Khaama: The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has said that at least 640 children were killed or injured in 541 incidents involving explosive remnants of war and landmine explosions in Afghanistan between January 2022 and June 2023. This figure represents 60% of the 1,092 civilian casualties resulting from these incidents. In addition, the ICRC emphasized the urgent need for more initiatives to address the problem of weapon contamination and intensify public education campaigns on the risks and perils of landmines and unexploded ordnance. Click here to read more (external link).
House-approved Defense Bill Does Not Increase or Extend Special Immigrant Visas for Afghans
Aline Barros
VOA News
July 19, 2023
The country’s annual defense spending measure was narrowly approved by the Republican-led House of Representatives on Friday, and although the bill is several steps from becoming law, the White House has announced its opposition to a range of national security provisions, including inaction on the special immigrant visas (SIV) for Afghans.
The House version of the National Defense Authorization Act does not increase the SIV cap by 20,000 in fiscal 2024 or extend the SIV program beyond December 31, 2024, despite the administration’s request to do so.
In 2009, the Afghan Allies Protection Act was approved by Congress, leading to the implementation of the Afghan SIV program — an immigrant visa program that helps military interpreters and others who worked for the U.S. government to come to the U.S. with a direct pathway to permanent residency.
Through this program, the U.S. government has successfully resettled more than 100,000 Afghans and their families in the United States. However, if the annual defense policy bill does not include an extension of the program, it would end a legal immigration path to the United States for Afghans who worked for the U.S. government during the war in Afghanistan at the end of 2024.
“Giving our Afghan allies a chance to apply for legal status is the right and necessary thing to do,” U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat from Minnesota, said in a statement.
Another strategy
On the same day the House passed its version of the NDAA, a bipartisan group of lawmakers reintroduced the Afghan Adjustment Act (AAA) in the House and the Senate.
It would also expand SIV eligibility to include more Afghans. Women, who served in special counterterrorism teams, and others who worked with U.S. forces as commandos and air force personnel, could be eligible for the SIV program. It would also establish a path to U.S. citizenship for Afghans with humanitarian parole status living in the United States. SIV presently covers translators, interpreters, or other professionals employed by or on behalf of the U.S. government in Afghanistan.
Dara Lind, a senior fellow with the American Immigration Council, wrote Tuesday that the NDAA has become a vehicle “for many other legislative proposals to pass into law.”
“Because the need for the AAA is a direct consequence of the U.S. occupation of (and withdrawal from) Afghanistan, and the Department of Defense has long supported ways for Afghans who assisted the government to become U.S. citizens, including the AAA in the current defense authorization bill is thematically appropriate, to say the least. It’s also, given Congress’ aversion to voting on standalone immigration bills, the most likely way the AAA will pass,” Lind wrote.
In 2022, the AAA also was supported by a group of lawmakers from both parties and expected to be included in the omnibus spending package. But it failed to win congressional approval.
Senator Chuck Grassley, then-ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and others objected to the legislation on security grounds, VOA reported.
Following the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, more than 70,000 Afghans were brought to the United States and granted a temporary humanitarian parole status that lasts for two years.
Humanitarian parole is given to those hoping to enter the U.S. under emergency circumstances. While it does not automatically lead to permanent residency, parolees can apply for legal status through the asylum process or other forms of sponsorship, if available, once they’re in the U.S.
But the humanitarian status is only temporary.
U.S. Senator Jerry Moran, a Republican from Kansas, said Afghans who escaped to the U.S., face uncertainty because their original parole statuses are temporary.
“[The AAA] legislation establishes a pathway for our Afghan partners to begin a new life while also establishing a critical vetting process to reduce threats to our national security,” Moran wrote in a statement.
In January, VOA reported that more than 40,000 Afghans living outside the U.S. had submitted humanitarian parole applications since the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Others were allowed to continue their SIV process inside the United States, which leads to a direct pathway to permanent residency.
“Two decades of allyship merits much more than an unnecessary and unsustainable legal limbo. The Afghan Adjustment Act is precisely how we provide the stability our new Afghan neighbors deserve while demonstrating that the United States honors its promises of protection to its allies,” Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, told reporters.
The Senate has drafted and needs to pass its own version of the NDAA. Once both bills are approved, they will need to be reconciled, and a compromised version will have to be approved once again by the Senate and House.
Tolo News in Dari – July 19, 2023
WHO: Crimean–Congo Hemorrhagic Fever Cases in Afghanistan increased in June
Tolo News: The WHO in a recent report said that Acute Watery Diarrhea and Crimean–Congo Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF) cases increased in June. “The CCHF-associated deaths were reported from 12 provinces (13 from Kabul, 6 from Balkh, 3 from Parwan, 3 from Takhar, 2 from Jawzjan, 2 from Kandahar, and 1 each from Baghlan, Faryab, Ghazni, Kapisa, Paktya, and Sar-i-Pul).” According to the report, just in June in various sections, 1.4 million people were reached with humanitarian health services. Click here to read more (external link).
