Durand Line
Tolo News: The acting Minister of Borders and Tribal Affairs, Noorullah Noori, said that Afghanistan does not have a definite border with Pakistan. “We do not have a formal border with Pakistan and do not have a zero point with Pakistan. This [Durand Line] is an imaginary line between us,” Noorullah Noori said. Click here to read more (external link).
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Munir
Michael Hughes: Ex-Afghan spy chief and former VP, Amrullah Saleh, has applauded Pakistan’s military chief for refusing to conceal how Rawalpindi really feels about Afghanistan. Earlier this week, Army Chief Gen. Asim Munir bluntly said when it comes to Pakistan’s security, “the whole of Afghanistan can be damned.”
“The only aspect of surprise is the way this statement has been conveyed so loud and clear to the public. Gen. Asim Munir’s clarity, however bitter, makes things easier not harder,” Saleh said in a post on X on January 26. “The trouble was always in the sweetness of their diplomatic words and the poisonous actions of their deep state. I hope that the deceptive behavior and the destructive duality is no longer easy to conceal… Avoiding a bite by a snake out in the open is far easier than the one hiding in the cupboard.”
VOA Afghan Service
January 26, 2024
Afghanistan’s Taliban government on Thursday detained an Afghan poet, Izatullah Zawab, who serves as the head of Meena (Love) magazine in eastern Afghanistan, as part of an ongoing crackdown on freedom of expression and independent media in the country, family members posted on social media.
The family members said Zawab was apprehended by the Taliban while traveling from the capital, Kabul, to eastern Nangarhar province.
In a social media post, Zawab’s sons, Attullah Zawab and Nusrat Arman, said the Taliban authorities did not reveal why their father was detained but assured them of his well-being and imminent release.
The brothers asked other social media users to delete posts related to the arrest. In response, some Facebook users urged them not to remove the posts until Zawab’s release.
Taliban authorities have not provided any official statement regarding the detention, only telling family members that he is detained “in connection with an issue” without further details.
Zawab is renowned for his critical poetry, which some social media users speculate may have contributed to his arrest. He had faced previous arrests and imprisonment during the former Afghan government because of his critical poetry. Zawab has been critical of mullahs, the mujaheddins and what he called corrupt officials of the country without naming anyone.
Zawab serves as the editor of Meena (Love) magazine published in eastern Afghanistan and owns a bookstore in Kabul.
Since regaining power in August 2021, the Taliban suspended Afghanistan’s constitution and revoked most laws implemented over the past two decades. According to the Afghanistan Journalist Center, the Taliban arrested 61 journalists in 2023.
While some were released after weeks or months of detention, others received lengthy prison sentences.
In the past year, the center documented 168 cases of violence and intimidation against journalists, highlighting the extensive censorship exercised by the authoritarian rulers over the media.
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SCMP: The Taliban has completed its first road link between Afghanistan and China, but analysts expect Beijing to be cautious about giving its war-torn neighbour full access to its land border because of security concerns over terrorists and separatist militants. At this stage, China has no customs facilities in the area – where Afghanistan meets the autonomous Chinese region of Xinjiang – and has said nothing to suggest it intends to add a formal crossing point. Click here to read more (external link).
Newsweek: The Taliban is under scrutiny after $1.2 million is reported to have been “stolen” from a Russian private jet that crashed in Afghanistan’s northern Badakhshan province on January 21. Four out of the six people aboard the Dassault Falcon 10 aircraft survived the crash. The jet was carrying out a medical evacuation from Thailand to Russia, traveling from Utapao airport, near Pattaya, to Moscow via India and Uzbekistan, Russia’s Federal Agency for Air Transport said. Click here to read more (external link).
ESPNCricinfo: Afghanistan and Nepal had everything to play for in East London on Friday, and play they did, toe-to-toe, inch-for-inch, all the way to a thrilling finish amid gripping drama. Nepal won by one wicket in the end, and entered the Super Six stage of the men’s Under-19 World Cup at the expense of Afghanistan; but the game was, perhaps, more than just the result and the make-up of the next stage of the tournament. Click here to read more (external link).
