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Tag: Taliban news

  • Taliban celebrates 1st anniversary of US troops withdrawal

    The Taliban declared on Wednesday a nationwide vacation and lit up the capital with colored lights to have a good time the primary anniversary of the withdrawal of US-led troops from Afghanistan after a brutal 20-year conflict.

    The nation’s new rulers — not formally recognised by some other nation — have reimposed their harsh model of Islamic regulation on the impoverished nation, with girls squeezed out of public life.

    But regardless of the restrictions, and a deepening humanitarian disaster, many Afghans say they’re glad the international power that prompted the Taliban insurgency has gone.

    “We are happy that Allah got rid of the infidels from our country, and the Islamic Emirate has been established,” stated Zalmai, a resident of Kabul.

    The withdrawal of troops at midnight as August 31 started final 12 months ended America’s longest conflict — a army intervention that started within the wake of the September 11, 2001 assaults in New York.

    Some 66,000 Afghan troops and 48,000 civilians had been killed within the battle, nevertheless it was the deaths of US service members — 2,461 in complete — that grew to become an excessive amount of for the American public to bear.

    More than 3,500 troops from different NATO nations had been additionally killed.

    “The burden of the war in Afghanistan, however, went beyond Americans,” the US army stated Tuesday.

    Two weeks earlier than the top of final 12 months’s withdrawal, the Taliban seized energy following a lightning offensive towards authorities forces.

    Banners celebrating victories towards three empires — the previous Soviet Union and Britain additionally misplaced wars in Afghanistan — had been flying in Kabul on Wednesday.

    Hundreds of white Taliban flags bearing the Islamic proclamation of religion flew from lamposts and authorities buildings.

    Late Tuesday, the skies above Kabul had been lit up with fireworks and celebratory gunfire from crowds of Taliban fighters.

    In Massoud Square, close to the previous US embassy, armed fighters carrying Taliban flags chanted “Death to America”. Others drove throughout town honking their horns.

    FLAUNTING EQUIPMENT

    Taliban social media accounts posted scores of movies and footage of newly skilled troops — many flaunting the US army gear left behind within the haste of Washington’s chaotic withdrawal.

    “This is how you troll a superpower after humiliating them and forcing them to withdraw from your country,” learn the caption of 1 put up on Twitter that includes a photograph of an enormous Taliban flag now painted on the wall of the previous US embassy.

    Despite the Taliban’s satisfaction in taking up, Afghanistan’s 38 million individuals now face a determined humanitarian disaster — aggravated after billions of {dollars} in property had been frozen and international help dried up.

    Hardships for unusual Afghans, particularly girls, have elevated.

    The Taliban have shut secondary women’ colleges in lots of provinces and barred girls from many authorities jobs.

    They have additionally ordered girls to completely cowl up in public — ideally with an all-encompassing burqa.

    “Now I’m sitting at home without a job,” stated Oranoos Omerzai, a resident of Kandahar, the de facto energy centre of the Taliban.

    Government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid insisted “major achievements” had been recorded up to now 12 months.

    “Afghans are no more being killed in war, foreign forces have withdrawn, and security has improved,” he instructed reporters final week.

    READ | Has the Taliban Veil over Afghanistan grow to be darker, impenetrable? | Geeta’s World, Ep 05

    — ENDS —

  • Afghans adrift on US ‘lily pad’ in Kosovo

    Two weeks after the Taliban reclaimed Kabul in 2021, diplomats and US troopers in Kosovo welcomed with open arms and newly constructed lodging Afghans who had been evacuated due to their work with the United States and allied governments.

    Camp Liya, constructed alongside the US Army base Camp Bondsteel, would briefly be their residence — a “lily pad,” they had been advised — whereas Washington organized their resettlement within the United States or a 3rd nation.

    “We are honored to be able to help Afghan refugees who worked for NATO,” Kosovan Prime Minister Albin Kurti mentioned on August 29, 2021, greeting the primary arrivals on the airport. “They left their homes and their country in desperation. But we will do everything to make sure that they will be safe, secure here.”

