8am: Local sources in Panjshir province say a Taliban Ranger vehicle was targeted by a magnetic mine in the province. In an interview with Hasht-e Subh, Sibghatullah Ahmadi, a spokesman for the Resistance Front, claimed that seven Taliban members had been killed and several others wounded in the blast. Click here to read more (external link).
1TV Afghanistan Dari News – January 18, 2022
Taliban Arrested a Popular Uprising Commander in Takhar
8am: Tahir, a commander of the former government’s popular uprising forces has been arrested after beating in the Kalfagan district of Takhar, according to local sources. The commander’s family members say he believed in the Taliban general amnesty and had returned to normal life. Click here to read more (external link).
WHO launches first polio vaccination campaign for 2022
Ariana: The first national polio immunization campaign for 2022 is set to start this week and will target 9.9 million children aged 0–59 months across the country. According to Relief Web, this month’s campaign will reach more children than the November 2021 program that delivered polio vaccinations to 8.5 million children under the age of five. Click here to read more (external link).
Afghanistan U19 national team prepares for first match in World Cup
Ariana: The Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) says the Under-19 national team has been training ahead of their first match Tuesday in the U-19 World Cup. According to the cricket board, the team spent three days in quarantine after arriving in the West Indies and are scheduled to play their first game against Papua New Guinea on Tuesday. Click here to read more (external link).
Taliban Arrests Hizb ut-Tahrir Members in Takhar
8am: Some Hizb ut-Tahrir members have been arrested by the Taliban’s Intelligence Department in Takhar province, according to local sources. “They were arrested on charges of membership to the Hizb ut-Tahrir party, preaching, and paving the ground for (ISKP) group,” a Taliban security source told Hasht-e Subh. Click here to read more (external link).
Taliban Militants Claim Responsibility for Rare Attack in Pakistan’s Capital
TTP Flag
Ayaz Gul
VOA News
January 18, 2022
ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN — The outlawed Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility Tuesday for a rare overnight attack in Islamabad that killed a police officer and wounded two others.
Police officials said two gunmen riding a motorcycle opened fire on a security checkpoint near one of the city’s busy markets late on Monday. They say the ensuing shootout killed both the assailants.
“The gunfire by terrorists martyred a police officer while two others were wounded,” said a police statement.
Pakistani Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed condemned the gun attack as an act of terrorism.
“We have received a kind of signal that terrorist incidents have started happening in Islamabad,” local media quoted Ahmed as telling reporters after attending the funeral prayers of the slain police officer.
The Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement on Twitter and confirmed the killing of its two gunmen involved in it.
The TTP has increased attacks in Pakistan, particularly since early December when a 30-day ceasefire between the militants and the government expired.
Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban had brokered the truce to try to pave the way for substantive peace talks between the two adversaries. But the Pakistani Taliban refused to extend the ceasefire deal, citing a lack of progress in the talks.
Over the years, the TTP has claimed responsibility for carrying out hundreds of suicide bombings and other attacks in Pakistan that killed thousands of Pakistani civilians and security forces.
Pakistan says TTP leaders and fighters have taken refuge in neighboring Afghanistan from where they are organizing cross-border terrorist attacks.
Last week the TTP confirmed the killing of one of its top commanders in the eastern Afghan border province of Nangarhar. The dead man was identified as senior leader Khalid Balti but it was not clear who killed him.
The United Nations and the United States have also designated the Pakistani Taliban as a global terrorist organization.
The Pakistani Taliban is the largest militant outfit fighting the Pakistani government. TTP and the Afghan Taliban are close allies and jointly fought the United States-led international forces that backed the Western-supported government in Afghanistan until their pullout last year.
Iran issues 3-month permit for diesel transit to Afghanistan
Press TV
January 17, 2022
Iranian government authorities have allowed transportation of diesel to Afghanistan through the Iranian territory amid a shortage of the fuel in the neighboring country.
Iran’s former trade attaché to Afghanistan Mehdi Javanmard said on Monday that the government had agreed to a request from Afghan authorities to allow the transit of diesel through the Iranian territory to help the country respond to larger demand for the fuel during cold winter months.
Javanmard told the official IRNA news agency that the permit will last for three months until April 20, adding that shipments from other countries will be allowed from all borders, including from ports.
He said, however, that the Iranian fleet of trucks working for the country’s fuel distribution network will be banned from contributing to the diesel transit scheme to Afghanistan.
The former official told that all qualified trade companies in Iran will be able to transport diesel from other countries to Afghanistan.
Iran has yet to officially recognize a government led by the Taliban group that rose to power in Afghanistan in August.
However, Tehran has allowed trade ties with Afghanistan to continue or even to increase with the aim of helping people in the neighboring country with their basic needs.
Iran has carried out its limited fuel deliveries to Afghanistan in recent months while electricity exports have continued unabated over the period.
Afghanistan’s former president Hamid Kerzai hailed Iran’s constructive role in the country in remarks published on Monday.
Karzai, a major political figure in Afghanistan since the US-led invasion of the country in 2001, told Iran’s ambassador in Kabul that ties between Iran and Afghanistan should expand in future to cover more areas.
1TV Afghanistan Dari News – January 17, 2022
Taliban Setting Out To Exclude Women, Girls From Public Life, UN Experts Warn
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
January 17, 2022
Taliban leaders are attempting to institutionalize large-scale and systematic gender-based discrimination and violence against Afghan women and girls, a group of 36 UN human rights experts warned in a statement on January 17.
The experts said an array of restrictive steps that have been introduced since the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in August, particularly those concerning women and girls, have caused alarm.
“We are concerned about the continuous and systematic efforts to exclude women from the social, economic, and political spheres across the country,” the experts said.
“These concerns are exacerbated in the cases of women from ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities such as the Hazara, Tajik, Hindu, and other communities whose differences or visibility make them even more vulnerable in Afghanistan.”
Many women have been banned from returning to their jobs. Bus drivers and taxi drivers were ordered not to carry women in their vehicles unless they are wearing an Islamic veil. According to the same order, drivers also are not allowed to transport unmarried women in their vehicles more than 70 kilometers.
“Taken together, these policies constitute a collective punishment of women and girls, grounded on gender-based bias and harmful practices,” the experts said.
“These policies have also affected the ability of women to work and to make a living, pushing them further into poverty,” the experts said. “Women heads of households are especially hard hit, with their suffering compounded by the devastating consequences of the humanitarian crisis in the country.”
Of “particular and grave concern” is the continued denial of the fundamental right of women and girls to secondary and tertiary education, the statement said.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) last week also sounded the alarm about the abrupt deterioration of women and girls’ rights since the Taliban takeover.
“In the weeks after the Taliban takeover, authorities announced a steady stream of policies and regulations rolling back women’s and girls’ rights,” HRW said in its annual report on January 13, mentioning severe restrictions in access to employment and education and restrictions on the right to peaceful assembly.
The Taliban has repeatedly responded with beatings, threats, or detentions to protests staged by Afghan women demanding their rights to education, work, and freedom.
With reporting by dpa