Page 25 - Afghanistan

Pak-Afghan rift widens after Taliban minister trashes Durand line as border

New Delhi, June 19: The Taliban administration's Defence Minister Maulvi Muhammad Yaqub Mujahid has said that the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, called the Durand Line, is merely a 'line'

Hundreds of Afghans languish in Albania in a prolonged US visa process

Almost two years since he fled Afghanistan to escape the Taliban takeover, Firooz Mashoof is still haunted by the memory of his last day in Kabul the bus that took him to the airport, getting on a packed plane and taking off as gunfire echoed across the city. The last thing I saw were the mountains around Kabul and the dreary sunset as the Qatar Airways took off, he said. Today, thousands of miles from his homeland, the 35-year-old photojournalist and former employee of the Afghan soccer federation, is languishing in warm and sunny Albania. With each passing day, his anxiety grows over the delay in the promised US visa, casting a shadow on his dreams of a new beginning in America. For hundreds of others like him, it's an emotional roller coaster. Some try to find work and live with a semblance of normalcy but the concern and fear for families back home permeates their days even in welcoming Albania. They are hopeful, despite the prolonged bureaucracy, and look to a new life. In

Taliban seeks further aid from UN for Afghan people in different fields

Hanif while describing the humanitarian aid as vital but not enough, said that the United Nations should launch development projects in Afghanistan

UN in talks with Taliban over handover of education programmes, classes

As per UNICEF, it had received assurances from the Taliban's Education Ministry that its community-based classes, which educate 500,000 students, would continue while they discussed the matter

Unemployment in Afghanistan rose significantly in past two years: Report

The International Committee of the Red Cross in a report said that the number of unemployed people in Afghanistan has significantly increased in the last two years, Taliban-based TOLO News reported

Taliban slam 'baseless and biased' UN report suggesting rifts within ranks

The Taliban condemned on Sunday a baseless and biased report from the UN Security Council highlighting rifts within the group's ranks. The last seven months have seen a greater shift of power from the capital Kabul to the southern city of Kandahar, a Taliban heartland and the base of the group's supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada. A report issued earlier in June by the UN Security Council's Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team said that the Taliban governance structures remain highly exclusionary, Pashtun-centred and repressive toward all forms of opposition. It also said Kandahar's return as the seat of power like it was during the Taliban's rule of Afghanistan in the 1990s circumvents senior Taliban ministers in Kabul, the centre of the current government, because of the way decisions are made. Key figures, such as the Taliban's main spokesman, have set up offices in the south of Kandahar. Monumental decrees such as those excluding women and girls from education

Threat of terrorism from Taliban rising in Afghanistan, region: UN report

The link between the Taliban and Al-Qaeda and Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan remains strong and symbiotic, according to a UN report which said the ability of terrorist groups to freely manoeuvre under the Taliban de facto authorities in Afghanistan is raising the threat of terrorism in the country and the region. The fourteenth report of the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team of the 1988 Taliban Sanctions Committee of the UN Security Council said that contrary to statements to not allow Afghan soil to be used for attacks against other countries, the Taliban have harboured and allowed active support of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan. While maintaining links to numerous terrorist entities, the Taliban have lobbied member states for counter-terrorism assistance in its fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant Khorasan Province (ISIL-K), which it perceives as its principal rival. The link between the Taliban and both Al-Qaeda and Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) remains

11 people killed in blast near a mosque in Afghanistan's Badakhshan

At least 11 people were killed when an explosion occurred near a mosque in northern Afghanistan at a memorial service for the Taliban's provincial deputy governor

EAM visits Gurdwara in Delhi, Afghan Sikhs raise issue of citizenship

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday visited a Gurdwara in the national capital and met Afghan Sikhs who raised the issue of obtaining Indian citizenship and getting visas

Bombing in Afghanistan at memorial ceremony for Taliban kills 11 people

A bomb ripped through a memorial service in Afghanistan's northeastern Badakhshan province on Thursday, killing at least 11 people, officials said. A former Taliban police official was among those killed and more than 30 were also wounded in the explosion near Nabawi Mosque, according to Abdul Nafi Takor, the Taliban-appointed spokesman for the interior ministry. There were concerns that the number of casualties could rise further as more information becomes available, Takor added. The bombing apparently targeted the memorial service for Nisar Ahmad Ahmadi, the deputy governor of Badakhshan who was killed in a car bombing on Tuesday. That attack in Faizabad, the capital of Badakhshan, also killed the deputy governor's driver and wounded 10 other people. Moazuddin Ahmadi, the Taliban official in charge of information and culture, confirmed Thursday's explosion and the killing of Safiullah Samim, a former Taliban police chief in Baghlan. There was no immediate claim of responsibilit

