Khaama: Peruvian authorities have announced they rescued at least 23 Afghan refugees from human traffickers along the border with Brazil. A prosecutors’ office in Peru on Sunday, July 9, in a statement said, “These migrants were trying to reach Ecuador, Mexico and eventually reach to the United States.” These Afghan refugees must have given huge sums of money to smugglers to reach northern borders, the statement said. Click here to read more (external link).
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Abubakar Siddique
Azmat Ali Shah
July 9, 2023
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Pakistan is the only country Gul Mohammad, a 42-year-old Afghan refugee, knows.
He was born in a refugee camp in the teeming, sizzling northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar.
Eighteen years ago, he married a Pakistani woman, hoping to settle down in the city he calls home. Yet the father of four has not yet been able to get Pakistani citizenship even though the country’s laws allow him to obtain nationality because of his spouse.
“I don’t want to go back to Afghanistan because my children will have no future there,” he told RFE/RL’s Radio Mashaal about his war-ravaged homeland.
But living in Pakistan is anything but easy.
His wife is now finding it difficult to renew her government identity card because her husband — as the recognized head of the household — does not have a Pakistani national identity card, which serves as proof of citizenship and is required for government services and to make business transactions.
“When I try to enroll my children into the public schools, they are asked for their father’s national ID card,” he said, adding that his children were being deprived of their education. “I now visit government offices to get my Pakistani ID card, but they turn me away.”
But Mohammad now sees a glimmer of hope.
The Peshawar High Court, the top court in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, granted citizenship rights on June 17 to four Afghan men who are married to Pakistani women. “They will now have all [citizenship] rights like other Pakistanis,” said Saifullah Mohib Kakakhel, a lawyer who won the cases. But he added that the four men would still be unable to get Pakistani passports.
Nauman Kakakhel, another lawyer in Peshawar, said the courts had granted citizenship to some 300 of his plaintiffs, most of whom are Afghan men married to Pakistanis.
“Terrorism and other similar policy matters and certain policies prevent the government from granting citizenship to [eligible] Afghans,” he told Radio Mashaal. “But we have now filed their cases before the courts, which are now ordering the government to give them citizenship.”
Afghan refugees and human rights campaigners consider the recent granting of citizenship to a few hundred Afghan men a welcome step. But most Afghans born in Pakistan or living there for decades still have no path to Pakistani citizenship.
Islamabad is not a signatory to the 1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees or the 1967 protocol intended to remove constraints on who can be considered a refugee.
But it has hosted one of the largest refugee populations in recent history. UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, currently estimates that 1.4 million documented Afghan refugees live in Pakistan. It is estimated that an equal number of Afghans remain undocumented.
Since the communist coup in Afghanistan in April 1978 and the subsequent Soviet invasion in December 1979, millions of Afghans have fled to Pakistan to seek shelter from the various cycles of war and extremist governments that have taken power.
The treatment of Afghan refugees in the country is a major human rights issue often reflected in the headlines, with arbitrary arrests, security sweeps, mistreatment, and harassment.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), a leading rights watchdog, welcomed the Peshawar court decision granting the Afghan husbands of Pakistani women citizenship rights. The HRCP said the move was in line with Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which recognizes citizenship as a fundamental right.
“It will go some way towards easing the hurdles that refugees face, including harassment by law enforcement agencies and lack of access to health care, education, and decent livelihoods,” said Zohra Yusuf, an HRCP council member.
The HRCP wants Islamabad to accede to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 protocol and adopt national legislation to fulfill the obligations outlined in these international agreements.
“The state should ease cumbersome documentation requirements, provide more dignified living situations, and make every effort to provide a safer, more inclusive environment,” Yusuf said.
But officials in Islamabad see the issue very differently.
As the chief commissioner for Afghan refugees in Pakistan’s States and Frontier Regions Ministry, Muhammad Abbas Khan oversees all aspects of Afghan exiles in Pakistan. In written comments to RFE/RL, he argued that Islamabad cannot grant citizenship to Afghans born in Pakistan because it will open the door to many among the more than 4.3 million Afghans who have already returned to their country from Pakistani during the past four decades.
“Such facility could be exploited and would open yet another floodgate for large numbers of individuals, claiming their birth in Pakistan on forged documents,” Khan said. “Thus leading to a complex, uncontrollable, and unmanageable situation.”
Most Afghan refugees in Pakistan are ethnic Pashtuns, who are the second-largest ethnic group in the country of some 231 million people. In some regions their presence has become part of the local ethnic competition for power and resources.
“The majority of the newborn Afghans are of Pashtun ethnicity, which, if included in the Pakistani population, may change the delicate demographic balance in the sensitive province of Balochistan,” he said of the long-running political wrangling over the presence of Afghan refugees in the vast region in the southwest that borders Iran and Afghanistan.