    John Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman on the time, mentioned the settlement signed with Kosovo pledged the US to relocate Afghans which might be housed at within the camp “to the United States or a third country within 365 days.”

    Liya lingers on

    Fast-forward — or for the residents, slow-crawl ahead — to as we speak. The plan for Camp Liya to be dismantled inside a yr has fallen by the wayside. Though many lots of of Afghans did cross by rapidly, receiving US visas or provides to dwell abroad, others are caught there after receiving both a adverse resolution from US authorities or no resolution in any respect.

    “Some people are depressed; some people have psychological problems,” an Afghan man who had been evacuated advised DW, asking that he not be recognized due to safety dangers. “They told us that we would be here for a couple of months, but we are here for almost one year. After eight months they said: ‘You are not eligible to go to America.’ We ask them what’s the reason. They didn’t tell us.”

    The long-term residents might have been advised that they had been company initially, however this man mentioned now it felt like a jail. He mentioned residents weren’t allowed to depart the bottom except they provide up their proper to come back again. They can’t work to earn cash to ship again to their households, who in lots of instances weren’t allowed to be evacuated with them, so he’s frightened his kids are going hungry.

    After reflecting, he mentioned the knowledge vacuum made the state of affairs really feel worse than jail.

    “A prisoner can have access to his case, and he can ask about his case, why he is here, for how long he will be in detention,” the person mentioned. “If we ask that, they don’t give us any reason why we are in this camp and for how long.”

    Treatment ‘just shocking’

    Earlier this summer time exasperation on the bottom boiled over and evacuees staged a protest, holding indicators indicators saying “women and children are suffering” and “we want justice.”

    Most of the individuals whose visa requests have been rejected don’t have any attorneys to press their instances with the US authorities. One who does is former Afghan intelligence chief Mohammad Arif Sarwari. He was among the many first Afghans to coordinate with US forces once they invaded Afghanistan after 9/11.

    Back then Julie Sirrs was a protection intelligence analyst with the US Department of Defense, and have become acquainted with Sarwari whereas working in Afghanistan. Later in her profession, she turned an lawyer. When she realized that his life was at risk with the return of the Taliban final yr, Sirrs determined she’d repay Sarwari his help of many years in the past and symbolize him as he sought resettlement within the United States.

    “He protected my life and that of many other Americans,” Sirrs advised DW. “He was the primary contact for the CIA team that went in immediately post-9/11. I don’t think there is any individual in Afghanistan who did more than Mr. Sarwari did to help the United States.”

    Sirrs is puzzled that her consumer has been rejected for a US visa and pissed off that she is given little or no details about his case.

    “I think the treatment is highly improper, especially in cases like my client’s, who provided tremendous assistance at great risk to his life,” she mentioned.

    “I understand there are others in a similar position to him in the camp and it’s just shocking to me, the very poor treatment they’ve been getting through this process. No one disputes the need for appropriate vetting. But in some cases, for those individuals who are still in the camp, it seems to be a process that has gone wrong in some way.”

    Asked what could be their destiny, State Department Spokesman Ned Price had little to share. “There is a small number [of evacuees] still there who are undergoing additional vetting,” he mentioned on August 16. “We’ve been able to clear a number of them already. But, again, each vetting process is done on a case-by-case basis, and that’s ongoing for those who remain there.”

    US strikeout stigma

    Seeking a 3rd nation for evacuated Afghans turns into infinitely tougher as soon as US officers have decided that they don’t seem to be eligible to dwell within the United States.

    “The first thing other countries do tend to assume is that there may be some security issue,” Sirrs mentioned, including that she doesn’t consider there’s any such concern with Sarwari. He lately was in a position to negotiate a departure from Camp Liya to a different location to await a resettlement supply, however, she mentioned, no nation has provided to take him in.

    Going again to Afghanistan would imply sure demise for Sarwari, she mentioned, as it could for a lot of others at Camp Liya.

