Tajikistan Calls For ‘Security Belt’ Around Afghanistan Over Drug Smuggling

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By RFE/RL’s Tajik Service
May 9, 2023

Tajikistan has asked member countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) to establish an independent agency to combat drug trafficking from Afghanistan. Foreign Affairs Minister Sirojiddin Muhriddin says he also told a high-level meeting of officials from the SCO last week in India that it was important to establish a “safety belt” around Afghanistan. The proposal comes days after a Tajik soldier was killed in a clash between government forces and smugglers in Badakhshan Province. Tajikistan shares more than 1,300 kilometers of border with Afghanistan, a major producer of drugs.

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’s Latest Atrocity: Arresting Schoolteachers and Young Civilians in Kapisa Province

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8am: Sources spoke with Hasht-e Subh on Monday, May 8, stating that the Taliban had detained these individuals over the past month in the Hessa-2 Kohistan district and subjected them to severe torture. Sources did not provide any information about the identities of the teachers but emphasized that most of those arrested were young. According to sources, the Taliban is torturing these individuals to find members of the National Resistance Front and Freedom Front. Click here to read more (external link).

Sri Lanka announce schedule for Afghanistan series

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Ariana: Sri Lanka Cricket have announced the dates of a three-match ODI series at home against Afghanistan. The hosts will up their preparations for the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Qualifier matches in Zimbabwe in June and July by playing Afghanistan in a three-match ODI series. Afghanistan will arrive in Sri Lanka on May 29 and the three matches will be played on June 2, 4 and 7 respectively. All the matches will be played at the MRIC Stadium in Hambantota. Click here to read more (external link).

Ex-Pakistan PM Khan Arrested Amid Deepening Political Turmoil

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Imran Khan

Ayaz Gul
VOA News
May 9, 2023

ISLAMABAD — Authorities in Pakistan Tuesday arrested former prime minister Imran Khan, the leader of the largest national political party, outside a court in the capital, Islamabad.

The 70-year-old politician was taken into custody as he prepared to attend a hearing on the dozens of charges against him ranging from alleged terrorism and corruption to treason and other criminal offenses.

Khan’s attorneys claimed that paramilitary forces physically assaulted him before taking him into custody and handing him over to anti-graft authorities accompanying them.

Khan’s party denounced their leader’s arrest.

“State terrorism – breaking into IHC (Islamabad High Court) premises to abduct Imran Khan from court premises. Law of the jungle in operation. Rangers beat the lawyers, used violence on Imran Khan, and abducted him,” tweeted Shireen Mazari, a close aide to the opposition leader, along with a purported video of security action.

Pakistan Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah confirmed Khan’s arrest, rejecting charges of physical assault and telling local media about a corruption case against the opposition politician.

The German ambassador in Pakistan had said he was “concerned about pictures circulating” of Khan’s arrest.

“Crucial to ensure highest standards of the rule of law in judicial cases & avoid over-exaggeration,” Alfred Grannas wrote on Twitter. “To all: Stay calm on all sides for the sake of #Pakistan & prioritize dialogue to work towards progress together!” the ambassador added.

He later deleted the post, saying in another tweet that it was removed “to avoid any misinterpretation that we take a side.”

Adam Weinstein, a researcher at Washington’s Quincy Institute, said, “The arrest of Imran Khan takes an already escalating political firestorm & douses it with petrol as the nation inches off an economic cliff.”

“It will harden negative views toward the military & PDM and unleash chaos in the streets. But it is also a blow to IK,” he wrote on Twitter.

The arrest came just hours after Khan added new details to his allegation that a senior general within the Pakistani military spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence or ISI, is plotting to kill him.

The opposition leader warned such an eventuality could plunge the South Asian nation of about 220 million people into a turmoil worse than Sri Lanka’s political unrest last year.

The head of his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party first made the claims in a video statement a day after the powerful military warned Khan against making what it condemned as “fabricated and malicious” allegations.

Khan was injured in an assassination attempt last November while leading an anti-government protest march near Lahore, the capital of Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province. The attack killed one person, while the PTI chief received bullet wounds in his legs.

