Tag: Taliban. Afghanistan

  • Pakistan offers to host OIC summit to discuss Afghan crisis

    Pakistan offers to host OIC summit to discuss Afghan crisis

    Foreign Minister (FM) of Pakistan Shah Mahmood Qureshi has announced that Pakistan fully endorses Saudi Arabia’s move to request an extraordinary session of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to discuss the current Afghanistan situation after the Taliban takeover.

    Qureshi said, “Afghanistan is a founding member of the OIC. As part of the Islamic Ummah, we are bound by fraternal bonds of amity and brotherhood with the people of Afghanistan,” he said stressing that, “today, our Afghan brothers and sisters need us more than ever before.”

    In a video message, shared by the Foreign Office (FO), the minister also announced that Pakistan has offered to host the meeting in Islamabad on December 17.

    Saudi Arabia also made the call for the session on the same day, as per the state-run Saudi Press Agency.

    According to the minister, the arrival of winter has worsened the humanitarian crisis in the worn-torn country. ​He emphasised the need for the OIC to “step in to help our Afghan brothers.”

    According to Qureshi, the first extraordinary session of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers was held in Islamabad in January 1980, also on the situation in Afghanistan at that time.

    “Next month, we would, once again, gather in Islamabad, to reaffirm our abiding solidarity with and support to the Afghan people,” Qureshi concluded.

    Since the Taliban takeover, the country has been facing obstacles in the face of violations of human rights and economic collapse.

  • 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.

  • Afghan footballer rumoured to be executed by Taliban, allegedly committed suicide before takeover

    Afghan footballer rumoured to be executed by Taliban, allegedly committed suicide before takeover

    News of an Afghan female footballer, Mahjabeen, beheaded by the Taliban in Kabul is making rounds on social media. As per a news report, in an interview with the Persian Independent, one of the coaches of the Afghan women’s national volleyball team confirmed that the athlete had been killed, but said that no one other than Mahjabeen’s family knew the exact time and manner of the incident.

    However, a journalist associated with TOLO News took to Twitter to clarify that the news of her beheading was false. The journalist claimed that Mahjabeen committed suicide 10 days before the takeover of the Taliban when he was heading TOLO news’ news-gathering.

  • At least 1 million Afghan children at risk of starvation, warns UNICEF director

    At least 1 million Afghan children at risk of starvation, warns UNICEF director

    At least one million children in Afghanistan will suffer from severe acute malnutrition this year and could die without proper treatment, warned United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund’s (UNICEF) Executive Director Henrietta Fore. “Please help us,” she said.

    According to a report by CNBC, Fore implored the international community and wealthy nations to help avert further suffering after the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan.

    “Nearly 10 million girls and boys depend on humanitarian assistance just to survive,” she said at a UN ministerial-level meeting on the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Afghanistan.

    Fore also emphasised UNICEF’s ability to operate in Afghanistan. She said, “UNICEF has been on the ground in Afghanistan for more than 70 years. We know what needs to be done for children. And we can get it done.”

    According to Fore, during the last week of August, UNICEF provided 4,000 severely malnourished children under five with life-saving therapeutic treatment.

    “Please help us. There has never been a more urgent time to stand with the children of Afghanistan and the people who serve them,” she said.

  • 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.

  • US apologises for killing civilians, children in Kabul drone attack

    US apologises for killing civilians, children in Kabul drone attack

    Head of the US Central Command General Frank McKenzie, has apologised for a drone strike in Kabul last month at Hamid Karzai Airport that killed as many as 10 civilians, including seven children.

    “Our investigation now concludes that the strike was a tragic mistake,” McKenzie told reporters. Earlier, while defending the attack, the US had said that the strike was targeting a suicide bomber of the militant Islamic State group and had described it as “righteous”, reports Al Jazeera.

    The US general offered his condolences to the families of the victims and stated that those who were killed had no connection with local Islamic State affiliates or posed any direct threat to US forces.

    Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said the drone strike had killed a civilian, Mr Ahmadi, who worked for a non-profit called Nutrition and Education International.

    “They were innocent, helpless children,” Aimal Ahmadi, whose nieces and nephews were killed in the attack, told Al-Jazeera.

    Ahmad Naser who was among the victims had been a translator for the US forces. The youngest child, Sumaya, was just two years old, as per BBC.

    Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesman for the Afghan Taliban, confirmed at the time that the strike had killed seven people.

