1TV: Kabul police arrested an 11-member Taliban cell behind the killing of former TV presenter Yama Siawash, Afghan First Vice President Amrullah Saleh said Wednesday. Siawash, who formerly worked at the private TOLO News channel, was killed when the vehicle carrying him was bombed in Kabul in November last year. Click here to read more
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty April 3, 2021 The United States has lifted sanctions on senior members of the International Criminal Court (ICC), including a prosecutor who had launched an investigation into alleged war crimes by U.S. military personnel in Afghanistan. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the move in a statement on April 2, saying the department
Ariana: An Australian court on Thursday said it will allow four Afghans to give evidence via video link in a defamation case filed by a former Australian soldier accused of being involved in killing civilians in Afghanistan, Anadolu News Agency reported. Click here to read more (external link).
Yahoo News: U.S. government agencies are again looking at a long-standing proposal to release an Afghan drug kingpin [Bashir Noorzai] in exchange for concessions in peace talks, which would include the release of an American held [by the Taliban-aligned Haqqani network] in Afghanistan, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. Click here to read
RFE/RL Gandhara March 10, 2021 Twenty years after the Taliban blew up two famous Buddha statues, Afghans commemorated the tragic loss of their historical and cultural heritage on March 9 at a ceremony in the central Bamiyan valley. In a nighttime display, one of the Buddha statues came back to life as a three-dimensional projection
Zarif Nazar Abubakar Siddique Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty March 5, 2021 The abduction of a child in northern Afghanistan has shocked the country’s Turkmen minority. It has prompted members of the community to shut the country’s northern river ports and border crossings with its Central Asian neighbors and hold protests both in Afghanistan and elsewhere
Ahsan Arian Abubakar Siddique February 15, 2021 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Mohammad Ayaz lost two family members last summer in a clash with a rival family over an irrigation channel in southeastern Afghanistan. Ayaz lives near Gardez, the capital of Afghanistan’s southeastern Paktia Province. He says he lost his son and nephew in the July
Thousands joined a rally in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e Sharif on February 7 to demand the authorities do more to free a kidnapped child. Abdul-Rauf, a 9-year-old ethnic Turkmen boy, has been held captive for more than three months by kidnappers who are demanding a ransom. The family accuses the authorities of
Ariana: Media support bodies in Afghanistan have accused government of not properly investigating the targeted killings of journalists adding that because of this and the high level of threats they face, some have already left the country. “Unfortunately violence against journalists has not reduced, because government has not followed up on the cases of journalists
1TV: Afghan traffic authorities will not issue car number plates containing “39”, First Vice President Amrullah Saleh said on Thursday. 39 is regarded as a mark of great shame by some Afghans. It is said that number is associated with a pimp in Herat. Some blame mafia for fanning the trend. Click here to read