soil — or even below reliable patronage.

    The Taliban’s meantime Afghan govt spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid made the strongly-worded remarks after a bit of Pakistani media reported about Azhar’s alleged presence in Afghanistan. They claimed that Pakistan has additionally despatched a letter with a requirement handy him over to Islamabad.

    “Now we have written a one-page letter to the Afghan overseas ministry, asking them to find, file and arrest Masood Azhar, as we consider that he’s hiding someplace in (jap Nangarhar province) Afghanistan,” The Information reported on Tuesday, quoting a best Pakistani overseas ministry reliable.

    Mujahid in an interview with Afghanistan’s ToloNews stated that he has noticed the inside track within the media. “However this isn’t true. No one has made this type of call for from us,” Mujahid stated.

    “Jaish-e-Mohammad leader isn’t in Afghanistan. Such organisations can perform on Pakistan’s soil – or even below reliable patronage,” Mujahid stated. “We’ll now not permit any person to make use of Afghanistan’s soil towards another nation.”

    Video: Islamic Emirate spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid denied that Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) leader Maulan Masood Azhar is in Afghanistan, and stated he’s in Pakistan.
    Pakistani media reported that Pakistan’s MoFA in a letter requested the Islamic Emirate to seek out and arrest Azhar.#TOLOnews percent.twitter.com/CSAWHddWP2

    — TOLOnews (@TOLOnews) September 14, 2022

    In a separate commentary, the Ministry of Overseas Affairs of the Taliban govt additionally rejected media reviews that JeM leader had sought safe haven in Afghanistan.

    “We reiterate that the IEA (Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan) does now not permit any armed opposition in its territory to perform towards another nation,” stated Abdul Qahar Balkhi, the spokesman of the Ministry of Overseas Affairs of the Taliban govt.

    “Additionally, we ask all events to chorus from making baseless claims in such instances with out paperwork and proof,” he stated, caution that such media claims can negatively impact bilateral family members.

    Azhar is a fugitive launched through India in change for passengers of the hijacked Indian Airways aircraft IC-814 in 1999. He was once serving a jail time period in India for kidnappings of Western vacationers within the nation.

    After his liberate in 1999, Azhar shaped the JeM and scripted many audacious terror moves in India.

    Pakistan has banned the JeM which is accused through India of a number of terrorist assaults, together with the Pulwama assault in February 2019, which introduced Pakistan and India to the edge of a nuclear change.

    In Would possibly 2019, the United Countries designated Azhar a “international terrorist” after China lifted its hang on an offer to blacklist the Pakistan-based JeM leader, a decade after New Delhi approached the arena frame for the primary time at the factor.

    The UN committee indexed Azhar on Would possibly 1, 2019 as being related to Al-Qaeda for “collaborating within the financing, making plans, facilitating, getting ready, or perpetrating of acts or actions through, along with, below the identify of, on behalf of, or in improve of”, “supplying, promoting or moving fingers and similar subject material to”, “recruiting for”, “in a different way supporting acts or actions of”, and “different acts or actions indicating affiliation with” the JeM.

  • Asia Cup 2022 Tremendous 4 IND vs AFG: Satisfaction at stake as Rohit Sharma’s India glance to complete marketing campaign on a prime

    India and Afghanistan are set to fasten horns in a Tremendous 4 conflict in Asia Cup 2022. The fit will happen at Dubai Global Cricket Stadium on Thursday, September 8.

    India, captained through Rohit Sharma, began their adventure with a five-wicket win over Pakistan in Dubai, and then they defeated Nizakat Khan’s Hong Kong.

    On the other hand, the Males in Blue haven’t had the most efficient of runs within the Tremendous 4. After Pakistan beat Afghanistan through one wicket in Sharjah on Wednesday, September 7, India have been eradicated from the match.

    The approaching fit is not anything however a lifeless rubber, however India can be taking a look to salvage some satisfaction. They’d the danger to overcome each Pakistan and Sri Lanka within the Tremendous 4. However to their dismay, they faltered in crunch moments.

