Taliban’s Suicide Brigades Threaten the Region and the World, NRF Spokesperson Reiterates

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Sibghatullah Ahmadi

8am: Two days after ISKP militants attacked a Chinese guest house in Kabul, the National Resistance Front (NRF) has suggested that the Taliban themselves are promoting extremism and terrorism. Sibghatullah Ahmadi, an NRF spokesperson, on Tuesday night (December 13th) published a photo of the ISKP attack site in Kabul, saying that the Taliban orchestrated the deadliest terrorist attacks on schools, universities, and other institutions targeting the local population and foreign citizens [in the same way] for many years. “The group even endorses the despicable and disastrous act of suicide attack,” Ahmadi added. Click here to read more (external link).

Pakistan’s Government Sets Deadline for Undocumented Afghan Refugees to Leave the Country

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Khaama: Afghan refugees in Pakistan have received warnings from the government of Pakistan that if they stay in the country beyond the specified period with no legal residence permit either from the host country or the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), they will face serious consequences. Over the past months, this is the second time the government of Pakistan is warning foreign nationals, Afghan immigrants, in particular, to extend their stay visas and other legal documents, or else they will have to pay fines to leave the country.  Click here to read more (external link).

Afghanistan Ties Iraq and Morocco in CPJ’s Index of Journalist Imprisonments

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Khaama: The number of journalists behind bars worldwide has risen to a 30-year high, according to the CPJ’s annual jail census, the Journalists Imprisonment Index, which was released on December 14th. According to the CPJ’s prison census, Afghanistan is globally ranked 17th in a tie with Iraq and Morocco as countries with the 3 journalists behind the bars. Click here to read more (external link).

Taliban to Raise $42 Million From Lifting Hunting Ban on Rare Birds for Arab Royals

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8am: The Taliban Ministry of Information and Culture has said that it has signed contracts worth $42 million with foreign tourists that allow them to hunt rare birds. Bakhtar news agency, the official Taliban-owned news website, reported on Tuesday (December 13th) that the million-dollar contracts with foreign tourists, especially Arabs, facilitate the legal hunting of some birds. The birds are called houbara bustard whose meat is prized by Arab shaikhs as an aphrodisiac. Falcons, hawks, and geese are also believed to be among their favorites. Farah, Herat, Nimruz and Helmand provinces were every year visited by foreign tourists to illegally hunt rare birds. Click here to read more (external link).

Taliban unveils giant hand-painted globe as Afghans are a step away from famine, and further economic disaster

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Khaama: Kabul Municipality [Taliban] on Tuesday inaugurated a new landmark featuring a giant hand-painted globe in Dahan-e-bagh square in the city. The globe is eight meters in diameter and is set upon a structure that has a mechanism that allows it to spin 12 times a minute, said Mohammad Khalid, deputy mayor of Kabul. “Twelve other squares are also under construction,” he said. Click here to read more (external link).

Meanwhile

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).

Related

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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