Taliban leader Mullah Baradar with Pakistan’s ISI Chief Faiz Hameed
Dawn: US Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken on Wednesday redesignated Pakistan as a country of particular concern (CPC) for violating religious freedom and also rebranded the Taliban as an entity of particular concern. Click here to read more (external link).
By Bruce Pannier
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
November 18, 2021
When the Taliban seized control of most of Afghanistan in mid-August, one of the inevitable ripple effects was going to be a crackdown on suspect Islamic groups in the Central Asian states north of Afghanistan.
Uzbekistan has emerged as the Central Asian country most actively engaging with the Taliban government, in no small part because Tashkent wants to keep trade routes through Afghanistan open.
But Uzbek officials are also taking measures to ensure that no one in Uzbekistan finds inspiration in the Taliban conquest and wants to try changing the Uzbek government.
RFE/RL’s Uzbek Service, known locally as Ozodlik, reported on September 10 that 29 women were detained in the capital and districts in Tashkent Province for spreading Hizb ut-Tahrir propaganda among the population. On September 17, a group of 12 men were detained, also in Tashkent, for spreading Hizb ut-Tahrir propaganda on the Internet.
Hizb ut-Tahrir is a global organization based in London whose ultimate goal is to unite all Muslim countries into an Islamic caliphate, though it says it uses peaceful methods to pursue that goal.
Six people described as “leaders” of a Hizb ut-Tahrir group were detained in the southern Kyrgyz town of Kyzyl-Kiya in early October and, on November 4, another Hizb ut-Tahrir leader who was an Uzbek citizen was also detained in southern Kyrgyzstan.
In early October, Ozodlik spoke with an official in the Uzbek Interior Ministry who said, under condition of anonymity, that while many suspected Islamic radicals have been under observation in recent years, there have not been any raids or special operations against such groups since Shavkat Mirziyoev became Uzbek president in 2016.
The same source indicated there has been a policy change, claiming that some 200 people were detained in September as part of Operation Safety Zone, most of them from the banned group Hizb ut-Tahrir.
But in Uzbekistan it is not only Hizb ut-Tahrir members who are being detained.
On November 9, the State Security Service (MHH) detained a group of “jihadists” in Syrdarya Province.
Reports did not identify any specific group or say how many people were in the “jihadist cell” that was uncovered, only that the leader’s initials were “B.T.,” he lived in the Havast district, he and his associates regularly posted material online calling for jihad, and that B.T. was planning to go to Syria to join an unspecified terrorist group.
On November 8, the MHH brought a suspect back from an unnamed neighboring Central Asian state who was trying to make his way to Syria.
The man, identified only as S.S., was a member of Katibat al-Tawhid wa al-Jihad, an Uzbek jihadist group that was active in northwestern Syria and was allied with Jabhat al-Nusra, the Al-Qaeda wing in Syria.
S.S. was arrested and jailed in 2018 when he was identified as part of a group on Telegram posting and discussing sermons by extremist clerics and calling for jihad.
There were reports on October 30 that the MHH “returned” an Uzbek citizen identified as I.O. from an unnamed country.
I.O. was accused of being a member of the Islamic State militant group who fought in Iraq and Syria from 2015 to 2021.
The MHH said the man returned to Central Asia with the intention of carrying out a terrorist attack in a Central Asian state in September, though no details were given about which country it was.
In a sign that the Uzbek authorities’ search for terrorists is never-ending, in September the MHH announced it had detained a suspect in the deadly February 1999 bombings in Tashkent.
The MHH identified a man as Y.J. and said he had trained in Chechnya and was a member of the “Islamic Movement of Turkestan.”
Uzbek authorities were praised for freeing many Muslims who were wrongly imprisoned under authoritarian President Islam Karimov.
But many of those who were freed were under observation, a fact the Uzbek government confirmed and has confirmed again since the Interior Ministry source who spoke with Ozodlik said: ”Most of [those recently detained] were previously included on the [blacklists and had] previously served in prisons.”
