By Frud Bezhan Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty August 28, 2020 Afghanistan’s long battle to eradicate the crippling polio virus has been thwarted by conflict, migration, and myths over the vaccine. But the war-torn nation of around 30 million people has faced a new hurdle: the coronavirus pandemic. Polio vaccination drives in Afghanistan, which has the world’s
Ayaz Gul VOA News August 26, 2020 ISLAMABAD – Pakistan said Tuesday it was “hopeful” about prospects of U.S.-backed peace talks between Afghanistan’s warring parties to end the country’s long conflict. The optimism stemmed from a meeting Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi held Tuesday with a visiting Afghan Taliban delegation led by the insurgent
RFE/RL’s Radio Mashaal August 24, 2020 A Taliban political team arrived in Pakistan on August 24 amid ongoing efforts to start negotiations between the Afghan government and the militants. The talks, envisaged under a landmark peace agreement signed in February between Washington and the Taliban, had been expected to start earlier this month but were stymied by
Tolo News: Government forces in border areas of the country said foreign fighters, particularly Pakistani citizens, are fighting against them with the Taliban, adding that they have found many dead fighters with Pakistani identity cards. Click here to read more (external link). More on the Taliban Key Taliban commander arrested in outlying area of Kabul
Ayaz Gul VOA News August 21, 2020 ISLAMABAD – Pakistan has issued an order for full compliance with U.N. Security Council sanctions against Afghanistan’s Taliban and groups associated with the Islamist insurgency. The directives are contained in a “statutory notification” (SRO) that was published by the foreign ministry on its website earlier in the week
RFE/RL’s Radio Mashaal August 21, 2020 Pakistan has reopened the Chaman border crossing between its Balochistan Province and the Afghan province of Nangarhar. The border crossing was closed in March following the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in Pakistan. Officials said on August 21 they decided to reopen the crossing after talks between Balochistan regional
Ayaz Gul VOA News August 18, 2020 ISLAMABAD – An alliance of militant groups waging attacks in Pakistan has said several breakaway and new factions have rejoined its ranks in an effort to consolidate their violent campaign, a move critics warned could threaten the country’s counterterrorism gains. The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), commonly referred to as the Pakistani Taliban, announced on
Hindustan Times:According to officials, the ISKP can front attacks for the Haqqani Network and Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT). ISKP leader Aslam Farooqi, a Pakistani national with links to LeT and Pakistan’s Tehrik-e-Taliban was arrested by Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security along with 19 other terrorist cadres on April 5. The Pakistani deep state is pushing the Haqqani
Amin Saikal: The endurance reflected in the oft-quoted Taliban taunt to the Americans, ‘You have the watches, but we have the time’, is evidently paying off. The United States and its allies have reached a point of exhaustion in Afghanistan. President Donald Trump, a longstanding critic of America’s Afghan adventure, has firmly acted to bring
By Ayaz Gul VOA News August 13, 2020 ISLAMABAD – A senior official in Afghanistan said Wednesday that a team of state representatives will begin formal peace negotiations with the Taliban in Qatar “early next week” to try to negotiate a political solution to the country’s long war. Mustafa Mastoor, the Afghan Minister of Economy, said