Tag: Kabul

  • Pakistan, TTP extend ceasefire indefinitely, agree to continue negotiations

    Pakistan, TTP extend ceasefire indefinitely, agree to continue negotiations

    The Government of Pakistan and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) have agreed to extend a ceasefire, reportedly indefinitely and continue negotiations to end the conflict that has resulted in the killings of thousands of people, reports Dawn.

    The agreement was made after both the government of Pakistan delegation and the TTP delegation met and held separate meetings with the Acting Prime Minister of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) Mullah Muhammad Hassan Akhund in Afghanistan.

    Afghanistan’s spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid and TTP spokesman Muhammad Khurasani had earlier announced the extension of the ceasefire till May 30.

    From the TTP’s side, disbandment of the faction being termed as an armed militant group and the reversal of the Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA) merger into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) were key demands.

    However, the government didn’t accept the demands, saying that some demands were acceptable whereas others were not going to be accepted by Pakistan.

    The government’s delegation also made it clear that no armed group would be allowed to enter Pakistan territory.

    The next round of negotiations is expected to take place in the second week of June, in which a tribal jirga will hold direct talks with the TTP in Kabul.

  • Chinese Foreign Minister pays unannounced visit to Kabul

    Chinese Foreign Minister pays unannounced visit to Kabul

    Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister (FM) Wang Yi arrived in Kabul on Thursday after attending the three-day Organisation on of Islamic Conference (OIC) in Islamabad, which ended on Wednesday. His visit was not announced earlier.

    Yi is the first senior Chinese leader to visit Afghanistan after the Taliban’s takeover in August. He was received by Afghanistan’s acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi.

    The two sides will hold talks on important issues, focusing on China’s role in stability and development, reports Afghan state-run Bakhtar News Agency.

    On March 30-31 Beijing is set to host a two-day conference to discuss the Afghan situation. It is pertinent to mention that the Taliban government is yet to be recognised by any country.

    Foreign Minister Yi last visited Kabul in 2017 after a huge bombing incident after which he tried to ease tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

    China has been involved in the Afghan peace process since the US started its withdrawal of troops in 2014. Moreover, in the past few years, Taliban political representatives have paid several visits to China.

  • Taliban to be blamed for missing journalist, says rights group

    Taliban to be blamed for missing journalist, says rights group

    A journalists’ rights groups in Afghanistan said that the Taliban have arrested two Afghan journalists working for a local news channel, weeks after two female activists went missing.

    The rights group known as the Afghan Media Association, without naming anyone said that reporters Waris Hasrat and Aslam Hijab were picked up by masked gunmen in front of the channel’s office. They went out for lunch on Monday “and taken to an unknown location”.

    They said Taliban officials are investigating the matter and have given them insurance. However, a spokesperson told AFP he had no information on the missing journalists.

    Moreover, rights group Amnesty International demanded on Twitter that the Taliban “unconditionally and immediately release” the two.

    Two weeks earlier, two female activists went missing after taking part in a demonstration in Kabul for women’s rights.

    Previously, in September several Afghan journalists were beaten while covering rallies.

  • New terrorist wave

    New terrorist wave

    A new wave of terrorism seems to be gripping the country in recent months, with the Lahore blast being the latest in a series of attacks that have targeted security forces, policemen, and civilians. From Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to Balochistan, from Sindh to the capital city to the heart of Punjab, there is a rise in such attacks across the country.
     
    Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police chief Moazzam Jah Ansari told Dawn and Geo News that the Islamic State group’s Khorasan chapter (IS-K) is a different and bigger threat than even the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Coming from the police chief of a province that has been one of the worst victims of terrorism in the country, his statement should raise alarm bells for the state. Pakistan has given immense sacrifices in its war against terrorism – 70-80,000 people lost their lives at the hands of terrorist attacks. The APS attack is a tragedy that can never be erased from our memories. Our security forces and police officials have fought bravely against terrorist outfits and now for terrorism to make a comeback, it is even more important that the state should build a consensus on this issue and tackle the hydra of terrorism.
     
    A study conducted by the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Study (PICSS) says that the rise in militant attacks in Pakistan coincided with the Afghan Taliban’s military offensive and their eventual takeover of Kabul. Many had been pointing out to the Pakistan government that a government that does not believe in the rule of law and does not abide by any international covenants cannot bring any stability in the region and will in fact lead to instability in the neighbouring countries when Pakistan was celebrating the takeover of Kabul by the Afghan Taliban.
     
    With the withdrawal of the US and NATO troops from Afghanistan, the fall of Kabul and the rise of the Afghan Taliban were inevitable. However, the support that they got from Pakistan has led to many problems, including the tensions between the US and Pakistan when it comes to diplomatic ties. But the most critical consequence of the new government in Afghanistan is the rise of militant outfits who are rearing their heads once again in neighbouring Pakistan.

