The Guardian (UK): In the two decades before the Taliban returned to power, Afghanistan had a vibrant media sector. There were newspapers, television channels, periodicals, magazines and more, invigorating the public discourse by allowing citizens to express their views on national and local issues. That is completely gone now. Click here to read more (external link).
Tolo News in Dari – May 1, 2024
New Zealand to go ahead with Afghanistan cricket Test
Ariana: New Zealand Cricket said Tuesday it will go ahead with a Test match against Afghanistan in September, a month after Australia scrapped a Twenty20 series against the national team. Cricket Australia postponed a three-match series due to take place in August at a neutral venue, saying the situation for women in Afghanistan was deteriorating. It was the third time since 2021 that Australia have refused to play Afghanistan outside of international tournaments. Click here to read more (external link).
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Daesh Attack in Herat Not Indicator of Strength: Mujahid
Tolo News: Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesperson for the Islamic Emirate, told TOLOnews that Monday’s attack on a Shia mosque in the Guzara district of Herat does not signify the strengthening of Daesh in Afghanistan. The spokesperson for the Islamic Emirate described the attack as a crime and said that efforts to find the perpetrators of this event are ongoing. In the attack on Monday evening on worshippers at a Shia mosque in Guzara district of Herat, five people including a woman and a child were killed and three others were injured. Click here to read more (external link).
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Women’s Grim Reality in Taliban Detention Centers and Prisons: “Interrogation Used as Pretext for Sexual Assault”
8am: Findings from the Hasht-e Subh Daily show that the Taliban have imprisoned dozens of women in various provinces over the past nearly three years on various charges. Findings indicate that all detainees, contrary to the principles of fair trial in the Taliban’s penal system, have been subjected to humiliation, torture, and harassment, and some have faced sexual assault. In most provinces, the Taliban do not have separate women’s prisons and have allocated a section of male prisons to women. Alongside the lack of separate facilities for women, this group has subjected detainees to verbal, physical, and psychological abuse. Two women in this report have confirmed that they were sexually assaulted by the Taliban and have also witnessed assaults on other women. One woman, released from the Pul-e Charkhi prison, recounts that due to the dire health conditions in this prison, her hair was infested with lice, and there is no healthcare, especially menstrual services, available in this prison. Furthermore, a credible source in the province of Badakhshan claims that some Taliban officials attempt to take “tall and beautiful” female prisoners to their homes overnight and return them to prison in the morning. Findings of the Hasht-e Subh Daily from Uruzgan province also indicate that when women are detained, they are held in the residences of Taliban officials until they are transferred to the Kandahar provincial prison. Click here to read more (external link).
Taliban hopes to make Afghanistan a tourism hotspot
Daily News: The Taliban hopes to remedy Afghanistan’s many woes by making the highly conservative, poverty-stricken, war-torn country a tourism destination. Would-be bookers understand they have their work cut out for them. Visas are hard to procure. The Taliban’s treatment of women is famously abhorrent. None of the the country’s airports have direct flights to Europe, India or China, which the Tourism Directorate in Kabul hopes to make a large market. There’s also an absence of foreign embassies. Click here to read more (external link).
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Tolo News in Dari – April 30, 2024
Gun attack on Shiite mosque in western Afghanistan kills 6 worshippers
Ayaz Gul
VOA News
April 30, 2024
ISLAMABAD — Taliban authorities in Afghanistan said Tuesday that an overnight attack on a Shiite mosque in a western region bordering Iran had killed at least six people, including a child.
An Interior Ministry spokesman reported that an “unknown armed person” stormed the mosque in the Guzara district in Herat province and sprayed worshippers with bullets before fleeing.
“Six civilians were martyred and one was injured,” Abdul Mateen Qani said on social media platform X.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the deadly shooting, but suspicions fell on a regional Islamic State affiliate known as Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K), or Daesh.
The extremist Sunni group has taken credit for plotting almost all recent attacks on Shi’ite mosques, hospitals, and public gatherings in the country.
Hassan Kazemi Ghomi, the Iranian ambassador in Kabul, condemned Monday’s attack, calling IS-K a “common external threat” to both countries and the region at large.
“We consider Afghanistan our partner in the fight against terrorism, and cooperation in this area will be a top priority,” Ghomi, also the special presidential envoy for Afghanistan, wrote on X.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, or UNAMA, denounced the mosque shooting.
“Investigations and accountability for perpetrators and protection measures for Afghanistan’s Shi’a communities are urgently needed,” the UNAMA stated on X.
IS-K has also routinely plotted deadly bomb attacks against leaders and prominent religious scholars linked to the ruling Taliban.
The violence has increased since the then-insurgent Taliban reclaimed power in 2021 when the United States and NATO withdrew their troops from Afghanistan after 20 years of war with the Taliban.
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Khurasan beats Maiwand 2-1 in ACL; Sarsabz thrash Adalat 2-0
Ariana: Khurasan Faryab defeated Maiwand 2-1 in the 21st match of Afghanistan Champions League (ACL) in Kabul on Tuesday, while Sarsabz Yashlat thrashed Adalat Farah 2-0 in the 22nd match of the tournament on the same day. Wednesday’s matches will see Sorkh Poshan Khafi take on Jawanan Wahedi at 1 PM, while Istiqlal Kabul play Khadim at 3:30 PM. The matches are broadcast live on Ariana Television. Click here to read more (external link).
Anti-Taliban resistance leader says a terrorist attack on U.S. soil is a ‘matter of when not if’ in chilling warning to the Biden administration about the surge in extremism in Afghanistan since the withdrawal
Daily Mail (UK): The leader of the anti-Taliban resistance in Afghanistan has issued a chilling warning that a new terrorist attack on America is a matter of ‘when not if’. Ahmad Massoud said terrorism is ‘breeding’ in the vacuum left by the U.S. pulling out in August 2021 and it is ‘very possible ‘ extremists will now try to strike America or Europe. Massoud says there is the same furious rivalry between terrorist factions that was seen in the build-up to 9/11. In an interview with DailyMail.com – ahead of the release of his memoir In the Name of my Father: Struggling for Freedom in Afghanistan – he says his people feel abandoned and hopeless. They have been left to fend for themselves against a brutal regime that is systematically stripping away basic rights. The Afghan people now see the West as ‘hypocrites’, he says. Click here to read more (external link).