    That leaves the issue in Kosovo’s lap. One yr after he promised the brand new arrivals security and safety, Kosovo’s Prime Minister Kurti, visiting Brussels, acknowledged his authorities had agreed to let the US blow its deadline of August 29, 2022 to have Camp Liya disbanded. He didn’t reply on to this reporter’s query of whether or not the individuals who stay in Camp Liya might be resettled inside Kosovo.

    “It’s a humanitarian duty to help refugees who had to flee,” Kurti mentioned. “On the other hand, it is duty toward our allies and partners and friends — first of all the United States — to help when they are in need. And we will continue to do so.”

    Continuing the established order is simply the alternative of what Camp Liya’s left-behind inhabitants need.

  • Taliban arrest Afghan trend mannequin, say he ‘insulted’ Islam

    The Taliban have arrested a well known Afghan trend mannequin and three of his colleagues, accusing them of disrespecting Islam and the Quran, the Muslim holy e book, in line with movies launched by Afghanistan’s new rulers.

    Ajmal Haqiqi — recognized for his trend exhibits, YouTube clips and modeling occasions — appeared handcuffed in movies posted on Twitter by the Taliban intelligence company on Tuesday.

    In one extensively circulated and contentious video, Haqiqi is seen laughing as his colleague Ghulam Sakhi — who is understood to have a speech obstacle that he makes use of for humor — recites verses of the Quran in Arabic, in a comical voice.

    After the arrests, the Taliban launched a video of Haqiqi and his colleagues, seen standing in gentle brown jail uniforms and apologizing to the Taliban authorities and non secular students.

    The video was accompanied by a tweet within the Dari language, saying: “No one is allowed to insult Quranic verses or sayings of the Prophet Muhammad.”

    Later Wednesday, Amnesty International launched a press release, urging the Taliban to “immediately and unconditionally” launch Haqiqi and his colleagues.

    Amnesty has documented a number of arbitrary detentions by the Taliban in Afghanistan, typically accompanied by coerced statements in an try and stifle dissent within the nation and deter others from expressing their views.

    Samira Hamidi, Amnesty’s South Asia campaigner, denounced the arrests and mentioned that by detaining “Haqiqi and his colleagues and coercing them into apologizing,” the Taliban have undertaken “a blatant attack on the right to freedom of expression.” Her assertion additionally condemned the Taliban’s “continued censorship of those who wish to freely express their ideas.”

    In Kabul, Taliban officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment and it was not clear what measures the model and his colleagues face under the Taliban-run judiciary.

    The families of the arrested models could also not immediately be reached for comment.

    Since they seized power last August in Afghanistan during the final weeks of the U.S. troop pullout from the country, the Taliban have imposed strict measures and edicts according to their harsh interpretation of Islamic law, particularly curbing the rights of women and minorities.

    The moves have raised international concerns that the radical Islamic group intends to rule as it did the last time the Taliban held power in Afghanistan, in the late 1990s. The Taliban consider criticism and anything perceived as disrespectful of Islam as a punishable crime.

    Amnesty said that since their takeover, the Taliban “have been using intimidation, harassment, and violence on anyone who has expressed support for human rights or modern values, especially human rights defenders, women activists, journalists, and members of academia among others.”

    The rights group additionally urged the Taliban because the de facto authority in Afghanistan to “abide by worldwide human rights regulation and respect everybody’s proper to freedom of expression with out discrimination.”

  • Afghanistan: Taliban bans opium poppy cultivation, drug commerce

    The Taliban stated Sunday that they’re banning the cultivation of opium poppy, which is used as a uncooked materials to supply illicit medication like heroin.

    The ban comes throughout opium harvesting season in southern Afghanistan, and a Taliban spokesman stated that farmers could possibly be jailed and their crops burned in the event that they harvested poppy.

    The order additionally outlaws the commerce of heroin, cannabis and alcohol.

    Afghanistan’s booming opium financial system

    Opium poppy is a vital supply of employment and earnings in Afghanistan, with tens of millions of farmers counting on harvesting opium to outlive.

    Since the Taliban took over Afghanistan in August 2021, the nation’s financial system collapsed after worldwide donors pulled funding. Without worldwide help, many roles in the private and non-private sectors dried up.

