8am: A local Taliban member, Sayed Abdul, shot and injured a taxi driver, Raheb, in the center of Yekawlang’s first district, sources told Hasht-e Subh on Thursday, January 26. Raheb, however, died due to serious injuries and excessive bleeding while being taken to a nearby hospital, sources added. “Raheb, 43, was driving on the Yakawlang’s first district – Bamiyan highway when being shot by the Taliban member,” sources detailed. Click here to read more (external link).
Deputy UN chief says Taliban only concerned about ‘recognition’
Ariana: The UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed, who has just wrapped up a two week trip to Afghanistan and the region, told reporters in New York on Wednesday that she had tried to get the voices of Afghan women heard at all her meetings with Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) [Taliban] officials. According to her, the Islamic Emirate’s only emphasis was on their government being recognized globally and having a representative in the United Nations. Click here to read more (external link).
Related
Russia, Pakistan Discuss ‘Practical Engagement’ With Afghan Taliban
Ayaz Gul
VOA News
January 25, 2023
ISLAMABAD — Russia and Pakistan emphasized in bilateral talks Wednesday the need for “practical engagement” with Afghanistan’s Taliban but ruled out formal recognition of the Islamist rulers until they address international concerns over women’s rights and inclusive governance.
The Russian presidential envoy for Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, led his delegation in the talks with Pakistani officials in Islamabad and briefed them on his meetings earlier this month with the Taliban in Kabul.
Kabulov said Moscow was continuing to engage with the Taliban but was not considering granting legitimacy to the de facto Afghan rulers “for the time being,” official Pakistani sources privy to Wednesday’s meetings told VOA.
The sources quoted the Russian envoy as saying he “advised” the Islamist Taliban to move toward creating a politically inclusive government and easing curbs on women, saying that otherwise there can be no movement forward on the issue of their legitimacy, nor can Afghanistan get any substantial support from the world.
A brief Pakistani statement posted on Twitter after Kabulov’s meeting with Deputy Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said the two sides “emphasized [the] need for practical engagement with the interim Afghan government.”
The Pakistani side also reiterated that Islamabad was not considering giving the Taliban formal recognition and would do so only collectively with the international community, the sources said.
The foreign ministry in a formal statement issued later offered few details of the meeting and did not mention the issue of recognition of the de facto Afghan authorities.
The statement quoted Khar as urging the international community “to continue extending assistance and support, in order to address urgent humanitarian needs and to provide a sustainable pathway for Afghanistan’s prosperity and development.”
The Taliban reclaimed power in Afghanistan in August 2021 following the end of almost 20 years of U.S.-led foreign military intervention in the conflict-torn South Asian nation.
The world has not yet formally recognized the male-only Taliban government, mainly over human rights concerns and curbs it has placed on women’s access to work and education.
While the United States and Western nations at large shifted their Afghan diplomatic missions to Qatar after the Taliban captured Kabul, several countries, including Pakistan, Russia, China, Turkey and Iran, have kept their embassies open and maintain close contacts with the hard-line rulers.
Chinese support
Last week, newly appointed Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang spoke with his Taliban counterpart, Amir Khan Muttaqi, and reaffirmed Beijing’s support for the group to establish what he called “a broad and inclusive political structure” in Kabul.
Afghan women have been excluded from most areas of the workforce and have been banned from using parks, gyms and public bath houses. The Taliban have refused to reopen secondary schools for girls beyond grade six since returning to power.
The hard-line Taliban reject criticism of their administration, saying the government represents all ethnic and political groups in Afghanistan. They also strongly defend restrictions on women, saying the policies are in line with Afghan culture and Islamic law, or Shariah.
Last month, the Taliban authorities closed universities to female students until further notice, and they forbade women from working for national and international nongovernmental organizations.
The Taliban’s curbs on Afghan female aid workers have forced major international charity groups to halt some of their programs in a country where 97% of the estimated population of 40 million lives below the poverty line and nearly half of them need humanitarian assistance.
Genomic sequencing of poliovirus shows links to Afghanistan
Child getting polio drops (file photo)
Dawn: The genomic sequencing of the only poliovirus, detected from the sewage water in Pakistan during the current year, shows that the virus belongs to Nangarhar province of Afghanistan. Federal Minister for Health Abdul Qadir Patel said that Pakistan and Afghanistan were together in their fight against polio virus. “While the isolation of the virus is a cause of concern, it is excellent to note that it was detected promptly. This timely detection of the virus in the environment is crucial in protecting the children from being paralysed by the poliovirus,” he said. Click here to read more (external link).
If You Were Ahmad Massoud, What Would You Do?
Massoud
8am: Ahmad Massoud was a regular person prior to the collapse of the republic. In the year or two before the fall, he attempted to bring together the anti-Taliban political group that had fallen apart and to prepare for the difficult times ahead. Click here to read more (external link).
Related
Afghanistan media profile
BBC News: Afghan media have faced difficulties since the Taliban took power in Kabul on 15 August 2021. Outlets have endured severe restrictions, an economic crisis and waning Western support. There is growing self-censorship and editorial appeasement of the Taliban. Freedom of expression has largely disappeared. Click here to read more (external link).
Tolo News in Dari – January 25, 2023
Ban on NGO Female Employees Will not be Lifted: Taliban Minister
Khaama: Mullah Mohammad Abbas Akhund, the Acting Minister of Disaster Management of the Islamic Emirate has said the decree banning women employees from working for NGOs will not be lifted, and the international community should respect the Islamic culture of Afghanistan. Click here to read more (external link).
