NDTV: The Taliban brutally executed a child in Takhar province of Afghanistan after his father is suspected to be a part of the Afghan Resistance Forces. The brutality has been reported by Panjshir Observer which is an independent media covering Panjshir and Afghanistan situation. Click here to read more (external link).
The Afghan cricketers living in fear of the Taliban
Financial Times: Tuba Jan Sangar was in her office at the Afghanistan Cricket Board last month when her manager called. “She said, ‘Where are you?’ She just told me to go home,” Sangar said. “Everyone was afraid that the Taliban would kill us. I didn’t sleep for one week and I didn’t eat anything.” Click here to read more (external link).
Afghanistan’s financial system is about to collapse, lender warns, as the US keeps nearly $10 billion in reserves frozen from the Taliban
Business Insider: Syed Moosa Kaleem Al-Falahi, the chief executive of the Islamic Bank of Afghanistan, told the BBC that Afghanistan’s financial industry was dealing with an “existential crisis” as customers panic after the Taliban took over the country last month, and Western nations and agencies freeze the country’s funds in response. “There’s huge withdrawals happening at the moment,” he said. Click here to read more (external link).
Taliban Temporarily Implement the Constitution of the Zaher Shah’s Reign
Abdul Hakim
8am: Acting Minister of Justice Abdul Hakim Sharie said in a meeting with Chinese Ambassador to Wang Yu in Kabul that the Taliban would implement those articles of the Mohammad Zahir Shah-era constitution for a temporary period that would not breach Islamic principles. Click here to read more (external link).
Related
Taliban adopted constitution of Zahir Shah era 1964.
Under this, king has powers to appoint & remove prime minister, presiding over court, dissolve parliament, king is not accountable to any individual or institution, & Hanafi jurisprudence is the only official jurisprudence.— Natiq Malikzada (@natiqmalikzada) September 28, 2021
Kabul mayor says water supply in city could ‘dry up’
Ariana: After decades of conflict, climate change and poor water management, Afghanistan’s capital is facing a dire water shortage. The shortage is becoming a bigger problem with every passing day, and has authorities worried. “There is concern that the city could literally dry up,” Kabul mayor Hamdullah Nomani told Reuters on Monday. Click here to read more (external link).
Top US Military Officials Face Questioning About Afghanistan Withdrawal
VOA News
September 28, 2021
WASHINGTON — Top U.S. military officials are faceing questioning Tuesday about the end of the war in Afghanistan and the chaotic final weeks leading up to the withdrawal of U.S. forces from the country after 20 years.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley and the head of U.S. Central Command Gen. Kenneth McKenzie appeard before the Senate Armed Services Committee for a hearing about the end of military operations in Afghanistan as well as the military’s future counterterrorism plans.
The Pentagon has defended the withdrawal operation, which included an evacuation effort that brought more than 120,000 people out of Afghanistan as the Taliban seized control of the country once more.
The operation featured many chaotic days at the Kabul international airport, including a suicide bombing that killed 13 U.S. service members and 169 Afghans.
The officials are likely to face questioning about the Biden administration’s planning for the withdrawal effort and the decision to end the U.S. mission in Afghanistan, as well as specific events from those final days such as an airstrike that killed 10 civilians.
Austin, Milley and McKenzie are all due to appear again Wednesday before the House Armed Services Committee.
Some information for this report came from the Associated Press and Reuters
Khalilzad says things could have been very different had Ghani stayed
Ashraf Ghani (left) and Zalmay Khalilzad (right)
Ariana: Had Ghani however resigned in order to bring peace to Afghanistan, and allowed the establishment of a new government, “it could have been a historic step”. “The name of the president could have been written in gold in the history of Afghanistan,” he said, adding that only Ghani can answer the question on why he chose to do it this way. Click here to read more (external link).
Beijing Cautiously Backs Taliban’s Hopes Of International Recognition In Afghanistan
By Reid Standish
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
September 27, 2021
China is calling for sanctions against Afghanistan to be lifted as part of a wider push by Beijing to gain international political support for the Taliban’s rule in the country.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi urged his counterparts during talks with G20 ministers on September 23 to unfreeze Afghanistan’s foreign assets and stop exerting “political pressure” on the Taliban following the hard-line Islamist group’s August toppling of the former UN-backed government.
“Economic sanctions on Afghanistan must end,” Wang said during remarks delivered virtually. “The various unilateral sanctions or restrictions on Afghanistan should be lifted as soon as possible.”
Beijing’s international moves to limit the economic and political leverage on the Taliban are set to continue on September 28 when Wang holds official talks with European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.
The meeting, via video link, should tackle a variety of topics from human rights abuses in Xinjiang to a frozen trade deal with the bloc.
But how to engage with the Taliban and manage the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan will also factor into the “strategic dialogue” between Beijing and Brussels.
The Taliban has not been officially recognized internationally since it seized power in August amid the withdrawal of U.S.-led NATO forces from Afghanistan. It has since set up an interim government led by hard-liners that has faced international criticism for failing to address the worst fears about its treatment of many Afghans, especially women, and links to terror groups.
China has emerged as a pragmatic backer of the Taliban’s new rule and has longstanding relations with the group focused on protecting Chinese security and counterterrorism concerns.
Since the Taliban’s takeover, Beijing has promised investments into Afghanistan’s economy and pledged to send humanitarian aid to the country. In response, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said that China was the group’s closest partner.
Beijing has also begun to press other nations to engage with the group, a strategy that has begun to yield results.
Kyrgyzstan became the first Central Asian country to send delegates to meet with the Taliban in Kabul after Talantbek Masadykov, the deputy chairman of the Kyrgyz Security Council, and another official met with representatives on September 23.
