Tag: Afghanistan

  • India prioritise Hindus and Sikhs for ‘Afghan emergency visas’

    India prioritise Hindus and Sikhs for ‘Afghan emergency visas’

    India’s government said on Tuesday that it would prioritize taking in Hindus and Sikhs from Afghanistan — a move that drew comparisons to a controversial 2019 citizenship law, enacted under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, that differentiates against Muslims, reported New York Times.

    The country’s home ministry said it would introduce “emergency visas” to allow Afghans to stay in India for six months. 

    However, it did not say whether Muslims, who make up the majority of those seeking to leave Afghanistan as the Taliban take over, would also be considered.

    “We are in constant touch with the Sikh and Hindu community leaders in Kabul,” S. Jaishankar, India’s external affairs minister, said on Twitter. “Their welfare will get our priority attention.”

    For its part, Pakistan’s leadership has stopped short of hailing the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan.

    “When you adopt someone’s culture, you believe it to be superior and you end up becoming a slave to it,” Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Monday in a veiled reference to the United States and Western culture. “In Afghanistan, they have broken the shackles of slavery,” Mr. Khan said at an appearance in Islamabad, “but the slavery of the mind does not break away.”

  • Taliban execute a police chief despite assurances of peace

    Taliban execute a police chief despite assurances of peace

    Trigger warning: Violence

    The Taliban, on Wednesday, executed Haji Mullah Achakzai, the police chief of the Badghis province near Herat, Afghanistan.

    In a video that surfaced on Twitter on Thursday, Achakzai can be seen blindfolded, kneeling down on his knees as he was surrounded by Taliban individuals who shot him several times, reported Newsweek.

    https://twitter.com/NasserWaziri/status/1428343833788567561

    The group shared the video through a Taliban-related network, Afghan security advisor Nasser Waziri, who personally knew Achakzai, told Newsweek.

    “He was surrounded by the Taliban and had no choice but to surrender last night,” Waziri said. “The Taliban targeted Achakzai because he was a high-ranking intelligence official.”

    Waziri said that when the Taliban were able to hack into the Afghan intelligence database to track down government officials, they accessed information, photographs, biometrics, and national identification documents. As of Monday, they started “door-to-door investigations.”

    A door-to-door investigation is how the Taliban spots targeted individuals through families, according to Waziri. They threaten and abuse those individuals’ families to reveal their whereabouts.

    One of Waziri’s friends, a district governor who hasn’t been identified for security reasons, has been hiding in Kabul as the Taliban recently visited some of his family members in Nurstin, an Afghan province.

    “They [the Taliban] took the family out of their house and hit them so that they could give information on which city he can be,” Waziri said.

    Earlier this week, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid had assured peace and stability in the region.

    The Taliban would not seek retribution against former soldiers and members of the western-backed government, said Mujahid, insisting that “everyone is forgiven”.

    “Nobody is going to harm you, nobody is going to knock on your doors,” said Mujahid. He said that the Taliban “do not wish to see any kind of chaos” in Kabul.

    “Our plan was to stop at the gates of Kabul after capturing all other provinces,” the spokesman claimed, adding that a “smooth transition” of power was what the group had sought to avoid “trouble, harm, and damages”.

  • Pakistani female reporter updates live from Afghanistan

    Pakistani female reporter updates live from Afghanistan

    A female reporter, Sumaira Khan is reporting live from Afghanistan for a private Pakistani English News channel, Indus News.

    Sumaira, while giving updates, said that there is still chaos at Kabul International Airport. Afghans without documents are trying to leave the country while the Taliban have been blocking Afghans trying to flee.

    The Taliban took over the country rapidly. They declared that the war in Afghanistan is over after taking control of the Presidential Palace in Kabul on August 15 while the president of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani fled the country.

    Sumaira is reportedly the only Pakistani female reporter reporting from Afghanistan.

  • Video: Toddler handed over the wall at Kabul airport, as the chaos continues

    Video: Toddler handed over the wall at Kabul airport, as the chaos continues

    In a video doing the rounds on social media, it can be seen that a toddler is being handed over a wall to western soldiers at Kabul airport.

    Outside the airport, the situation remains chaotic. The Taliban have been blocking Afghans trying to flee.

    The militants have been going door-to-door to find targets and threaten their family members, reported BBC.

    “There are a high number of individuals that are currently being targeted by the Taliban and the threat is crystal clear,” Christian Nellemann, who heads the group behind the report, told the BBC.

    “It is in writing that, unless they give themselves in, the Taliban will arrest and prosecute, interrogate and punish family members on behalf of those individuals.”

    He warned that anyone on the Taliban’s blacklist was in severe danger and that there could be mass executions.

    Anti-Taliban protests have taken place in several cities. In the capital Kabul, demonstrators waved the national flag while there were reportedly casualties among protesters in Asadabad.

  • China is welcome to contribute to the rebuilding of the country: Taliban spokesman

    China is welcome to contribute to the rebuilding of the country: Taliban spokesman

    China has played a constructive role in promoting peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan and is welcome to contribute to the rebuilding of the country, Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen told Chinese state media.

    “China is a big country with a huge economy and capacity — I think they can play a very big role in the rebuilding, rehabilitation, reconstruction of Afghanistan,” Shaheen told CGTN television in an interview late on Thursday.

    During Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s meeting with a Taliban delegation in Tianjin last month, the Chinese envoy said he hoped Afghanistan could adopt a moderate policy.

    Earlier, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, Hua Chunying, told a press briefing that China encourages and hopes that the Afghan Taliban can follow through its positive statements, unite with all parties and ethnic groups in Afghanistan, establish a broad-based, inclusive political framework that fits the national conditions and wins public support through dialogue and consultation.

