Anti-Taliban group claims takeover of northern Afghanistan district

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NAN: The National Resistance Front (NRF) announced late Monday that its forces had conquered the Shekay district of Badakshan province. This was the first time an anti-Taliban armed group had claimed control of a district since the Taliban’s return to power last year. With 620 square kilometres of area and a population of more than 31,000, the strategic district of Shekay is located on the border of Afghanistan and Tajikistan. The Taliban district governor was arrested, along with 10 other members of the Taliban, NRF spokesperson Sebghatullah Ahmadi said in a statement. Click here to read more (external link).

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Four Civilians Arrested by Taliban in Shakey District, Badakhshan

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8am: The Taliban rebels have arrested four civilians in Badakhshan’s Shakey district on the charges of collaborating with the National Resistance Front (NRF) forces, sources said. Sources said Tuesday that these people were first called to Shahr Sabz village in the center of Shakey district and then they were detained and tortured by the Taliban. Click here to read more (external link).

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‘Nothing Left To Lose’: Afghan Women Refuse To Be Silenced In Face Of Taliban Violence, Restrictions

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By RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi
Abubakar Siddique
October 4, 2022

A deadly suicide bombing that killed dozens of Afghan girls and women last week has triggered some of the largest and most sustained protests against Taliban rule since the militant group seized power last year.

At least 52 people, mostly female students, were killed on September 30 when a suicide bomber struck a Kabul education center as hundreds of women and girls were taking practice exams. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Since then, scores of women have taken to the streets of major cities to protest the Taliban government’s restrictions on women and its inability to protect ethnic and religious minorities. Many of the victims of the Kabul suicide attack were from the mainly Shi’ite Hazara community.

Defying the Taliban’s ban on unsanctioned rallies, women have held rallies in the cities of Kabul, Herat, Mazar-e Sharif, and Ghazni and the provinces of Bamiyan and Kapisa.

Many of the protesters have been female university students, who have chanted slogans and held placards reading, “Education is our right” and “Stop Hazara genocide.”

The Taliban has responded to the protests with brute force, detaining, beating, and threatening female demonstrators.

“The Taliban grabbed the girls and dragged and beat them with the butts of their guns,” said Nahid, a female protester in the western city of Herat who did not reveal her real name for fear of retribution. “I still have bruises on my back from the beating I endured.”

She told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi that armed Taliban fighters attempted to disperse the October 2 protest in Herat by firing into the air.

“Bullets were raining everywhere,” she recalled. “They detained and severely tortured some of the men who had helped us.”

“We did not have any weapons,” said another female protester in Herat who did not want to reveal her name. “We were just chanting. But the Taliban beat us and used abusive language.”

On October 3, videos on social media showed the Taliban locking female students in Balkh University in the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif in their dormitories to prevent them from protesting.

Dozens of female students from the Al-Biruni University in Kapisa Province, northeast of Kabul, protested on October 4.

Activists say Afghan women are refusing to be silenced even in the face of mounting Taliban violence and repression.

Since the militant group returned to power in August 2021, it has imposed a raft of restrictions on women, including on their appearance, access to work and education, and freedom of movement. The rules are reminiscent of the Taliban’s first stint in power in the 1990s, when the group deprived women of their most basic rights.

In recent months, women who have protested for their freedoms have bene detained, tortured, and even forced to confess for their so-called “crimes.” The Taliban has sought to portray the women as foreign-sponsored agitators.

Maryam Baryalay, the head of the Organization for Social Research Analysis, a research organization formerly based in Kabul, says that the Taliban is wrong in assuming it can silence the voices of women. “The Taliban’s war against the women of Afghanistan is a lost war and a lost cause,” she said. “Afghan women are well aware of the righteousness of their cause, which is why their protests will not cease,” she said.

Heather Barr, associate director of the women’s rights division at Human Rights Watch, says the Taliban’s violent clampdown on women rights activists has become more brutal in recent months. She adds that the Taliban is using pepper spray and electrical devices for crowd control and abducting and detaining women.

“Even though the risks of protesting are extremely frightening, they have lost so much, so there is nothing left to lose,” Barr said. “Some of them feel that if they die expressing themselves, then that is a choice they are prepared to make.”

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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345M People Worldwide At Risk of Starvation: IRC’s Miliband

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Tolo News: The International Rescue Committee head voiced concerns over global food insecurity, saying that more than 345 million people are facing food insecurity due to climate crises, conflicts and as well as people being unable to “afford to buy food.” “Globally, we’re facing a more than doubling of extreme hunger around the world– 345 million people around the world who are just shy of famine,” said David Miliband, IRC head, to Yahoo News. Click here to read more (external link).

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Afghan Protests Continue Against School Attack as UN Raises Death Toll to 53

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Ayaz Gul
VOA News
October 3, 2022

ISLAMABAD — Female students in Afghanistan took to the streets for a third day in a row Monday to seek justice for victims of last week’s suicide bombing of an education center in Kabul, as the death toll continues to rise.