Khan accused ISI’s Major-General Faisal Naseer of being one of the planners of the assassination attempt.

Government officials have said the assassination attempt was the work of a lone gunman, who is now in custody and confessed in a video controversially leaked to the media.

Former prime minister Khan was removed from office in a parliamentary vote of no-confidence in April 2022, a move he rejected as illegal and orchestrated by the now-retired chief of the Pakistani military, General Qamar Javed Bajwa.

His arrest is likely to worsen political turmoil in the nuclear-armed country. PTI supporters immediately took to the streets in Islamabad and other parts of the country to protest the arrest. Police in Islamabad dispersed protesters and detained dozens of them in the process.

Angry protests and demonstrations also erupted across the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province abutting Afghanistan. A large group of them marched toward the residence of the regional military corps commander in central Peshawar, the provincial capital. Protesters also blocked parts of the busy main highway linking Pakistan to landlocked Afghanistan.

There was a complete media blackout of the protests on dozens of local news channels in and around Islamabad but officials were not immediately available to respond to opposition allegations the government was responsible.

Pakistan is mired in an economic and political crisis, with the Khan-led PTI pressuring Sharif’s embattled coalition government to hold early elections.

The military has a long history of direct and indirect political intervention, with political parties and independent analysts blaming the institution for the fragility of the country’s democracy. Army generals have staged several coups and arrested politically popular prime ministers on trumped-up treason and other charges, ruling the country for nearly half its 75 years.

“Today it appears the Pakistan army has reached an “enough is enough” moment re Khan. After several false starts/unsuccessful arrest attempts by the police, this time the mil took matters into its own hands. What a mess,” tweeted Michael Kugelman, the South Asia Institute director at the Wilson Center.

Maleeha Lodhi, the former Pakistani ambassador to the United States, while responding to Khan’s arrest, described the current crisis facing the country as unprecedented.

“Of total political chaos and economic breakdown. This is untenable, and the people of the country don’t deserve this. This must change,” Lodhi wrote on Twitter.

Related

Critiquing Hekmatyar’s Comments on Sahih Bukhari

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Gulbuddin Hekmatyar

8am: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar has discussed a number of topics in his recent remarks concerning hadith books and particularly Sahih Bukhari. He asserted that those who are currently killing people in Afghanistan are adherents of Imam Bukhari and “Ahl al-Hadith”, which refers to the followers of Salafism. It appears that Hekmatyar is attempting to censure the actions of Islamic State-Khorasan (ISS-K) in order to gain the approval of the Taliban. Click here to read more (externa link).

Taliban Diplomat Defends Policies, Insists Afghan Women Education Ban Not ‘Permanent’

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Muttaqi

Ayaz Gul
VOA News
May 8, 2023

ISLAMABAD — The chief diplomat of Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban insisted Monday that his government had not banned girls’ education “permanently,” while women continue to work in different sectors across the country.

Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi addressed a seminar in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, to wrap up a four-day official visit to the neighboring country, where he also attended a trilateral dialogue with his Chinese and Pakistani counterparts.

“We have 10 million students currently attending primary-level and university-level education [in Afghanistan]. Nine million can access all forms of education. They include girls up to grade six. Around 300,000 teachers, including 92,000 females, teach in these institutions,” he said.

The hardline Islamist group reclaimed control of the country in August 2021 when the United States and NATO withdrew their troops after almost two decades of involvement in the Afghan war. The Taliban have since imposed their strict version of Islamic law or Sharia to run the impoverished, war-torn South Asian nation.

Many Afghan women, including those working for the United Nations and non-governmental groups, have been blocked from accessing work and public places.

The Taliban have rejected international demands to remove restrictions on women as interference in Afghanistan’s internal affairs.

Still in his remarks Monday, Muttaqi insisted that thousands of female doctors and nurses are working in health business sectors. Girls and women are attending madrasas (Islamic seminaries) and even teaching there.

“We have never said that female education is un-Islamic or banned permanently in Afghanistan. The decree clearly stated that female education is suspended until further notice,” Muttaqi said.

He referred to the edict issued by the reclusive Taliban chief, Hibatullah Akhundzada, last year that prohibited young girls from attending schools beyond the sixth grade and subsequently suspended female students from accessing university classes.

