Afghan Forces Free 62 Soldiers From Taliban Prison

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badghisAyaz Gul
VOA News
January 29, 2020

ISLAMABAD – Officials in Afghanistan said Wednesday a commando operation in a northwestern region has freed 62 security personnel held in a Taliban prison. Meanwhile, the insurgent group, in a fresh attack elsewhere, says it has killed at least 18 Afghan security forces.

A Defense Ministry statement noted the overnight commando raid targeted the insurgent-run detention center in the restive Bala Murghab district in Badghis province.

It captured five Taliban guards and inflicted casualties on several others, the statement said. The captives were mostly members of the Afghan National Army (ANA).

There was no immediate reaction from the Taliban.

Officials, meanwhile, said a major insurgent assault late Tuesday targeted a military base in the troubled northern Kunduz province, killing at least 18 security forces, mostly ANA personnel.

A Taliban statement claimed its fighters overran the base in Dashti Archi district, killing 35 Afghan forces and capturing four others, though the group often exaggerates its battlefield actions.

On Monday, an insurgent attack on a police base in neighboring Baghlan province killed at least 13 government forces.

Afghan officials say counterinsurgency ground and air offensives in different provinces inflicted heavy casualties on the Taliban over the past few days.

There has been a sharp increase in Taliban attacks in recent days in the northern provinces of Afghanistan despite an unusually harsh winter. Heavy casualties reportedly have been inflicted on government forces being trained and advised by the United States.

The U.S. special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction explained to Congress on Tuesday reasons for the increase in insurgent attacks on Afghan security forces.

“The biggest problem we have seen and our trainers have seen with the Afghan military, is they’re not aggressive, they are not moving out… and are usually getting attacked and wiped out by the Taliban,” said John Spoko quoting U.S. military commanders on the ground. He added corruption was another major factor undermining the ability of Afghan forces to contain Taliban advances.

Qatar peace talks

Meanwhile, fresh challenges are facing ongoing peace talks between U.S. and Taliban representatives in Qatar.

Washington wants the insurgent group to commit to a “significant and lasting” reduction in violence before signing a peace agreement the two adversaries have negotiated over the past year.

The deal, if reached, could set the stage for a gradual drawdown of U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan, closing America’s longest war. It would also open the way for Taliban-Afghan negotiations on governance-related matters.

Taliban envoys have proposed a week-long reduction in violence in a bid to conclude the peace deal with American interlocutors.

But  sources in the insurgent group say the U.S. side is demanding a reduction in insurgent hostilities for a prolonged period and until the intra-Afghan negotiations begin.

The Taliban insisted in a statement last week it had already shown “enough flexibility” by offering a reduction in violence for a limited duration. The insurgent group said that “the ball is now in their [U.S.] court” to move the Afghan peace forward without wasting more time.

US dropped 7,423 munitions in Afghanistan last year, highest in a decade

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us-bombs1TV: The United States dropped 7,423 munitions in Afghanistan in 2019, the highest number recorded in any year over the last one decade, according to US Air Force data. US aircraft in 2018 dropped 7,362 bombs and other munitions, which had previously been the most munitions dropped in a year since 2009, when 4,147 weapons were released. Click here to read more (external link).

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Detention Of Ethnic Pashtun Activist Triggers Protests In Pakistan, Afghanistan

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Manzoor Pashteen

Manzoor Pashteen

By RFE/RL’s Radio Mashaal
RFE/RL’s Radio Free Afghanistan
January 28, 2020

ISLAMABAD/KABUL – Thousands of protesters have gathered in Pakistani and Afghan cities and towns to voice anger over the detention of an ethnic Pashtun rights activist in Pakistan.

Manzoor Pashteen, the leader of a civic rights group that has criticized the Pakistani military’s operations in the northwestern tribal regions, was detained in the city of Peshawar, and a court rejected his bail application on January 28.

The leader of the Pashtun Protection Movement (PTM) is accused of sedition, hate speech, incitement against the state, and criminal conspiracy.

Protesters rallied in Islamabad, Karachi, and in northwestern Pakistan to call for Pashteen’s release. Mohsin Dawar and Ali Wazir, who are lawmakers and PTM members, were among those detained during the demonstration outside the National Press Club in the capital.

