Is Afghanistan Turning Into Terror Hub Under Taliban Rule?

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Taliban militants dancing (file photo)

Outlook: While Al Qaeda is regrouping in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) is also carrying out unabated attacks across Afghanistan. The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) is also present in Afghanistan. Unless the Taliban acts against such groups, Afghanistan risks once again becoming a terror hub and a danger to all of its neighbours. The Taliban has failed to keep any of its commitments to the international community, whether it was keeping terrorism in check, education for girls, or forming an inclusive government. Nothing has been done so far. Instead, Afghanistan is gradually slipping into a dark world where public flogging is back, women are not allowed to travel without a male escort, and there is a ban on entry of girls to the gym. All this is reminiscent of the first Taliban rule under Mullah Omar during 1996-2001. Click here to read more (external link).

Pakistan Plans to Launch Military Operations at Afghan Border

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Munir

Khaama: Concerned about the developments on the Afghan border, the Pakistani Army has reportedly decided to conduct a heavy military operation against the country’s growing terrorism and border infiltration. General Asim Munir, the newly appointed head of Pakistan’s armed forces, presided over a meeting of senior generals at General Headquarters (GHQs) in Rawalpindi over the weekend, CNN NEWS18 of India reported. The Pakistani military official evaluated the overall security situation in light of the rise in terrorist activities, cross-border infiltration, and Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and decided to conduct the military operation. The decision to launch the military operation follows the attack on the Pakistani embassy in Kabul earlier this month and the Afghan Border Forces attack on the Chaman Border that resulted in the deaths of six Pakistani civilians. Click here to read more (external link).

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China Says Kabul Hotel Attack Injured 5 Chinese Nationals

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Ayaz Gul
VOA News
December 13, 2022

ISLAMABAD — China confirmed Tuesday that five of its nationals were wounded in a deadly bombing-and-shooting attack targeting a hotel in Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, the previous day.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for Monday’s violence, saying its regional affiliate, Islamic State Khorasan Province, or ISIS-K, carried out the attack and targeted Chinese nationals as well as Taliban members.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin told a regular news conference in Beijing that his government was “deeply shocked” and denounced the attack in the Shar-e Naw downtown commercial area of the Afghan capital.

“As far as we know, five Chinese citizens were injured in the terrorist attack, and several Afghan military and police were also killed,” Wang said.

“China demands the Afghan side spare no efforts in searching for and rescuing Chinese individuals, and at the same time open a comprehensive investigation, severely punish the attackers, and earnestly strengthen the protection of Chinese citizens and organizations in Afghanistan,” he said.

Wang renewed his ministry’s advice for Chinese nationals to leave the South Asian nation as soon as possible.

Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said Monday three gunmen had raided the multistory hotel in the afternoon before being quickly engaged and killed by security forces. He said no foreign residents were killed.

“However, two foreign guests were injured when they jumped out of windows to save their lives,” Mujahid added. He did not elaborate, nor did he say whether Taliban forces suffered any casualties.

City residents said the siege had started with explosions followed by gunfire. Social media videos showed flames and smoke in a part of the building, with some Chinese guests jumping out or falling from the windows.

The terrorist raid came a day after the Taliban said China had asked them “to pay more attention to the security” of the Chinese embassy in Kabul.

The United States condemned Monday’s attacks, urging the Taliban to live up to their counterterrorism commitments.

“One of those commitments is to provide a society that is free from this sort of terrorist violence,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters in Washington. “So, we’ll continue to watch very closely, and we continue to stand with the Afghan people who are suffering needlessly as a result of these levels of terrorist violence,” he added.

Last week, two gunmen opened fire on Pakistan’s embassy in Kabul, in an attempt to assassinate the head of the diplomatic mission.

Pakistan’s chargé d’affaires, Ubaid-ur-Rehman Nizamani, escaped unhurt but his Pakistani security guard was shot in the chest, according to officials in Islamabad.

ISIS-K took credit for plotting the attack.

In September, an ISIS-K suicide bomber blew himself up at the entrance to the Russian embassy in the Afghan capital. That attack killed six people, including two members of the Russian embassy staff.

The Taliban claim to have brought security to the conflict-torn South Asian nation since seizing power in August last year when the United States and its NATO partners completed their military withdrawal.