    The Afghans, led through Mohammad Nabi, however, have installed spirited performances so far. Despite the fact that they didn’t qualify for the overall, they’ve given each and every crew a run for his or her cash.

    They’re going to cross into the sport at the again of a one-wicket defeat to Babar Azam’s Pakistan on Wednesday. It’s pertinent to notice that Afghanistan are but to overcome India in T20Is.

    Head to headOverall

    Suits – 3 | India – 3 | Afghanistan – 0 | N/R 0

    At impartial venues

    Suits – 3 | India – 3 | Afghanistan – 0 | N/R 0

    Gamers to be careful forRohit Sharma (India)

    Rohit Sharma has arguably been probably the most fluent batter for Crew India within the Asia Cup 2022. Having performed at a strike-rate of above 150, the veteran has proven his significance on the most sensible of the order. In 4 fits, Rohit has racked up 133 runs with a most sensible rating of 72 towards Sri Lanka a few days in the past.

    Rahmanullah Gurbaz (Afghanistan)

    Rahmanullah Gurbaz is these days fourth at the record of main run-scorers within the ongoing Asia Cup. In 4 fits, the right-hander has notched 152 runs at a mean of 38 and a strike fee of 165.21 with a most sensible rating of 84 towards Sri Lanka in Sharjah all over Tremendous 4 fit.

    Possible XIsIndia

    KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma (c), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Deepak Hooda, Hardik Pandya, Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh

    Afghanistan

    Hazratullah Zazai, Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Ibrahim Zadran, Mohammad Nabi (c), Najibullah Zadran, Karim Janat, Samiullah Shinwari, Rashid Khan, Naveen-ul-Haq, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Fazalhaq Farooqi

    — ENDS —

  • Afghanistan’s ‘collapsed financial system’ cannot be patched up by way of humanitarian aid, says the UN

    The Taliban seized keep an eye on of Afghanistan’s capital Kabul in August closing yr, after the withdrawal of U.S. troops within the nation following just about 20 years of struggle.

    Paula Bronstein. | Getty Pictures Information | Getty Pictures

    Humanitarian assist to Afghanistan isn’t sufficient to maintain its financial system and extra investments are had to make stronger the rustic’s building, in step with the United International locations. 

    “You’ll’t use humanitarian aid to patch up what has been an absolutely collapsed financial system,” mentioned Kanni Wignaraja, assistant secretary common and regional director of Asia-Pacific on the United International locations Construction Programme. 

    The Taliban seized keep an eye on of Afghanistan’s capital Kabul in August closing yr, after the withdrawal of U.S. troops within the nation following just about 20 years of struggle.

    Wignaraja mentioned the “large humanitarian operation” that came about in the second one part of closing yr after the Taliban overthrew the Afghanistan executive was once “very had to save lives.”

    However it is a mistake to droop investments to rebuild and broaden the rustic, she mentioned.

    The loss of investments from the non-public sector and building companies is worsening the rustic’s humanitarian disaster and bothered financial system, Wignaraja added.

    She mentioned investments are had to revive Afghanistan’s financial system and its home marketplace as small and micro companies have created activity alternatives for women and men within the nation for many years. 

    “A large a part of the UN and UNDP’s effort is [to] jumpstart the native trade sector and get that transferring as a result of Afghans will feed Afghans. They’ll produce their very own meals,” she mentioned on CNBC’s “Squawk Field Asia” on Tuesday. 

    Others such because the Crimson Move have additionally identified that humanitarian paintings on my own isn’t enough to assist pull Afghanistan out of its financial rut.

    “Humanitarian organizations on my own can’t exchange public establishments of a rustic of 40 million other people,” Robert Mardini, Director-Common of the Global Committee of the Crimson Move, advised Reuters on Monday.

    “So we in reality urge states and building companies to go back to Afghanistan to make stronger Afghans who proceed to undergo the brunt of financial turmoil.”

