Page 30 - Afghanistan

Earthquake of 4.1 magnitude hits Afghanistan, strikes at depth of 10 km

An earthquake of magnitude 4.1 occurred in Afghanistan at on Tuesday, according to the National Center for Seismology (NCS)."Earthquake of Magnitude: 4.1, Occurred on 28-02-2023, 04:05:22 IST, Lat: 36.38 & Long: 70.94, Depth: 10 Km, Location: Afghanistan," NCS tweeted on Sunday.The quake struck at a depth of 10 kilometres, at a latitude of 36.38 and a longitude of 70.94.Further details awiated.

Pakistan-Afghan border crossing shut after brief reopening: Officials

Pakistan shut down a key border crossing with Afghanistan just hours after it was reopened on Thursday, officials said, the latest twist in the controversial closure of the Torkham junction that started earlier this week. The issue of the crossing, a key trade route for both Afghanistan and Pakistan, has added to increasing tensions between the two countries, which share a troubled and volatile boundary. Afghanistan's Taliban rulers on Sunday closed the crossing, claiming Islamabad was not abiding by an agreement with Kabul to allow Afghan patients and their caretakers to cross into Pakistan without travel documents for medical care. On Monday, Afghan Taliban forces and Pakistani border guards exchanged fire, which wounded a Pakistani soldier. On Wednesday, Pakistan's defence minister, Khawaja Mohammad Asif, and secret service chief, Lt. Gen. Anjum Nadeem, travelled to Kabul and met senior Taliban officials to discuss the border issue. On Thursday morning, Torkham was reopened by .

Afghanistan's Taliban reopen key trade route with Pakistan: Report

Afghanistan's Taliban rulers reopened a key border crossing with Pakistan on Thursday, allowing thousands of trucks carrying desperately needed food and other items to creep forward for the first time in days, officials said. The jam at the Torkham crossing between the two nations began to ease after Islamabad sent a high-level delegation to Kabul to discuss a range of issues, including the Taliban's closure of the border on Sunday. Taliban-appointed officials in Afghanistan's Nangarhar province confirmed the reopening of the Torkham border. The Afghan embassy in Pakistan also posted news of the reopening on Twitter. Thousands of vehicles, some carrying fresh produce like vegetables and fruit, began moving along the Khyber Pass in northwest Pakistan on Thursday, said Ziaul Haq Sarhadi, a director at the Pakistan-Afghanistan joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The latest development comes a day after Pakistani Defence Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif made an unannounced visit to .

Afghan Taliban promises to help Pak address threat posed by TTP: Report

The Afghan Taliban leaders have promised to cooperate with Pakistan on its concerns about the presence of the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants and sanctuaries on their soil after Islamabad delivered a stark warning to them to rein in the outlawed outfit amid a rise in terror attacks across the country. The promise came during a day-long trip by a high-level Pakistani delegation led by Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif to Kabul on Wednesday, amidst the worsening of ties between the two neighbours over the issue, according to a media report. Pakistan's Foreign Office said the growing TTP and IS-K threat was discussed and the two sides agreed to collaborate to effectively address the threat of terrorism. The delegation included ISI Chief Lt Gen Nadeem Anjum, Foreign Secretary Asad Majid, Special Envoy on Afghanistan Muhammad Sadiq and Pakistan's charg d'affaires in Afghanistan Obaid Nizamani. The visit took place days after the TTP gunmen raided the police headquarters

Ahmad Shah Massoud, guerilla extraordinaire

Mr Gall paints a vivid picture of Massoud as a guerilla leader - someone who is precise and methodical in his approach and whose decision making is clinical and rarely driven by impulse or sentiment

Taliban asks int'l community to recognise 'Islamic Emirate' of Afghanistan

Taliban has called on the international community to recognise the "Islamic Emirate" of Afghanistan, claiming that if recognised, concerns and complaints of the world will be addressed in a better way

Afghanistan's Taliban govt shuts down main border point with Pakistan

The Afghan Taliban commissioner for Torkham said the border point had been closed down for travel and transit trade

China to become Afghan's second-largest trade partner in 2023 after Pak

China's trade with Afghanistan has been growing fast and it may become the second-largest trading nation with Afghanistan in 2023 after Pakistan, a situation that bodes well for the continuation of the CPEC part of the Belt & Road Initiative into Afghanistan, as per Silk Road Briefing (SRB).Silk Road Briefing provides global and regional intelligence to assist and monitor infrastructure, geopolitical, and structural developments, along with foreign investment opportunities along China's Belt and Road Initiative.According to China customs data, in December 2022, China imported goods worth USD 9.09 million from Afghanistan and exported goods worth USD 59 million, resulting in a positive trade balance for China of USD 49.9 million, the SRB reported.If these figures are projected as the 2023 average, then this would result in a bilateral trade figure of USD 816 million. Pakistan, currently the largest Afghani trade partner, achieved bilateral trade of USD 1.513 billion in 2022, ...