The U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said Friday’s powerful blast in the capital, Kabul, had killed at least 53 people, including 46 girls and women, and wounded more than 110 others.

“Girls and young women [were] the main victims. Casualty figures likely to rise further,” the UNAMA tweeted Monday. “Our human rights team continues documenting the crime: verifying facts & establishing reliable data to counter denial & revisionism.”

The attack targeted the private Kaaj tutoring center in Dasht-e-Barchi, a western Kabul neighborhood home to the Afghan minority Shia Hazara community.

Survivors said there were 400 boys and girls, separated by a curtain, in line with Taliban instructions, taking a mock university entrance exam when the bomber detonated his explosives in the girls’ section.

The Islamist Taliban government has come under severe criticism for failing to provide security to what rights groups see as the most persecuted Afghan minority group. The violence has sparked domestic and international outrage, prompting Afghan female students in several cities to stage protests.

On Monday, dozens of university students marched through the streets of Mazar-e-Sharif, the capital of the northern Balkh province, demanding justice for the victims.

Taliban security forces allegedly locked a group of women students in their dormitory to prevent them from joining the rally, according to social media videos. VOA could not verify the authenticity of the footage showing a girl trying to unsuccessfully break the door lock with a brick.

Kabul, western Herat, and central Bamiyan are among the cities where demonstrations have been held since Friday by mostly Hazara women students. Protesters also have pressed the Taliban to ease restrictions on women’s rights to work and education, while others have expressed support for ongoing protests in neighboring Iran.

Taliban security forces have disrupted protests by firing in the air, but some have accused them of beating or firing at demonstrators.

The Taliban have barred grades seven through 12 from resuming secondary schools in most of the country since they seized power a year ago. The Islamist group also backtracked on promises to open all Afghan schools in March.

However, the Taliban have opened public and private universities to women students across Afghanistan, with strictly segregated classrooms for male and females.

No one has claimed responsibility for Friday’s blast in Kabul, which critics see a setback to women seeking education in defiance of strict Taliban polices.

“Our last hope was educational institutions. Unfortunately, now the institutions are also under threat,” said Sakina Nazari, a 25-year-old resident and former Kaaj student whose family friend was badly injured in the attack.

Private tutoring centers have provided a lifeline to girls wanting to further their education and a chance to go to universities, where women are still allowed, though they face increased restrictions and growing economic challenges.

The UNAMA has called on the Taliban to bring to justice those responsible, urging the Islamist rulers to “fulfil obligations to ensure safety of all Afghans.” The United States, Pakistan and other countries have also denounced the violence.

The Taliban have vowed to enhance security of all Afghans following the attack and have sent their representatives to Hazara victim families in a bid to reassure them of protection against possible future attacks.

The Taliban foreign ministry in a statement has condemned Friday’s attack and other such incidents as the work of “malicious networks” and “a conspiracy by the enemies” of Afghanistan to create divisions among the Afghan people.

“The Islamic Emirate does not believe in any ethnic or religious division of the Afghan people and considers itself responsible for protecting the lives of all Afghans,” the ministry said.

“While pledging to all our compatriots that we will do more to identify and bring to justice perpetrators of these attacks, we urge all foreign parties to refrain from issuing irresponsible statements on Afghanistan’s internal affairs beyond expressing condolences.”

Previous attacks against Afghanistan’s Hazara community have been claimed by the local offshoot of the self-proclaimed, Sunni-based, Islamic State group, known as Islamic State Khorasan or ISIS-K.

The terrorist outfit has stepped up its extremist violence since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021 when all U.S.-led foreign troops withdrew from Afghanistan after almost 20 years of war.

Some information in this report came from Reuters.

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Blacklisted’ Afghan interpreters were disqualified from U.S. visas. Now they’re in hiding

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LA Times: The Times interviewed two dozen people about the issue, including interpreters, U.S. supervisors, advocates and lawyers, and reviewed hundreds of pages of internal State Department communications, government reports and visa applications. The interpreters who spoke to The Times said their visa petitions were denied despite receiving positive reviews from their military supervisors. In most cases, the denials came after the interpreters were terminated by the private contracting companies that hired them. Click here to read more (external link).

Turkish Airlines to resume Afghanistan flights

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Ariana: Turkish Airlines will resume flights to Kabul and Mazar-i-Sharif in Afghanistan in March next year, it was reported this week. Turkish Airlines operated from Istanbul to Kabul for more than a decade. Since the political change in Afghanistan in August last year, Turkish Airlines like many other foreign airlines have conducted no flights to Afghanistan. Click here to read more (external link).

Women in Central Afghanistan March in Protest Against Education Center Explosion

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Khaama: Women marched in protest against the Kaaj tragedy in Bamyan province in central Afghanistan after similar demonstrations in Kabul and Herat provinces. The demonstrator women said that no one is safe in a place where “suicides and explosions” are mentioned with pride. They cite Kaaj’s attack as an egregious example of the genocide of Hazaras in Afghanistan. Click here to read more (external link).

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