    State and building companies stay reluctant to offer price range to Afghanistan until the Taliban assists in keeping “to their a part of the cut price” — permitting women to finish highschool, developing jobs for girls within the place of job, and changing into a extra inclusive executive, Wignaraja mentioned.

    Afghanistan is “the one nation on the earth” the place women cannot entire highschool,” she mentioned.

    “The respect and the rights of girls” had been taken clear of them when their proper to paintings was once disregarded, and it is price an estimated billion greenback loss to the Afghan financial system, she added.

    Greater than 6,000 American lives had been misplaced and over 100,000 Afghans had been killed, right through the 20-year battle, and the U.S. spent greater than $2 trillion in Afghanistan.

  • With fund & engineers, Taliban lend a hand rebuild gurdwara hit by means of Islamic State

    The Taliban regime financed the rebuilding of Gurdwara Dashmesh Pita in Kabul, which was once all however destroyed two months in the past in a gun-and-bombs assault that was once claimed by means of the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), in keeping with contributors of the Hindu and Sikh group in control of the development paintings.

    “Their very own folks, together with engineers, got here right here, assessed the wear and tear, made the calculations and gave us the cash,” stated Ram Saran Bhasin, who heads the Hindu-Sikh society in Kabul and is supervising the paintings.

    “The Taliban gave 40 lakh Afghani rupees…The reconstruction has nearly totally been funded by means of the Islamic Emirate,” he stated, the usage of the formal identify for the regime in Afghanistan. “We didn’t elevate every other price range.”

    On the website online in Karte Parwan, The Indian Specific got here throughout Afghan employees portray partitions, reducing marble panels, laying flooring tiles and giving completing touches to the centrepiece in the primary congregation corridor — the takht — the place the Guru Granth Sahib will probably be positioned.

    The gurdwara, situated on a slip side road off the primary highway, is now guarded by means of the Taliban.

    The Gurdwara Dashmesh Pita Sri Guru Gobind Singh ji Singh Sabha Karte Parwan in Kabul. (Picture: Pritpal Singh/Record)

    On June 18, as hearth engines doused flames on the gurdwara quickly after the assault, the Sikh holy e-book was once retrieved with out injury and brought safely to the house of a Sikh circle of relatives within the neighbourhood.

    “That is the No.1 gurdwara in Kabul, and it’s our precedence to have it up and working once imaginable,” stated Bhasin, as he pointed to the scars at the large iron gate and the partitions out of doors the meeting corridor. The gurdwara will probably be able by means of the tip of August, he stated.

    In step with Bhasin, a big portion of the premises, together with the gurdwara places of work, went up in flames all the way through the gunbattle between the IS attacker and a Taliban staff that reached the spot.

    Bhasin and several other contributors of the Sikh group, who lived in the back of the gurdwara and have been heading in opposition to the advanced for the morning “ardas” (prayer), “panicked” once they heard the sounds of gunfire and explosion from inside of”. They began working in opposition to the gurdwara however have been stopped by means of Taliban guards as a suspicious car was once parked out of doors. Mins later, the car exploded.

    “About 40 folks would have died if we had no longer been stopped,” stated Bhasin. After all, two folks have been killed — the guard who opened the gate and a Ghazni resident, Surinder Singh, who was once looking for paintings in Kabul and ship cash to his circle of relatives who he had despatched to Delhi. 3 folks have been injured, together with sewadar Tarlok Singh who misplaced his passport amongst different non-public property within the hearth that engulfed a big a part of the advanced.

    The pockmarks at the tall, strong iron gate point out that it took the brunt of the explosion. The gate was once put in in 2020 after the IS assault on Gurdwara Har Rai Sahib in Kabul’s Shor Bazar that killed 25 folks. In 2018, a suicide bombing within the jap town of Jalalabad killed 19 folks, together with Avtar Singh, who was once a candidate within the Parliamentary elections that 12 months.

    For the reason that Taliban took over Afghanistan a 12 months in the past, India has evacuated all however 100 contributors of the Sikh group. 3 batches of Sikhs have been evacuated till December 2021, and 3 extra batches have been flown out after the Karte Parwan assault.