  • More than half of Pakistanis ‘happy’ with Taliban takeover

    A survey conducted by a leading research firm has revealed that around 55 percent Pakistanis were ‘happy’ that the Taliban would be ruling Afghanistan, Arab News has reported. The study was released by the Gilani Research Foundation (GRF) and carried out by Gallup & Gilani Pakistan (GGP).

    The survey was conducted from August 13 to September 5 and 2,170 men and women in urban and rural areas of the Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan were surveyed.

    “Some people are happy that the Taliban will now rule Afghanistan. Some are not happy about that. What is your opinion?” this question was asked in the survey.

    In response to the question, 55 percent said they were happy. Moreover, 25 percent said they were unhappy, 16 percent did not know and four percent did not respond.

    The highest numbers of respondents were from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and more 65 per cent were happy with the Taliban take over. In Punjab 54 per cent, 55 per cent in Balochistan, and around 54 per cent were happy in Sindh.

     56 per cent of men and 36 per cent women were happy.

    The Taliban on September 7, announced the formation of its interim government, amid heavy criticism that not one woman was among the 33 members.

  • HRW releases report on 9/11 calling US to end global war on terror

    Human Rights Watch (HRW) has released a report on September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States titled, ‘9/11 Unleashed a Global Storm of Human Rights Abuses’.

    The report says, “The brutal rulers [US leaders] figured out that the best way to get away with mass abuse was to label it a fight against terrorism.”

    Furthermore it states, “The war paradigm was also used to justify killing suspects wherever they were found, often on the flimsiest of evidence. However, international human rights law requires law enforcement officials to arrest suspects whenever possible and to use lethal force only as a last resort to stop an imminent threat to life.”

    “They [US] not only mistreated the people of Afghanistan but its citizens also had to face discrimination. Globally, Muslims are the primary victims of terrorism. The US has always treated ‘presumed terrorists’ as combatants,” the report reads.

    HRW also has discussed the ill-treatment of one million Uyghurs in Xinjiang, China and the bombings on Gaza by Israel.

    “It is a time to condemn the evil of terrorism. It is also the time to close Guantanamo, by releasing all of the 39 aging detainees still there, who have not been charged and giving the rest a fair trial in a proper court,” the report concluded.

    People from all over the world remembered the horrifying episode today on social media, while some of them share their stories.

    Since 2001, the notorious military prison at Guantanamo has become a symbol of US human rights abuses. Many detainees — mostly Muslim men — were tortured or held for years and even decades without charges, trials, or basic legal rights.

    The 9/11 attacks are the deadliest terrorist attacks on American soil in US history. It was a series of airline hijackings and suicide attacks committed by 19 militants associated with al-Qaeda.

  • ‘Not necessary,’ Afghan women to be banned from playing sports by Taliban

    The Taliban spokesperson has said that the Afghan women, including the country’s women’s cricket team, will be prohibited from participating in sports under the new Taliban regime, The Gurdian has reported.

    Ahmadullah Wasiq, the deputy chairman of the Taliban’s culture commission, claimed in an interview with Australian network SBS that women’s sport was neither appropriate nor required.

    “I don’t think women will be allowed to play cricket because it is not necessary that women should play cricket,” Wasiq said. “In cricket, they might face a situation where their face and body will not be covered. Islam does not allow women to be seen like this”.

    “It is the media era, and there will be photos and videos, and then people watch it. Islam and the Islamic Emirate [Afghanistan] do not allow women to play cricket or play the kind of sports where they get exposed.”

    On September 7, Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid announced members of the new interim government in Afghanistan. Afghanistan will be led by Mohammad Hasan Akhund while the group’s co-founder Abdul Ghani Baradar will be the deputy Afghan leader.

  • Journalists question absence of women from Taliban’s ‘all male interim cabinet’

    Taliban announced the formation of its interim government on Tuesday. There was not even one woman among the 33 members.

    In their first press conference after the takeover of Kabul, spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid had said the group would honour women and assured that it was ready to provide them with the opportunity to be “present in different government (structures) according to Islamic law and in accordance with our cultural values”, reports Dawn.

    In late August, the group had also said that they wanted an inclusive government (inclusion of other Afghan parties and groups) in the country.

    Later, International and Pakistani journalists started questioning the absence of women, with most not expressing any surprise.

    The acting body is stacked with veterans of Taliban’s hardline rule from the 1990s and the 20-year battle against the US.

    Sirajuddin Haqqani, who is on the FBI’s most-wanted list with a reward of up to $10 million, has been appointed to the key post of interior minister.

    The country will be led by Mohammad Hasan Akhund who is on a UN sanctions list and was previously the foreign minister and then deputy prime minister during the Taliban’s last stint in power from 1996-2001.