Fazl-ur-Rehman Denies Claims of Attacks From Afghan Soil on Pakistan

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Fazlur Rehman

Tolo News: Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman, the leader of Pakistan’s Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party, denied Pakistani officials’ claims about terrorists entering Pakistan from Afghanistan. The leader of Pakistan’s Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party also said that Pakistan has provided the use of its airspace to the United States over the past twenty years to attack border areas of Afghanistan. Maulana Fazlur Rehman said: “They gave bases to attack Afghans, they gave airspace to attack Afghans. Have they ever complained to you, asking ‘why are airplanes taking off from your airports and attacking us?’ They never complained about the planes, nor about the bombings. You destroyed thousands of people with your planes for twenty years, you destroyed tribes.” Click here to read more (external link).

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Rashid to take ‘one game at a time’ ahead of T20 World Cup opening match against Uganda

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Rashid Khan

Ariana: Afghanistan skipper Rashid Khan intends to take it one game at a time in the team’s ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 campaign, which will get underway on Tuesday in the West Indies. Given their arsenal of high-class spin bowlers and the improvement in Afghanistan’s batting in recent years, many have touted the Asian side as one of the teams capable of making it to the semi-finals of this year’s T20 World Cup. Click here to read more (external link).

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Taliban Issues Over 500 Licences For Emerald Mining In Panjshir

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Afghanistan International: Over the past two years, the Taliban has repeatedly auctioned Panjshir emeralds. Due to the economic crisis, the group has focused on extracting Afghanistan’s mines, a practice that Taliban opponents consider illegal due to the Taliban’s lack of legitimacy. Click here to read more (external link).

Taliban Exacerbate Afghanistan’s Economic Headwinds

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Taliban militants (file photo)

Michael Hughes: It was easy to blame the 2021 collapse of the Afghan economy on the abrupt withdrawal of foreign aid after the fall of Kabul, which overnight effectively cut the country’s GDP nearly in half. In fact, even the most advanced economies would take years to heal from the type of blow Afghanistan took after the Taliban takeover. But Taliban 2.0 have so far only made Afghanistan’s financial situation worse with bad decisions and defective policies driven by a combination of ideological absurdities, corruption, and incompetence. Click here to read more.

NRF, AFF Wage Separate Attacks Against Taliban In Kabul

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Afghanistan International: The Afghanistan Freedom Front has claimed responsibility for an explosion in the Khair Khana area of Kabul, stating that the attack resulted in the deaths of two Taliban members and injuries to three others. Simultaneously, the National Resistance Front reported the killing of two Taliban members in Kabul’s police district 5. Click here to read more (external link).

As Many As 20 Die In Afghanistan After Overloaded Boat Sinks Crossing River

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By RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi
June 1,2024

A boat carrying 25 people sank while crossing a river in eastern Afghanistan on June 1, officials of the country’s Taliban-led government said.

Quraishi Badlon, director of the Information and Culture Department in Nangarhar Province, said the boat sank on a river in the Mohmand Dara district, killing 20 people, including women and children.

Moulvi Mohammad Ajmal Shagwal, the district governor of the Taliban-led government in Mohmand Dara, told RFE/RL that nine bodies had been removed from the river with help from local residents.

He said that there were 25 people on board the boat, which sank at 7:30 a.m. local time. Ten people survived, all of them with injuries, he said.

Badlon also said the boat was carrying 25 people, but he said only five survived.

Shagwal said there were women and children on the boat, but he did not give details. According to the province’s Public Health Department, the bodies recovered thus far include those of a man, a woman, two boys, and a girl.

Sherzad Ahmad Khel, one of the survivors, said that the boat sank because too many people were on board.

The government’s Bakhtar news agency published a video message in which an official said many people got into the boat, and when it reached the middle of the river, its motor overheated and burst into flames. The boat then flooded and sank, leaving its passengers to fend for themselves.

District resident Abdul Majeed told RFE/RL that people had used the same boat to cross the river almost every day to get to work and shop in the district market. He stressed that a bridge should be built.

“It is very important to build a bridge here. We asked the previous government, but it was not built. We are still demanding that the government build a bridge for us. If the bridge is not built, similar incidents will happen.”

People of Mohmand Dara and other districts of Nangarhar use small boats to cross the river due to the lack of bridges.
A few years ago, a number of people died in a similar boat sinking incident in district.

With reporting by AP

Copyright (c) 2024. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.

Taliban and the Plundering of Mines: Companies and Countries Lack the Right to Contract Without a Legitimate Government

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8am: In the nearly three years since the Taliban’s rise to power, they have significantly expanded the unregulated and illegal extraction of the country’s mineral resources. The group has announced that during this period, they have signed contracts for the extraction of over 150 small mines with domestic companies and 30 large mines with Chinese, Iranian, Turkish, and Qatari companies. Meanwhile, the former Minister of Mines and Petroleum argues that Afghanistan lacks a legitimate government under international law, and no company or country has the right to enter into contracts with a geography devoid of a legitimate state. He asserts that any future government of Afghanistan has the right to take the contracting parties to international courts and seek compensation. Click here to read more (external link).