Ariana: The Asian Games 2023 is finally happening with the opening ceremony scheduled to take place on September 23 in Hangzhou, China. The games will run through to October 8 and will include a total of 40 sports across 61 disciplines at 56 venues. Click here to read more (external link).
Other Sports News
Khaama: The Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation of Afghanistan has announced that 470 Afghan migrants, including freed prisoners from Pakistani jails, have returned to the country. These migrants entered the country through the Torkham border, according to the Ministry on Tuesday. Among the returning migrants, 85 were prisoners released from Pakistani custody and returned to Afghanistan through the Spin Boldak border. Additionally, the Ministry reported the return of 550 Afghan migrants from Pakistan earlier. Click here to read more (external link).
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8am: At least two reliable sources have confirmed to Hasht-e Subh that the Taliban apprehended Neda Parwani on the morning of Tuesday, September 19, in the Khairkhana area of Kabul and subsequently transferred her to an undisclosed location. According to sources, the Taliban have also detained the husband and a four-year-old son of this female protester. Sources attribute the Taliban’s detention of female protesters to extortion by this group, alleging that the Taliban demand “money” in exchange for the release of female activists from human rights organizations. Click here to read more (external link).
Ayaz Gul
VOA News
September 18, 2023
ISLAMABAD — The United Nations secretary-general Monday renewed his demand for Afghanistan’s Taliban to allow teenage girls to attend high school.
“This is an unjustifiable violation of human rights that inflicts long-lasting damage on the entire country,” Antonio Guterres said on X (formerly Twitter). “Girls belong in school. Let them back in,” he added. His statement marks two years since the de facto rulers imposed an education ban.
The Taliban seized power from an internationally backed government in August 2021 and have since imposed sweeping restrictions on Afghan women’s access to education and work. They have banned girls from school beyond sixth grade, making Afghanistan the only country in the world with restrictions on education for females.
Guterres told reporters last week that the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan “is absolutely central to all concerns” and would be on the agenda of the U.N. General Assembly session starting Monday in New York.
Education Cannot Wait, the U.N. global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises, denounced the ban as a violation of universal human rights.
“In all, 80% of school-aged Afghan girls are currently out of school – that’s 2.5 million girls denied their right to the safety, protection, opportunity of education – their inherent human right,” the agency said.
The Taliban have imposed their harsh interpretation of Islamic law, or sharia, in the impoverished war-ravaged South Asian nation, ordering most female government employees to stay home and banning Afghan female aid workers from working for aid groups in a country where 97% of the population needs humanitarian assistance.
Women are prohibited from visiting public parks, gyms, or bathhouses, and a close male relative must accompany them for long road trips.
The Taliban have defied international calls for a reversal of their bans on women, saying their policies are aligned with Afghan culture and Islamic law. The treatment of Afghan women has primarily blocked the de facto authorities’ efforts to win legitimacy for their government in Kabul.
Muslim scholars from other Islamic countries have disputed and criticized Taliban restrictions, saying Islam does not prohibit women from receiving an education or having a public life.
This month, a delegation from the 57-nation Organization of Islamic Cooperation, or OIC, visited Kabul to discuss bans on women. They “held several meetings with Afghan scholars and (Taliban) officials on issues of utmost importance to the organization such as tolerance in Islam, girls’ education and women’s work,” according to a post-visit OIC statement.
Tom West, the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan, welcomed the OIC’s engagements in a statement last week, stressing the need to sustain the campaign.
Speaking at a seminar in Washington, he said, however, that Afghans would have to work collectively to push the Taliban to reverse their repressive policies, especially those targeting female members of the society.
“If a change has to occur on allowing women to return to secondary schools, girls’ secondary schools, and then to university, it’s going to come from inside the country,” the U.S. envoy stressed.
“If there is a shift on this set of issues, it will not be as a result of foreign pressure; it would be because Afghans have called for this shift, and the Taliban would do it because it is in the best interest of the country domestically,” West added.
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Ariana: Hindukush Strikers and Maiwand Champions locked horns in the final match of the sixth edition of Ahmad Shah Abdali First Class Tournament that started on Monday. Maiwand Champions won the toss and elected to field first in the four-day match at Amanullah Khan International Cricket Stadium in Nangarhar province. Ahmad Shah Abdali First Class Tournament is a major part of the domestic cricket structure and largely contributes to the players’ and game development in Afghanistan. Click here to read more (external link).
