Afghanistan’s Acting Taliban Cabinet Holds First Meeting

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Mullah Hassan Akhund

By RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi
October 4, 2021

Afghanistan’s interim Taliban government has held its first cabinet meeting since taking power in August, the group’s chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on October 4 in a press release, which also announced that the government would resume issuing passports and ID cards to Afghan citizens.

The Taliban unilaterally formed a government led by acting Prime Minister Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund last month after taking control of the country in a lightning offensive amid a hasty withdrawal of U.S.-led forces that put an end to the 20-year war there.

Since the Taliban is unrecognized by the international community as Afghanistan’s legitimate government, it is unclear if the new passports will be recognized by any foreign governments.

Also on October 4, the Taliban appointed several new ministers to the interim government and new military commanders.

A total of 38 new official appointments made by Taliban Supreme Leader Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada were published, almost all of whom are religious clerics from the Pashtun ethnic group, in a fresh blow to those Afghans calling for a multiethnic interim government and one that includes women.

Among the new appointees is Deputy Prime Minister Maulvi Abdul Kabir, who is also a member of the Taliban’s leadership council and served in key positions during the Taliban rule in Afghanistan in the late 1990s.

Various Taliban security agencies were also instructed to form a joint commission to improve security in both Kabul and the provinces.

The government meeting came a day after a deadly bombing outside a Kabul mosque that was claimed by the Islamic State extremist group.

It was not immediately clear how many people died in the October 3 blast, with various sources putting the death toll at five to 12 people killed and more than 30 wounded.

With reporting by dpa and Reuters

Copyright (c) 2021. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.

Provincial Health Centers Closed, Kabul Hospitals Crowded

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Tolo News: Officials at the state-owned hospitals said the citizens’ access to health care has significantly declined across the country, so people mostly travel to the capital for medical treatment.  According to officials, the number of patients coming to Kabul’s hospitals has increased after healthcare centers faced challenges in some provinces. Click here to read more (external link).

What’s Keeping Afghanistan’s Mineral Wealth Underground?

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Lapis

Roshan Noorzai
VOA News
October 4, 2021

WASHINGTON — The international community is renewing its focus on Afghanistan’s mineral wealth, believed to be worth more than $1 trillion, lying untapped within its often-hostile geography.

This comes as the newly formed Taliban government faces a looming economic crisis in the country. The mineral deposits could potentially be a source of income the group is looking for.

The Taliban had been aware of the financial potential of the minerals well before the U.S. withdrew from the country.

According to a June 2021 United Nations report, one of the main sources of the Taliban’s income was “mineral exploitation.”

The report said that in 2020, the Taliban had earned an estimated $464 million from the country’s mining sector as part of their strategy for financial independence.

The militant group’s leaders “pursued greater financial independence for the Taliban, in part by focusing efforts on controlling unexplored mineral-rich areas of Afghanistan,” the report said. Before the Afghan government collapsed, the Taliban were already in control of 280 out of 710 mining zones.

Global Witness, a London-based corruption monitoring group, reported in June 2016 that armed anti-government elements including the Taliban earned up to $20 million annually from the illegal mining of lapis lazuli.

Afghan minerals and China

Analysts are waiting to see whether China will play a role in investing in and extracting Afghanistan’s natural resources. China was already investing in some of Afghanistan’s minerals before the Taliban takeover of the country.

China Metallurgical Group (MCC), a Chinese state-owned company, was awarded a contract in 2007 to develop the Aynak copper mine field in Afghanistan’s Logar province, about 32 kilometers southeast of Kabul.

According to the then-Afghan government, MCC was to invest $2.8 billion in developing the field, a project that included building an electric power plant and railroad and employing 5,000 people, mostly Afghans led by a few Chinese experts.

MCC, however, has not been able to extract any copper because of the insecurity in the country.

After Kabul fell to the Taliban, the company said it was willing to resume work on the project, with some conditions.

“We would consider reopening it after the situation is stabilized and international recognition, including the Chinese government’s recognition of the Taliban regime, take place,” an unnamed official of MCC told the Global Times, a Chinese state-run newspaper.