Pashteen’s detention also sparked protests outside the Pakistani Embassy in Kabul, as well as in seven provinces in eastern and southeastern Afghanistan: Nangarhar, Kunar, Logar, Bamyan, Khost, Uruzgan, and Kandahar.

President Ashraf Ghani expressed concerns over Pashteen’s detention and said governments in the region “must support and encourage peaceful civilian movements for justice and must avoid any means of force and violence against these movements.”

The Pakistani Foreign Ministry reacted by calling Ghani’s comments “a clear interference in Pakistan’s internal affairs and hence, unwarranted.”

Human Rights Watch (HRW) also urged Pakistani authorities to release Pashteen and drop the charges against the activist, saying that “using criminal laws to chill free expression and political opposition has no place in a democracy.”

The activist had been “arbitrarily detained for exercising his human rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly,” according to Amnesty International.

The PTM has campaigned for civil rights for ethnic Pashtuns since 2018. The group has attracted tens of thousands of people out to public rallies to denounce the powerful Pakistani Army’s heavy-handed operations in the militancy-hit tribal regions and the military’s alleged connection with Islamist militants.

Copyright (c) 2020. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.

13 Killed in Taliban Assault on Afghan Police Base

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baghlanAyaz Gul
VOA News
January 28, 2020

ISLAMABAD – Officials in Afghanistan say a pre-dawn Taliban attack in northern Afghanistan has killed at least 13 policemen.  The attack comes as the insurgent group is engaged in days of talks with the United States on a possible reduction in hostilities to advance their stalled peace process.

A local official told VOA Tuesday on condition of anonymity that insurgents raided a police post in Pul-e-Khumri, the capital of Baghlan province, and overran it with the help of a suspected Taliban infiltrator.

Provincial police spokesman Javed Ahmad Basharat confirmed to VOA the attack left the post commander dead and both sides suffered “heavy casualties” in ensuing clashes. But he did not provide any number for police losses.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed in a statement sent to media the attack killed a total of 17 police personnel and captured another, though insurgent group often issues inflated claims.

Afghan security forces have also claimed killing dozens of Taliban fighters in operations in several provinces over the past few days, though the veracity of such claims is difficult to ascertain from independent sources.

The battlefield hostilities come as U.S. negotiators have been holding closed-door meetings with Taliban representatives in Qatar, trying to overcome recent challenges facing their year-long troubled peace dialogue on ending the 18-year-old war in Afghanistan.

Washington’s chief negotiator, Zalmay Khalilzad, wants the Taliban to commit to a “significant and lasting” reduction in violence for the two sides to finalize a long-anticipated peace agreement.

“Ambassador Khalilzad and his team are in Doha. They are encouraging the Taliban to make a commitment to a reduction in violence that would allow Afghans to sit at a negotiating table,” Alice Wells, the Trump administration’s chief regional diplomat, told reporters last week.

The Taliban has proposed a week-long reduction in violence to sign the deal with the United States.

The U.S.-Taliban deal, if reached, could set the stage for a gradual drawdown of U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan, closing America’s longest war. It would also open the way for Taliban-Afghan negotiations on governance-related matters.

U.S. Forces Recover Bodies From Plane Crash Site In Afghanistan

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Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
January 28, 2020

Helicopter-borne U.S. forces have recovered the remains of the crew killed when a military aircraft went down in a Taliban-controlled area of Afghanistan’s Ghazni Province, according to U.S. and Afghan officials.

The Bombardier E-11A, used for military communications, went down in a snowy part of eastern Afghanistan on January 27.

Ghazni police chief Khaled Wardak said U.S. choppers landed at the site in the late afternoon and were reinforced by Afghan security forces on the ground during the operation. Earlier in the day, Afghan forces trying to reach the wreckage clashed with militants.

“Following the removal of the bodies, our forces have moved back to their bases. We don’t know where the foreigners have taken the bodies,” Wardak said.

Nasir Ahmad Faqiri, the head of the provincial council in Ghazni, confirmed the operation, saying the Americans took at least two bodies from the scene.

A U.S. defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, confirmed that the remains of individuals from the aircraft had been recovered and said the military was in the process of identifying the remains. The Pentagon declined to comment.

The Pentagon only confirmed the aircraft belonged to U.S. forces, but dismissed Taliban claims it had been shot down. The military did not say how many people were aboard or if there were any casualties.