Afghanistan ranks lowest in Henley Passport Index 2023
Ariana: Afghanistan ranked the weakest in the Henley Passport Index 2023 which includes 199 passports worldwide. Japan, which was sitting in the No.1 position in the index for five years, has fallen to third place. The No.1 position is now held by Singapore. Citizens of Afghanistan are only able to visit 27 destinations without a visa. Click here to read more (external link).
Pakistani Taliban Release New Magazine Geared Toward Women
TTP chief Noor Wali Mehsud
Sarah Zaman
VOA News
July 19, 2023
ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN — The Pakistani Taliban released an online magazine geared toward women this week. The third of its kind in six years, the magazine comes at a time when the militant group formally known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, is staging a resurgence with near-daily deadly attacks on Pakistani security forces.
Titled Banat-E-Khadeejatul Kubra, which means Daughters of Khadeejatul Kubra, the 36-page Urdu-language magazine released July 16 is named after Khadeeja, the first wife of Muhammad, the prophet of Islam.
The look
The red and white cover features a photo of a warrior woman dressed in black from head to toe with only her eyes showing, sitting on a white horse, ready to shoot an arrow. For titles, the magazine uses red and pink colors, and many floral motifs; however, all illustrations show women in long, loose gowns and face coverings. None of the drawings depicts any facial features.
The message
TTP, an ideological offshoot of the Afghan Taliban, released its first official magazine for women in mid-2017. Titled Sunnat-e-Khaula, meaning The Way of Khaula, the magazine was named after a female warrior from Prophet Muhammad’s time and encouraged women to prepare to fight.
A second magazine, Khawateen Ka Jihad , or Women’s Holy War, came out in March after a gap of six years. Observers say that was almost a trial run for the latest release.
The latest issue named after Prophet Muhammad’s wife focuses on women’s domestic responsibilities with an emphasis on serving and supporting men.
Feminist scholar and author Afiya S. Zia told VOA the agenda of this magazine is not to spread extremism but maintain a patriarchal status quo.
“It’s to stabilize and support the extremist agenda like the ‘B’ team,” she said in written comments. “It gives women only a supportive role – not suicide bombers or jihadists but daughters and wives who sacrifice their men for the cause and testify to their martyrdom.”
Ihsanullah Tipu Mehsud, a journalist and founder of The Khorasan Diary, an online news platform that focuses on militant activity in Pakistan and Afghanistan, told VOA TTP sees women as an asset in promoting its extremist ideology.
Since the majority of Taliban and their families are Pashtun, Mehsud said releasing a magazine in Urdu shows TTP is trying to reach a wider audience.
“The fact that this magazine has come in Urdu (Pakistan’s national language) and not just Pashto, shows that it’s not just Pashtun women but other too whom they [TTP] are creating content for,” he said.
Unlike the Afghan Taliban who have put a ban on women’s education, the Pakistani Taliban support women’s right to education in this magazine. The writings, however, strongly criticize co-education with sweeping generalizations and declare certain subjects like engineering “unnecessary” for women.
Zia said the TTP takes a pro-education stance because “there is no appetite for Afghan Taliban agenda in Pakistan – it has to be a softer version.”
The timing
Although Pakistani military operations dealt a massive blow to the militant group, driving its leadership and many fighters into Afghanistan in the 2010s, TTP has staged a comeback since the Afghan Taliban regained power in Kabul in August 2021.
Under the leadership of Noor Wali Mehsud, allegedly present in Afghanistan, TTP has regrouped, reorganized, and expanded by taking more than 30 other militant outfits into its fold.
The group has claimed responsibility for more than 300 attacks this year, in which more than 800 people, mostly security personnel, were killed or injured.
The Pakistani Taliban’s official media outlet, Umar Media, named after Afghan Taliban’s founder Mullah Umar, has been ramping up production of slick video and text content.
While Pakistan has repeatedly targeted TTP’s operational capacity, journalist Mehsud said the state has not focused sufficiently on countering its extremist ideology.
“[This] is why the TTP manages to stage a resurgence again and again. For any militant group, their center of gravity is their ideology. We have seen that groups weaken operationally but their ideology remains intact because of which they bounce back again.”
The magazine, like other extremist content, is accessible through various social media accounts that manage to dodge scrutiny with clever use of key words and hashtags.
