Ariana: The Independent Election Commission has announced the number of newly registered voters over 100,000 but electoral observers describe this figure as deceptive and inaccurate. “IEC presents an imaginary number of registered voters. The commission has failed in this process, therefore, they want to pretend that they have succeeded,” said Habibullah Shinwari, member of a Kabul-based electoral monitoring organization. Click here to read more (external link).
Hamidullah Hamidi
Tolo News: The Secretary General of Afghanistan Boxing Federation, Hamidullah Hamidi, was killed in an attack by unknown armed men in Kabul on Sunday morning, a spokesman of the federation, Mujib Qarizada, said. So far, no group or individual has claimed responsibility for the attack. Click here to read more (external link).
Other Sports News
BBC: Mohammed Shami’s hat-trick denied Afghanistan a historic and shock World Cup victory over India in Southampton. India looked in danger of losing when Afghanistan struck a boundary off the first ball of the final over to move to within 12 runs of victory. Defeat eliminates Afghanistan, while India move above England into third. Click here to read more (external link).
Press TV
June 22, 2019
US troops in Afghanistan have rushed to help members of the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group following a Taliban operation to purge the terrorists from the country’s east, according to Taliban militants.
The Taliban militant group said in a statement on Friday that US soldiers “saved” Daesh members as well as their local leaders by helicopters from a siege they had been trapped in the eastern Afghan province of Kunar.
“The US troops saved them from the siege by helicopters,” the statement said, adding that the Taliban had been launching an anti-Daesh operation for one week in Kunar and had surrounded the terrorist outfit’s important individuals.
A large number of the Daesh terrorists were rescued by choppers while fleeing a battlefield with Taliban last year in the northern province of Jawzjan.
The Economic Times estimated in a recent report that around 10,000 members of the Takfiri terrorist group were present in Afghanistan and the number was growing on Washington’s watch.
In recent years, Daesh has established a foothold in eastern and northern Afghanistan. The terrorist group has mostly been populating Nangarhar, from where it has carried out high-profile brutal attacks at major population centers across the country.
Last February, three months after the group’s defeat was announced in Iraq and Syria, the Associated Press reported that the US military was pulling its forces from a base in Iraq and shifting them to Afghanistan.
The report flew in the face of US President Donald Trump’s campaign promises to end Washington’s Afghanistan intervention.
The US and its allies invaded Afghanistan and toppled a ruling Taliban regime some 17 years ago. That ongoing war has failed to bring stability to the country despite the presence of thousands of foreign forces.
Today, around 14,000 US troops remain in Afghanistan, half of them assigned to what Washington insists are counter-terrorism missions.
According to an official US report last year, the central government in Kabul is currently controlling a little more than 50 percent of the country, down from 72 percent in 2015, with the rest remaining in Taliban’s control.
By RFE/RL’s Radio Mashaal
June 22, 2019
Dozens of senior Afghan political figures are attending a peace conference in neighboring Pakistan aimed at paving the way for an intra-Afghan dialogue to end almost two decades of war with the Taliban.
The June 22 conference came ahead of a new round of peace talks between the United States and the Taliban in Qatar that is scheduled for June 29.
The one-day conference at the tourist resort of Bhurban, about 70 kilometers from the capital Islamabad, also came ahead of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s June 27 visit to Pakistan.
Pakistan is believed to have influence within the Taliban and Islamabad’s support is considered key to ending the nearly 18-year insurgency.
Ghani, his political opponents, and a broad swath of civil society have been meeting in recent days with the U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, who has been pushing for talks between the Afghan government, the opposition, and the Taliban.
There are no representatives of the Taliban or the Western-backed Kabul government at the peace conference in Bhurban.
Among the over 30 high-profile Afghan figures attending the conference are Atta Mohammad Noor, a powerful figure from northern Afghanistan; Ghani’s former national-security adviser Hanif Atmar, who is contesting the presidential election; and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a notorious former warlord from the Hezb-e Islami political party. Influential ex-President Hamid Karzai was invited but did not attend.
Afghanistan and Pakistan are looking to improve bilateral relations that are often hampered by mistrust and reciprocal accusations.
Kabul and Washington have long accused Pakistan of harboring Taliban militants who launch attacks inside Afghanistan, but Ghani said he was hopeful that years of mistrust can be replaced by cooperation toward peace.
Pakistan has offered support to U.S. efforts to broker an end to Afghanistan’s long war the Taliban.
Khalilzad, the U.S. envoy seeking a peace deal with the Taliban, has held several rounds of talks in Qatar with senior members of the militant group.
The sides have made progress. But the Taliban has so far rejected direct negotiations with the Afghan government.
Related
Tolo News: The National U20 Futsal Team finished second in the AFC Futsal Championship after losing the final match against Japan. The match ended 3-1 in Japan’s favor. Japan has won the title two times in its history. The match was held in the city of Tabriz, Iran, on Saturday. Click here to read more (external link).
Related
Hekmatyar, head of Hizb-e-Islami.
Ariana: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a presidential candidate, says that efforts are going on so that all or some of the presidential candidates agree on forming a single electoral ticket. He says that this measure will be taken to prevent the going of the presidential election to the second round. Moreover, Hekmatyar announces that his team is ready to agree with the presidential candidates on forming an interim government. Click here to read more (external link).
Other Election News
Tolo News: The U20 National Futsal Team will enter the ground against Japan in the final match of the AFC U20 Futsal Championship with a high morale, the Afghanistan coach Abdul Razaq Mamrak said on Friday. The match will be held in the city of Tabriz, Iran, on Saturday at 06:30pm Kabul time. This is the first time that Afghanistan is reaching the final of the futsal championship. Japan has won the title two times in its history. Click here to read more (external link).
Other Sports News