    The rise of the Afghan Taliban has given new ideas and strength to militant outfits that had gone underground since the security forces defeated the TTP and crushed other terrorist outfits some years ago. We hope that the state will not let them wreak havoc with the country’s future again. Pakistan needs peace and stability, not chaos. 

  • ‘Human rights and women rights are different’: PM Khan

    ‘Human rights and women rights are different’: PM Khan

    Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan during his address at the 17th extraordinary session of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) said that human rights and women’s rights are different.

    “We must understand that when we talk about human rights, every society is different, every society’s idea of human rights and normal rights is different,” said PM Khan.

    “The Pakhtunkhawan province, which borders Afghanistan because the culture is similar because there the Taliban are predominantly the Pashtun movement and there are more Pashtuns on our side of the border,” said the premier, adding, “The city culture is completely different from the rural culture.”

    https://twitter.com/mSaleemJaved/status/1472515320850038785

    “Culture in Kabul was always different to culture in rural areas. Just like in Peshawar it is completely different from the culture to the district adjoining the Afghanistan border,” said the prime minister.

    “I will give you an example. We give stipends to the girl’s child parents to put the girls in school but in tribal districts or districts adjoining Afghanistan, if we are not sensitive to the cultural norms of those people, even with stipends they will not send the girls to school,” said the premier.

    “But if we are sensitive to their cultural norms, without stipends they are willing to send their girls to school,” said PM Khan adding, “So this sensitivity I am afraid when we are talking about human rights and women’s rights we have to be sensitive about this.”

    PM Khan’s words received some criticism online.

  • National Geographic’s green-eyed ‘Afghan Girl’ evacuated to Italy

    National Geographic magazine’s famed green-eyed girl, Sharbat Gula, has been evacuated to Italy, the country’s Prime Minister (PM) Mario Draghi’s office announced on Tuesday, reports Reuters.

    The office said it had responded to pleas from non-profit organisations working in the war-torn country to help her leave and “travel to Italy as part of the wider evacuation programme in place for Afghan citizens and the government’s plan for their reception and integration”.

    Gula’s famous picture was taken by a United States (US) photographer Steve McCurry in a Pakistan camp in 1984, which was the front cover of the National Geographic magazine. She said she first arrived in Pakistan as an orphan, some four or five years after the Soviet invasion in 1979.

    Pakistan arrested Gula for forging a national identity card and she was deported back to Afghanistan in 2016. At that time, former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani welcomed her.

    In September, Rome said it had evacuated almost 5,000 Afghans after the Taliban seized power in August.

  • Deadly US drone strike in Kabul did not break law, says Pentagon

    Deadly US drone strike in Kabul did not break law, says Pentagon

    Following an investigation, a Pentagon inspector general said that a United States (US) airstrike that killed 10 civilians in Afghanistan was a mistake but did not violate any laws and doesn’t recommend any disciplinary action, reported Al Jazeera.

    US Air Force Lieutenant General (Lt Gen) Sami Said stated: “They all have a genuine belief based on the information they had and the interpretation, that was a threat to US forces, an imminent threat to US forces. That’s a mistake. It’s a regrettable mistake. It’s an honest mistake. I understand the consequences, but it’s not criminal conduct, random conduct, negligence.”

    Lt Gen Said admitted that there had been execution errors and communication breakdowns among the US forces at the time that led to civilian casualties.

    Said was asked to investigate the August 29 drone strike on a white Toyota Corolla Sedan, which killed nine family members, including seven children and a man who worked for a US aid group.

    According to the US air force general, the forces believed that the car they were following was an imminent threat as the US military had intelligence that Daesh militants were planning a fresh attack on the evacuation operations but they followed the wrong car.

    He revealed, “We actually never ended up tracking the actual Toyota Corolla.”

    He also admitted that the people involved in conducting the operation thought the house at the site of the target was empty.

    “They were convinced that the compound didn’t have children in it. It turns out to be wrong,” he said. None of the individuals conducting the operation noticed a child entering the target area just two minutes before the attack was launched.

    According to Dawn, Washington is working to pay financial reparations to the victims’ families but nothing has been finalised.

  • Taliban ban women from teaching, attending Kabul University until Islamic environment is created

    Taliban ban women from teaching, attending Kabul University until Islamic environment is created

    Newly Taliban-appointed Kabul University Chancellor Mohammad Ashraf Ghairat announced that women would be banned from the institution either as instructors or students.

    In a tweet, Ghairat said, ” I give you my words as the chancellor of Kabul University, as long as a real Islamic environment is not provided for all, women will not be allowed to come to universities or work. Islam first.”

    https://twitter.com/MAshrafGhairat/status/1442385192824487937?s=20

    While speaking with New York Times, one female lecturer said, “Presidents, teachers, engineers and even mullahs are trained here and gifted to society. Kabul University is the home to the nation of Afghanistan.”