Chinese officials have called on the international community to engage with the Taliban, but they have not yet recognized the Taliban as the government of Afghanistan.

The Taliban said they welcome China’s participation in the rebuilding of the country.

“China is a big country with a huge economy and capacity — I think they can play a very big role in the rebuilding, rehabilitation, reconstruction of Afghanistan,” Taliban spokesperson Suhail Shaheen told a Chinese state media outlet.

Security an issue

Experts, however, do not expect China to invest in Afghan minerals immediately.

“I do think it is too soon to tell whether China will be able to truly exploit America’s withdrawal to gain access to all these minerals,” said Craig Singleton, a fellow at Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

“The security situation remains dire” in Afghanistan, he said, adding that “even the best-laid investment plans can go awry when the host country cannot guarantee a safe and stable security environment.”

China will be “pragmatic and hold off on making any major moves until they have a better sense about the Taliban’s plans and intentions,” Singleton said.

Rod Schoonover, a scientist and security expert who founded the Ecological Futures Group, told VOA he did not think the Taliban would be able to guarantee China the security and stability it needs to extract minerals in Afghanistan.

“China does not have a long history, as I understand it, of going to highly unstable countries and working there,” he said.

Afghan mineral potential

Estimating that the mineral wealth of Afghanistan could be worth from $1 trillion to $3 trillion, Afghan officials in 2010 had hoped the mining sector would not only help to eliminate poverty but also end the decadeslong conflict in Afghanistan.

A New York Times article in June 2010 reported that a team of Pentagon officials and U.S. geologists discovered in Afghanistan $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits, which were considered much larger than any previously known and “enough to fundamentally alter the Afghan economy and perhaps the Afghan war itself.”

A 2019 report by the former Afghan government’s Ministry of Mines and Petroleum said Afghanistan has “world-class deposits of iron ore, copper, gold, rare-earth minerals, and a host of other natural resources.”

According to the report, “Afghanistan is expected to hold more than 2.2 billion metric tons (MTs) of iron ore, 1.3 billion MTs of marble, almost 30 million MTs of copper, 1.4 million MTs of rare-earth minerals, and 2,700kg of gold,”

The reserves were not the largest in any category at the global level, but the country could become “a significant player across many markets,” the report said.

Even with the potential financial gains from the reserves, Afghanistan’s lack of infrastructure is one more challenge to accessing the minerals in the country’s mountainous terrain. There is also the question of how efficiently mining can be conducted.

“There is a big difference between what is under the ground and what is utilized,” said Schoonover. China’s engagement in the extraction of minerals could benefit both China and the Taliban, but he is “skeptical” that it will benefit the people of Afghanistan.

Schoonover said that in the absence of strong governance, he sees “the natural resources curse manifest itself,” meaning that ordinary people in many resource-rich countries do not necessarily benefit from the profits.

‘For The Sake Of The Future’: Afghan Couple Fled Taliban Threats To Have Child In Tajikistan

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Tahmina Talash and her husband, Tamim, both worked for civil society organizations in Afghanistan’s Takhar Province as the Taliban gained power there. Fearing for their lives amid death threats, they fled to Tajikistan just before Tahmina gave birth to a daughter, Mohanna.

Taliban Said To Have Rearmed Tajik Militants And Moved Uyghur Fighters From Chinese Border

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Mohammad Sharipov (aka Mahdi Arsalon)

By RFE/RL’s Tajik Service
October 4, 2021

KHATLON, Tajikistan — The Taliban has provided Tajik militants based along the border with Tajikistan with new military vehicles, weaponry, and other equipment over the past two weeks, security sources in Tajikistan and northeastern Afghanistan say, amid an ongoing military buildup on both sides of the frontier.

The sources also told RFE/RL on October 4 that the Taliban has also “removed” ethnic Uyghur fighters from an area close to Afghanistan’s small border with China.

Tajik militants based in Afghanistan’s northern province of Badakhshan have been seen with U.S.-made weaponry and vehicles, including Humvees, with some of them wearing American combat gear, according to an official with Tajikistan’s state border services.

A former Afghan military officer based in Badakhshan confirmed the allegation.

