8am: Reliable sources confirmed to Hasht-e Subh that the Taliban opened these graves on Thursday (December 15th) in the Tawakh and Dashtak villages of Anaba district. It is reported that Taliban members did not find any arms in their attempts. Residents consider the Taliban’s move as dishonoring the dead. It is also not permissible, in Islam, to show any kind of disrespect toward graves. Click here to read more (external link).
Related
ISIS Militants
Akmal Dawi
VOA News
December 15, 2022
Following this week’s Islamic State attack on a guesthouse in Kabul, U.S. officials say the terrorist group is recruiting a multiethnic force that threatens security in neighboring countries and that the Taliban need to do more to eliminate the threat.
While the Taliban claim they have restored peace in Afghanistan, a local offshoot of IS, the Islamic State-Khorasan Province (ISKP), has carried out a string of high-profile terrorist attacks in several Afghan cities over the past year.
On Monday, IS fighters stormed a hotel in Kabul, killing several people and wounding others, including five Chinese citizens.
Previously, U.S. officials had said that most IS fighters in Afghanistan were ethnic Pashtuns from the volatile Afghanistan-Pakistan border regions and that many had links to the Taliban.
However, after the Taliban seized power last year, there were concerns that some former Afghan army and intelligence forces were joining IS ranks to defy Taliban persecution.
Some of the recent ISKP attacks in Afghanistan, including Monday’s attack and an attack in June on a Sikh temple in Kabul, appeared to involve fighters who were from neighboring Central Asian countries.
“IS in Afghanistan remains a multiethnic terrorist network and draws most of its recruits from within Afghanistan,” a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department told VOA this week.
ISKP first appeared in eastern Afghanistan in January 2015. In late 2019, the U.S. and the former Afghan government announced the terror group was nearly decimated as hundreds of its fighters were killed in joint counterterror operations.
ISKP, however, survived and even managed to kill 13 U.S. military personnel in a suicide attack at Kabul airport in August 2021 – the last U.S. casualties in Afghanistan.
Boosting border security
“So far, attacks inside Afghanistan by jihadis based in Tajikistan have been unusual,” Graeme Smith, a senior consultant with the International Crisis Group, told VOA, adding that most Central Asian nations perceive militancy emanating from Afghanistan.
Earlier this year, ISKP fighters fired several rockets at Tajikistan and Uzbekistan from Afghanistan in what appeared to be an effort by the group to instigate regional conflicts.
“It’s clear that greater regional cooperation on security issues is necessary, especially along Afghanistan’s rugged borders,” Smith said.
Among the six countries surrounding Afghanistan, Tajikistan in particular has developed unfriendly relations with the Taliban regime, primarily by hosting leaders of the anti-Taliban forces that have launched an armed insurgency in pockets of northern Afghanistan.
Tajik President Emomali Rahmon has also called for the creation of an inclusive government in Afghanistan where ethnic Tajiks are given a fair share in the Cabinet.
“Tajikistan is rightly concerned about terrorist travel and terrorist threats emanating from Afghanistan and is taking important steps to address the threat,” said the State Department spokesperson.
While calling on the Taliban to eliminate terrorist groups inside Afghanistan, the U.S. has maintained security cooperation with Central Asian nations to boost their border security.
“We have worked with our Central Asian partners, including Tajikistan, for many years to support improved border security and to build law enforcement capacity to interdict terrorist travel. This security cooperation includes training, assistance, mentorship and equipment to counter terrorist activity and curtail transnational crime,” the spokesperson said.
Declining counterterrorism cooperation with the U.S., Taliban authorities insist that their globally isolated Islamist regime is capable of eliminating ISKP independently — a mission even U.S., NATO and former Afghan forces could not complete.
U.S. intelligence officials have warned about the Islamic State’s growing capabilities in Afghanistan but have doubted the group’s ability to strike the U.S. in the near future.
The #Taliban Higher Education Minister Mulawi Nida Muhammad Nadeem says Among the #mujahideen , anyone who has carried out many explosions, we do not take the university exam from him.
pic.twitter.com/Pr0wfGQAFu— Abdulhaq Omeri (@AbdulhaqOmeri) December 4, 2022
By Abubakar Siddique
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
December 15, 2022
One of the Taliban’s main goals since seizing power in August 2021 has been to transform Afghanistan’s education system.
Since October, that task has fallen to Nida Mohammad Nadim, a hard-line cleric who was appointed as the minister for higher education.
A former governor and military commander, Nadim has vowed to root out all forms of the modern secular education that thrived in Afghanistan after the U.S.-led invasion in 2001 toppled the Taliban’s first regime. He has also voiced his opposition to education for girls and women, calling it un-Islamic and against Afghan values.
His comments have sparked controversies and fueled speculation that the Taliban is planning to further restrict female education.
The militants have already banned girls from attending high school and imposed gender segregation and a new dress code at universities. They have also banned women from applying for many university courses.
The Taliban has also vowed to overhaul the national curriculum and unveiled plans to build a vast network of madrasahs, or religious seminaries, across the country’s 34 provinces.
‘Debauchery And Obscenity’
Since his appointment, Nadim has scrapped all of the rules and bylaws of the ministry tasked with regulating and overseeing public universities in Afghanistan. He has also appointed Taliban fighters as officials and teachers at universities, despite their lack of qualifications.
In a speech on December 4 in the western city of Herat, Nadim said that it would be “disrespectful” for members of the Taliban to take exams to determine their academic qualifications. He insisted that a Taliban fighter’s credentials were based on the “number of bombs” he had detonated.
Last month, Nadim also blasted Amanullah Khan, Afghanistan’s former reformist king who is widely regarded as a national hero for regaining the country’s independence from Britain in the early 20th century and his efforts to modernize Afghanistan.
