Ariana: The Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) has made changes to the sanctions imposed on three national players – Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Fazal Haq Farooqi, and Naveen Ul Haq – after conducting a thorough investigation. These amended sanctions now allow the players to receive central contracts and participate in franchise leagues, but with a strong condition: they must fully commit to national duties and prioritize the interests of the ACB. Click here to read more (external link).
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Fazlur Rehman
RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi
RFE/RL’s Radio Mashaal
January 8, 2024
A senior Pakistani Islamist politician has met top Taliban leaders in Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, in an attempt to revive ties between the two neighbors.
The January 8 meeting involving Maulana Fazlur Rehman, leader of the Jamiat Ulema-e Islam Pakistan (JUI) political party, hoped to improve ties marred by a violent campaign by the Pakistani Taliban allied with the Afghan Taliban and the ongoing forced expulsion of more than 1 million Afghans by Islamabad.
Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund, the Taliban-led government’s prime minister, reiterated that officials want smooth relations — strained due to the forced expulsion of Afghan refugees from Pakistan — with the country’s neighbors.
Islamabad has accused the Taliban government of giving shelter to militants of the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP), also known as the Pakistani Taliban, or other groups. Kabul denies the accusations.
“We will not allow anyone to [create problems] from our territory,” he was quoted as saying by a Taliban statement after the meeting.
In recent months, Pakistan has taken steps to expel 1.7 million undocumented Afghans as part of a policy announced in October to repatriate “illegal foreigners” living on its soil.
The situation has led to chaotic scenes at some border crossings as returnees are funneled back into Afghanistan, where international aid groups are already struggling to provide humanitarian assistance to millions of people displaced by insecurity and a recent spate of earthquakes and perennial drought.
Amir Khan Muttaqi, the Taliban’s foreign minister, highlighted the plight of Afghan refugees in Pakistan and the losses Afghan traders endure because of frequent border closures and stranded imports in Pakistani ports.
“The trade and economic exchange between the two countries should not be sacrificed for political ends,” he was quoted as saying in the Taliban statement.
Rehman agreed with the Taliban’s complaints about the mistreatment of Afghans in Pakistan.
“We see this kind of attitude as a cause of the current problems between the two countries,” he said in a statement issued by the JUI. “My visit aims to remove the misunderstanding between the two countries.”
Rehman is visiting Kabul after the Taliban invited him last month.
Before leaving on the trip, Rehman told RFE/RL’s Radio Mashaal that it was endorsed by Islamabad, where senior government officials briefed him on the current state of relations with the Taliban government.
He said that he would also meet the Taliban’s supreme leader, Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, who rarely meets foreign diplomats and political leaders.
“We will use our relations with the Taliban for the benefit of both countries,” he said.
Rehman’s JUI has had close relations with the Taliban since its emergence in southern Afghanistan nearly three decades ago. Many Taliban leaders were educated in madrasahs run by former lawmakers and other JUI leaders.
But it is unclear how far his visit will go to quell tensions between Islamabad and Kabul.
For more than a year, the longtime allies have fallen out over the Taliban’s alleged support for the TTP. Islamabad blames the group for the rising attacks that have killed more than 2,000 people since the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021.
Underscoring the challenges ahead, the TTP claimed responsibility for a bomb attack on a police vehicle on January 8.
At least five police officers were killed and 22 injured in an attack in the district of Bajaur on the Afghan border in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province.
The police were guarding a polio-vaccination team.
8am: The ISIS Khorasan (IS-K) has claimed responsibility for an attack on a passenger vehicle in the Dasht-e Barchi area of Kabul, resulting in five deaths and 15 injuries. The incident occurred on Saturday night at the Qala-e Naazir station in western Kabul, with all victims being civilians. The attack has sparked widespread condemnation, with the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRF) attributing it to the Taliban as the main perpetrator. The Afghanistan Freedom Front, in response to recent ISIS attacks, asserts that without Taliban support, ISIS cannot target Shia and Hazara communities. The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), in denouncing this attack, calls for an end to targeted assaults on civilians, increased protection for the Hazara community, and accountability for those responsible for such incidents. This comes as the Taliban have repeatedly claimed to have eliminated ISIS in Afghanistan, and dismissed the presence of this group as media-driven propaganda. However, the United Nations Security Council has stated that the Taliban have not adhered to the Doha agreement. Click here to read more (external link).