Ayaz Gul
VOA News
September 17, 2023
ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s caretaker prime minister, Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar, has written a letter to his Taliban counterpart in Afghanistan, stressing the need to address the security and economic challenges facing both countries.
Kakar’s letter to Taliban Prime Minister Mullah Hasan Akhund comes amid persistent tensions over Islamabad’s complaints that Kabul is not doing enough to prevent cross-border “terrorist” attacks being planned on Afghan soil.
While discussing the letter’s contents Sunday, a Pakistani official told VOA it was written to thank Akhund for his recent “felicitation message” to Kakar after he assumed office last month.
The official, requesting anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the media publicly, said that Kakar conveyed “our security concerns” and underlined the need to jointly address them to allow both countries to expand economic and trade cooperation.
“Enhanced regional trade and connectivity remains vital for the prosperity of our peoples. We must work assiduously to achieve these shared goals,” the Pakistani prime minister wrote.
VOA reached out to the Pakistani information minister for comment on the reported letter sent to the Taliban prime minister but did not get a response immediately, nor have Taliban authorities in Kabul shared any reaction with the media.
Pakistan has experienced a resurgence in militant violence since the Taliban reclaimed power two years ago, when the United States and NATO allies withdrew all their troops after nearly two decades of foreign military involvement in the South Asian nation.
Officials in Islamabad say that the Taliban takeover encouraged fugitive leaders and fighters of the banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, to move to the Afghan side of the border and plot increasingly deadly attacks with “greater operational freedom” against Pakistani security forces.
Hundreds of Pakistanis, mostly police and soldiers, have died in almost daily attacks by TTP and Baluch insurgents in the last year. Northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and southwestern Baluchistan provinces bordering Afghanistan bear the brunt of the violence. The Baluch insurgents have been fighting for the independence of Baluchistan from Pakistan.
Taliban authorities deny that Afghan soil is being used to threaten other countries, including Pakistan, and have urged Islamabad to avoid blaming Kabul for its internal security challenges.
Speaking to VOA last week, Kakar did not rule out the possibility of cross-border military action or drone strikes against suspected TTP bases in Afghanistan.
“Wherever we believe that action is required to protect our territory and people, we will take it,” the prime minister said, declining to discuss operational details.
Pakistani officials say they have shared a list of suspected Afghan Taliban fighters who joined TTP militants in launching recent cross-border “terrorist” attacks, including a raid on security outposts in the northern Chitral district.
The TTP claimed responsibility for mounting the assault that the Pakistani army said had killed four soldiers and 12 assailants.
A Pakistani security official who requested anonymity told VOA that around 1,000 heavily armed militants, including many Afghans, participated in the cross-border Chitral attack. He said that if the Pakistani military hadn’t detected the “concentration and movement” of the militants on the Afghan side beforehand, they would have faced significant losses during the raid.
The TTP, also known as the Pakistani Taliban, is an offshoot and close ally of the Afghan Taliban. The United States has listed the group as a global terrorist organization. The United Nations estimated in its latest report that at least 4,000 TTP members are active in Afghanistan.
The landlocked, war-torn country heavily relies on Pakistani roads and seaports to conduct trade with other countries. Earlier this month, Islamabad closed a main Afghan border crossing for passengers and commercial truck convoys for nine days over security and terrorism concerns, stranding thousands of vehicles and travelers on both sides.
The Torkham border gate was reopened for normal traffic on Friday after officials said they had received assurances from the Taliban that they would not allow Afghan soil to be used for terrorist attacks against Pakistan.
NIKKEI: …Afghan mining ministry lacks the technical and other capacity to manage and oversee such contracts, warning this could lead to a grim outlook of “corruption, mismanagement and environmental disasters.
“Taliban factions in Takhar have at times engaged in violent confrontations over control of valuable resources. Media reports said the Taliban leadership last month replaced ethnic Tajik district governors in Takhar with Kandahari Pashtuns in an effort to end the infighting. The Taliban leadership is now mainly ethnic Pashtun and based in Kandahar… Click here to read more (external link).
8am: They [Taliban] seem willing to betray their own co-religionists for the sake of wealth and power, underscoring that their primary priorities are money and authority within the realm of political Islam. Click here to read more (external link).