Afghanistan, Pakistan to Hold Key Talks as Cross-Border Terrorism Strains Ties
Ayaz Gul
VOA News
July 18, 2023
ISLAMABAD — A senior Pakistani envoy will travel to Afghanistan on Wednesday for bilateral talks with Taliban leaders amid growing allegations Afghan-based fugitive militants have stepped up cross-border terrorist attacks in Pakistan.
Asif Durrani, Islamabad’s newly appointed special representative on Afghanistan, will hold meetings in Kabul, focusing on mutual trade and economic and security cooperation, said a Pakistani official Tuesday. He spoke to VOA on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to interact publicly with the media.
Durrani told VOA in the run-up to his Kabul visit that Pakistan’s trade with and through landlocked Afghanistan had increased since the Taliban reclaimed control of the country two years ago. Bilateral trade currently stands at more than $2 billion, according to official data.
The Pakistani envoy also hailed the growth of Afghanistan’s trade with other neighbors, including China and Iran. Durrani said that “the relative Afghan peace” has enabled Pakistan to increase its trade with landlocked Central Asian countries through Afghan transit routes to nearly $200 million from $55 million two years ago.
“It is good for Afghanistan and will help address many issues; especially it will reduce the poverty rate, which is close to 95% per the U.N. estimates. It is a promising process, but it will take a while,” Durrani said.
“An increase in economic activity will also help deal with the humanitarian crisis amid reports that international donors may reduce their aid contribution for Afghanistan. So, the coming winters are likely to be much harsher for Afghans,” the Pakistani envoy said.
Durrani’s visit coincides with a surge in militant attacks in Pakistan, particularly in districts adjacent to the country’s nearly 2,600-kilometer Afghan border. The violence has killed more than 400 people this year, mostly security forces, with the Pakistani military losing 12 soldiers in a single day on July 12.
The violence is mainly claimed by or blamed on an alliance of outlawed groups, known as the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, conducting attacks against the Pakistani state from sanctuaries in Afghanistan, according to officials in Islamabad.
Pakistan has urged the Taliban to adhere to their February 2020 agreement with the United States and prevent terrorists from using Afghan soil to threaten other countries.
On Monday, Washington joined Islamabad in calling on the Taliban to meet their counterterrorism commitments.
We have made very clear that we believe the Taliban has the responsibility to prevent Afghanistan from being used as a safe haven for launching terrorist attacks,” U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.
Last week, the Pakistani military sternly warned the Taliban against allowing the TTP and other terrorist groups on their soil to threaten the country.
“The armed forces of Pakistan have serious concerns on the safe havens and liberty of action available to TTP in Afghanistan,” a military statement said on Friday. “Such attacks are intolerable and would elicit an effective response from the security forces of Pakistan.”
Pakistani security officials have also confirmed seizing U.S. military weapons from militants killed in recent counterterrorism operations, saying members of the Afghan Taliban also took part in last week’s terrorist attacks in southwestern Baluchistan province.
The Geneva-based independent Small Arms Survey published a report earlier this month warning that the TTP and other militants continue to have access to weapons of now defunct Afghan security forces that were trained and equipped by the U.S. military.
Taliban authorities rejected Pakistani allegations that the TTP or other groups were using Afghan soil for cross-border terrorism. Chief Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid urged Islamabad on Saturday to share the evidence with Kabul so they could investigate the claims.
On Monday, the White House National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, John Kirby, ruled out the possibility of Afghan refugees participating in terrorist attacks in Pakistan.
“We’ve seen no indication that Afghan refugees in Pakistan or along that border are guilty of acts of terrorism…And we’ll continue to work with Pakistan, as we have on their legitimate terrorism threats and their challenges in counterterrorism,” Kirby told reporters in Washington.
Pakistan hosts more than three million Afghan refugees and economic migrants fleeing decades of conflicts and poverty in their country.
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An Afghan refugee seeking asylum in the United States is now captivating audiences onscreen, portraying a character she has a lot in common with. In her first-ever acting role, Anaita Wali Zada plays a haunted young immigrant named Donya who finds herself beached in the northern California city of Fremont. Her new life: working in a factory, writing fortunes for Chinese cookies.
Tolo News in Dari – July 18, 2023
Afghanistan’s Central Bank To Auction $14 Million Tomorrow
Khaama: Afghanistan’s Central Bank said on Tuesday that it will auction 14 Million US Dollars by Wednesday. The Bank said in a statement on Tuesday that Afghanistan’s Central Bank, Da Afghanistan Bank (DAB), will sell $14 million by Wednesday to stabilize the national currency Afghani exchange rate. Over the past 20 months, Afghanistan has received more than 2 billion dollars in cash as part of the humanitarian assistance provided by the international community to save the country’s economy from collapsing. Click here to read more (external link).