8am: This incident took place on Wednesday evening in Shirkhan Khel village, Kohistan’s first district. Armed robberies have increased in regions north of Kabul in the past few months, with most robberies are carried out using the Taliban’s title, outfits and military equipment. Click here to read more (external link).
Tolo News in Dari – January 19, 2023
Blast Rocks Afghanistan’s Northern Takhar Province
8am: Sources said a blast occurred outside the Taliban governor’s office in Takhar province. No details about the nature of the explosion and casualty toll were immediately available. Local media outlets, however, reported that the explosion was caused by a magnetic improvised explosive device (IED) planted in a civilian Corolla Toyota vehicle. Click here to read more (external link).
Afghanistan’s Winter Turned Deadly, Killing 78 People Across the Country
Khaama: Taliban authorities reported on Thursday that 78 people have died over the last couple of days during Afghanistan’s harsh winter, worsening the humanitarian crisis in the country. Amid the dire economic situation, the harsh winter has deepened the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan. As a result of extremely cold weather, 78 people have died across the country over the last week according to Shafiullah Rahimi, a Taliban Spokesperson for the Ministry of Natural Disaster Management. Some 75,0000 livestock have also died, and more will die in the coming days he added. Click here to read more (external link).
Afghanistan’s cricket team under fire as players meet with Taliban and say “politics” shouldn’t stop sports
CBS News: The national cricket team’s players and board members have met on multiple occasions with Taliban leaders, including the head of the notorious Haqqani network, and posed for photos with them. Sirajuddin Haqqani is the current acting Minister of the Interior under the Taliban regime. The FBI has offered $10 million to anyone who can provide information that leads to his arrest. The U.S. says his Haqqani network was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Afghans and dozens of American forces, many of them in suicide attacks, across Afghanistan during the two-decade war. Holding meetings with such figures has eroded support for even Afghanistan’s most beloved cricketers. Click here to read more (external link).
Kabul’s notorious drug ‘den’ cleared of addicts: officials
Ariana: Pul-e-Sokhta, in the west of Kabul, has for more than 20 years been the hub for drug addicts and their dealers in the city, but this week, the area was cleared by police, Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) [Taliban] officials said. Khaled Zadran, Kabul Police Command spokesman, said that Pul-e- Sokhta has been completely cleared of drug addicts and that those rounded up have been sent to rehabilitation centers. The addicts mostly lived under a bridge over the Kabul River. Click here to read more (external link).
UN Envoy Visits Afghanistan, Discusses Bans on Women
Ayaz Gul
VOA News
January 18, 2023
ISLAMABAD — A top U.N. diplomat held talks with the foreign minister of the ruling Taliban in Afghanistan to convey international concern about restrictions they have placed on women’s access to work, education and public life.
Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed, the highest-ranking woman in the world body, arrived overnight in the capital, Kabul, at the head of a high-level U.N. delegation.
Her visit comes nearly a month after the Islamist Taliban tightened their already sweeping crackdown on Afghan women, ordering most female NGO staff to stop work until further notice and barring girls from attending universities. The latest curbs sparked global outrage and calls for immediately reversing them.
Mohammed told Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi in the meeting Wednesday that the purpose of her visit was aimed at “witnessing the situation up close” and delivering the international community’s message about women’s access to education and work, according to Taliban officials.
Muttaqi in turn complained about a lack of cooperation from the international community to address concerns such as granting recognition to his government and removing sanctions on the banking sector and Taliban leaders, saying they were causing problems for ordinary Afghans.
“Traders are faced with extreme difficulties and they are unable to transfer funds to even import food items,” he said in his remarks at the meeting, captured on camera and released by the Taliban.
“If 1 million [girl] students are without education here, but what about those 9 million students, including boys and girls, who are going to schools?” Muttaqi asked. “They are also humans and need assistance to overcome issues facing them.”
The Taliban have banned teenage girls from attending school beyond grade six.
“Women are engaged in educational and health sectors in significant numbers, whereas those who used to work in government offices are paid salaries at home; the number of female inmates has reduced considerably,” Taliban foreign ministry spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi said in a statement that quoted Muttaqi as telling the U.N. delegation.
The foreign minister recounted that his government had established peace in Afghanistan on its own returning to power and “narcotics cultivation has dropped to zero,” noting the country used to be the biggest drug producer in the world before the Taliban takeover in August 2021.
“Ms. Mohammed … pledged to convey the realities as witnessed to the international community, taking firm steps for continued assistance to Afghanistan,” Balkhi said.
A U.N. report published in November acknowledged that the Taliban had imposed a strict ban on opium production in April 2022 but said the ban had been ineffective and that the world body estimated that opium production increased by 32% last year.
Muttaqi was also quoted as telling the U.N. team that the number of drug addicts in Afghanistan had risen to around four million before the Taliban takeover. “They are now being treated in 83 therapy centers” across the country, but these efforts have not been acknowledged by the world nor has there been any assistance in return for these efforts, the foreign minister said.
Mohammed also met with U.N. staff, aid groups and Afghan women “to take stock of the situation, convey solidarity, and discuss ways to promote and protect women’s and girls’ rights,” deputy U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq said in New York.
In those talks, Mohammed “stressed the need to uphold human rights, especially for women and girls,” and was “encouraged by exemptions” to the ban on female aid workers, Haq said. The exemptions have allowed some work to restart in areas such as health care.
Mohammed was in Kabul as part of a series of meetings that had included stops in Turkey, Qatar and Pakistan to discuss the situation in Afghanistan with diplomats, Afghan diaspora and the Organization of the Islamic Conference.
The Taliban have defended the ban on NGOs, claiming female workers were not adhering to Islamic dress codes and other Shariah principles in violation of official directives. The ban has prompted major foreign aid groups to suspend operations in Afghanistan, though some said this week they had resumed health and other programs where the Taliban have allowed women to work.
The Taliban seized power 17 months ago when U.S.-led foreign troops withdrew from the country after 20 years of war with the then-insurgent Taliban.
The Taliban appear to be making kill lists
The Washington Examiner: While the world fumes about the far-reaching impacts of Taliban misogyny, Afghanistan’s leaders have quietly begun assembling apparent kill lists of their remaining enemies. Media reports indicate that the Taliban have asked village elders and lawyers in Kabul and several northern provinces to create lists of those who worked with the former Afghan National Army or who supported foreigners prior to the Taliban’s takeover of the country. In Panjshir, where Taliban forces are actively engaged in military operations against the National Resistance Front, the Taliban are said to be searching for former government soldiers at checkpoints. In one district, Talibs have allegedly arrested several residents. Click here to read more (external link).
Tolo News in Dari – January 18, 2023
Education department in Afghanistan instructs employees to keep beards
Minute Mirror (Pakistan): In Nangarhar province of Afghanistan, the education department has instructed male employees to keep beards and female employees to wear hijab. The Directorate of Education warned employees that employees who do not follow the order can be dismissed from service. Click here to read more (external link).