8am: China has allocated five government scholarships to Afghanistan in this new academic year, sources confirm. The source says the scholarships are given to Kandahar, Urozgan, and Helmand Taliban members who are all Pashtuns. Click here to read more (external link).
Taliban’s Virtue and Vice Ministry reject claims of ordering gender segregation in restaurants
Ariana: The Ministry of Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice has rejected claims that orders were given to restaurants in Herat to separate male and female patrons. This comes after reports emerged recently that officials from the provincial department of promotion of virtue and prevention of vice visited restaurants and instructed owners to separate patrons according to their gender. Click here to read more (external link).
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New Reports Of Fighting In Afghanistan’s Panjshir Trigger Fresh Claims Of Taliban War Crimes
By RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi
May 13, 2022
PARWAN, Afghanistan — Resistance to the Taliban is flaring up in northeastern Afghanistan, and as reports of deadly fighting increase, so are claims of war crimes against civilians.
The fighting is centered in the center and south of Panjshir Province, a traditional hotbed of ethnic Tajik resistance to the Pashtun-dominated Taliban and the last province to fall to the extremist group after it seized control of the rest of the country in August.
Residents of the southern Dara district’s Abdullah Khel Valley told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi by telephone that an influx of Taliban fighters to counter growing unrest had led to extrajudicial killings, torture, and beatings.
The violence has been attributed by some to defiance of the Taliban’s declaration that Eid al-Fitr be celebrated on May 1. Locals marked the Islamic holiday on May 2 after a prominent imam criticized the Taliban’s decision as politicized, and issued a fatwa calling for it to be celebrated in keeping with the date set by Mecca.
They also report high casualties among Taliban fighters deployed from other provinces to quell fighting led by the resurgent anti-Taliban National Resistance Front (NRF) and to round up local religious figures and other potential insurrection leaders.
“As they [the Taliban] searched for the resistance, they encountered difficulties but took a number of young men hostage,” said one resident of Abdullah Khel Valley, who declined to give his name out of fear of retribution from the Taliban.
“There are dead bodies in every corner,” said Mullah Mahad, 41, another resident of the valley. “But they [locals] don’t have the right to bury their dead.”
Another valley resident, Gul Aqa, said that clashes with the NRF resulted in heavy losses for the Taliban. “The Taliban sent more troops and military weapons to suppress the gunmen, but this time the National Resistance Front forces based in the Abdullah Khel Valley attacked the Taliban convoy,” he said.
The reported fighting has led to a war of words between the NRF and the Taliban, with the resistance group claiming in recent days that it had killed scores of Taliban fighters and taken control of large parts of the Panjshir Province’s southern Abshar and Dara districts, including the Abdullah Khel Valley.
The Taliban has denied the NRF’s claims, with spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid telling Radio Azadi last week that no such militant group is currently active in Afghanistan.
But the Taliban’s provincial police chief, Maulvi Dad Mohammad Batar, acknowledged that “there have been shootings,” but dismissed them as few in number and as acts of desperation carried out from the mountaintops.
Abubakar Sadiq, a spokesman for the Taliban’s governor of Panjshir Province, told Radio Azadi that the police chief in Rokha district had been arrested in connection with recent clashes and that “if it becomes clear that people who have been detained are involved, they will be arrested, and if they are guilty they will be dealt with legally.”
The spokesman later confirmed that six Taliban fighters had been killed in clashes in the southern Dara district, according to the Taliban-run Islamic News Agency of Afghanistan.
Reports have suggested that dozens of Taliban fighters have been killed in clashes in Panjshir, in the most significant military resistance to the militant group since it seized power.
The reports of renewed fighting have been accompanied by multiple videos on social media of apparent war crimes being carried out by Taliban fighters. The videos, which RFE/RL was not able to independently verify, purportedly show Taliban fighters beating civilians and firing at civilian homes.
Other videos show alleged Taliban fighters shooting men one by one in a trench and allegedly executing a resistance fighter.
