Zarifa Yaqubi Released From Taliban Custody
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).
Afghan Man ‘Milks’ Scorpions For World’s Most Expensive Liquid
Thousands of scorpions swarm under the rocks of Mohammad Sherzad’s “farm” north of Kabul. Scorpion venom can be used in various medical products and is the most expensive liquid in the world. But Sherzad says the closure of Western embassies since the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan has made exporting more difficult.
3 Killed, 18 Injured in Kabul Hotel Attack
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’
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
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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1TV Afghanistan Dari News – December 11, 2022
Pakistan Kills 4 ISIS-K Intruders from Afghanistan
Ayaz Gul
VOA News
December 10, 2022
ISLAMABAD — Pakistan said Saturday its security forces had intercepted and killed four Islamic State operatives in a remote mountainous district near the Afghanistan border.
The provincial counterterrorism department said the slain men were linked to Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISIS-K), a regional affiliate of the self-proclaimed Islamic State group, and had intruded into the mountainous North Waziristan border district from the Afghan side.
Pakistani security forces, acting on intelligence information, conducted a “search operation” and an ensuing gunfight eventually killed the intruders, according to the statement.
ISIS-K operates out of Afghanistan and plots attacks on both sides of the border. It has intensified regional terrorist activities since the Taliban took over of the conflict-torn country last year as the United States and NATO partners withdrew troops after nearly 20 years of war.
Last week, two ISIS-K gunmen opened fire on Pakistan’s embassy in the Afghan capital, Kabul, in an attempt to assassinate the head of the diplomatic mission.
Pakistan’s Charge d’Affaires Ubaid-ur-Rehman Nizamani escaped unhurt, but his Pakistani security guard was shot in the chest, according to officials in Islamabad.
The Taliban claim their security forces in recent month have killed and captured dozens of ISIS-K members in Kabul and elsewhere in the country, significantly neutralizing the terror threat. But ISIS-K continues to plot high-profile bombings and gun attacks against the Taliban and members of the Afghan minority Shiite community, killing hundreds of people in the past year.
In September, an ISIS-K suicide bomber blew himself up at the entrance to the Russian embassy in Kabul, killing six people, including two members of the Russian embassy staff.
U.S. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines warned last week that the Afghan-based terrorist group is among several top outfits posing a threat to America.
“ISIS-K is a concern and that is one that we are working to ensure that it does not become more of a concern,” Haines told the 2022 Reagan National Defense Forum in California.
“It’s largely focused on the Taliban right now and we are seeing the Taliban attempt (to combat ISIS-K). But frankly they (Taliban forces) really don’t have the capability to go after it,” she noted in her December 3 address.
Afghans with TB ‘struggling’ to get accessible treatment: MSF
Ariana: Afghanistan’s broken economy and dysfunctional health care system has left thousands of patients in a vulnerable situation across the country, especially people with tuberculosis (TB). According to Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) there is a critical shortage of advanced medical treatment available for TB patients, coupled with a widespread lack of knowledge about the disease. It is estimated that TB and its resistant forms kill more than 13,000 people in Afghanistan every year. Click here to read more (external link).
Taliban Prevents Humanitarian Aid to Be Distributed Among Residents of Ghazni’s Malistan District
8am: A week ago, an aid consignment provided by the World Food Program (WFP) arrived in Malistan’s Pashi neighborhood, sources in the Malistan district confirmed on Sunday (December 11th). However, due to the interference of the Taliban, it has not been distributed to families in need. Taliban members have been repeatedly accused of interfering and confiscating humanitarian aid delivered to the people in need throughout Afghanistan. Click here to read more (external link).