  • Man who fell from US plane in Kabul is a young Afghan footballer

    Man who fell from US plane in Kabul is a young Afghan footballer

    One of the people who tragically fell from a C-17 US military plane departing from Kabul on Monday was a young Afghan footballer, according to the General Directorate of Physical Education & Sports in Afghanistan.

    As per details, Zaki Anwari, a young footballer, died on Monday after falling from a US military aircraft. The Afghan National Football Team’s Facebook page confirmed the identity and death on August 18, 2021. The news was confirmed by the Sports Directorate the next day.

    Anwari was one of thousands of Afghans who flocked to the Hamid Karzai International Airport  on Monday, the day after the Taliban captured Kabul, hoping to get on a plane out of the country. He reportedly climbed onto a C-17 plane that was about to depart from the capital.

    Anwari played on the Afghan national youth football team.

    A video published on August 16 shows people sitting on the landing gear flap of a plane taxiing for takeoff as people run alongside the aircraft.

    Several videos circulating on Monday showed people falling from a C-17 aircraft that had taken off from Kabul airport. Later, reports said that several bodies had been found in locations east of the airport.

    News of Anzari’s death comes as the US Air Force investigates the deaths, after human remains were found in the wheel well of one of its C-17 planes that departed from Kabul.

  • Posters of women vandalised in Kabul

    Posters of women vandalised in Kabul

    Images of women have been covered up or vandalised on storefronts around Kabul, AFP has reported.

    One of the salons in Kabul has been whitewashed to cover up advertisements pasted on its outdoor walls, showing the faces of smiling women in bridal regalia.

    Another shuttered salon, spotted on Tuesday as a Taliban fighter patrolled the street outside with an assault rifle slung over his shoulder, had its walls defaced with black spray paint to conceal the visages of its models.

    Read more- Afghan women fear for their lives as Taliban take charge

    “The Islamic Emirate is committed to the rights of women within the framework of the Sharia. Our sisters, our women will have the same rights and will be able to benefit from them,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Tuesday.

    “They can have activities in different sectors and areas on the basis of our rules and regulations — in education, health, and other areas,” he said, adding that they will “work with us shoulder-to-shoulder”.

    Terrifying stories of mistreatment of women in Afghanistan are being discussed on social media and are also being reported by news outlets ever since the Taliban started gaining control of Afghanistan two months ago.

  • ‘I am currently in talks to return to Afghanistan’: Ashraf Ghani

    ‘I am currently in talks to return to Afghanistan’: Ashraf Ghani

    Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani has taken refuge in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

    Ghani left Afghanistan as the Taliban advanced on the capital city, Kabul, over the weekend.

    The UAE’s foreign ministry said the country has welcomed Ghani and his family on humanitarian grounds.

    In a video address later on Wednesday, Ghani denied fleeing and said he had left to prevent what he described as a “huge disaster”, reported the BBC.

    “For now, I am in the Emirates so that bloodshed and chaos is stopped,” he said, “I am currently in talks to return to Afghanistan.”

    Ghani also said rumours that he had travelled to the UAE with a large amount of money were “completely baseless” and “lies”.

    The Russian embassy in Kabul alleged on Monday that Afghan President Ashraf Ghani had fled the country with four cars and a helicopter full of cash and had to leave some money behind as not all of it would fit in, Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti reported.

    Meanwhile, United States (US) President Joe Biden blamed the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan on Afghan political leaders who fled the country and the unwillingness of the US-trained Afghan army to fight the militant group.

    In his speech, Biden said that the US troops could not defend a nation whose leaders “gave up and fled”, as did Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.

  • Ashraf Ghani and family in UAE

    Ashraf Ghani and family in UAE

    The United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Wednesday said that it had welcomed President Ashraf Ghani and his family into the country on humanitarian grounds.

    It still remains unclear whether Ghani flew directly to the UAE or was at another location since he left Kabul on Sunday.

    Ashraf left a note for his countrymen on social media, stating, “The Taliban have made it to remove me, they are here to attack all Kabul and the people of Kabul. In order to avoid the bleeding flood, I thought it was best to get out.”

    “Taliban have won the judgement of swords and guns and now they are responsible for protecting the countrymen’s honour, wealth, and self-esteem. Didn’t they win the legitimacy of hearts,” wrote Ashraf Ghani.

    Initially, he did not say where he had travelled to, but leading Afghan media group Tolo News suggested he had gone to Tajikistan.

    The Russian embassy in Kabul alleged on Monday that Afghan President Ashraf Ghani had fled the country with four cars and a helicopter full of cash and had to leave some money behind as it would not all fit in, Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti reported.

  • PM Imran discusses Afghanistan with Germany and UK

    PM Imran discusses Afghanistan with Germany and UK

    Prime Minister Imran Khan Tuesday held discussions with German, Danish, and United Kingdom (UK) leaders regarding the situation in Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover.

    Prime Minister Khan received telephone calls from his British counterpart Boris Johnson and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

    PM Khan stressed that safety and security, as well as protection of the rights of all Afghans, were critically important. PM Khan underlined that an inclusive political settlement was the best way forward.

    Pakistan is reaching out to all Afghan leaders. The international community must also stay engaged, particularly to support the people of Afghanistan economically, added the premier.

    PM Khan highlighted the positive role that Pakistan played in facilitating the evacuation of diplomatic personnel and staff of international organisations and others from Afghanistan.

    He also highlighted the extensive measures taken by Pakistan to contain the Covid-19, noted that the relevant data had been shared with the UK side, and called for the removal of Pakistan from the Red List.

    In conversation with Merkel, the prime minister expressed satisfaction at regular high-level exchanges between Pakistan and Germany. He said Pakistan looked forward to enhancing collaboration with Germany in all areas of mutual interest.