But frequent bomb blasts and other militants, mostly claimed by ISIS-K, in Kabul and elsewhere in Afghanistan have raised questions about the capability of the Taliban to combat the terrorist group.

The violence has killed hundreds of people in the past year, including the Taliban and members of the Afghan minority Shiite community.

U.S. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said earlier this month that ISIS-K activities in Afghanistan concern Washington, noting that the Taliban “really don’t have the capability to go after it.”

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse.

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Zarifa Yaqubi Released From Taliban Custody

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Zarifa Yaqubi

8am: Prominent women’s rights activist, Zarifa Yaqubi, was released from Taliban custody in Kabul. A source, who refused to be identified due to security threats, confirmed to Hasht-e Subh that Miss. Yaqubi was released from Taliban custody in Kabul today (Monday, December 12th). The source did not comment on the fate of her four male colleagues who were imprisoned with her on November 3rd. Click here to read more (external link).

3 Killed, 18 Injured in Kabul Hotel Attack

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8am: The Emergency Hospital in Kabul said in a tweet that there was an explosion and gunfire near a hotel approximately 1 kilometer from the hospital. “So far, we have received 21 casualties – 3 were already dead on arrival,” said the Emergency Hospital in Kabul. Meanwhile, the Taliban in a statement said that the attack on the ‘Kabul Hotel’ building in Shahr-e-Naw’s Burj alley ended with all guests in the hotel having been rescued and no foreign national was killed. Click here to read more (external link).

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Sharif: Afghan Govt Should Ensure Incidents Like Chaman Border Shelling ‘Not Repeated Again’

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Shahbaz Sharif

Khaama: The Pakistani premier, in response to the incident of Sunday in Chaman, wrote on his Twitter handle that the “unprovoked shelling & fire by Afghan Border Forces at Chaman resulting in [the] martyrdom of several Pakistani citizens & injuring more than a dozen is unfortunate & deserves the strongest condemnation.” The Special Representative of Pakistan for Afghanistan also denounced the incident in which Afghan forces reportedly opened fire on civilians in Chaman. Mohammad Sadiq Khan urged the Afghan government to prevent such incidents and to take the “strictest possible actions” against those responsible. Click here to read more (external link).

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Pakistan-Afghanistan Border Clashes Kill 7, Injure 31

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Ayaz Gul
VOA News
December 11, 2022

ISLAMABAD — Deadly border clashes between Pakistan and Afghanistan killed at least seven people and wounded more than 30 others Sunday.

The Pakistani military said in a statement the skirmishes took place in the southwestern border town of Chaman, adjacent to the Afghan province of Kandahar.

The attack killed six Pakistani civilians and injured 17 others, it said.

But Akhtar Mohammad, a senior doctor at the main government hospital in Chaman, told VOA by phone they had received bodies of six civilians and 21 injured. He said that seven people among the injured were “in critical condition” and moved to a hospital in the provincial capital, Quetta.

The military statement said Taliban border security forces had “opened unprovoked and indiscriminate fire of heavy weapons, including artillery/mortars” against Pakistani civilian areas. The statement said Pakistani troops staged a “befitting albeit measured response” against “the uncalled-for aggression but avoided targeting innocent civilians in the area.”

Maulvi Ataullah Zaid, a spokesperson for the governor of Kandahar, told VOA by phone a Taliban border guard was killed and that 10 people, including three Afghan civilians, were wounded on the Afghanistan side.

Sunday’s clashes erupted when Pakistani troops were trying to repair a portion of the border fence on their side, but Taliban forces objected to the effort and subsequent attempts to find a negotiated settlement to the standoff failed, local officials and residents reported.

Afghanistan disputes the nearly 2,600-kilometer former British era demarcation with Pakistan, often sparking border tensions. Islamabad dismisses Kabul’s objections and maintains Pakistan inherited the international frontier when it gained independence from Britain in 1947.

Chaman and the northwestern Torkham border crossing serve as the main transit routes for landlocked Afghanistan for trade between and through Pakistan.

Last month, Pakistan had sealed the Chaman border crossing for all trade and pedestrian movements for a week to protest the killing of a Pakistani security guard by what Islamabad said was an “Afghan terrorist.”

The Taliban took over Afghanistan in August 2021 and have mostly relied on Pakistan to generate much-needed revenues for their cash-strapped administration through increased bilateral and transit trade. But tensions stemming from border issues have lately strained ties.

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