Nadim accused the monarch of “bringing a recipe for debauchery and obscenity from foreign lands” by promoting female education in the 1920s. The Taliban official claimed that “education for women clashed with Islam and Afghan values.”
‘A Bad Omen’
Observers said that Nadim’s appointment and rise within the Taliban suggest that the militant group is planning to impose a blanket ban on female education like during its first stint in power from 1996 to 2001.
“His appointment to the higher education ministry is a bad omen,” said a Kabul-based analyst who spoke to RFE/RL on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.
Nadim was appointed by the Taliban’s supreme leader, Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, who has the final say under the clerically led system. Observers say that Akhundzada is steering the Taliban in an even more hard-line direction.
The Kabul-based analyst said Nadim is a member of a council of Taliban clerics who have advised Akhundzada since the group seized power last year.
Sami Yousafzai, a veteran Afghan journalist and commentator who has tracked the Taliban since its emergence in the 1990s, said Nadim has endeared himself to Akhundzada by implementing his orders and vision.
“He acts like a good soldier and obeys orders,” Yousafzai said. “He just wants to please the hard-line Taliban leaders pushing for a complete ban on women’s education.”
In a dramatic, last-minute decision, the Taliban backtracked on its pledge to reopen high schools for girls in Afghanistan in March, highlighting the divisions within the group. Observers said Akhundzada likely made the U-turn to appease Taliban ultraconservatives who are vehemently against any form of female education.
‘Fear Of Their Leaders’
Nadim, who is believed to be in his 40s, established a madrasah in the southern province of Kandahar after the U.S.-led invasion. He later joined the Taliban and became a member of the group’s military commission in Kandahar.
Nadim earned the title Sheikh al-Hadith, a distinction reserved for the most eminent scholars of the Prophet Muhammad’s sayings.
Observers have said that Nadim’s religious credentials have endeared him to Akhundzada, who has the same title and is respected among the Taliban as a scholar and jurist.
After the Taliban takeover, Nadim was appointed as the governor for the eastern province of Nangarhar. Following a reshuffle in February, he gained the coveted governorship of Kabul Province, which includes the capital.
A source with knowledge of the Taliban’s internal politics told RFE/RL that Nadim has aligned himself with powerful ultraconservative clerics close to Akhundzada. They include Abdul Hakim Haqqani, the Taliban’s chief justice, Mohammad Khalid Haqqani, the head of the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, and Education Minister Habibullah Agha.
The source said Nadim’s predecessor, Abdul Baqi Haqqani, had enraged ultraconservatives by allowing women to attend university.
The source said Nadim’s opposition to female education has angered some Taliban pragmatists who fear that the group’s restrictions on girls and women will prevent them from gaining international recognition and assistance.
“But they are unable to open their mouths for fear of their leaders,” the source said.
The Guardian (UK): Ministers have announced a statutory judge-led inquiry into allegations of more than 50 summary killings by SAS soldiers in Afghanistan, a decision made after years of reports that elite British troops killed civilians in cold blood. In a statement to the House of Commons, Andrew Murrison, the minister for defence people, said the Ministry of Defence (MoD) would concede to longstanding demands for an “independent statutory inquiry” after years of dismissing the idea. The inquiry will cover the period from mid-2010 to mid-2013. Click here to read more (external link).
Related
The Stateman: The breakdown of dialogue and increasing tensions with the Taliban do not augur well for the security of Pakistan. The country was responsible for the success of the Taliban in the capture of Afghanistan twice, in 1996 and 2021. Meanwhile ordinary Pakistanis and watchers of the situation in and around the region keep wondering what Pakistan’s response – whenever it gets its act together – will be to the Tehrik-e-Taliban e Pakistan ( TTP) attacks into Pakistan. That the Taliban, even the Haqqanis, seem reluctant to hold TTP back could become an existential worry for Islamabad because in the process the people in the tribal belt and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are becoming increasingly restless. They are providing support to the TTP. Opening up to India adds to Pakistan’s future options. Slowly but surely Pakistan’s strategic depth in Afghanistan is melting away. Click here to read more (external link).
Related
Ariana: As the people of Afghanistan wrestle with one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, Afghanistan was listed as one of the top 3 countries on the International Rescue Committee’s (IRC) annual Emergency Watchlist 2023, which highlights the 20 countries most in danger of aggravating humanitarian crises in 2023. IRC ranked Afghanistan after Somalia and Ethiopia on its list of the 20 countries that would experience the worst humanitarian disasters in the upcoming year, on Wednesday, December 14, stating that around 340 million people globally would depend on humanitarian aid. Click here to read more (external link).
8am: On Thursday (December 15th), local sources confirmed to Hasht-e Subh that the Taliban commanders in Helmand treated the Kandahari Taliban in a humiliating manner, which caused them to desert military service and leave the 215 Maiwand Corps’ base. Video footage, which was made available to Hasht-e Subh, also shows Taliban fighters leaving the Taliban camp in Helmand collectively in a convoy of military vehicles. Click here to read more (external link).
Ariana: A decision on whether the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) [Taliban] administration and the Myanmar junta can send a United Nations ambassador to New York has been postponed for a second time, but could be reconsidered in the next nine months, according to a UN credentials committee report. Competing claims were again made for the seats of Myanmar and Afghanistan with the IEA administration and Myanmar’s junta pitted against envoys of the governments they ousted last year. Click here to read more (external link).
Tolo News: Clashes have resumed between Islamic Emirate forces [Taliban] and the Pakistan military along the Durand Line in Spin Boldak in Kandahar province, local officials said. The motive behind the fighting is still unclear but the residents said the clashes happened when the Islamic Emirate forces tried to build a checkpoint near the Durand Line. This is the second incident between the two sides in the last week. Click here to read more (external link).
Related