The Uzbek government has reasons to be nice to the Taliban, but Tashkent does not want Taliban influence or inspiration inside its country. The more concerned Uzbek officials are about such possibilities, the more frequent the detentions and possible imprisonment of members of “suspect” Islamic groups.
NPR: They haven’t closed the door yet, but they may not be able to keep it open much longer either. The Afghan republic, the government before the Taliban, used to fund the embassy in quarterly installments. Now that money has almost run out. Click here to read more (external link).
Ariana: US Senator Bob Menendez, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said on Wednesday the “tragic events of this past summer (in Afghanistan) were the culmination of poor decision-making by both Republican and Democratic administrations, going back to 2001”. Click here to read more (external link).
Tolo News: Wali Mohammad Noori, a blind Afghan athlete, is set to run a half marathon in London on Sunday. Noori took third place in a running competition held over a month ago in London. Noori’s good performance in the previous competition led him to be selected for the next half marathon. Click here to read more (external link).
Other Sports News
Zabihullah Mujahid
8am: Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid says that the first humanitarian aid cargo of Russia which has 36 tons weight was transferred to Kabul today Thursday morning. The humanitarian aid contains oil and blanket[s] which were transferred by three planes, and the total of Russian humanitarian aid to Afghanistan is 108 tons and will be transported to Kabul in three separate cargos, according to Mujahid. Click here to read more (external link).
Related
Michael Hughes
AOPNEWS
November 17, 2021
The Islamic State Khorasan (IS-K) is active in every Afghan province because of the Taliban’s inability to stop them, the UN head of mission told the Security Council on Wednesday.
“Another major negative development has been the Taliban’s inability to stem the expansion of the Islamic State Khorasan Province,” UN Special Representative for Afghanistan, Deborah Lyons, said. “Once limited to a few provinces and Kabul, [IS-K] now seems to be present in nearly all provinces and increasingly active.”
Lyons also said the number of attacks by IS-K has increased significantly from last year’s 60 to 334 attacks in 2021.
The announcement comes shortly after the terror group claimed responsibility for two explosions that hit western Kabul earlier in the day.
Last week, the Taliban-led government claimed it arrested around 600 IS-K members and dozens of the group’s fighters killed in gun battles with the movement’s forces.
Tolo News: Health officials said that thirty-four hospitals and centers treating COVID-19 patients have been closed after international aid was cut off in Afghanistan. This comes as the Afghan-Japan Hospital officials and staff announced on November 10 that the center will be closed if the medical staff does not receive five months’ worth of unpaid wages within the week. Click here to read more (external link).
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
November 17, 2021
Two explosions hit the Afghan capital, Kabul, on November 17, killing one person and wounding six others, Afghan media said.
The casualties were reported in the first blast that occurred in the mainly Hazara neighborhood of Dasht-e Barchi in Kabul’s west, TOLOnews said, citing a Taliban official.
Three women were among the wounded in Dasht-e Barchi, said Saeed Khosti, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry of the Taliban-led government.
The second explosion happened several hours later in the Charahi Shaid neighborhood, also west of Kabul, TOLOnews and several other local news agencies said.
Eyewitnesses said there were casualties in the second blast, but the exact numbers were not immediately clear. The Taliban hasn’t commented on the Charahi Shaid incident.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks, but a local Islamic State (IS) affiliate has carried out similar assaults on the Shi’ite Hazara community in the past.
IS has unleashed bombings against Hazara mosques, hospitals, and schools, killing hundreds of civilians, including many children.
Over the past five weeks, IS claimed responsibility for three deadly bombings in Hazara mosques in Nangarhar, Kandahar, and Kunduz provinces.
IS also targets Taliban fighters and other civilians.
The Taliban-led government claimed last week that it had arrested some 600 IS members, including key figures and financial supporters. It said that dozens of IS fighters have been killed in gunbattles with Taliban security forces recently.
Based on reporting by Ap and TOLOnews.com