The reports of the mistreatment and killings of civilians led the European Union’s envoy to Afghanistan, Andreas von Brandt, to express his concerns about the situation in Panjshir Province. “We mourn the innocent loss of life,” von Brandt wrote on Twitter on May 10. “Once more, the situation underlines the need for overdue inclusive solutions in governing Afghanistan.”
The NRF was formed after the Taliban recaptured Kabul on August 15, 2021, and held out against the extremist group for several weeks.
The militia is made up of civilians and former Afghan government forces. It is led by Ahmad Masud, son of former mujahedin commander Ahmad Shah Masud, who used the Panjshir Valley as a base to fight the Soviets in the 1980s and the Taliban in the 1990s.
Masud’s assassination by Al-Qaeda militants preceded the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States. The September 11 attacks, in turn, led to the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001 that overthrew the Taliban’s hard-line regime.
Local residents alleged in comments to Radio Azadi that some civilians were being subjected to torture for showing any allegiance to the slain Masud.
The resident of Abdullah Khel Valley who declined to give his name claimed that one man was thrown off a cliff by Taliban fighters because he had been photographed alongside a poster of the legendary commander. The source further claimed that the Taliban cut the ears off the man’s 16-year-old companion.
The Taliban has denied accusations by the NRF that is has detained and killed civilians, and has even claimed that many civilians in Panjshir Province’s Dara district have sided with the Taliban since their arrival. The extremist group recently distributed a video purportedly showing a gathering of Panjshir residents to discuss their security issues with the Taliban.
Ali Meysam Nazari, who heads foreign relations for the NRF, responded by denouncing the Taliban’s claims as lies, saying civilians had only gathered for the video under threat.
Aside from the reports of fighting in Panjshir, there have also been reports of increasing resistance to Taliban rule in the neighboring provinces of Kapisa, Parwan, Baghlan, and Badakhshan.
The Taliban has vowed to counter any resistance in those provinces.
Written by Michael Scollon based on reporting in Afghanistan by RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi. The correspondent’s identity has been withheld for security reasons
Copyright (c) 2022. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.
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- Politicians Call for Probe into Alleged Torture of Civilians by Taliban
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8am: Since the Taliban returned to power, the terror group’s rebels have repeatedly opened irresponsible fire on civilians at their checkpoints in a number of provinces, killing many innocent residents. Click here to read more (external link).
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Taliban’s first annual Afghan budget foresees $501 million deficit
Reuters: Afghanistan faces a budget deficit of 44 billion Afghanis ($501 million) this financial year, the country’s Taliban authorities said on Saturday without clarifying how the gap between expected revenues and planned spending will be met. Click here to read more (external link).
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Taliban in Ghazni: Government Employees Without Beard and Turban Not Allowed Entering Their Offices for Duty
8am: Sources in Ghazni province have confirmed that the Taliban have warned employees in some civilian institutions in the province about the consequences of not growing beards and wearing turbans. According to sources, the whole employees should grow beards and wear turbans during their duties hours. Taliban have stated the violators would be expelled from their duties in case of disobeying the decree. Click here to read more (external link).
Carpet Weavers in Faryab Face Plummeting Sales
Tolo News: The market for carpets from the northwestern province of Faryab province has dried up. Sellers of hand-woven carpets are dissatisfied with the decline in sales of hand-made rugs in the province. After the political change in the country, the lack of a market for weavers has affected them. Click here to read more (external link).
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Putin, Tajik President Discuss Growing Terrorist Threat in Afghanistan – Kremlin
Putin (left) and Rahmon (right) – file photo
Michael Hughes
AOPNEWS
May 13, 2022
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Tajik President Emomali Rahmon in a telephone conversation discussed the perceived boost in terrorist activity within Afghanistan’s borders and agreed to coordinate with neighboring states on a response to the threat.
Several international leaders and diplomats have alleged the presence of violent extremist groups inside Afghanistan has grown since the Taliban seized Kabul in August. The development would indicate the radical movement is violating the Doha withdrawal accord the group signed with the Americans. According to the pact, in exchange for the exit of Western forces, the Taliban agreed to prevent Afghanistan from becoming a terrorist breeding ground.
