Tolo News: The Ministry of Public Health on Saturday reported 5 new positive cases of COVID-19 out of 1,151 samples tested in the last 24 hours. The ministry says the cumulative total of known COVID-19 cases is 55,335, the total number of reported deaths is 2,410, and the total number of recoveries is 48,027. Click here to read more (external link).
1TV Afghanistan Dari News – February 5, 2021
Taliban Kills 21 Afghan Troops, Warns of ‘Dangerous Escalation’ if US Breaches Deal
Taliban militants (file photo)
Ayaz Gul
VOA News
February 5, 2021
ISLAMABAD – Taliban insurgents have killed at least 21 government troops in new attacks in Afghanistan as U.S.-brokered peace talks between the two warring sides remain stalled.
The fighting comes as the United States is reviewing a February 2020 agreement with the Taliban, which required remaining American and allied forces to leave Afghanistan by May of this year.
An Afghan security officer said Friday that a major pre-dawn Taliban raid targeted in an outpost in Khan Abad district in northeastern Kunduz province. The officer, who spoke to VOA on condition of anonymity, said the attack killed 16 security force members, including their commander, and assailants also took two others hostage.
Separately, insurgents stormed an Afghan army outpost in northern Faryab province Thursday night, killing five soldiers. The provincial governor told local TOLO television channel the Taliban also took “some soldiers” hostage.
The insurgent group has not immediately commented on either of the attacks, which come amid increased hostilities in Afghanistan.
Dangerous escalation
Meanwhile, the Taliban warned U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration against abandoning the February 29 deal between the two adversaries, saying leaving the agreement “will lead to a dangerous escalation” in the Afghan war.
The insurgent warning came two days after a bipartisan U.S. congressional panel recommended that Biden should extend the May 1 deadline set in the agreement with the Taliban for pulling out all American forces from the South Asian nation.
The Afghanistan Study Group called in its report released Wednesday for strictly linking further U.S. troop drawdowns to a reduction in insurgent violence and progress in the ongoing intra-Afghan peace talks.
The study warned that removing all American and NATO forces by the May deadline could lead to a civil war in the country, destabilize the region and revive the al-Qaida terror threat.
In a commentary published on its official website Friday in response to the U.S. report, the Islamist insurgent group rejected charges that it had failed on its commitments outlined in the deal.
“If the Doha agreement is abrogated, it will lead to a major war, the responsibility of which shall fall squarely on the shoulders of America,” it warned.
The Taliban advised the new U.S. administration not to treat the deal in an “emotional manner” and instead “end further investments in the continuation of [Afghan] war, warlords and corrupt individuals.”
“Therefore, all must desist from provocative actions and rhetoric that could lead us all back to former war footing posture because such is neither in the interest of America nor in the interest of the Afghan people,” the Taliban commentary concluded.
The U.S.-Taliban deal has reduced the number of American forces in the country to 2,500 from nearly 13,000 a year ago in return for insurgent counterterrorism guarantees and pledges to find a negotiated settlement with Afghan rivals to the country’s long war.
The Biden administration, however, has decided to review the pact made under the Trump administration to determine whether the Taliban has and is also living up to its commitments.
Trump’s peace envoy for Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, negotiated and signed the deal with the Taliban in Doha, the capital of Qatar. The Biden administration has asked Khalilzad, the Afghan-born veteran U.S. diplomat, to retain his position.
The landmark agreement opened first direct peace negotiations between the insurgent group and representatives of the Afghan government in Doha last September. However, the so-called intra-Afghan peace talks have been stalled since early last month, with both sides blaming the other for the suspension.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Khalilzad on Thursday to discuss the Afghan peace initiative.
“Great meeting with @US4AfghanPeace Ambassador Khalilzad to discuss the way forward in Afghanistan: continuing to protect the U.S. against the threat of terrorism, achieving a just and durable political settlement there, and cementing a permanent and comprehensive ceasefire,” Blinken tweeted after the meeting.