UNICEF concerned by Taliban move to bar int'l NGOs from education sector

UNICEF said on Thursday it is deeply concerned by reports of the Taliban pushing out international organizations from Afghanistan's education sector and ordering them to hand over their activities to local nongovernmental groups. It's the latest restriction on NGOs operating in the country after the ban imposed in December on Afghan female staff, allegedly because they weren't wearing the Islamic headscarf, or hijab, correctly and weren't complying with gender segregation in the workplace. In April, the ban was extended to the UN. A WhatsApp voice note, purportedly from a senior education official in Kabul, says all international organisations have a one-month deadline to transfer their education work to local groups. The Education Ministry was not immediately available to verify the voice note, but aid agency officials told The Associated Press they are aware of the message and are taking it seriously. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorised to speak t

Minibus crash kills 25 people, nine children in northern Afghanistan

A minibus crash in northern Afghanistan killed 25 people, including nine children and 12 women, a police spokesman said Wednesday. The accident happened in a mountainous area with half-paved roads in Sar-e-Pul province as the passengers were returning from a wedding. They were traveling from one part of Sayyad district to another. Din Mohammad Nazari, the spokesman for the local police commander, blamed the minibus driver for the crash. He said the car fell into a deep pit because of his carelessness. Nazari did not say if there were any survivors. Traffic accidents are common in Afghanistan, mainly due to poor road conditions and carelessness of drivers on highways.

Ex-Pakistan Army chief General Bajwa heckled by Afghan man in France

The Pashto-speaking man accused Bajwa human rights violations in Afghanistan and accused him of helping the Taliban loot Afghanistan

All airports in Afghanistan operational, with 20 foreign flights daily

The Taliban-led government in Afghanistan on Monday said that all the airports in the war-torn nation were currently operational

Internal matter, says MEA Bagchi on power struggle in Afghan embassy

As the Afghan embassy in Delhi reels under a power struggle after the Taliban appointed a diplomat to head the mission in place of the incumbent, India on Friday said it is an "internal matter" of the embassy. "From our perspective, this is an internal matter of the Afghan embassy and we hope that they would resolve it internally," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said when asked about a question on the matter. Ambassador Farid Mamundzay Mamundzay, who was appointed by the previous Ashraf Ghani government, has been operating as the Afghan envoy even after the Taliban came to power in August 2021. However, the Taliban in April appointed Qadir Shah to head the mission. Shah has been working as a trade councillor at the Afghan embassy since 2020. When Mamundzay was on a visit abroad, Shah tried to take charge of the embassy as the charge d'affaires late last month, but his attempt was stalled by other diplomats at the mission, people familiar with the matter said.

Terror strikes in Pakistan surged after Taliban takeover of Afghanistan

In first 21 months after the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan, the number of terrorist attacks in Pakistan increased dramatically by 73% compared to same period before their takeover, Dawn reported

No infiltration of Taliban into Kashmir post-Kabul fall: GOC Chinar Corps

The apprehensions about the influx of Taliban fighters into Kashmir after the fall of Kabul in 2021 did not materialise and no Afghani Taliban has infiltrated into the valley, a senior Army officer has said here. General Officer Commanding (GOC) of Chinar Corps Lieutenant General A D S Aujla also said that due to the ongoing internal crisis in Pakistan, there are no major worries regarding Kashmir but the armed forces have to remain alert to thwart any attempts to push in infiltrators, narcotics or weapons. "As far as the apprehensions which were there post Taliban 2.0 are concerned, we could see the manifestations (of concern) on this side as well in Kashmir but it never happened," Lt Gen Aujla told PTI in an interview on Wednesday. A certain amount of chatter and a certain amount of signature was being reported on the other side in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), but it never translated into reality onto this side, he said. "So, there was no infiltration of any Afghani Taliban..

Here's how a covert relationship with Taliban backfired for US ally Pak

"Pakistan saw the Taliban as deeply connected to the TTP and able to persuade it to stop its attacks"

Afghanistan's acting FM Amir Khan Muttaqi terms world's sanctions 'cruel'

Muttaqi said, "The world countries should listen, they should not pursue their cases under the pretext that these people are being harmed here"

India cements relations with Afghanistan by routing food aid through Iran

The Chabahar port is proving to be useful as a politically unstable and economically-weak Pakistan has been refusing Indian aid trucks to cross its territory into Afghanistan