“We have made progress on this issue to a large extent, and the government of Afghanistan will continue to make efforts to resolve the remaining problems about this issue amicably,” Muttaqi said without elaborating.

A team of U.N. experts on human rights concluded an eight-day mission to the country last Friday, reporting an unprecedented “extreme situation of institutionalized gender-based discrimination” in Afghanistan.

“We are deeply concerned about the apparent perpetration in Afghanistan of gender persecution — a systematic and grave human rights violation and a crime against humanity,” the mission said in its preliminary findings. It noted Taliban authorities, in meetings with the U.N. team, had reiterated that they were working on the reopening of girls’ schools but did not provide a clear timeline.

Trilateral talks

Muttaqi, who faces U.N. travel sanctions, was given a waiver to make the visit to Islamabad to attend on Saturday a trilateral meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang and Pakistani Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.

Beijing and Islamabad urged the Taliban delegation to conduct counterterror actions against terrorist groups operating on Afghan soil and threatening regional security.

“We will not allow anyone to use the soil of Afghanistan against others. We have been successful in our resolve, and we will remain committed to this pledge in the future that Afghan soil is not used against anyone,” responded Muttaqi while speaking at Monday’s seminar in the Pakistani capital.

Pakistan issued a joint statement Monday about the three-nation talks, saying the participants resolved to deepen and expand their cooperation in the security, development, and political domains.

They also stressed the need for the Taliban to stop militant groups, including the outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP and the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement, or ETIM, from using Afghan soil to threaten neighboring countries.

TTP and ETIM have been waging deadly attacks, respectively, in Pakistan and China from their alleged sanctuaries in Afghanistan.

The Chinese and Pakistani delegates agreed at the meeting to enhance support for the Taliban government in the economic reconstruction of the war-torn country.

The joint statement said the three countries reaffirmed “their commitment to further the trilateral cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and to jointly extend the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) to Afghanistan.”

The CPEC is a multibillion-dollar extension to Pakistan of China’s global BRI infrastructure development project.

Chinese investment of more than $20 billion has built new roads, power plants, and ports in Pakistan to help improve its economy, linking the two allied nations through the corridor to give China access to international markets through the Arabian Sea deep-water Pakistani port of Gwadar.

The Chinese-developed and run port is expected to further facilitate trade and transit activities to and through landlocked Afghanistan to Central Asian countries.

Discrimination in Aid Distribution: Grievances of Ghazni Residents

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8am: Sources have confirmed to the Hasht-e Subh Daily that the Taliban engage in discrimination when distributing aid in districts that receive the most assistance from aid organizations. The sources indicate that aid is only available to individuals associated with the Taliban, while families whose members were active in the previous regime’s national security forces and uprisings are included in the Taliban’s blacklist, with the group attempting to prevent these families from receiving aid. Reliable sources from a humanitarian aid facilitation organization in Ghazni province, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, have revealed that the Taliban forces aid organizations to pay extortion money. The source mentioned that if the organizations refuse to pay, they face prevention excuses by the group, or even prevented from working. Although the Taliban are not directly in contact with UN-affiliated organizations, they put pressure on sub-organizations responsible for delivering humanitarian aid and extorting money from them. Click here to read more (external link).

Taliban’s Plan to Provide Financial Support for Media Raises Concerns: NAI

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Khaama: The Ministry of Information and Culture is working on a plan so that the media should receive financial support and continue serving the Afghan community. Free speech experts and media-supporting institutions are not very optimistic about the implementation of this plan. They believe that Islamic Emirate [Taliban] is trying to control media and enforce censorship. Click here to read more (external link).

Private company officially starts extraction of chromite in Khost

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Ariana: The Department of Mines and Petroleum of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) [Taliban] has announced the start of chromite mining in Khost province, in the Tani district. Mohammad Sadiq Hamza, head of mines and petroleum in Khost, told the media on Sunday that work to extract chromite has started after a local company was given a five-year contract. Hamzah said over this five-year period, 21,000 tons of chromite ore will be extracted. He said government will get 215 million afghanis from the proceeds. Click here to read more (external link).