    Till 2020, the Sikhs and Hindu inhabitants was once estimated to be round 650. About 400 of them migrated to India after the Shor Bazar assault. Some contributors of the group nonetheless travelled to Kabul from Delhi to seem after their companies, most commonly in unani and different conventional medications. However after the Karte Parwan incident, many asked Afghan buddies to seem after their companies. The ones with sources moved additional away to Europe or Canada.

    Bhasin belongs to one in all about 15 Hindu households who stay in Afghanistan. “On this nation, the 2 communities, Hindu and Sikh, are the similar,” stated the septuagenarian, who was once made the performing pradhan of the Karte Parwan gurdwara after a number of Sikh group leaders left for India.

    Bhasin’s circle of relatives has lived within the Afghan capital for 4 generations however lately, he despatched his sons and their households to India. Best he and his spouse now stay in Kabul.

    “The Taliban have no longer afflicted us, however those are tricky instances for us,” stated Sukhbir Singh Khalsa, who’s looking forward to his Indian visa. “We’ve been advised it’ll are available two weeks,” he stated.

    Manjeet Singh Lamba, who misplaced a brother, a cousin and two brothers-in-law within the Shor Bazar assault, stated that “after struggling such a lot, it’s tough to stick on”.

    “The Taliban have advised us to not go away, they’re telling us that we’re Afghani, that is the place we have been born, that is the place our companies are. They in reality need us to stick however those are tough instances, lifestyles has turn into unpredictable,” stated Lamba, who helps Bhasin on the gurdwara.

    Maximum of Lamba’s members of the family are actually in Delhi. “Although we keep, what are we going to do by means of ourselves? Dukh-sukh kiske saath karein (who do we proportion our joys and sorrows with)? My Indian visa will come quickly, however I can first satisfy my duties right here, on the gurdwara, prior to departing,” stated Lamba, as he opened a thick sign up and ready to pay the employees for the day.

  • In Afghanistan, drought poses migration catch 22 situation for villagers

    Having misplaced his process as a police instructor after the Taliban takeover closing August, Hussain Ali moved again to his village in Afghanistan’s central highlands with the aim of farming another time to offer for his circle of relatives.

    But Ali’s melancholy deepened when he returned house to discover a village hit so badly through drought that no longer simplest his family members however all the network have been considering migrating in other places.

    Throughout the 5 years that the 37-year-old were away, a neatly and a circulate had dried up, ruining harvests and, in the end, the father-of-three’s hopes of rising plants once more.

    “For the previous yr, I’ve been observing our timber right here slowly die,” Ali stated, status subsequent to the world’s closing ultimate water supply, a herbal circulate close to the village of 40 houses.

    He requested to withhold the identify of the village in Bamyan province for concern of retribution from the Taliban.

    “We used with the intention to harvest a minimum of two times yearly, however this yr, we’re going to reap early,” Ali added.

    “There’s no longer sufficient water for the plants to totally develop.”

    And the plight of Ali’s network is a ways from distinctive around the nation. Afghanistan is without doubt one of the international’s maximum prone countries to local weather exchange, and a number of the least supplied to handle it, in step with the United Countries and assist companies.

    That is exacerbating a catastrophic humanitarian disaster as Western countries have frozen billions of foreign-stored Afghan financial institution reserves, and suspended building assist which prior to now made up about 75% of the country’s public spending.

    No water, no house

    The former U.S.-backed govt labored with the United Countries in mobilising sources to foster local weather exchange resilience, monitoring rainfall, as an example, or offering assist to farmers.

    Supplying direct govt investment were easy, however has since transform inconceivable because of the sanctions imposed closing yr at the Taliban.

    Whilst the Taliban has supplied emergency help for fresh screw ups together with floods and is coordinating with NGOs, the crowd has little money because of frozen Afghan belongings – which the USA this week introduced would no longer be launched “within the near-term” – in addition to the sanctions.