The militants, who were previously seen carrying Kalashnikov rifles and driving old pickup trucks, received the new supplies during the past two weeks, according to the Tajik official, who spoke under condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak to the media.

The new equipment is thought to have been seized by the Taliban from the former Afghan National Army during the Taliban’s lightning offensive across the country that ended when the hard-line Islamist group seized Kabul in mid-August.

Tajik and Afghan sources say at least 200 militants from Tajikistan are currently based along the border of the two countries.

The Taliban takeover has triggered alarm among Central Asian states bordering Afghanistan over possible security threats emanating from the country and the potential for tens of thousands of refugees to cross the border.

Tajik officials have repeatedly called on the Taliban to form an inclusive government and warned that Dushanbe would not recognize the group as Afghanistan’s new rulers if it undermines “the interests of ethnic Tajiks and other minorities.”

In turn, the Taliban has warned Tajikistan against meddling in Afghanistan’s domestic affairs.

Amid rising tensions between the Taliban and Dushanbe, the group said in September it had deployed tens of thousands of fighters in Badakhshan and Takhar, a neighboring province that also borders Tajikistan, against “possible threats.”

Dushanbe had previously announced plans to deploy 20,000 additional troops along the more than 1,400-kilometer border it shares with Afghanistan.

Known in Afghanistan as the Tajik Taliban, the militants from Tajikistan are members of the Jamaat Ansarullah group, which was established by Tajik nationals a decade ago with the goal of overthrowing the secular government in Dushanbe.

In June, Tajik officials raised concern that one of the banned group’s commanders — Muhammad Sharifov (aka Mahdi Arsalon) had been put in charge of security in five border districts in Badakhshan after they were seized by the Taliban.

Last month, Tajik security officials said they were reviewing reports that the militants were planning to infiltrate into Tajikistan, an allegation rejected by the Taliban.

Uyghur Fighters Relocated

The two sources in Tajikistan and Afghanistan also told RFE/RL on October 4 that the Taliban had “removed” ethnic Uyghur fighters from Badakhshan — which also shares a 91-kilometer border with China.

The militants from the Turkestan Islamic Movement were relocated to other provinces, including Nangarhar in Afghanistan’s east, the former Afghan military official said.

The Al-Qaeda-linked Turkestan Islamic Movement is designated as a terrorist organization by Beijing and the United Nations. Beijing blames the group for unrest in its northwestern Xinjiang region.

Citing intelligence from the area, the Tajik border guard official said that Chinese fighters were present in Badakhshan until last week along with Tajiks, Uzbeks, and other foreign militants.

The allegations contradict a Taliban announcement in early September saying Uyghur fighters had left Afghanistan after the country’s new rulers purportedly told militant groups they could not use Afghan territory to target other countries.

During a visit to China in July, a senior Taliban delegation pledged that the group would “not allow anyone to use the Afghan soil against China.”

Beijing has expressed readiness to maintain communication with the Taliban-government in Kabul and pledged aid to the country.

Copyright (c) 2021. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.

Afghan Would-Be Refugee Said Killed By Taliban Near Tajik Border

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By RFE/RL’s Tajik Service
October 4, 2021

Taliban fighters have reportedly killed an Afghan man who tried to flee to neighboring Tajikistan and detained another man along the Afghan-Tajik border.

A source in the city of Ishkashim in Afghanistan’s northern province of Badakhshan, which borders Tajikistan, told RFE/RL on October 3 that the incidents occurred the previous day, when Taliban militants raided the area in an attempt to force about 2,000 Afghans seeking to leave the war-torn country to go back to their homes.

The Taliban-led administration in Badakhshan did not immediately comment.

Many Afghans have left the country and thousands have been trying to leave after the hard-line Islamist group seized control of most of Afghanistan in August.

The Taliban takeover triggered alarm among Central Asian states bordering Afghanistan over possible security threats emanating from the country and the potential for tens of thousands of refugees to pour over the border.

Would-be refugees along the Afghan-Tajik border in Badakhshan say they have been stranded there for two months, with Tajikistan’s border guards not allowing them to enter the Central Asian country.