Avalanches, flash flood destroy 20 houses in northern Afghanistan

Calling for providing assistances to the affected families, the official warned that overlooking the miseries of the disaster-affected families would lead to a tragedy in the ill-fated village

China, Iran urge Afghanistan to end work related restrictions on women

China and Iran have urged mutual neighbour Afghanistan to end restrictions on women's work and education. The call came in a joint statement Thursday issued at the close of a visit to Beijing by Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi during which the two sides affirmed close economic and political ties and their rejection of Western standards of human rights and democracy. Since taking over Afghanistan in August 2021, the Taliban has banned women and girls from universities and schools after the sixth grade and forced out those in elected offices and other prominent positions. The two sides ... called on the Afghan rulers to form an inclusive government in which all ethnic groups and political groups actually participate, and cancel all discriminatory measures against women, ethnic minorities and other religions," the statement said, adding that the US and its NATO allies should be responsible for the current situation in Afghanistan." The US had backed Afghanistan's elected government ..

Afghanistan remains primary terrorist threat for Central, South Asia: UN

Afghanistan remains the primary source of terrorist threat for Central and South Asia, with groups such as ISIL-K, Al-Qaeda and Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan enjoying greater freedom of movement in the country owing to the absence of an effective Taliban security strategy, a UN report has said. The 31st report of the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team (ISIL, Al-Qaida), was issued here on Tuesday. The report said that Afghanistan remains the primary source of terrorist threat for Central and South Asia. It originates from groups including the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant- Khorasan (ISIL-K), Al-Qaeda, Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan, as well as ETIM/TIP (Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement/Turkistan Islamic Party), Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, Islamic Jihad Group, Khatiba Imam al-Bukhari, Khatiba al-Tawhid wal-Jihad, Jamaat Ansarullah and others. These groups enjoy greater freedom of movement in Afghanistan owing to the absence of an effective Taliban security strategy,

Earthquake of magnitude 4.3 hits Afghanistan's Fayzabad on Monday

An earthquake of magnitude 4.3 struck 135 km south-southeast of Fayzabad, Afghanistan at 6.47 am on Monday, according to the National Center for Seismology (NCS)"Earthquake of Magnitude:4.3, Occurred on 13-02-2023, 06:47:53 IST, Lat: 36.51 & Long: 71.40, Depth: 135 Km, Location: 100km SE of Fayzabad, Afghanistan," NCS tweeted on Monday.This is the second quake to have rocked the country within a month.Earlier on January 22, an earthquake of magnitude 4.2 took place 79 km south-southeast of Fayzabad, Afghanistan at 9:04 am IST on Sunday, according to the National Center for Seismology (NCS).

Afghanistan gets humanitarian aid amid harsh winters from UNHCR, Uzbekistan

In order to make the lives of Afghan people easy and bearable, the UNHCR, with the support of the Uzbekistan government has sent winter aid to the war-ravaged country to cope up with extreme cold.

No country should be allowed to use Afghan to export terrorism: NSA Doval

National Security Advisor Ajit Doval on Wednesday said that no country should be allowed to use Afghan territory to export terrorism and asserted that India will never abandon the people of Afghanistan in their time of need. In an address at a multilateral security dialogue on Afghanistan in Moscow, Doval said that an inclusive and representative dispensation in Kabul is in the larger interest of the Afghan society. He also reaffirmed that the well being and humanitarian needs of the people of Afghanistan is India's foremost priority and it will continue to guide New Delhi's approach towards that country, official sources said. The National Security Advisor (NSA) is on a two-day visit to Moscow from Wednesday. Besides Russia and India, the fifth meeting of Secretaries of Security Councils/NSAs on Afghanistan was attended by representatives from Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, the official sources said In his remarks at the meeting, Dov

Top UN woman urges Muslim nations to move Taliban back to 21st century

The highest-ranking woman at the United Nations said Wednesday she used everything in her toolbox during meetings with Taliban ministers to try to reverse their crackdown on Afghan women and girls, and she urged Muslim countries to help the Taliban move from the 13th century to the 21st. Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed, a former Nigerian Cabinet minister and a Muslim, said at a news conference that four Taliban ministers, including the foreign minister and a deputy prime minister, spoke off one script during meetings with her delegation last week. She said the officials sought to stress things that they say they have done and not gotten recognition for and what they called their effort to create an environment that protects women. Their definition of protection would be, I would say, ours of oppression, Mohammed said. Those meetings in the Afghan capital, Kabul, and the Islamic group's birthplace in Kandahar were followed by a visit this week by U.N. humanitarian chief Mar

Freezing weather in decade's 'coldest winter' kills 124 in Afghanistan

Akhund said the forecast for the next 10 days indicated temperatures would warm. But he was still worried about a rising death toll of Afghans, and their livestock

Reviewing engagement with Taliban, says US on rights violations in Afghan

US State Department Spokesperson Ned Price, in a press briefing, underlined that the US continues to be the world's leading humanitarian provider to the people of Afghanistan

UN says Taliban divided on restoring women's rights post official visit

A delegation led by the highest-ranking woman at the United Nations urged the Taliban during a four-day visit to Afghanistan that ended Friday to reverse their crackdown on women and girls

US House Republicans launch probe into chaotic exit from Afghanistan

Michael McCaul said the US House Foreign Affairs Committee will use the authorities available to it to enforce requests for information as necessary

OIC delegation to be in Afghanistan to discuss women's right to education

Amid the ongoing violation of the rights of Afghan women under the Taliban regime, the OIC has planned to send a delegation to the country to discuss women's rights to education and employment