    Humanitarian organisations warn that Afghanistan may face a starvation disaster, as folks shouldn’t have sufficient cash to purchase meals.

    In gentle of the opium ban, Deputy Prime Minister Abdul Salam Hanafi has requested worldwide donors for his or her cooperation to assist discover various companies for farmers, Afghan media outlet TOLO information reported.

    Afghanistan is the world’s prime supply of opium, accounting for greater than 80% of the world’s provide of opium merchandise, in accordance with the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime.

    Afghanistan generates annual income of at the least $1.8 billion (€1.6 billion) from producing opium merchandise, in accordance with UN knowledge.

    The Taliban had imposed the same ban on commerce of opium in late 1994 and early 1995. But the ban was rescinded after the Taliban was faraway from energy in 2001.

  • 7 neighbours ask nations ‘responsible’ for current Afghan plight to assist in its restoration

    Foreign ministers of seven nations neighbouring Afghanistan, who met in China on Thursday, requested “countries responsible for Afghanistan’s present predicament” to assist in the financial restoration of the nation.

    More straight, Chinese Foreign Minister and State Councillor Wang Yi mentioned within the assembly that the US should take “primary responsibility as the culprit of the predicament in Afghanistan, stop unilateral sanctions and unconditionally return Afghanistan’s national assets”.

    China, Iran, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan attended the assembly, the third of its type, held in Tinxi, within the japanese province of Anhui.

    Driven by Beijing, the format is a platform for China’s projection as main the worldwide effort for rebuilding Afghanistan. Beijing has additionally proven eagerness to forge financial ties with the brand new rulers of Afghanistan, together with increasing the Belt and Road Initiative, with the nation.

    Last week, amid the worldwide outrage towards the Taliban regime for not allowing ladies to attend highschool, Wang made a stopover in Kabul forward of his go to to Delhi, expressing solidarity with the Taliban regime and promising to work for the event of Afghanistan, though it doesn’t formally recognise the brand new dispensation in Kabul.

    A joint assertion issued on the assembly “noted the importance of achieving national reconciliation in Afghanistan through dialogue and negotiation and a broad-based and inclusive political structure, adopting moderate and sound domestic and foreign policies, growing friendly relations with all countries, especially its neighbours”.

    The assertion additionally referred to as on Afghanistan “to ensure women’s rights and children’s education, among others…and safeguard all Afghans’ fundamental rights, including ethnic groups, women and children”.

    It requested “all parties” in Afghanistan to make a “clean break” with all types of terrorism, “monitor the free movement of all terrorist organizations and firmly fight and eliminate them, including through dismantling of their training camps”.

    Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who attended the assembly forward of his go to to Delhi, mentioned on arrival in China that the world was “living through a very serious stage in the history of international relations”.

    “We, together with you, and with our sympathisers will move towards a multipolar, just, democratic world order,” Lavrov mentioned in a video message to his Chinese hosts.

    The assertion issued by the members “urged the countries mainly responsible for the current predicament in Afghanistan to earnestly fulfill commitments regarding the economic recovery and future development of Afghanistan”.

    It additionally expressed “opposition to attempts at politicising humanitarian assistance” and backed the Taliban as having the “central role” within the distribution and use of humanitarian help from worldwide group and worldwide organisations to the folks of Afghanistan.

    The worldwide group has been squeamish about dealing straight with the Taliban, which is a sanctioned entity, and regardless of a latest UN decision offering a carve out from the sanctions for assist businesses to ship help to the nation, little assist has trickled into the nation.

    The assertion referred to as on the worldwide group, particularly UN businesses and related members of the UN Security Council, to step up emergency humanitarian help to the folks of Afghanistan.

  • Taliban hits DW, BBC with broadcast bans in Afghanistan

    Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities is focusing on worldwide media with broadcasting bans, because the militant group continues to crack down on civil liberties within the nation.

    On Monday, DW’s Afghan service mentioned some DW programming will now not be rebroadcast by Afghan companions.

    The BBC mentioned Sunday that information bulletins in Pashto, Persian and Uzbek are to be taken off air, in line with the UK’s nationwide broadcaster.