    Earlier, the chancellor tweeted in Pashto that the university was working on a plan to accommodate teaching female students.

    “Due to shortage of female lecturers, we are working on a plan for male lecturers to be able to teach female students from behind a curtain in the classroom. That way an Islamic environment would be created for the female students to get an education,” he wrote.

    https://twitter.com/MAshrafGhairat/status/1442127895204442112?s=20

    Upon this Taliban’s chief spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid said that the ban on women would stay until there is a safer transportation system and an environment where female students are protected.

    The Taliban replaced the previous serving president of the university with Mr. Ghairat, a 34-year-old devotee of the movement who has referred to the country’s schools as “centers for prostitution,” reports CNN.

    Thousands of public university students are staying home. The American University in Afghanistan, in which the U.S. invested over a hundred million dollars has been abandoned completely and taken over by the Taliban.

  • Arnab Goswami’s lie about Pak army backfires, becomes Twitter meme

    Arnab Goswami’s lie about Pak army backfires, becomes Twitter meme

    Indian journalist Arnab Goswami was once again caught spreading fake news about Pakistan but was called out for it by his Pakistani guest. Goswami lied about the presence of the Pakistan Army officers in Kabul Serena to fight in Panjshir Valley.

    Goswami claimed that the Pakistan Army officers were staying on the fifth floor of the Serena Hotel in Kabul but did not know that Kabul Serena only has two floors above ground level.

    In his programme ‘The Debate’ on Republic World TV last week, Goswami had invited an Indian analyst as well as Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) spokesperson Abdul Samad Yaqoob, to represent Pakistan, in a discussion on what the channel termed a “big split” within the Taliban.

    Goswami addressed Yaqoob and said: “You go and check today … on the fifth floor of the Serena Hotel, I am telling you, please check, the fifth floor of the Serena Hotel in Kabul, how many Pakistani army officers are there?”

    “I am giving you. [Do] you want more details? I’ll tell you which room, or is this enough? [On the] fifth floor of the Serena Hotel, Kabul, how many Pakistani officers are there. Okay? I can also tell you what they ordered for dinner, so don’t question my intelligence sources.”

    Yaqoob countered Goswami’s claims and said, “What I got to know from my sources [is that] Serena has only two floors. There are no third, fourth or fifth floors.”

    The Indian anchor had no logical answer and sought to draw attention away from his faux pas. 

    Netizens from around the world called out Goswami for making false claims, making him a Twitter meme once again.

    A Twitter user from India wrote, “Dear #ArnabGoswami this is Sarena hotel Kabul I am still unable to find out [the] fifth floor?”

    https://twitter.com/Dilsedesh/status/1439528467465322498

    Indian journalist, Kanishka Raj Singh tweeted, “Finding information on the fifth floor of a building that has only two floors requires great journalism and brilliant sourcing.”

    Journalist Om Thanvi tweeted, “According-to-sources journalism and its own laughter!”

    Chinese journalist Shen Shiwei too exposed Goswami’s claims by sharing images of the hotel.

    One user rotated a picture of the hotel and mused that Goswami was perhaps counting its floors vertically.

    PTI spokesperson too tweeted a picture with “Arnab’s Intelligence Source” as its caption.

  • ‘I apologise to the Afghan people’: Ashraf Ghani

    ‘I apologise to the Afghan people’: Ashraf Ghani

    Former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, in a statement posted on Twitter, said: “It is with deep and profound regret that my own chapter ended in similar tragedy to my predecessors — without ensuring stability and prosperity. I apologise to the Afghan people that I could not make it end differently.”

    “Leaving Kabul was the most difficult decision of my life, but I believed it was the only way to keep the guns silent and save Kabul and her six million citizens,” said Ghani.

    “If I stayed, there was a risk of the same horrific street-to-street fighting the city had suffered during the Civil War of the 1990s.”

    Refuting the allegations that Ghani had fled the country with four cars and a helicopter full of cash, he said, “These charges are completely and categorically false.”

    “Corruption is a plague that has crippled our country for decades, and fighting corruption has been a central focus of my efforts as president,” he said, adding that he and his Lebanese-born wife were “scrupulous in our personal finances”.

    “I have publically declared all my assets. My wife’s family inheritance has also been disclosed and remains listed in her home country of Lebanon,” said Ghani.

    “I welcome an official audit or financial investigation under United Nations (UN) auspices or any other appropriate independent body to prove the veracity of my statement,” added Ghani.

    He appreciated the sacrifices the Afghans had made over the past 40 years of war in their country.