Protest against Taliban (file photo)
Chris Fitzgerald via SCMP: Engaging with the Taliban in the hope it reverses its position on human rights is naive, particularly when the situation for women is worsening… The Taliban is counting on the world – particularly the West – to put the humanitarian crisis and threat of terrorism above human rights. Click here to read more (external link).
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Ayaz Gul
VOA News
January 8, 2024
ISLAMABAD — Authorities in northwestern Pakistan said Monday that at least six police officers were killed and nearly two dozen injured when a roadside bomb struck their truck in a remote region bordering Afghanistan.
The officers were traveling to Bajaur, a militancy-hit border district, to escort anti-polio workers on the first day of a weeklong national immunization drive. Witnesses reported that the powerful blast destroyed the police vehicle.
Rescue workers expected the death toll to increase, saying several officers among the injured were rushed to local hospitals in “critical condition.” The attack prompted local authorities to suspend the polio immunization campaign in the area.
The anti-state Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, claimed responsibility for the deadly bombing. The group, commonly known as the Pakistani Taliban, actively targets security forces in areas near and on the Afghan border.
Polio Drive
Health officials said that during the immunization campaign launched Monday, anti-polio teams would go door to door across Pakistan’s 159 districts to administer vaccine drops to more than 44 million children under 5.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are the last two countries in which the highly infectious polio virus still paralyzes children. However, the cases in both countries significantly declined in 2023, with six reported in each.
With a population of about 241 million, Pakistan came close to eradicating polio in 2021, when it reported only one case of paralysis from the virus. However, the country saw a spike in 2022, with 20 confirmed cases of infection.
The World Health Organization said last month that political instability, insecurity in some districts, and vaccination boycotts continue to hinder anti-polio efforts, particularly in the Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where Bajaur is located.
The province had four of the six polio cases the country reported in 2023.
The WHO has cautioned that polio vaccination programs in Pakistan and Afghanistan, which also reported six cases last year, continue to miss many children, posing a significant risk to gains made against the crippling disease.
Ariana: Hassan Kazemi Qomi, Iran’s Ambassador and Special Representative to Afghanistan, stated in a meeting with the Deputy Political Chief of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) that Iran does not support opponents of the current government in Kabul. The meeting between Iran’s ambassador and Mawlawi Abdul Kabir, the Deputy Political Chief of the Taliban, took place on Monday night. The Iranian ambassador reiterated that his country does not support the opponents of the Islamic Emirate but is making efforts for Afghanistan to be part of constructive cooperation. Click here to read more (external link).
Taliban fighters (file photo)
8am: Following the detention of some women protesters and civil activists, subjected to physical and psychological torture and sexual assault by the Taliban, families are more worried about the arrest of their daughters by this group, instilling fear in them about the Taliban’s prisons. They mention that male members of their families have warned them that if their young daughters end up in Taliban prisons without having committed any crime, it would disgrace them. They have been cautioned that if this group arrests and imprisons them, they will not take any action for their release from the Taliban’s prison, as it would damage their reputation and dignity, and there would be no effort made to secure their freedom. Click here to read more (external link).
Khaama: Research from an institute shows that unemployment and family debt have gone up in many areas of the country in the last two years under the Taliban government. According to the findings of this center, the unemployment rate among men has increased to 31 per cent and among women to 8 percent in Afghanistan. Still, 15 per cent of the interviewees have stated that they have been forced to sell their household belongings due to poverty and unemployment. Click here to read more (external link).
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