Taliban Military Court Acquits Director of DABS in Kabul of Sexual Assault Charges Against His Guard

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Taliban militants (file photo)

8am: In an unexpected turn of events, the Taliban military court has acquitted Mullah Ahmad, the Director of Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat (DABS) in Kabul, of charges related to sexual assault against his guard. This contrasts with the recent circulation of video footage depicting the alleged sexual assault by this Taliban figure on his guard on various social media platforms, provoking widespread reactions. It should be noted that since the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan, several members of the group’s leadership have faced allegations of sexual assault and extramarital relationships. Click here to read more (external link).

Massive fire in Badakhshan causes over 1 million Afghanis in losses

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Khaama: According to provincial officials, a fire incident in the Faizabad district of Badakhshan province has resulted in over one million Afghanis in financial damages. According to the security department of Badakhshan province on Sunday, the incident occurred in the Akhur Goldan area of Faizabad city. The fire originated from two adjacent decoration shops in the city. Click here to read more (external link).

Pakistani Taliban Attempts Land Grab To Boost Insurgency Against Islamabad

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TTP Flag

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
September 16, 2023
Abubakar Siddique
Majeed Babar

A middle-aged lawyer, Nia Beg, is anxious after a large incursion by Islamist militants rattled his homeland in northwestern Pakistan this month.

Beg is Kalash, and he follows the ancient pagan religion practiced in Bumburet and other remote valleys collectively called Kalash in the northwestern district of Chitral, which borders eastern Afghanistan.

He says that attacks by scores of Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) on several villages in Kalash pose hard questions about the security of Chitral, which had rarely seen Taliban violence and is one of Pakistan’s top tourist destinations because of its unique culture and natural beauty.

“My children ask me, ‘How will we now go to school or walk freely in our village?'” he told RFE/RL’s Radio Mashaal after the Taliban incursion into Chitral that began on September 6.

Pakistan claimed to have repulsed the attack and forced the TTP militants to retreat into Afghanistan.

On September 6, the military said four soldiers and 12 militants were killed in clashes. In a sign that all was not well in Chitral, the government imposed a three-day curfew in the mountainous region.

On September 10, the military said it killed seven more militants in ongoing “sanitization” operations. Gunship helicopters were also used, which suggests some of the TTP militants were well entrenched.

“Residents of Kalash are extremely frightened because the Taliban are religious extremists,” Abdul Majeed Qureshi, a local Muslim leader, told Radio Mashaal.

“We want the Taliban attacks to end permanently,” he added.

The once-peaceful Chitral region now appears to be in the crosshairs of the TTP, whose insurgency has grown remarkably after its ideological and organizational ally, the Afghan Taliban, returned to power in Afghanistan two years ago.

Experts say the surprise incursion into Chitral showcases the TTP’s attempt to reestablish a territorial foothold in Pakistan.

After its emergence in 2007, the TTP controlled large areas in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province. But by 2014, Islamabad’s military operations had forced it to flee into neighboring Afghanistan, which shares a more than 2,600-kilometer border with Pakistan.

“Chitral’s complex terrain and geographical importance made it a significant option for the TTP to challenge the state’s territorial control,” said Abdul Sayed, a Sweden-based researcher who tracks the TTP.

“The TTP’s attack on Chitral is part of its ambition to establish a stronghold on the Pakistani side of the border,” he added.

Chitral, now divided into Upper and Lower Chitral districts, consists of high-altitude valleys in the Hindu Kush Mountains. It borders the eastern Afghan provinces of Kunar, Nuristan, and Badakhshan. A narrow strip of Afghan territory separates it from China and Tajikistan, which gives the region great strategic significance.

“The TTP wants to carve out a new safe haven that could serve its objectives,” said Ihsanullah Tipu Mehsud, director of news at Khorasan Diary, a website tracking militant groups in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Mehsud argues that the TTP’s incursion into Chitral “is very dangerous” because the group might want to carve out other sanctuaries in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces, which form Pakistan’s western border with Afghanistan.

After its emergence in 2007 as an umbrella alliance of Pakistani Taliban groups, the TTP swiftly extended its control over large parts of the South Waziristan, North Waziristan, Mohmand, Bajaur, and Swat districts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Years of TTP attacks and the Pakistani Army’s counterinsurgency killed more than 80,000 Pakistanis, predominantly ethnic Pashtuns. The violence also displaced more than 6 million Pashtuns.