The 2017 census in Pakistan showed that Balochistan’s Baloch population had shrunk from 61 percent to 55 percent compared to 1998.
The Pashtun population, on the other hand, had increased. In the ensuing years, Islamabad canceled the citizenship of 200,000 people, alleging that Afghan refugees had illegally obtained Pakistani IDs.
The treatment of Afghan refugees remains a pressing concern for human rights watchdogs.
Dinushika Dissanayake, Amnesty International’s deputy regional director for South Asia, says that the Afghan refugees’ ambiguous legal status in Pakistan and arduous asylum or third-country relocation processes have made them even more vulnerable.
“They are caught in an impossible situation from which there is no escape,” she said.
Written by Abubakar Siddique in Prague based on reporting by Azmat Ali Shah in Pakistan
8am: The country’s economic crisis, escalating poverty and unemployment, a culture of impunity, and the lack of rule of law, coupled with Taliban restrictions, have contributed to a surge in youth suicides. Statistics from the last 20 days reveal that 18 individuals have taken their own lives across 11 provinces. Among them, six were women and twelve were men. Notably, eleven of the victims were aged between 14 and 20, while the remaining seven were between 20 and 50 years old. Over the past month, suicide rates in the country have reached unprecedented levels. Click here to read more (external link).
Al Jazeera: Scores of bookstores and publishing houses have shut down in the past two years. In the book compound in the Pul-e-Surkh area of Kabul, which I use to frequent before the Taliban takeover, the majority of bookstores have now shut down. On top of that, the Taliban government has imposed high taxes on book sales, which have dwindled even further the declining income of bookstore owners and publishers. Click here to read more (external link).
8am: The United States displayed apathy towards the fall of the previous government, leading many to speculate that the country preferred the Taliban over its predecessor. Since the Taliban’s return to power, the relationship between the United States and the group has normalized. The compromise between U.S. officials and the Taliban remains intact, with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) acting as hosts for both parties. Click here to read more (external link).
Michael Hughes: Once the Soviets left in 1989, Afghanistan at whiplash speed became an afterthought in the corridors of power in Washington, a forgetfulness that came even easier after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the start of Gulf War I. The oblivion was especially pronounced at the top, evidenced in a conversation the CIA’s Milt Bearden had with President George H.W. Bush in 1991, when the latter seemed surprised to learn the U.S. covert pipeline through Pakistan was still active. Not only that, the president appeared just as baffled Afghanistan was embroiled in a civil war, according to Bearden’s account of the discussion cited in Steve Coll’s Ghost Wars.
“Is that thing still going on?” Bush 41 had asked.
Ayaz Gul
VOA News
July 8, 2023
ISLAMABAD — Pakistan is optimistic Afghanistan’s Taliban will effectively combat cross-border terrorism to emulate the kind of cooperation that U.S. President Joe Biden recently hinted at between the de facto Afghan rulers and Washington, a senior diplomat said Saturday.
Asif Durrani, Pakistan’s special representative on Afghanistan Affairs, told VOA in an exclusive interview that the Taliban government had recently initiated certain moves to address his country’s cross-border terror concerns and those of other neighbors, including China. But it is premature to speculate on the outcome, he cautioned.
Pakistan has experienced a dramatic surge in terrorist attacks since the Taliban returned to power in Kabul nearly two years ago. The violence has become a daily routine, killing hundreds of Pakistanis, including many security forces.
Islamabad maintains the attacks are being orchestrated by Afghanistan-based fugitive leaders and fighters of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, which is waging a deadly insurgency against the Pakistani state.
“It’s a serious issue. But steps are being taken to neutralize the TTP. We should also understand that it will take a while, but the process has been initiated,” Durrani said, responding to a recent Taliban announcement that TTP members were being moved away from Afghan areas bordering Pakistan.
“That is a step the Afghan government is taking, so we have to wait and see the results. It is now in the initial stages, so it would be too early to comment,” said the Pakistan envoy. “But if this relocation of TTP can actually happen and lead to peace along our borders, it would be a significant development and we would welcome it,” Durrani added.
He said Islamabad had opened talks with fugitive TTP leaders at the request of the Taliban to persuade them to cease violence, but the process broke down last year over “ridiculous” demands by the militants.
“Pakistan has exhausted the dialogue option; for them, the only way is to surrender and face the law,” Durrani said. He added that Pakistani military operations had deprived the TTP of any territorial control and their relocation from border areas suggests they have now also become a “liability” for the Afghan Taliban.
The Taliban reclaimed power in Kabul in August 2021 when the United States and NATO allies chaotically withdrew all their forces and ended nearly two decades of involvement in the Afghan war.
The TTP, also known as the Pakistani Taliban, is an offshoot and close ally of the Afghan Taliban. It is designated as a global terrorist group by the U.S. The terrorist outfit sheltered the Afghan Taliban in Pakistan and provided recruits as they waged insurgent attacks on U.S.-led foreign troops and the former Afghan government before sweeping back to power two years ago.