    An up to date plan, labored on through the previous govt and the United Countries, presenting Afghanistan’s local weather movements via 2030 and detailed subsequent steps has been left unfinished because of the Taliban takeover, the U.N. Construction Programme (UNDP) stated.

    The U.N. company closing October introduced a disaster reaction initiative to strengthen native communities in quite a lot of tactics, comparable to making improvements to herbal crisis mitigation and resilience.

    It prioritises community-level interventions and paintings with native NGOs, with a “powerful” vetting and possibility control gadget that “totally insulates the glide of any investment to the de facto authority”, stated UNDP conversation specialist Received-Na Cha.

    But as droughts and erratic climate accentuate, a rising collection of individuals are susceptible to dropping their livelihoods and earning, and would possibly finally end up compelled emigrate in spite of the national instability, U.N. and local weather exchange professionals have warned.

    In his position as a police instructor in Kandahar province, Ali earned 18,000 afghani ($199) per month, maximum of which he despatched to his circle of relatives. Now, like many different former breadwinners who’ve returned to the village since August, he fears for the longer term.

    “That is our house, but when the water disappears, we’ll have to move too,” Ali instructed the Thomson Reuters Basis.

    “I misplaced my process and now I would possibly lose my village.”

    Triple risk

    Battle, serious drought and financial disaster have left 24.4 million folks – greater than 60% of Afghanistan’s inhabitants – short of humanitarian assist, the United Countries says. “Recurrent drought and erratic climatic shocks are leading to a below-average harvest – additional threatening earning and livelihoods,” Ramiz Alakbarov, appearing head of the U.N. Project in Afghanistan, stated in emailed feedback.

    Closing yr, a drastic aid in rainfall brought about water and meals shortage throughout 25 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces, he added.

    Bamyan, the place Ali lives, is a type of 25 provinces – and local weather change-linked droughts were on the upward push.

    In Khoja Bidak, any other village in Banyam, positioned on a hilltop overlooking the Hindu Kush’s snow-topped peaks, water reserves – most commonly from snowmelt – have additionally declined.

    “We already wash our garments and our carpets much less as a result of there simply isn’t sufficient water,” stated Zakia Musa, a 50-year-old mom of 4.

    “Our lives rely on water. So if we will’t to find any, we’ll pack our garments, elevate them in a package on our heads, and migrate in other places,” she added, stressing that it is usually a topic of months till they’re compelled to transport.

    Keep or cross?

    Her husband, Ali Musa, stands up on a close-by hilltop with a number of village elders, observing over barren fields that reach into the horizon with mud-brown homes dotting the panorama.

    “This yr, the standard rains didn’t come, so the wheat we planted died,” the 50-year-old stated.

    The network had requested for lend a hand from the previous govt, which constructed a water basin to gather snowmelt, he stated. However it stood empty after a specifically deficient two years for the village.

    Musa stated he had offered many of the goats he prior to now owned and that the industrial downturn had left him virtually empty-handed – and with little to devour excluding bread and potatoes.

    Folks were spending as much as 90% in their source of revenue on meals since January, in step with the United Countries – whilst salaries were shrinking and costs emerging.

    “Deficient governance through the Taliban will make issues worse”, stated Erin Sikorsky, director at The Middle for Local weather and Safety, a U.S.-based think-tank.

    “It’s most probably Afghanistan will see extra internally displaced folks going ahead, as disruptions to substance agriculture intersect with different safety dangers.”

    Whilst the struggle has been declared over, threats – together with from the Islamic State Khorasan (IS-Okay) – stay, and Hazara communities – the Shia minority ethnic crew Ali Musa and Hussain Ali each belong to – have in particular been centered.

    The opportunity of migrating poses a catch 22 situation for Ali Musa.

    “This isn’t a excellent position,” he stated, observing over the panorama. “However it’s house, it’s our land. We will be able to’t have the funds for to move in other places, however we will’t live to tell the tale right here with out water both.”