Earlier on January 28, coalition forces flew sorties over the site of the crashed jet with one aircraft firing flares as a crowd gathered nearby, according to witness reports.

Wardak said after the plane went down Afghan security forces tried to reach the wreckage late on January 27 when they were ambushed by the Taliban and pushed back.

Ghazni police spokesman Ahmad Khan Sirat confirmed the incident, adding that at least one person was killed in the fighting between Taliban and Afghan forces.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said Afghan forces backed by U.S. military support tried to capture the area around the wreckage.

He said Taliban fighters on the ground counted six bodies at the site of the crash.

Unidentified U.S. officials were quoted as saying the plane was carrying fewer than five people when it crashed.

The crash comes as the Taliban and United States have been in talks on ending the 18-year war in Afghanistan.

The two sides had been negotiating the deal for a year and were on the brink of an announcement in September 2019 when U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly declared the process “dead,” citing Taliban violence.

With reporting by Reuters and AFP

Copyright (c) 2020. 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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Pakistan Arrests Leader of Social Movement Critical of Army

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Manzoor Pashteen

Manzoor Pashteen

Ayaz Gul
VOA News
January 27, 2020

ISLAMABAD – Pakistan has arrested the leader of a social movement, which is campaigning against human rights abuses allegedly carried out by military forces during counterterrorism operations in areas near the border with Afghanistan.

Manzoor Pashteen of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) was detained along with six others in an overnight raid in the northwestern city of Peshawar, local police confirmed Monday.

Pashteen, 27, was accused of denouncing Pakistan’s constitution, using insulting and threatening language against the state in one of his recent public speeches, according to a copy of the police complaint filed against him.

A court in Peshawar later authorized police to keep Pashteen in detention for 14 days to investigate the charges against him.

Mohsin Dawar, a key PTM leader and member of the national parliament, demanded immediate release of Pashteen.

“This is our punishment for demanding our rights in a peaceful & democratic manner. But Manzoor’s arrest will only strengthen our resolve,” he tweeted.

Dawar urged PTM workers and supporters “to remain calm” in the wake of the police action, promising to “devise a strategy after consultations.”

PTM activists and leaders, including Dawar, have been arrested previously but this was the first time Pashteen has been detained.

Amnesty International has also criticized the arrest.

“Manzoor Pashteen has been arbitrarily detained for exercising his human rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. He must be released immediately and unconditionally,” the group tweeted.

PTM has emerged recently from Pakistan’s ethnic Pashtun North Waziristan tribal district that until few years ago had been condemned by the United States as the “epicenter” of international terrorism.

Under sustained international pressure and increased terrorist attacks inside Pakistan, mostly traced back to militants entrenched in the mountainous district, the Pakistani military has conducted major ground and air offensives in and around Waziristan since 2014.

Military officials say the operation has dismantled terror infrastructures and cleared the areas of militants. The security action has significantly reduced terrorist attacks in the country and has won international praise.

PTM leaders have drawn large crowds to demand accountability for the military’s alleged heavy-handedness, including illegal detentions, extra-judicial killings and enforced disappearances. But Pakistani media allegedly under the military pressure is not allowed to cover the group’s public activities.

The Pakistani military denies the accusations of rights abuses as politically motivated. Army officials, however, do not rule out the possibility of “individuals indulging in unlawful actions” in the conflict zone, saying the institution investigates and punishes personnel found guilty of any such crimes.

PTM leaders reject official charges they are proxies of Afghanistan and Pakistan’s arch-rival India, and receiving funds from abroad to defame the Pakistani military.

Wanted Man Says ‘NDS Asked Him to Commit Assassinations’ in Kabul

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National Directorate of Security logo

National Directorate of Security logo

Tolo News: Hasib Quwai Markaz, a man who has been on the wanted list of the Ministry of Interior Affairs for the past few months, in a social media video posted on Monday claims that the country’s intelligence apparatus – the National Directorate of Security (NDS) – is involved in targeted killings in Kabul and that he was asked by the agency to kill six influential figures. In the video, he names a number of NDS officials who, he alleges, asked him to kill Gul Haidar, a former mujahideen leader, and Wakil Ahmad Moutawakel, the former Taliban regime’s foreign minister, among others. Click here to read more (external link).