8am: The incident took place on Wednesday night (September 21st) in the health center of Krangal village, Kunar’s Pich Dara district, according to sources. The victim’s name is Elyas, and he was killed because he criticized the Taliban for watching girls and wanted to prevent them from doing so. The sources add that the Taliban called this vaccinator to them at night and shot him dead. Click here to read more (external link).
1TV Afghanistan Dari News – September 23, 2022
Thieves Steal 800 thousand US Dollars from the Taliban Finance Minister’s Residence
8am: Reliable sources from Helmand province say that 800,000 US dollars have been stolen from Hedayatullah Badri, known as Haji Gul Agha’s residency. Another source also confirms that Hedayatullah Badri is one of the partners of Haji Bashar Noorzai, one of the very beloved drug lords being supported by the Taliban who is recently released and handed over to the Taliban by the US a few days ago. It is not yet known for what purpose the so-called minister had kept this amount of money in his private residency, but since the Taliban has seized power, widespread corruption cases by the subordinates and senior members of the group have been reported. Click here to read more (external link).
Blast Near Mosque in Afghan Capital Kills at Least 7 Worshippers
Ayaz Gul
VOA News
September 23, 2022
ISLAMABAD — A bomb has exploded outside a mosque in Afghanistan’s capital city Kabul, killing at least seven people and injuring 41, including two children.
Kabul police spokesman Khalid Zadran confirmed the casualties and said worshippers were leaving the main mosque in the upscale Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood after Friday afternoon prayers when the blast hit.
“All casualties are civilians,” Zadran added.
The nearby Italian charity hospital, Emergency, tweeted it had “received 14 casualties — 4 of them were already dead upon arrival.”
It was not immediately known whether a planted device or a suicide attacker carried out the deadly bombing, nor were there any immediate claims of responsibility. An interior ministry spokesman said the blast was under investigation.
The mosque has been previously targeted by militants. A blast in 2020, when the Taliban were waging a deadly insurgency against the then-internationally supported Afghan government forces and U.S.-led foreign troops, killed two people, including the mosque’s prayer leader.
Friday’s bombing was the latest in a deadly series targeting places of worship in Afghanistan and prominent clerics associated with the ruling Islamist Taliban. Some of the attacks have been claimed by the self-proclaimed Islamic State’s Afghan affiliate, known as Islamic State Khorasan Province.
The Taliban seized power in August 2021 when government security forces collapsed in the face of stunning insurgent attacks and the United States, along with NATO allies, withdrew all their troops from the country after two decades of war.
The United States condemned Friday’s bombing in Kabul as a “vicious attack” on worshippers.
“Such an attack against people professing their faith is unjustifiable. We offer condolences to the families of the victims and hope those injured recover swiftly,” the U.S. embassy wrote on Twitter.
Washington and Western countries relocated their diplomatic missions from the Afghan capital to Qatar shortly before the Taliban took control of the country.
The Taliban and the current Afghanistan
Taliban militants (file photo)
Modern Diplomacy: After the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan, the Afghan state and the public rapidly declined. The country’s territories have become the source of international terrorism and many global problems. In addition to the economic decline, there has been a rise in drug production in Afghanistan. Drugs are one of the Taliban’s main income zones, and their power has re-activated the production and export of opium and heroin. Click here to read more (external link).
Hundreds of People in Southern Afghanistan Contract Tuberculosis
Khaama: Local Taliban health officials in the southern Afghan province of Zabul said that at least 600 people have fallen ill with tuberculosis in the past few months. Dr. Abdul Hakim Hakimi, the Taliban Director of Public Health in Zabul province told the media that the prevalence of tuberculosis has “unfortunately” increased in several villages and districts in Zabul province. Click here to read more (external link).
Taliban’s Discrimination Against Persian Words and Expressions
8am: In the past few months, the Taliban have continued to remove Farsi/Persian words and terminologies from the boards of government institutions, and have also changed the boards of the appeal courts of Ghor and Bamyan provinces. This is even though the absolute majority of the residents of these two provinces speak Farsi/Persian. At that time, several civil and media activists of Ghor said in connection with the removal of the Farsi/Persian words and terms from the court of this province as ignoring the mother tongue and linguistic identity of the inhabitants of this land and considered this as disrespectful to those who 900 years ago started to expand the territory of the Farsi/Persian language in the Indian subcontinent. They have called this behavior of the Taliban as anti-Persian and coercion. Click here to read more (external link).
Tolo News in Dari – September 22, 2022
Taliban’s Illegitimate Government Runs on Collecting Charities from the Poor Farmers
8am: Local sources in Takhar report that the Taliban in this province collect tithes from farmers’ crops several times. On Thursday, September 22, a source said, quoting the farmers of some districts in this province, that the Taliban has not defined any mechanism for tithes collection, but there are local Taliban commanders who collect tithes individually from time to time. According to him, three to four people representing the Taliban commanders visit their rice-threshing fields every day, and each of them demands tithes on products. A farmer, on the condition of anonymity, revealed, saying that the local commanders threaten the farmer with harsh punishment and torture in case of resistance. Click here to read more (external link).
Afghanistan receives 40 mln USD cash aid
Xinhua: Afghanistan received 40 million U.S. dollars in cash as humanitarian aid to bolster its impoverished economy on Wednesday, the country’s central bank announced. The war-town country received a similar amount on Sept. 13 as part of support to raise the country’s foreign reserve, which is more than 1 billion U.S. dollars. Click here to read more (external link).