Tolo News: Officials of the Ministry of Industry and Trade said that exports to Pakistan have decreased by $66 million compared to last year. The State Bank of Pakistan also reported that in July, Pakistan’s exports to Afghanistan increased by 32%, but imports from Afghanistan to Pakistan decreased by 76%. “Exports have decreased, the reason is that a good product that we used to export was coal. The Islamic Emirate has raised the tariff on coal for a certain time, which caused the export to decrease,” said Shamsul Haq Shams, an economist. Click here to read more (external link).
Pakistani PM Claims Weapons Left Behind In Afghanistan Add To Security Threats
By RFE/RL’s Radio Mashaal
September 4, 2023
Pakistan’s caretaker prime minister says that weapons and military equipment left behind by U.S. and other foreign forces in Afghanistan are being used against Pakistan, worsening the security situation in the country.
Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar said on September 4 that many thought that the situation in Pakistan would improve after the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan, but instead it has worsened.
Kakar claimed the reason for the insecurity is the seizure by various groups of weapons left behind in the hasty withdrawal of U.S. and NATO forces two years ago.
“Weapons and military equipment in Afghanistan were left unmanaged after the withdrawal of the United States and its allies,” Kakar said, adding that these weapons were dangerous for Pakistan, Central Asia, and Iran.
The equipment includes modern weapons such as night binoculars, he said, speaking to a select group of journalists at his office in Islamabad.
The Taliban seized U.S.-supplied guns, ammunition, helicopters, and other modern military equipment from Afghan forces who surrendered. There is no definite information on how much U.S. equipment was left behind.
Kakar did not provide any evidence to support his allegation or directly link the Afghan Taliban to the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TPP). He said there was a need to adopt a “coordinated approach” to tackling the challenge of the leftover equipment.
Pakistani Army Chief General Asim Munir, former Defense Minister Khawaja Asif, and other Pakistani officials have accused militants of traveling from Afghanistan to carry out attacks in Pakistan.
The TPP, also known as the Pakistani Taliban, has said that its militants are operating from tribal areas. The group says that Pakistani officials are blaming Afghanistan to cover up their failures.
Amir Khan Muttaqi, the foreign minister of the Taliban-led government in Afghanistan, said in an interview with Al-Arabia TV last week that he was committed to regional security. He previously called on Pakistan to end the conflict with the TTP through negotiations.
With reporting by AP
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.
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A Senior Commander of NRF Killed in, Andarab Baghlan
Aamaj: Local sources in Baghlan told Aamaj News that Qamaruddin Andarabi, the senior commander of the National Resistance Front (NRF), was killed with the “help of a Taliban infiltrator” in Banu village, Andarab district of this province. According to the source, Mr. Andarabi was killed after being shot by a “spy” inside his base in Banu village, Andarab district. Click here to read more (external link).
Tolo News in Dari – September 4, 2023
The Taliban’s Persistent Extortion: Demands for Cash and Arms Continue
Taliban fighters (file photo)
8am: Meanwhile, some residents of northern Kabul provinces accuse the Taliban of “extortion” for detaining both non-military individuals and former government military personnel. According to sources, the Taliban primarily detain these individuals to obtain “money and weapons” but release them after the “ransom” is paid. Click here to read more (external link).
Afghan Women On Hunger Strike In Germany To Protest Taliban’s ‘Gender Apartheid’
By RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi
September 4, 2023
A group of Afghan women’s rights activists have launched a hunger strike in Germany to protest against the policies of the ruling Taliban that limit the rights and freedoms of Afghan women.
The hunger strikers, who have set up camp in the German city of Cologne, want the Taliban’s policies against women to be internationally recognized as “gender apartheid.”
After returning to power two years ago, the hard-line Islamist group has banned women from education and from working in most economic sectors. It has also imposed strict restrictions on their movement and how they can appear in public.
In the latest prohibitions, the Taliban has banned women from public parks and closed women-only parks.
“We want the ongoing gender apartheid in Afghanistan to be formally recognized as such,” Tamana Zaryab Paryani, one of the protesting women, told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi.
Paryani, who noted her state of health was “not really good,” said they decided to launch the strike three days ago after hundreds of protests inside Afghanistan and internationally failed to produce any results.
“We wanted the discrimination [against women] to end, but it didn’t happen,” she added.
In a July report, UN experts said that the situation of girls and women in Afghanistan was the worst in the world and added that systematic restrictions on women and girls could amount to “gender apartheid.”
“Our protest also aims to secure the release of political prisoners in Afghanistan,” said Fatima Zahra, another protester in Cologne.
She said that they want all financial support for the Taliban to end.
“The Taliban [leaders’] trips to other countries need to end because most of them are already on [terrorism] blacklists,” she told Radio Azadi.
In a statement last month, Sima Bahous, the executive director of UN Women, declared the Taliban policies to be gender apartheid.
“They have created a system founded on the mass oppression of women that is rightly and widely considered gender apartheid,” she said.
Bahous said that since returning to power, the Taliban “has imposed the most comprehensive, systematic, and unparalleled assault on the rights of women and girls” through “more than 50 edicts, orders, and restrictions.”
The Taliban, however, has so far resisted all international and domestic pressure calling for a change in their policies toward women.
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.
Taliban ‘behaving better’ than Ashraf Ghani over water rights: Iran’s FM
Ashraf Ghani
Ariana: “We will not forget what statement the then president of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani used while inaugurating the Kajaki Dam, but the ruling body of Afghanistan clearly stated many times that it adheres to the treaty,” Amir Abdullahian said in an interview with Iran’s Ettela’at newspaper. Ghani once said that Afghanistan would give water to Iran in exchange for fuel. Click here to read more (external link).
Taliban Destroy Afghanistan and Treating Girls Worse than “Burying them Alive”, Says Ex-Iranian MP
Taliban militants (file photo)
Aamaj: This former member of Iran’s parliament wrote today on his “X” page that the Taliban “destroyed” Afghanistan. “Taliban treats girls worse than in the pre-Islamic period. They shut down universities and the Persian language, and now they are insulting Shiites like this. What weakness do we have?”, he added. According to him, what else should the Taliban say so that it is understood that they are “the same as ISIS” and so that officials and representatives who are of Pashtun descent or influencers stop “praising” them. Click here to read (external link).
Tolo News in Dari – September 3, 2023
Number of Terrorist Attacks in Pak Increased by 83% in August: PICSS
Aamaj: The Pakistan Institute for Conflict & Security Studies has announced in its latest report that the number of terrorist attacks in Pakistan has increased by 83% over the previous month. The authorities of this country consider the members of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistani “TTP” to be responsible for most of these attacks and criticize the Afghan Taliban for giving shelter to this group. Click here to read more (external link).
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