Ayaz Gul
VOA News
June 22, 2022
ISLAMABAD — A powerful earthquake in Afghanistan’s southeast has killed more than 1,000 people and injured hundreds of others, Taliban authorities said.
Rescue workers said the casualties from the quake, which struck during the early hours of Wednesday, were likely to increase further.
Deputy Taliban Minister for Disaster Management Mawlawi Sharafuddin Muslim told a news conference in the capital, Kabul that most of the devastation occurred in southeastern Paktika and Khost provinces, which border Pakistan.
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said the magnitude 6.1 quake struck about 44 kilometers from the provincial capital of Khost.
Local journalists and witnesses reported the death toll could be as high as 2,500.
Provincial chief Mohammad Amin told VOA that at least 1,000 people were killed, and 1,500 others injured in two districts of Paktika alone.
Videos shared on social media showed flattened homes and rubble. The earthquake also rattled Kabul.
Taliban authorities said people were still under the rubble and rescue efforts, backed by helicopters, were underway. They also urged all aid organizations working in Afghanistan to help in the rescue operations.
Ramiz Alakbarov, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator for Afghanistan, tweeted that his mission was “assessing the needs and responding in the aftermath of the earthquake”
The International Committee of the Red Cross tweeted that it was sending additional medical supplies to three hospitals in the areas affected by the earthquake to enable medical teams to answer to the needs of the patients.
The U.S. Embassy to Kabul, which currently operates out of Doha, said “We are deeply saddened by reports of an earthquake in eastern Afghanistan. We offer our heartfelt condolences to all who have been affected by this devastating event.”
Tremors were reportedly felt across more than 500 kilometers of Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, according to the European Mediterranean Seismological Center.
Residents in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, and the northwestern city, Peshawar, also said they experienced tremors but there were no immediate reports of casualties.
Islamabad extended condolences to Afghanistan over the devastation caused by the earthquake.
“Our authorities and institutions are working to extend required assistance to Afghanistan in coordination with their relevant institutions,” said a Pakistani foreign ministry statement.
8am: Sources have said that a young man’s body with his hands tied has been discovered in Panjshir province. Locals found the body on Wednesday (June 21st) in the river near the Kuraba region in Shotul district. Previously, three bodies were found in the river in Khenj and Shotul districts of Panjshir province. Local sources blame Taliban forces for the atrocity crimes. 
Ghulam Omar Qargha via brookings.edu: Historically, there has been a noticeable divide in Afghanistan between rural and urban communities and how they view schooling and education. Generally, students of the madrasa system (who tend to be from rural communities) have sounded the alarm that schools are a mechanism to undermine religious and cultural identities, while urban elites have championed schooling as a force of modernization and economic prosperity. The Taliban’s closing of girls’ secondary schools is the latest example of how education—and girls’ schooling, in particular—has become a proxy for larger socio-cultural, political, religious, and economic conflicts related to balancing traditional and modernist aspirations. 
Bella Caledonia: American soldiers committed horrendous atrocities in these areas, ranging from systematic rape and sexual assault to massacres of civilians. Australian soldiers also committed similar atrocities, such as tying up children and slitting their throats. British soldiers also committed atrocities in these areas, most of which are simply not known, because the findings of the British government’s official inquiry into these atrocities, Operation Northmoor, have been classified. This article will focus on the information that is currently available about how British soldiers abused and murdered Afghan children in 2011 and 2012. 
The New Humanitarian: Poor vaccine coverage coupled with widespread economic hardship in the wake of the Taliban takeover have created the perfect conditions for the virus to thrive. “The poor economical situation, the drought, the [lower] income of families faced with hunger, and fund cutting, job loss… all this is deteriorating the situation,” Hemat said. 
8am: A reliable source confirmed to Hasht-e Subh that an unidentified drone had bombed the 203rd Mansouri corps of the Taliban in Paktia province. The source said that the incident took place around 10:00 AM on Monday (June 20th). According to the source, the drone was patrolling when it was met with a reaction from Taliban troops. The aerial fighter also started firing on the Taliban, but no casualties have been reported yet. Unidentified drones have reportedly been patrolling areas in Logar province as well in the past month. 
ANI: Water of the Helmand River will be shared with Iran based on the Helmand Water treaty signed in 1973 between the two countries, reported Tolo News. The 1973 treaty between Afghanistan and Iran states that Kabul will share the water from Helmand River with Tehran at the rate of 26 cubic meters of water per second, or 850 million cubic meters per annum.