“The TTP is seeking to restore some of the territorial control it once enjoyed in regions such as Swat and Waziristan,” Mehsud said.

TTP violence has risen dramatically since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021. The Taliban-led government brokered negotiations between Islamabad and the TTP, but these ended in November after the TTP formally declared that its cease-fire with Islamabad was over.

According to the Pakistani Institute for Conflict and Security Studies, a think tank in Islamabad, this August was the most violent month since November 2014.

The TTP claimed some 147 attacks that month. During the first eight months of the year, 227 Pakistanis were killed and 497 were injured in 22 suicide attacks, mostly claimed by the Pakistani Taliban.

The Pakistani military and law enforcement have endured mounting losses. At least 120 soldiers and military officers were killed in militant attacks in the first six months of this year. The police, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, have had similar losses.

Rising TTP violence has sharply deteriorated relations between longtime allies Pakistan and the Afghan Taliban.

Islamabad swiftly closed its main border crossing with Afghanistan in Torkham, which is some 400 kilometers to the south. It has also launched a crackdown on an estimated 3 million Afghan refugees and migrants in the country.

“We expect the Afghan interim authorities…to ensure that Afghan territory is not used as a launching pad for terrorist attacks against Pakistan,” said the Foreign Ministry in Islamabad on September 11 in response to a Taliban statement demanding the reopening of Torkham.

The border crossing was reopened on September 15.

Sayed said the mountainous border between Chitral and the eastern Afghan province of Nuristan comprises deserted areas known as No-Man’s Land.

“This could give the Afghan Taliban the pretext that the TTP has not attacked from areas under their control,” he said.

Mehsud said the TTP attack was also encouraged by the relatively small presence of security forces in Chitral. It is also the only region where the Pakistani border fencing with Afghanistan is incomplete.

“Things are reaching a boiling point between the two countries,” Mehsud noted. “Pakistan might launch surgical attacks or kinetic actions inside Afghanistan to target the TTP leaders and their bases.”

On September 10, an improvised explosive device targeted a senior TTP commander, Badshah Khan, in the southeastern Afghan province of Paktika.

In Chitral, civilians remain anxious in the aftermath of the TTP attack.

“People are worried that if the Taliban continues to attack, tourists will stop coming,” said Ihkamuddin, a local politician in Bumburet.

Copyright (c) 2023. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.

US fights to stop soldier from keeping Afghan war orphan

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Joshua Mast

The Independent (UK): The US government has warned a Virginia judge that allowing an American Marine to keep an Afghan war orphan as his child risks violating international law. Marine Major Joshua Mast and his wife were accused of abducting the baby girl after her entire family was killed in a US special forces raid. Click here to read more (external link).

Taliban Said To Suspect Detained NGO Workers Of Promoting Christianity

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By RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi
September 16, 2023

Local officials in the central Afghan province where the Taliban detained 18 staffers for a long-serving humanitarian NGO earlier this month suggest the group was suspected of spreading Christianity, RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi has learned.

Taliban intelligence and other officials in Kabul have remained silent over the detentions.

The International Assistance Mission (IAM) humanitarian group in Afghanistan on September 15 announced the detention of 18 team members from its offices in Ghor Province between September 3 and 13. It said they all appear to have been transferred to the Afghan capital, Kabul.

IAM and other information suggested the detainees comprise 17 Afghan nationals and a female American surgeon.

Early on September 16, IAM said it still “has not been informed of the reasons for the detention of our staff.”

But Taliban officials in Ghor have accused them of spreading Christianity, which can be punished under strict interpretations of Islamic law in Afghanistan.

In a written message to Radio Azadi, Abdul Hai Zaim, the head of information and culture for the Taliban-led government for Ghor Province, confirmed the arrest of the IAM employees and claimed — without providing evidence — that they had been promoting Christianity.

The fundamentalist Taliban, who retook control of Afghanistan as U.S.-led international forces withdrew in 2021, have imposed a particularly harsh form of Shari’a law on the country when they have been in power at various points in the past four decades.

The internationally unrecognized Taliban-led government in Afghanistan has been accused by UN and other international officials of grave human rights offenses against non-Muslims, women, and minorities.