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Afghan Journalists Stepping Down Amid Threats, Violence, Intimidation
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
February 4, 2021
Sahar Gul Amirzai
Ajmal Arian
Abubakar Siddique
A spate of recent journalist killings and attacks on media in Afghanistan is prompting some Afghan journalists to leave their jobs while others fear for their lives daily.
The mounting environment of fear across the country raises questions about the future of media and free speech in Afghanistan, where authorities, civil society, and Western allies have brandished a relatively free press as a major achievement since the fall of the hard-line Taliban regime nearly two decades ago.
“We are facing a deeply worrying situation,” Hidayatullah Ziarmal, head of Uranus, a private television station in the northeastern Afghan city of Kunduz, told Radio Free Afghanistan. Many journalists and employees at his station quit their jobs after an angry mob ransacked a local radio station three weeks ago.
“It is not acceptable that a mob attacks a media organization to destroy its equipment and terrify its staff,” Ziarmal said. “If someone has a complaint, they can go to the authorities and have it addressed in accordance with the law.”
Journalists in Kunduz were shocked when a Muslim cleric incited a mob to ransack the offices of Radio Zohra, a local FM station, on January 15. The cleric accused the station of playing loud music, which he said interfered with prayer services. Mohsen Ahmad, the station’s director, said the attack damaged equipment and forced them to stop broadcasts but no one was hurt.
“The attack left us paralyzed because [before] we only worried about being attacked by terrorist groups, but now we fear fellow citizens, too,” Haseebullah Hasas, a radio journalist for a station also called Kunduz, told Radio Free Afghanistan. “Even coming to the office now seems like a very dangerous proposition.”
But elsewhere in Afghanistan, the threats posed by militant groups loom large over media workers. Five journalists have been killed in targeted attacks by militants in the past three months.
These include Mohammad Ilyas Dayee, RFE/EL’s correspondent in the volatile southern province of Helmand who was killed by a magnetic bomb in November. His killing came days after Yama Siyawash, a former TV presenter, was killed in a similar attack in Kabul. Rehamtullah Nekzad, a correspondent for Al-Jazeera in the southeastern city of Ghazni, and Bismillah Adel Aimaq, a radio journalist in the western province of Ghor, were shot dead in December and January, respectively.
According to the Afghan Journalists Safety Committee, a national media watchdog, violence against journalists has increased 26 percent last year compared with the year before. In its annual report issued on February 4, the organization said it recorded 132 incidents of violence against journalists in 2020. The committee said seven Afghan journalists were killed and 18 were injured. Another 47 were seriously threatened by the various sides involved in fighting in Afghanistan.
In the eastern province of Nangarhar, Muqadas Salarzai, a female journalist, says the December killing of Malala Maiwand, a journalist and TV presenter, showcases the dangers they face while practicing their profession.
“We are in great pain,” she told Radio Free Afghanistan. “Our colleagues are killed in broad daylight while their murderers escape.”
“If the government paid serious attention, this would not happen,” she added.
Sana Noori, another female journalist in Nangarhar’s capital, Jalalabad, says those threatening journalists aim to stifle the freedom of expression in Afghanistan, where print and electronic media have mushroomed thanks to generous international aid and a government that broadly tolerates independent media.
“Journalists just serve their community. This is why the government and all sides involved in the fighting here need to protect them,” she said.
Attaullah Khogyani, a spokesman for Nangarhar’s governor, however, echoed other Afghan officials’ claims that they are doing everything in their power.
“We are doing our best to protect journalists,” he told Radio Free Afghanistan. “Even the governor is personally in contact with many journalists and has asked various government departments to protect them.”
But international media watchdogs are not convinced. “The safety situation for journalists in Afghanistan must be a major priority for the Afghanistan government,” the Brussels-based International Federation of Journalists urged Kabul in a January statement.
Back in Kunduz, Geeta Muhammadi, a female radio journalist, says she will only feel safe once the mob that attacked Radio Zohra meets justice. “I feel rattled by the attack,” she told Radio Free Afghanistan. “This attack needs to be investigated seriously so that its perpetrators can be punished.”