Tolo News: A flight was made from Khost International Airport to Al Ain, UEA on Friday (January 26). The Ministry of Transportation and Civil Aviation said that the first flight, which was a commercial flight, was conducted by Ariana Afghan Airlines from Khost province to Al Ain after a two-year wait. “I am very happy to see flights taking off from Khost, Al Ain-based Afghans are also happy because the price of tickets will decrease and they will afford coming and going back,” said Saidullah. Click here to read more (external link).
RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi
Abubakar Siddique
January 25, 2024
Since seizing power, the Taliban has appointed its foot soldiers, commanders, and leaders as ministers and the heads of state-run institutions in Afghanistan, including universities and hospitals.
The decision has triggered widespread criticism among Afghans, who have accused the Taliban of hiring unqualified and uneducated fighters and clerics to key positions in its government.
In a move that is seen as a response to that criticism, the extremist group announced on January 20 that it would be granting graduates of madrasahs, or Islamic seminaries, the equivalent of high school diplomas and university degrees.
Afghan academics and educators say the Taliban is trying to pave the way for its members and loyalists to dominate government ministries and institutions.
Since the Taliban regained power in 2021, thousands of civil servants who worked for the Western-backed Afghan government have remained on the payroll of the Taliban government. But many have been forced to sign pledges that they will adhere to Islamic Shari’a law or were subjected to a test that gauged their knowledge of Islam.
“The Taliban loyalists are being gifted bachelor’s and master’s degrees,” Jehandad Jehani, a former economics professor at Khost University in southeastern Afghanistan, told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi.
“This step will deny jobs to [non-Talibs] in the government and public sector,” Jehani said. “People pursued formal studies for decades to help equip themselves for specific roles.”
The Taliban’s government is dominated by clerics and lacks management experience and expert knowledge, which analysts say has exacerbated the already dire humanitarian and economic crises in the country.
Overhauling The System
Under the previous Afghan government, madrasahs were often informal and offered religious instruction to children in mainly poor communities.
But since the Taliban takeover, the militants have overhauled the education system in Afghanistan. They have converted scores of secular schools, public universities, and vocational training centers into Islamic seminaries, leading to a surge in the number of madrasahs in the country.
The Islamist group has also vowed to change the national curriculum and build a vast network of madrasahs across the country’s 34 provinces.
Hundreds of university professors and schoolteachers have been fired from their positions or fled the country, while teenage girls and women have been banned from receiving an education.
Afghan educators say the Taliban is bent on rooting out all forms of the modern secular education that thrived in Afghanistan after the U.S.-led invasion in 2001 toppled the group’s first regime.
In its latest attempt to undermine secular education, the Taliban’s Ministry of Higher Education said on January 20 that it will grant the equivalent of high school diplomas as well as bachelor’s and master’s degrees to graduates of Taliban-run madrasahs.
The ministry said madrasah students who complete six years of education will get the equivalent of high school diplomas. Students who complete eight years of education will be granted a bachelor’s degree, while those with 11 years of religious education will be given a master’s degree after passing a test.
The move is likely to see tens of thousands of madrasah graduates receive formal qualifications, which are limited to Islamic subjects, including jurisprudence and Shari’a law.
The Taliban said it is currently administering exams across Afghanistan that will see some 50,000 madrasah students graduate with new diplomas and degrees.
“Now that they are equating the academic credentials of the madrasahs with those of the universities, it will render the latter irrelevant,” Noorullah Shad, a former university professor in Khost, told Radio Azadi.
“One can graduate from a madrasah in eight years, but it takes 16 years to finish [secular] school and get a bachelor’s degree from the university,” he added.
Asif Nang, a former Afghan education minister, said secular Afghan universities offered degrees in Islamic studies even before the Taliban takeover. But he said religious instruction has now overshadowed secular education.
He said the Taliban’s new decision is likely to pave the way for even more of its members to secure jobs in the government and state-run institutions.
Nang said the move is part of a broader effort by the Taliban to transform from a guerrilla insurgency into a functional government.
“The Taliban wants to transform its fighters from nonstate actors into state actors,” he said.