  • In Kabul, Taliban celebrates 1 year in energy however few civilians, no ladies

    HUNDREDS OF Taliban opponents took to the streets of Kabul on Monday to have fun the primary anniversary in their takeover of Afghanistan, using in open pick-up vehicles, maintaining computerized weapons and waving their crew’s white-and-black flags.

    The Taliban regime marked the instance with sedate victory speeches through senior leaders within a state-media auditorium within the high-security Inexperienced Zone, just about the Indian Embassy. However few civilians, both at the streets or indoors, took phase within the celebrations — and no ladies in any respect.

    On the other hand, a small crew of girls reportedly met in secret at a space in Kabul to mark their protest, and pledged to proceed their resistance towards the Taliban. A observation through the crowd, RAWA (Innovative Affiliation of the Girls of Afghanistan), denounced the Taliban for being anti-women and blamed america for the “deliberate” handover of energy ultimate 12 months.

    At the streets, opponents congregated throughout the day at a outstanding roundabout in Kabul named after Ahmad Shah Massoud, whose Northern Alliance was once the primary resistance to the Taliban within the Nineteen Nineties earlier than he was once killed through an Al Qaeda suicide bomber two days forward of the 9/11 assaults in america.

    “We defeated The us, and we received our independence. That’s what we’re celebrating right here,” stated Abdul Qahar Agha Jan, from Laghman province, south of Kabul. He stated he was once running within the Ministry of Defence.

    He stated the verdict to congregate at Massoud Circle, just about america Embassy, was once a message that the Taliban now rule Afghanistan. “We’re in energy. This position belongs to all Afghans. We additionally need to inform different mujahideen and the members of the family of Ahmad Shah Massoud that they arrive right here and are living with us in peace,” stated Agha Jan.

    One of the most opponents had been maintaining posters of the Haqqani crew patriarch, Jalaluddin Haqqani, who died in 2018. A center-aged Talib delivered a speech denouncing the new US drone strike in Kabul to kill Ayman Al Zawahiri, and declared that the American citizens had been “mendacity” that they’d eradicated the Al Qaeda chief.

    One crew of Taliban at the back of a sand-coloured Toyota pick-up had been wearing US military uniforms with American army tools — night-vision apparatus, goggles, sand-coloured face mask and M4 computerized carbines. As spiritual songs blared from moveable public cope with techniques, a Talib maintaining an M4 stated the weapon were left at the back of through the “Amreeki” whilst every other held a Soviet-era gun, boasting that it “labored really well”.

    Around the roundabout was once an enormous concrete safety wall round a central authority ministry, painted with slogans hailing the Taliban’s victory ultimate 12 months. “Freedom is as gorgeous as spring,” one slogan proclaimed. “The individuals are our personal, and we’re from the folks,” every other learn.

    Many Taliban opponents additionally accrued on the Wazir Mohammed Akbar Khan hill, a couple of kilometres from the roundabout, expecting a proper flag-hoisting on best. With a tune praising jihad within the background, they did the “atan” (a standard pashtun dance) round a flagpole on which the Afghan Republican flag proficient through India had flown till the cave in of the republic ultimate 12 months.

    Requested why no ladies had been collaborating, a Talib stated, “they’ve their very own paintings to do”; every other stated “it was once no longer allowed below sharia”; and, a 3rd confident that “you are going to see ladies subsequent 12 months”.

    Within the afternoon, all roads ended in the auditorium of state-owned Radio Tv Afghanistan, the place youngsters sang a tune in reward of Mullah Omar, the Taliban founder who died in 2013, with strains about how peace had returned to Afghanistan. VIPs spoke concerning the govt’s achievements. The street to the Inexperienced Zone was once jammed with automobiles, together with unmarked Toyota Prados ferrying Taliban leaders to the serve as. However the best management was once no longer provide, together with Sirajuddin Haqqani.

    Mullah Omar’s son Mullah Yaqoub, who heads the defence ministry, stated the Taliban had restored safety within the nation. “Those that are plotting riot will likely be punished, and their plans defeated,” he stated.

