Farooq Wardak
8am: Recently, some prominent figures who were accused of corruption and suspicious acts in favor of the Taliban during the former regime have returned to Afghanistan in response to the invitation of the Taliban. Their mafia network had infiltrated from the presidential palace to the Ministries of Education, Information and Culture, Higher Education, and Hajj and Endowments. Click here to read more (external link).
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John Sopko
Mustafa Sarwar
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
June 10, 2022
The head of a U.S. government watchdog says he is concerned that money sent by the United Nations to Afghanistan for humanitarian and economic aid will end up in the hands of the Taliban government.
In a wide-ranging interview with RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi, John Sopko, the U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), said his organization has concerns over the funds but since it has no presence inside the country, it will have to rely on the UN to ensure no money goes to the Taliban.
Afghanistan, one of the most aid-dependent countries in the world, faced an unprecedented humanitarian crisis and a collapsing economy after the Taliban seized power in August. Instead of resolving the unfolding problems, the Islamists focused on reestablishing hard-line governance by recreating their brutal regime that forced millions to flee Afghanistan in the 1990s.
This prompted the UN to embark on a new approach by directly injecting cash aid into the economy this year.
In late April, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres told journalists that the United Nations had flown $500 million in cash into Afghanistan.
That amount has since grown, with officials at the Da Afghanistan Bank, the country’s central bank, saying last month that the international community had in total delivered $760 million in cash to help the struggling country.
The UN typically used to deliver some $32 million to the country on a weekly basis.
“We have been talking to the UN officials about how they are safeguarding [those] funds,” he said in the interview.
“We have had discussions on best practices for protecting it…We are hoping it’s protected but it’s more difficult to ensure that since we at SIGAR have no presence in Afghanistan,” he added.
The United States and other foreign donors have continued to withhold most of their financial assistance to Afghanistan fearing that, if the Taliban were to receive those funds, it would reward and legitimize a regime that took power by force and has committed gross human rights violations.
“We recognize that humanitarian aid is not enough,” Sopko said, adding that in the absence of a cash infusion, the collapse of the economy could have “devastating consequences for the people of Afghanistan.”
Saber Momand, a spokesman for the central bank added that “this aid preserves the value of the afghani [currency].”
Speaking about the latest SIGAR report, Sopko said that its findings show that former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled with less than half a million dollars as he left the country in a helicopter fleet on August 15, dispelling rumors that he took as much as $169 million out of the country.
“The helicopters, the way they are configured, they couldn’t have carried a bulk amount of cash,” he said.
“You’ve to realize that 169 million dollars in one hundred dollar bills would be equal to about two tons,” Sopko added.
In a previous interim report on the rapid collapse of the Afghan security forces last month, SIGAR blamed Washington’s peace deal with the Taliban.
Sopko said the main reason behind the collapse was that President Joe Biden’s administration implemented the initial peace agreement President Donald Trump signed with the Taliban in February 2020.
Under the agreement signed in the Qatari capital Doha, Washington agreed to withdraw all its troops in return for the Taliban counterterrorism guarantees and peace talks with the pro-Western government.
“That was basically the death knell to the ability or willingness of a lot of the soldiers and the police to continue fighting,” he said.
With contributions from RFE/RL’s Abubakar Siddique
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8am: Sources told Hasht-e Subh on Saturday (June 11th) that the clash broke out between Mawlawi Abdul Qadir and the Taliban’s intelligence forces in the Kalfagani area of Taloqan city. Sources further stated that the fighting started today afternoon, adding tha four Taliban forces and four civilians have been killed and several others wounded so far. Click here to read more (external link).
Tolo News: Girls interviewed by TOLO news expressed concerns over the closing of schools and said that they have been struggling with mental stress due to this issue. They called on the Islamic Emirate to reopen the schools as soon as possible. The girls’ schools beyond grade six have been closed for nearly 270 days. Click here to read more (external link).
Dr. Abdullah
Ariana: Abdullah Abdullah, the former chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation, returned to Afghanistan on Saturday after spending six weeks in India visiting family. On his arrival, Abdullah urged the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) to provide a peaceful life for the people. Click here to read more (external link).
8am: Nearly 10 months after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, sources in the northern parts of the country have reported that foreign fighters who fought along with the Taliban to defeat the former regime are making sure that they would permanently stay in Afghanistan by marrying Afghan girls and widows. According to sources, more than 2,000 Chechen and Uzbek fighters based in the Northern provinces are now marrying young girls and even Afghan widows. Click here to read more (external link).
Ayaz Gul
VOA News
June 10, 2022
ISLAMABAD — Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban have illegally detained and tortured residents in northern Panjshir province for their alleged links to armed opposition forces, Human Rights Watch said Friday.
The U.S.-based global rights monitoring group said fighting had escalated in Panjshir since mid-May, when fighters of the National Resistance Front (NFR) started attacks on Taliban units and checkpoints. The violence prompted the Taliban to deploy thousands of fighters to the province and conduct search operations.
“Taliban forces in Panjshir province have quickly resorted to beating civilians in their response to fighting against the opposition National Resistance Front,” said Patricia Gossma, the associate Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
“The Taliban’s longstanding failure to punish those responsible for serious abuses in their ranks puts more civilians at risk,” she added in the statement.
The Pashtun-based Islamist Taliban is reportedly struggling to effectively control Panjshir, a traditional NRF stronghold and one of the non-Pashtun Afghan provinces.
The report quoted former detainees alleging that Taliban forces detained about 80 residents in Panjshir’s Khenj district and beat them to compel them to provide information about the NRF. Out of those, 10 suspects are still being held on charges that their relatives are members of the NRF.
Former detainees were quoted as saying the district jail held nearly 100 others who have alleged links to the NRF and that none had access to their families or lawyers.
“Taliban forces in Panjshir have imposed collective punishment and disregarded protections to which detainees are entitled,” Gossman said. “This is just the latest example of Taliban abuses during fighting in the region 10 months after the Taliban took power.”
Human Rights Watch stressed that denying detainees access to lawyers and relatives is prohibited and increases the risk of abuses. The punishment of individuals for alleged actions of others is a violation of the laws of war and a war crime, the report warned.
Taliban authorities have consistently rejected reports of fighting and accusations of abuses in Panjshir as baseless media propaganda, insisting their return to power has brought stability and ended years of war in Afghanistan.
In a statement issued Thursday in response to allegations of rights abuses against prisoners by members of the intelligence service, the Taliban claimed that “criminals are being treated strictly in line with the principles of the sacred religion of Islam.”
The NRF, headed by the self-exiled Ahmad Massoud, is the principal armed opposition group in Panjshir and neighboring northern Afghan provinces. It includes some fighters who had served in the former U.S.-trained national security forces of the Western-backed Afghan government overthrown by the Taliban nearly 10 months ago.
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8am: Locals say the Taliban have recently moved a reserve battalion to Kapisa province. The unit is said to have consisted of 400 armed personnel. A reliable source told Hasht-e Subh on Friday (June 10th) that the Taliban had been moving troops into the Sanjan area of the first district of Kapisa province for the past three days. The source added that Taliban fighters have forcibly evicted two civilian families from their houses to a mosque in the area, turning civilian buildings into military bases. Click here to read more (external link).
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