IAM said on September 16 that it had inquired with the Taliban-led Afghan government’s Finance Ministry and was “working together with the UN and ACBAR, the coordinating body for NGOs in Afghanistan,” to seek the release of the staff members.

IAM has worked in Afghanistan for nearly six decades, it said.

“IAM has worked in Afghanistan alongside Afghan communities for 57 years and we value and respect local customs and cultures. We stand by the principle that ‘aid will not be used to further a particular political or religious standpoint,'” it said, adding, “All IAM staff agree to abide by the laws of Afghanistan.”

Copyright (c) 2023. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.

Escalating terrorism and drug trafficking from Afghanistan spark concerns: Tajikistan

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Tajik President Emomali Rahmon

Khaama: According to Sputnik News, Imam Ali Rahman reported that Tajik security forces thwarted a terrorist attack on the eve of Tajikistan’s Independence Day, launched from the Afghan border. Tajikistan’s state news agency, Khovar, reported earlier this month that three “Jamiat Ansarullah” armed group members launched an attack equipped with advanced weaponry from the Badakhshan border in Afghanistan but were neutralized by Tajik security forces. Click here to read more (external link).

Uzbek President Concerned by Construction of Qush Tepa Canal

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Tolo News: “You are well aware that Afghanistan is constructing a canal. The commissioning of this canal may change the balance of the water in Central Asia,” he said. “We believe it is necessary to set up a joint working group to study all aspects of the construction of the Qush Tepa canal and its impact on the water regime of the Amu Darya with the involvement of research institutes of our countries.” Click here to read more (external link).

‘They Deserve Some Peace’: U.S. Envoy Rejects Support For Anti-Taliban Factions In Afghanistan

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Decker

By RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi
September 15, 2023

A top U.S. diplomat to Afghanistan has categorically ruled out Washington’s support for a new war in the nation, saying Afghans “deserve some peace” after more than four decades of international conflict ended two years ago when American and international troops left as Taliban militants seized power.

In an interview with RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi, Karen Decker, the chargé d’affaires of the U.S. mission to Afghanistan, dismissed any support for anti-Taliban armed factions such as the National Resistance Front (NRF) and the Afghanistan Freedom Front (AFF), saying Afghans themselves have been adamantly against the launch of any new conflict.

“No. Absolutely not! We do not support renewed conflict in Afghanistan. Full stop,” she said in response to a question about whether Washington would support these groups.

“The one overwhelming message I hear from Afghans inside the country is no more war,” she said, adding that Washington would “support” and “promote” a dialogue among Afghans.

Most of its neighbors have resisted supporting another round of war in Afghanistan after the hard-line Islamist Taliban swept to power in the wake of the final withdrawal of U.S.-led NATO troops two years ago.

After the pro-Western Afghan republic collapsed on August 15, 2021, some defunct Afghan security force members joined the NRF and other smaller groups to attack Taliban forces in the northern provinces of Panjshir and Baghlan. This raised the possibility that four decades of war in Afghanistan could enter a new phase.

Ahmad Massoud, the NRF’s leader in exile, recently visited Moscow in what was seen as an effort to win support for the NRF and pressure the Taliban, which has marked its two years in power so far by severely restricting rights and freedoms, especially for women.

Decker, however, questioned whether the Kremlin could support a new Afghanistan conflict.

“The Russians are kind of busy right now doing something else in Ukraine, so I don’t know if that is a realistic scenario,” she noted in a thinly veiled reference to Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which continues to take a heavy toll on its military resources.

“Any proxy warfare? Absolutely not,” she said. “The Afghan people have had more than 40 years of war. They deserve some peace.”

Decker said that Washington supports a dialogue among Afghans to work out the future of their country, including forming an inclusive government.

After returning to power, the Taliban’s internationally unrecognized government has refused to share power with other Afghan political groups and armed factions.

Instead, it has recreated its extremist Islamic emirate. Exclusively led by senior Taliban leaders, the de facto government has banned women from education, work, and public life. The Taliban has also denied Afghans many fundamental rights and freedoms.

Taliban officials, however, point to a commission as evidence of their willingness to embrace reconciliation among citizens in the country.

The commission has invited former senior government members and state officials to come back to the country as long as they do not participate in politics.

Copyright (c) 2023. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.