“The militants gather people in groups and force them to return to Kabul on trucks. The militants are searching for natives of the Panjshir area mainly,” one of the men seeking to flee to Tajikistan told RFE/RL.

In mostly ethnic Tajik-populated Panjshir, a rugged mountain valley northeast of Kabul, an anti-Taliban resistance front remains active.

Copyright (c) 2021. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.

Taliban Destroy IS-Khorasan Base in Kabul Hours After Deadly Blast

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Ayaz Gul
VOA News
October 4, 2021

ISLAMABAD — Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban said Monday their security forces had destroyed an Islamic State Khorasan Province cell in Kabul and killed all the militants there.

The overnight raid came just hours after a bombing outside the capital’s main Eid Gah mosque on Sunday killed at least eight Afghan civilians and wounded at least 20.

There was no claim of responsibility for the mosque attack nor did the Taliban say their operation against the Afghan affiliate of Islamic State, also known as IS-Khorasan, was a response to the deadly mosque bombing.

“The Daesh base was completely destroyed and all of Daesh members inside were killed as a result of this decisive and successful operation by (Taliban) special forces,” Zabihullah Mujahid, the chief Taliban spokesman, announced early Monday. He used the local name for IS-Khorasan.

Kabul residents had confirmed heavy clashes in the Khairkhana area, saying they had heard massive explosions and gunfire during the night.

Taliban sources claimed several suicide bombers were inside the IS-Khorasan cell and were “neutralized by their own vests” during the clashes.

IS-Khorasan has not commented on the Taliban’s claims. The terrorist outfit has claimed to have carried out a series of deadly bombings in recent days against Taliban fighters elsewhere in Afghanistan.

Sunday’s bombing in Kabul was apparently targeted at a gathering offering a memorial service for Mujahid’s mother but the Taliban spokesman and his colleagues escaped unhurt.

It was the first such attack in the Afghan capital since late August, when an IS-Khorasan suicide bomber killed around 200 people, including 13 U.S. service members, near the Kabul airport. The majority of the victims had crowded outside the airport gates to secure seats on U.S.-run evacuation flights following the Taliban takeover of the city on August 15.

The Taliban have since established their control over Afghanistan barring a few pockets of armed resistance in the northern Panjshir province led by an opposition leader, Ahmad Massoud.

The security challenges facing the new Taliban government come amid a worsening humanitarian and economic crisis in Afghanistan, with food prices jumping more than 50 percent for multiple reasons.

The international community has for now ignored Taliban calls for granting legitimacy to their rule, citing human rights and other concerns, which is discouraging countries from directly engaging with the Islamist group.

The Taliban do not have access to $9 billion held in frozen assets, mostly deposited with the U.S. federal reserve, while the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have suspended Kabul’s access to their programs.

Moreover, the withdrawal of foreign forces and civilians from the country has deprived many Afghans of important sources of income.

“Afghanistan is experiencing a serious humanitarian crisis and a socio-economic collapse is looming, which would be dangerous for Afghans, the region and international security,” the European Union Foreign policy chief warned on Sunday.

“If the situation continues and with winter approaching, this risks turning into a humanitarian catastrophe,” Josep Borrell wrote in a blog post, adding that this could trigger mass migration into neighboring countries.

Borrell urged the Taliban to take steps that will enable the international community to assist the Afghan people, saying there are many signs the situation in Afghanistan is worsening.

“For instance, we have seen the formation of an interim government that is neither inclusive nor representative. And we have reports that women and girls are excluded from schools and universities, which goes against initial assurances from the Taliban,” he said.

Life under the Taliban mirrors Nazi occupation, Afghan residents lament

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Taliban militants (file photo)

Washington Examiner: The Taliban’s claims of a new and improved ruling class is just a myth as terrorized residents find themselves living out scenes akin to Nazi Germany. Afghans have resorted to selling household items for survival, begging for food, and watching roving bands of Taliban members mete out any justice they see fit without a court of law. The residents now suspiciously eye neighbors and even close friends as possible spies who could instantly spell death at the hands of Taliban guards, the Washington Examiner has learned. Click here to read more (external link).