“An exchange of views was held on the situation around Afghanistan, primarily taking into account the recently increased activity of terrorist groups on Afghan territory,” the Kremlin said in a statement on Friday. “It was confirmed that the competent agencies of Russia and Tajikistan would continue to actively cooperate in order to ensure security on the Tajik-Afghan border.”
Putin and Rahmon also discussed coordination within the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) including in the context of the upcoming May 16 leaders’ meeting in Moscow.
Earlier in the day, acting Uzbek Foreign Minister Vladimir Norov announced that Tashkent would host a high-level international conference on Afghanistan in July, while bemoaning the global negligence of the situation.
“As for Afghanistan, unfortunately, we are seeing a decrease in the attention of the international community to the situation in this country,” the Uzbek foreign affairs chief told a CIS ministerial meeting.
The concerns raised by Russia and its Central Asian partners echo those the head of the United Nations voiced just a day earlier. At a counter-terrorism summit in Spain, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the rise of ISKP and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan represents a global threat.
The trend also coincides with a power struggle within the Taliban regime between two factions – a pro-al-Qaeda wing led by interior minister Sirajuddin Haqqani versus one led by defense chief Mohammad Yaqoob, the son of Mullah Omar.
Last fall, Moscow vowed to protect Tajikistan from any incursions from Afghanistan. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko in October said all aid would be provided to Tajikistan both through the CSTO and bilaterally. He said the Taliban were failing to control the situation in northern Afghanistan but hoped they will meet commitments about not attacking neighbors.
Rahmon has accused the Taliban of human rights abuses amid the radical group’s siege of the Panjshir province, where Afghan resistant fighters are based. Tajiks are the second largest ethnic group in Afghanistan with many living near the former Soviet republic’s borders.
Reports at the time had surfaced that the Taliban struck an alliance with one particular Tajik militant group which was planning to launch an attack inside Tajikistan. However, there have been incidents in recent days and weeks that have triggered alarms.
On May 8, the Islamic State claimed it fired eight rockets into Tajikistan in a statement quoted by The Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) news agency. But Tajik authorities responded by saying only bullets were fired, not rockets.
According to experts, the Islamic State in Afghanistan has been looking to recruit ethnic Tajiks in the region and nationals to attack Tajikistan. Last summer, a video circulated of a Tajik ISKP militant threatening the government in Dushanbe and calling out Rahmon by name.
“This strategic calculation based in part on the Islamic State’s success in attracting and integrating Tajik jihadists in Iraq and Syria with the founding of the caliphate in 2014 and in Afghanistan since the branch’s emergence in 2015,” analysts Lucas Webber and Riccardo Valle wrote in a piece for The Diplomat in April. “It is also proposed to discredit the Taliban as a governing body and discredit it as a religious authority in the eyes of potential Tajik supporters.”
In addition, the experts said the ISKP media campaign aims to undermine Taliban relations with neighboring states.
“ISKP’s media warfare campaign places significant emphasis on the Taliban’s foreign relations and looks to create problems between the new Afghan rulers and their neighbors as well as undermine confidence in the Taliban’s ability to provide stability in the borderlands and prevent jihadis from using Afghan territory to launch attacks,” Webber and Valle said.
Eurasia expert Bruce Pannier in a piece on Friday argued that since the US exit in August, Central Asian states have relied on the Taliban to prevent terror groups from launching cross-border attacks, a strategy he warned that is quite risky.
“The deteriorating situation in the region demonstrates the limits of Central Asian states’ security strategies, and highlights that they have few options in dealing with a new threat on their border,” Bruce Pannier wrote for The Foreign Policy Research Institute. “Central Asia’s connectivity with Afghanistan is much greater than it was when the Taliban were in power in the late 1990s. As a result, Central Asian governments can’t ignore what’s going on across the border.”