Taliban to Deduct Teachers’ Salaries, Justifying That They Received UNICEF Aid 2 Months Ago
Taliban militants dancing (file photo)
8am: “The Taliban have issued a new order, according to which, the teachers’ two-month salaries will be returned to the [Taliban] government treasury because of UNICEF’s humanitarian aid,” said the teacher. “In this extreme cold, teachers, who desperately need help, are wandering with the question of what to eat and how to pay bills. Is humanitarian aid provided to be taken back from them?” the teacher asked. Recently, an international media outlet reported that the Taliban, since taking over Afghanistan, illegally looted and stored $1 billion of humanitarian aid provided to this country. Click here to read more (external link).
Afghanistan’s Ethnic Kyrgyz Want To Escape The Taliban, But It’s No Easy Task
By Baktygul Chynybaeva
Farangis Najibullah
January 24, 2023
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Dozens of ethnic Kyrgyz from Afghanistan’s remote Wakhan Corridor are calling on the government in Bishkek to repatriate them to their ancestral homeland so their children can get the education that the Taliban has denied them.
In video statements sent to RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service, the families say they are staying in rented homes near the Tajik border in the Ishkashim district of Afghanistan’s northeastern Badakhshan Province as they wait for Bishkek to help them relocate to Kyrgyzstan.
One of the men said they had recently left their homes in Big Pamir and Little Pamir in the Wakhan Corridor — the most remote parts of Badakhshan and home to at least 1,500 ethnic Kyrgyz, also known as the Pamir Kyrgyz.
“We sold all our belongings and livestock and moved here. We can’t return to Pamir anymore,” said Muhammad Abdulzhapar-uulu. “We’re living here with this hope that our fellow Kyrgyz [in Kyrgyzstan] will find us and take us out of here.”
Sitting next to his wife and their three young children, Abdulzhapar-uulu said the couple’s fourth child, a girl, had recently died due to the extreme cold.
Kyrgyz officials say they are aware that nearly 90 ethnic Kyrgyz are waiting for Bishkek to facilitate their repatriation. Bishkek has said it’s committed to repatriate all ethnic Kyrgyz from Afghanistan.
But the Kyrgyz Afghans’ lack of passports and other logistical hurdles were making it difficult for the Kyrgyz government to arrange their return, the officials said.
The Taliban-led government in Afghanistan halted the issuance of passports in October 2022, citing “technical problems” and leaving many desperate Afghan citizens unable to travel abroad.
“There are 88 ethnic Kyrgyz in [the Badakhshan provincial capital of] Faizabad who can’t get passports to come here,” Kyrgyz parliamentary deputy Cholpon Sultanbekova told RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service. “As soon as we received appeals from our fellow Kyrgyz, we contacted the relevant Kyrgyz government agencies about it. We also sought financial aid to help the ethnic Kyrgyz there and are waiting for the government’s decision.”.
Kyrgyzstan’s Foreign Ministry hasn’t yet publicly commented on what measures it was planning to help the ethnic Kyrgyz stranded in Ishkashim. The Kyrgyz government relocated 50 Pamir Kyrgyz in 2017 and another 50 in 2019 from Afghanistan for permanent resettlement in Kyrgyzstan.
The returnees have been given homes, access to education and health care, and assistance in finding jobs. As part of a government program for repatriation of ethnic Kyrgyz from abroad, they have also been granted an expedited citizenship procedure.
Those repatriated in 2017 and 2019 have resettled in the eastern Naryn and southern Osh provinces, respectively. Despite the government’s help, however, some of the returnees ended up going back to Afghanistan, saying they found it difficult to adapt to the way of life in Kyrgyzstan.
But that was before the hard-line Taliban came to power in Afghanistan. Now, the Pamir Kyrgyz are pleading with the Kyrgyz government, saying that they fear for the future of their children, especially their education.
The Taliban-led government has banned girls’ education after primary school. And with international aid dwindling since the Taliban takeover, the country is also facing severe economic hardship.
In a video statement, one Pamir Kyrgyz man, Mazhyraiym Abdulzhalil-uulu, said that not only his teenage daughter, but his two sons were left out of school, as the Taliban closed down some of the boys’ schools, too. “I bear responsibility for my children to receive an education. Therefore, I would like to relocate to Kyrgyzstan. I want my daughter to receive an education, so please take us out of here,” he said. “If I die here, my children will be left uneducated.”
Abdulzhalil-uulu said that in Afghanistan he had his own house and relatively comfortable life, but that his family wanted to leave Kyrgyzstan for good to be with their “own people.”
In mid-July 2021, a month before the fall of the Western-backed government in Kabul, 345 Pamir Kyrgyz fled to neighboring Tajikistan as the Taliban advanced toward the north and northeast of Afghanistan.
Kyrgyzstan quickly announced that it was ready to accept the refugees. But Dushanbe sent them back to Afghanistan, saying the Afghan government had guaranteed their safety. The government, however, collapsed the following month.
As the Taliban returned to power, Kyrgyzstan reiterated its commitment to repatriate the ethnic Kyrgyz from Afghanistan.
In September 2021, Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov officially launched the construction of a new residential area for the Pamir Kyrgyz in Osh’s Chon-Alai district. The government allocated 30 hectares to build up to 400 residential homes in the area. The project also included various social centers, medical facilities, and a school for 275 children.
Japarov has said he wants to repatriate all ethnic Kyrgyz from Afghanistan to their ancestral home.
In July 2022, the Kyrgyz government said it was setting aside nearly $3 million to return and resettle the Pamir Kyrgyz within the following two years.
Ethnic Kyrgyz have lived in the Wakhan Corridor as far back as the 15th or 16th century, with nomadic Kyrgyz herders using the area to graze their livestock in warmer seasons, according to historians.