    Free media ‘essential’ for Afghanistan improvement: DW

    The Taliban broadcasting crackdown targets DW’s political speak present “Aashti” in Dari and in Pashto on native companion ToloNews. Science packages broadcast on Ariana TV and Shamshad have been additionally affected.

    “The increasing restrictions on freedom of the press and freedom of expression in Afghanistan are very worrying,” mentioned DW Director-General Peter Limbourg.

    “The fact that the Taliban are now criminalizing the distribution of DW programs by our media partners is hindering positive developments in Afghanistan. Free media is essential for this and we will do everything we can to continue to provide the people of Afghanistan with independent information via the internet and social media,” he added.

    “Since the Taliban took power, the people of Afghanistan have been waiting in vain for their living conditions to improve, or at least for some degree of normality,” Limbourg mentioned.

    Afghans should not be denied ‘independent’ journalism: BBC

    “This is a worrying development at a time of uncertainty and turbulence for the people of Afghanistan,” the BBC mentioned.

    Tarik Kafala, who’s head of languages on the BBC World Service, mentioned that greater than 6 million Afghans consumed BBC’s “independent and impartial journalism” and mentioned that it was essential that they not be denied entry.

    “We call on the Taliban to reverse their decision and allow our TV partners to return the BBC’s news bulletins to their airwaves immediately,” Kafala mentioned in a press release tweeted by BBC anchor and correspondent Yalda Hakim.

    The Taliban can also be blocking broadcasts from the US worldwide broadcaster Voice of America (VOA) in Afghanistan, Germany’s dpa information company reported.

    Taliban spokesperson Abdul Haq Hammad confirmed to dpa that VOA’s tv broadcasts on Afghan channels had been stopped.

    Many journalists fled Afghanistan when the Taliban seized management in August 2021. The Taliban’s transfer to halt worldwide broadcasters from working comes days after the group backtracked on a call to reopen women’ secondary faculties.

  • Taliban detain journalists over report on TV present censoring

    Taliban intelligence males got here within the night time to arrest three workers of TOLO TV, considered one of Afghanistan’s largest tv stations, a channel govt mentioned on Friday.

    The nation’s new rulers apparently didn’t like a narrative the broadcaster aired on their determination to ban overseas drama collection from native tv, mentioned Khpalwak Sapai, head of TOLONews, who was among the many three arrested.

    Sapai, and Nafay Khaleeq, the station’s authorized adviser, had been launched inside hours, however the station presenter, Bahram Aman was nonetheless in custody Friday, Sapai advised The Associated Press.

    The intelligence officers from the Taliban’s General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI) got here shortly after 8 pm Thursday to arrest the three. Sapai mentioned the station was nonetheless in search of the discharge of Aman.

    Moby Group, the media firm that owns TOLO TV, mentioned the detentions had been “for publishing Tolo news about banning of the foreign drama series,” a choice made by the Taliban’s Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.

    The Afghan-owned media firm has pursuits in South and Central Asia in addition to the Middle East and Africa.

    The arrests had been met with worldwide outcry, together with broader calls for from the UN and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) for the nation’s rulers to cease harassing native journalists and stifling free expression by way of threats, arrests and intimidation.

    “The Taliban must immediately release journalist Bahram Aman, a news presenter at independent broadcaster TOLOnews, and stop detaining and intimidating members of the Afghanistan press corps,” an announcement from the US-based CPJ mentioned.

    The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) urged the identical.

    “UNAMA expresses its deep concern about the detentions of journalists and the ever increasing restrictions being placed on media in Afghanistan,” it mentioned on Twitter. “Time for the Taliban to stop gagging & banning. Time for a constructive dialogue with the Afghan media community.”

    Neither the Taliban’s info and tradition ministry nor its intelligence company responded to requests from the AP for remark.

    The CPJ assertion mentioned the Taliban’s intelligence service denied the arrests.

    Since sweeping again to energy final August, the Taliban have despatched erratic indicators about what the media panorama will appear like beneath their rule, with worldwide journalists generally welcomed and Afghan media usually attacked.