    “We must evaluation our efficiency of the 12 months and ask ourselves whether it is sufficient or no longer,” he stated, including that global popularity, sanctions and blacklists didn’t topic. “Our efforts must be directed to serve this nation and make growth,” he stated.

    Amir Khan Muttaqi, who’s in control of the overseas ministry, stated Afghanistan desires excellent members of the family with all international locations. He stated the Taliban’s overseas coverage was once geared in opposition to keeping up a stability within the area. “We don’t need to get into bother with any individual. Now we have happy all international locations that we will be able to no longer permit the soil of Afghanistan for use towards any individual” he stated.

    Even if the day were declared an reputable vacation, maximum of Kabul’s citizens looked as if it would have made up our minds to not step out, making this a Taliban-only birthday party. At the name of the game protest through RAWA, the contributors reportedly pledged that their voices would no longer be drowned through gunfire — a connection with the aerial firing that the Taliban resorted to on Saturday to disperse a protest through ladies hard “paintings, bread and schooling”.

    In a observation, RAWA declared that the ladies of Afghanistan would proceed to withstand. “It was once simply predictable that girls and women will be the top sufferers of this barbaric rule and are dealing with devastating and inhumane suppression in all spaces of existence. On the other hand, the ladies of our nation proved that no drive may just impose their reactionary ideologies or hang them captive within their houses,” it stated.

    “Afghan ladies made historical past through elevating the flag of combat towards the Taliban and for freedom and justice. For the reason that first days of Taliban’s takeover, those ladies have protested at the streets with none concern of weapons or whiplashes; they had been suppressed, threatened, and humiliated, however bravely persisted their battle,” RAWA stated.

    It stated that “the inquisition-based govt” was once “so reactionary, abhorred, and brutal” that no nation had formally recognised it, “no longer even their supporters and consumers”. It denounced america for “claims that they had been shocked” through the autumn of Kabul and the break out of President Ashraf Ghani — and for supporting the Taliban regime through giving it monetary help.

    “Now we have complete religion on this nice combat and the bizarre doable hidden in our Afghan ladies, and we warmly shake the fingers of each and every justice-seeking drive and particular person on this the most important combat for Afghanistan and its folks and to proceed hoisting the banner of combat towards Taliban and Jihadi fundamentalism,” the observation stated.

  • Taliban cleric Sheikh Rahimullah Haqqani killed in suicide blast in Kabul

    Sheikh Rahimullah Haqqani, one of the crucial distinguished Taliban clerics, used to be killed in an explosion at a faculty in a district of the Afghanistan capital, Kabul, on Thursday.

    Sheikh Rahimullah Haqqani. (Symbol credit: Twitter/@TOLOnews)

    HIGHLIGHTSSheikh Rahimullah Haqqani used to be killed in an explosion at a schoolBilal Karimi, the deputy spokesman of the Islamic Emirate, showed his deathHowever, it used to be no longer instantly transparent who used to be at the back of the blast

    Sheikh Rahimullah Haqqani, one of the crucial distinguished Taliban clerics, used to be killed in an explosion at a faculty in a district of the Afghan capital on Thursday.

    Bilal Karimi, the deputy spokesman of the Islamic Emirate, showed his dying, as reported by way of TOLO information.

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    .# percent.twitter.com/GUBRGx6NH5

    — TOLOnews (@TOLOnews) August 11, 2022

    A tweet by way of TOLO information learn, “Sheikh Rahimullah Haqqani, one of the crucial non secular students, used to be killed in an explosion in his faculty. Bilal Karimi, the deputy spokesman of the Islamic Emirate, has showed the dying of Sheikh Rahimullah Haqqani. It’s mentioned that this non secular pupil used to be killed in an explosion in his faculty in Kabul.”

    The assault had taken position in a non secular seminary within the Afghan capital when a person who had in the past misplaced his leg had detonated explosives hidden in a plastic synthetic leg.

    Alternatively, it used to be no longer instantly transparent who used to be at the back of the blast.

    — ENDS —