“Comparatively, Afghanistan is now very peaceful but there are pockets of TTP, ETIM, and other groups that are a source of concern. Both Pakistan and China hope that the Afghan government will take practical measures,” Durrani said. China has outlawed the ETIM, or the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, for carrying out terrorist attacks on its soil out of Afghan sanctuaries.
China told a U.N. Security Council meeting last month that terrorism remains a major challenge facing Afghanistan and urged the Taliban to take “firm and strong measures” against terrorist groups operating in the country.
“Terrorist forces, including ISIL-K, al-Qaida, and ETIM, are colluding with each other and jeopardizing the security of the country, the region, and the world at large,” the Chinese envoy to the U.N. said in his speech to the meeting. He used an acronym for the Aghan branch of the Islamic State terrorist group.
“As President Biden has also alluded to the cooperation, which Afghan Taliban and American authorities have had in taking counterterrorism measures, the same expectation we have, and the process has started. Hopefully, we will have some positive results in the near future,” Durrani told VOA.
Nearly two years after the American military withdrawal, Biden told reporters at the White House last week that the U.S. and the Taliban, two former adversaries, were cooperating to push out al-Qaida terrorists from the war-torn South Asian country.
“Remember what I said about Afghanistan? I said al-Qaida would not be there. I said it wouldn’t be there. I said we’d get help from the Taliban,” Biden told reporters. “What’s happening now? What’s going on? Read your press. I was right,” he added without elaborating.
Last year, al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed by U.S. drone missiles in downtown Kabul, where, according to Washington, he was residing as a guest of the Taliban. The de facto Afghan authorities have also killed top Islamic State leaders in the country, reportedly with the help of American intelligence, though U.S. officials have not publicly acknowledged any such cooperation with the Taliban.
Poppy ban
The Taliban also have significantly reduced opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan since regaining control of the country, a move Washington and other international stakeholders have praised.
“But those Afghan farmers, who are losing because of the [Taliban ban on] poppy cultivation and the substitution crops are not fetching them the profits they were earning from poppy earlier. I think they also need compensation and international community should help Afghanistan,” Durrani said.
The Pakistani envoy noted his country’s bilateral trade with Afghanistan has increased after the Taliban takeover and Afghan transit routes to landlocked Central Asian countries are also benefiting Islamabad.
“Our trade with Central Asian countries was close to $55 million before the American withdrawal but now it has registered close to $200 million, almost a rise of three times. Peace dividends are obvious. If Afghanistan becomes peaceful, it will become a South and Central Asia transit hub.”
Dialogue with Taliban
Durrani insisted that dialogue and continued international engagement with the Taliban is the only way to reinforce the positive trends and address the continuing challenges in Afghanistan.
“Staying aloof or not engaging the Taliban, who are in power in Kabul right now, would not help. There is a realization, which is why the U.S. president and others have praised certain steps the Taliban have taken, including eradicating poppy,” Durrani said. “Hopefully, other pending issues such as inclusivity, or for that matter, girls’ education or women’s employment, would also be addressed amicably.”
The Taliban have imposed their strict interpretation of Islamic law or Sharia since re-establishing their control over Afghanistan. They have indefinitely closed girls’ schools beyond the sixth grade and ordered most female government employees — other than those working in the health sector and a couple of other departments — to stay home.
The United Nations and other non-governmental organizations have also been banned from hiring Afghan women employees. This week, the Taliban ordered women-run beauty parlors across the country to close within a month, claiming services offered at the facilities breached Sharia rules.
From the outset, the U.N. has denounced Taliban curbs on Afghan women’s access to education and public life as unacceptable, saying they have made it “nearly impossible” for the new Kabul rulers to gain international legitimacy. The Taliban are also being pressed to give representation to all Afghan ethnic groups to run the country through an inclusive dispensation.
Taliban leaders defended their policies, saying they are aligned with Afghan culture and Sharia. They have rejected calls for easing restrictions on women as interference in the country’s internal matters and insist their government “represents all languages, generations and regions” of Afghanistan.
Durrani said more than 700,000 Afghans have arrived in Pakistan since the Taliban took control of Kabul in August 2021. More than 120,000 of them have departed to the United States and other Western nations, while the fate of the rest is unknown, he added.
The displaced population mainly comprises Afghan families whose members worked for the U.S.-led international forces during their two-decadeslong stay in Afghanistan. They fled the country, fearing Taliban retribution.
8am: The Qara-Bagh district of Ghazni province has been struck by ongoing floods, resulting in the destruction of more than 800 acres of vital agricultural land. According to local sources, the floods occurred overnight following a deluge of heavy rainfall in the Moshky area of Qara-Bagh district in Ghazni province. Sources reported to Hasht-e Subh this distressing news on Sunday, July 8th. Click here to read more (external link).