    The ranks of journalists in Afghanistan thinned dramatically in the course of the chaotic days of the US withdrawal final August when tens of 1000’s of Afghans fled or had been evacuated by overseas governments and organisations.

    Many who stayed, and even those that haven’t had run-ins with the brand new Taliban rulers, say they’re afraid of what tomorrow would possibly deliver.

    The majority of TOLONews reporters and producers are girls as a result of Sapai, who was briefly detained, mentioned he made a particular effort to recruit and practice Afghan girls journalists.

    In December Reporters Without Borders and the Afghan Independent Journalist Association discovered that 231 out of 543 media retailers had closed, whereas greater than 6,400 journalists misplaced their jobs after the Taliban takeover.

    The retailers closed for lack of funds or as a result of journalists had left the nation, based on the report.

  • Taliban free detained UNHCR employees, 2 overseas journalists

    The Taliban launched two overseas journalists working with the UN refugee company and several other of the help organisation’s Afghan employees on Friday, UNHCR stated, hours after information broke about their detentions within the capital, Kabul.
    The announcement adopted a tweet by the Taliban-appointed deputy minister of tradition and data, Zabihullah Mujahid, who stated they had been detained as a result of they didn’t have paperwork that correctly recognized them as UNHCR. Mujahid stated they had been freed after their identities had been confirmed.
    “We are relieved to confirm the release in Kabul of the two journalists on assignment with UNHCR, and the Afghan nationals working with them,” the Geneva-based organisation stated in a quick two-sentence assertion. “We are grateful to all who expressed concern and offered help. We remain committed to the people of Afghanistan.”

    The growth in Kabul comes as President Joe Biden signed an govt order that promised $3.5 billion — out of $7 billion of Afghanistan’s belongings frozen within the United States — can be given to households of America’s 9/11 victims. The different $3.5 billion can be freed for Afghan help.
    The order would permit US monetary establishments to facilitate entry to the cash by humanitarian teams, which might then give it on to the Afghan folks.
    One of the detained overseas journalists was Andrew North, a former British Broadcasting Corporation journalist who has labored extensively in Afghanistan. His spouse, Natalia Antelava had earlier issued a plea on Twitter for his launch.

    We are relieved to substantiate the discharge in Kabul of the 2 journalists on project with UNHCR, and the Afghan nationals working with them.
    We are grateful to all who expressed concern and provided assist.
    We stay dedicated to the folks of Afghanistan.
    — UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency (@Refugees) February 11, 2022
    “Andrew was in Kabul working for the UNHCR @Refugees trying to help the people of Afghanistan,” Antelava stated. “We are extremely concerned for his safety & call on anyone with influence to help secure his release.”
    The Committee to Protect Journalist had additionally condemned the detentions and known as for the rapid launch of the journalists.
    “The Taliban must immediately release Andrew North and all other journalists held for their work, and cease harassing and detaining members of the press,” the CPJ assertion stated, noting they had been detained on Tuesday.
    The Taliban swept over Afghanistan, capturing Kabul and far of the nation in mid-August, as US and NATO troops had been within the last, chaotic weeks of their pullout following the 20-year intervention.
    “The Taliban’s detention of two journalists on assignment with the UN refugee agency is a sad reflection of the overall decline of press freedom and increasing attacks on journalists under Taliban rule,” Steven Butler, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator, stated in Washington.
    Also launched on Friday was Parvaneh Ibrahimkhel, a girls’s rights activist detained greater than two weeks in the past. She spoke to native TOLO TV to substantiate that she was free however few different particulars had been instantly out there. The worldwide group had additionally demanded her freedom, in addition to that of 4 different girls activists.
    Since taking management, the Taliban have imposed widespread restrictions, a lot of them directed at girls. Women have been banned from many roles, exterior the well being and schooling area, their entry to schooling has been restricted past sixth grade and so they have been ordered to put on the Islamic headband, or hijab. The Taliban have, nonetheless, stopped in need of imposing the burqa, which was obligatory after they beforehand dominated Afghanistan within the Nineteen Nineties.
    Universities for ladies have additionally begun to re-open and Taliban have promised ladies can be allowed to renew their schooling past grade 6 after the Afghan New Year on the finish of March.