Shahbaz Sabri, head of the Afghan Journalists Safety Committee in Kunduz, says most journalists already find it “impossible” to work in an increasingly dangerous environment.
He says if the government and the international community fail to address the situation, Afghan media will face a catastrophe. “If this situation persists, there will be nothing left of the media,” he warned.
Abubakar Siddique wrote this story based on reporting by Sahar Gul Amirzai from Nangarhar and Ajmal Arian from Kunduz.
Copyright (c) 2021. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036
Wardak residents demand justice in wake of Bihsud carnage
Ariana: A number of families of victims of last week’s clashes in the Hisa-i-Awal Bihsud district of Maidan Wardak province have called on the government to investigate the incident and ensure the guilty parties are prosecuted and justice is served. Clashes broke out on Friday last week after a group of people staged a demonstration outside the district government compound. Click here to read more (external link).
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16,000 People Died of Cancer in Afghanistan in 2020: Ministry
Tolo News: At least 16,000 people died from various types of cancer diseases last year in Afghanistan out of 39,000 people who were diagnosed with cancer in 2020, according to figures by the Ministry of Public Health. The Ministry of Public Health said that the polluted environment, unhealthy food, drugs, war and bombings are the main reasons behind cancer diseases in the country. Click here to read more (external link).
Afghanistan: 65 New Cases of COVID-19, 1 Death Reported
Tolo News: The Ministry of Public Health on Friday reported 65 new positive cases of COVID-19 out of 1,838 samples tested in the last 24 hours. The ministry says the cumulative total of known COVID-19 cases is 55,330, the total number of reported deaths is 2,408, and the total number of recoveries is 48,018. Click here to read more (external link).
U.S. Panel Urges Biden To Extend Deadline For U.S. Troop Withdrawal From Afghanistan
A file photo of American soldiers at an unknown location in Afghanistan.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
February 4, 2021
A new report by a group created by the U.S. Congress has called on the Biden administration to extend the May deadline for the U.S. military to withdraw remaining troops from Afghanistan.
In its reports issued on February 3, the Afghanistan Study Group recommended keeping U.S. troops in the conflict-ridden country “in order to give the peace process sufficient time to produce an acceptable result.”
The Afghanistan Study Group is a bipartisan congressionally mandated panel under the United States Institute of Peace.
In the report, the panel said the United States has a major interest in safeguarding Afghanistan from “becoming again a safe haven for terrorists.”
Under a February 2019 agreement the United States signed with the Taliban, Washington committed to reducing its troops in Afghanistan to zero by May 2021.
Former President Donald Trump, who campaigned in 2016 on stopping “ridiculous endless wars” in the Middle East, accelerated the reduction of U.S. troops in November.
The Pentagon on January 28 said the U.S. troop drawdown in Afghanistan would be contingent on the Taliban’s commitment to uphold the deal reached in February 2019.
“The Taliban have not met their commitments,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told reporters during a press briefing.
He added that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was reviewing the matter and had discussed the path forward in the war-torn country with NATO allies and partners.
Also in the report released on February 3, the panel called for continued U.S. support of key Afghan institutions, including security institutions, “while continuing to message our Afghan partners that this support is not open-ended and is conditioned on progress in the peace talks.”
It also urges Washington’s continued backing of Afghan civil society, which it said “have been instrumental in securing essential gains in rights, education, and health and who have been and will continue to be key in supporting a sustained peace.”
The Taliban and the Afghan government have been negotiating in Qatar to reach a peace deal. Those talks resumed In January after an almost month-long break, but negotiators and diplomats say there has since been little progress.
With reporting by Reuters
Copyright (c) 2021. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036
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Inside the Shadowy Militias Luring Unsuspecting Afghans to Fight, or Die
NYT: A network of shadowy power brokers and warlords, bankrolled by the Afghan government and the national police force, is luring disadvantaged people into joining militias, sometimes under false pretenses, out of a growing desperation to hold territory around highways in the country’s north, according to former militia members and local officials. Click here to read more (external link).
Tolo News in Dari – February 4, 2021