    In January, the Taliban stormed the Kabul dwelling of activist Tamana Zaryabi Paryani who was amongst about 25 girls who took half in an anti-Taliban protest just a few days earlier in opposition to the hijab. It wasn’t instantly clear whether or not Paryani was additionally being launched, however there have been worldwide calls for for her freedom as properly.
    The worldwide group has been cautious of formally recognising Afghanistan’s new rulers, involved the Taliban would impose the identical harsh rule as they did after they had been in energy the primary time.
    In the wake of the takeover, worldwide funding was suspended and billions of {dollars} in Afghanistan’s belongings overseas, largely within the US, had been frozen and monetary help to the federal government was largely halted, pushing the Afghan financial system additional right into a tailspin.

  • Pakistan, Afghanistan border fencing row resolved: official

    Pakistan and Taliban authorities in Afghanistan have resolved the latest row over border fencing by agreeing that additional work on the challenge that led to a tense scenario could be finished by way of consensus, a media report stated on Saturday.
    A senior official, who spoke to a bunch of journalists on Friday, stated it had been determined at a senior degree that fencing-related points would sooner or later be handled by way of mutual settlement.
    The official, nonetheless, didn’t precisely specify at which degree the talks between Pakistan and the de facto Afghan authorities had been held after Wednesday’s incident during which Taliban fighters disrupted border fencing and took away spools of barbed wire, the Dawn newspaper reported.

    The fighters had then additionally warned Pakistani troopers in opposition to resuming fencing. The incident led to a tense scenario within the space the place it occurred, it stated.
    Defence ministries of the 2 sides later held talks on the problem. The Taliban ministry of the border and tribal affairs additionally reportedly took half within the parleys.
    The official stated Taliban Defence Minister Mullah Yaqoob visited the world on Wednesday and defused the scenario.“The dispute has been quietly and calmly settled,” he stated.
    Pakistan has been fencing the 2600-kilometer-long border with Afghanistan since 2017 to finish terrorist infiltration and smuggling regardless of very intense opposition from the neighbouring nation, the report stated.

    Besides the erection of a fence, the challenge additionally contains the development of border posts and forts, and the elevating of recent wings of Frontier Corps, the paramilitary power that guards the border.
    The official stated 90 per cent of the fencing had been accomplished.
    A big a part of the fence has been constructed in inhospitable terrain and in some locations at very excessive altitudes. The fencing is predicted to be accomplished at a value of about $500 million.
    Fencing has been a contentious difficulty in Pakistan-Afghanistan ties as a result of the Afghans dispute the border demarcation finished through the colonial interval.

    Pakistan, nonetheless, insists that the road separating the 2 nations, additionally known as the Durand Line, is the legitimate worldwide border.
    The variations over the standing of the border have been so intense that they’ve previously resulted in a number of deadly clashes between the troops of the 2 nations.
    Pakistani development groups putting in the fence have on quite a lot of events endured cross-border assaults by terrorists, the report stated.
    Islamabad had at all times hoped that the Afghan Taliban would assist in settling the longstanding matter. However, that has not been the case.
    The Taliban didn’t resolve the problem once they had been in charge of Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001 and haven’t finished something substantive to handle it this time both thus far, the report stated.
    Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid, who’s at the moment the performing tradition and knowledge minister, stated in an interview days after the takeover of Kabul by the group on August 15, rejected the fencing of the border by Pakistan.
    “The Afghans are unhappy and oppose the fencing. The fencing has separated people and divided families,” he had stated.
    The official on the background briefing downplayed the Taliban’s opposition to the fencing challenge.
    “Fence is a reality. Nearly 90 percent of it has been installed. Not agreeing with it is not an option,” he emphasised.
    Responding to a query about talks with the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which had been being held in Afghanistan by way of the Afghan Taliban’s facilitation, the official stated the dialogue remains to be persevering with regardless of TTP’s announcement about not extending the ceasefire.
    “The talks are continuing and an effort is being made to reach a settlement. There are differences over TTP’s demand for the release of prisoners. The dialogue has, however, not reached a dead end,” he stated.

    The TTP had on December 9 refused to increase the month-long ceasefire that began after accusing Pakistani authorities of not fulfilling their commitments. The ceasefire had begun on November 9 after preliminary progress in talks and it had largely held. The TTP resumed assaults quickly after ending the truce.
    The official sounded a bit disenchanted with the Afghan Taliban on the TTP difficulty.
    “They have always asserted that they would not allow the use of Afghan soil against Pakistan, but practically we have seen no action,” he stated.

  • As Afghanistan fell, UK deserted supporters, says whistleblower

    Britain’s Foreign Office deserted most of the nation’s allies in Afghanistan and left them to the mercy of the Taliban through the fall of the capital, Kabul, due to a dysfunctional and arbitrary evacuation effort, a whistleblower alleged Tuesday.
    In devastating proof to a parliamentary committee, Raphael Marshall stated 1000’s of pleas for assist through e mail had been unread between Aug 21 and Aug 25. The former Foreign Office worker estimated that solely 5% of Afghan nationals who utilized to flee beneath one UK program obtained assist. He stated that at one level, he was the one individual monitoring the inbox.
    “There were usually over 5,000 unread emails in the inbox at any given moment, including many unread emails dating from early in August,” he wrote to the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, which is investigating Britain’s chaotic departure from Afghanistan. “These emails were desperate and urgent. I was struck by many titles including phrases such as ‘please save my children’.”
    Marshall stated a few of these left behind had been killed by the Taliban.

    One of Marshall’s most explosive allegations is a declare that British officers frolicked and power arranging the evacuation of virtually 200 canine and cats from a Kabul animal shelter run by Nowzad, a charity based by former Royal Marine Pen Farthing.
    Marshall claimed Foreign Office workers had “received an instruction from the Prime Minister to use considerable capacity to transport Nowzad’s animals.” He claimed British troopers had been put in danger to get the animals out of Kabul.
    Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s spokesman, Max Blain, stated the allegation was “entirely untrue” and neither Johnson nor his spouse Carrie, an animal-welfare advocate, had been concerned in serving to the animals depart.

    He stated Farthing and his animals left Afghanistan on a privately chartered airplane which was given clearance by British officers.
    “We are confident that at no point clearance for that charter plane interrupted our capability to evacuate people,” Blain stated.
    As the Taliban took energy in August, the United States, the UK and different nations rushed to evacuate Afghans who had labored with Western forces and others susceptible to violent reprisals.
    Britain managed to airlift 15,000 folks in another country in two weeks, and the federal government says it has since helped greater than 3,000 others depart Afghanistan.

    But an Afghan Resettlement Scheme introduced by the federal government in August with the objective of bringing one other 20,000 folks to Britain has but to get underway.
    Former Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who was moved from the Foreign Office to turn out to be Justice Secretary after the disaster, defended his actions.
    “Some of the criticism seems rather dislocated from the facts on the ground, the operational pressures that with the takeover of the Taliban, unexpected around the world,” he instructed the BBC. “I do think that not enough recognition has been given to quite how difficult it was.”
    Tom Tugendhat, a Conservative lawmaker who heads the international affairs committee, stated Marshall’s testimony “raises serious questions about the leadership of the Foreign Office.” The committee is because of quiz senior Foreign Office civil servants later Tuesday.

    The Taliban stormed throughout Afghanistan in late summer time, capturing all main cities in a matter of days, as Afghan safety forces educated and outfitted by the US and its allies melted away. The Taliban took over Kabul on Aug 15.
    Tens of 1000’s of Afghans tried to depart by air or land, fearing the nation might descend into chaos or that the Taliban would reimpose the tough interpretation of Islamic regulation that they relied on once they ran Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001. At the time, girls needed to put on the all-encompassing burqa and be accompanied by a male family member every time they went exterior. The Taliban banned music, lower off the arms of thieves and stoned adulterers.