This was followed by a September 26 meeting between the Taliban’s acting foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, and Kazakhstan’s ambassador in Kabul to discuss bilateral trade.
A Reluctant Embrace
Beijing’s calls for greater engagement with the Taliban have been gathering steam in recent weeks and were on display in Dushanbe during the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit on September 16 and 17.
The SCO is a China-led political and security bloc that also has India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan as members.
The recent meeting in Tajikistan was focused on Afghanistan and was also the first-ever joint meeting with the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a Russian-led military alliance that does not include China.
Speaking at the summit via video link, Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin pledged to work together to prevent violence and instability spilling over Afghanistan’s borders into the wider region as they announced plans to share intelligence and hold regular talks about the situation in the country.
“Members of the SCO and CSTO are all neighbors of Afghanistan; it is a community with shared stakes and shared security,” Xi said during remarks at the summit. “At this critical juncture, it is essential to play together and jointly uphold peace and stability. I hope these proposals would contribute to the goals of achieving common shared security in our region.”
Putin also signaled a softening on the Kremlin’s line regarding the Taliban, calling for better coordination across the region toward potentially recognizing the group as the legitimate government in Kabul.
In a calculated dismissal of its 20-year insurgency against the government in Kabul and its UN backers, the Russian leader praised the Taliban for coming to power “without bloodshed” and said that other countries would have to find a way to work with the group.
“As for recognition, we have to align our positions and build a dialogue,” Putin said.
The Kremlin is also in the process of negotiating a visit for a Taliban delegation to Moscow, according to a report from the Russian new agency RIA Novosti.
A similar sentiment was shared by Pakistan, one of the Taliban’s main backers and a key player in the region, which pressed other countries to engage with the group.
“At the same time, the international community has to realize: What is the alternative? What are the options? This is the reality, and can they turn away from this reality?” Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi told the AP during a September 24 interview.
A Difficult Road Ahead
Despite the growing acceptance of Taliban rule among some of Afghanistan’s neighbors, the militants still face a bumpy path in their quest for international recognition.
Tajikistan, which shares a 1,357-kilometer border with Afghanistan, remains opposed to the Taliban’s rule and has allowed exiled politicians and officials from the toppled Afghan government to live in the country, where they are reportedly seeking financial and political support.
Officials in Dushanbe have also raised the alarm about Tajik militants who fought alongside the Taliban potentially making plans to cross the border into Tajikistan, an official at Tajikistan’s Border Service told RFE/RL’s Tajik Service.
These moves prompted a strong rebuke from Abdul Ghani Baradar, the acting deputy head of the Taliban’s interim government, who accused Tajikistan of interfering in Afghanistan’s internal affairs during a September 26 interview with Al Jazeera.
Many Western leaders are also still strongly opposed to the group, and China will need to continue to lobby on the Taliban’s behalf in order to allow access much-needed funds to govern Afghanistan.
Afghanistan has long been dependent on foreign aid, which accounts for approximately 43 percent of the country’s GDP, according to The World Bank.
But access to funds has dried up since the Taliban came to power. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) blocked access to $440 million in assistance due to a lack of recognition of the Taliban regime as a legitimate government. The World Bank and EU also suspended aid.
The push for wider recognition for the Taliban also comes as Afghanistan now finds itself on the brink of economic collapse and a worsening humanitarian crisis.
The United States and various European countries have promised more than $1 billion in emergency aid, but Washington has also frozen the Afghan central bank’s $9.5 billion reserves, which are held in the United States.
This leaves Washington with important leverage over Afghanistan’s economic future, which remains a point of frustration for Beijing as it lobbies other nations to cautiously accept the Taliban’s leadership in Kabul.
“Afghanistan’s foreign exchange reserves are national assets that should belong to and be used by its own people, and not be used as a bargaining chip to exert political pressure on Afghanistan,” Wang said during his G20 remarks.
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.
Related
Hague Prosecutor Seeking to Resume Afghan War Crimes Probe
VOA News
September 27, 2021
The prosecutor at the International Criminal Court in The Hague on Monday asked the tribunal for permission to resume a war crimes investigation into the actions of the Taliban and Islamic State-Khorasan in Afghanistan.
The ICC had spent 15 years investigating alleged war crimes in war-torn Afghanistan, but the probe was put on hold a year ago by the U.S.-backed Afghan government, which said it was conducting its own investigation before it fell to the Taliban last month.
The ICC is a court of last resort for war crimes investigations, when individual member countries are unable or unwilling to conduct their own probes. New ICC prosecutor Karim Khan said that since the internationally recognized Kabul government has fallen, there is a “significant change of circumstances.”
“After reviewing matters carefully, I have reached the conclusion that, at this time, there is no longer the prospect of genuine and effective domestic investigations … within Afghanistan,” Khan said.
The ICC judges will now consider Khan’s request. Investigators had been examining alleged crimes by all sides in the conflict, including U.S. forces, Afghan government troops and Taliban fighters.
Khan said he wants to focus his investigation on actions of the Taliban and Islamic State-Khorasan, the offshoot of the Islamic State terrorist group operating in Afghanistan, and to “deprioritize” alleged war crimes by U.S. forces.
The earlier inclusion of alleged war crimes by U.S. forces had angered the administration of former U.S. President Donald Trump, which imposed sanctions on Khan’s predecessor, Fatou Bensouda, over the issue. The U.S. lifted the sanctions on Bensouda earlier this year under the administration of President Joe Biden.
Khan said his new focus of an investigation was necessary because of the “gravity, scale and continuing nature of alleged crimes by the Taliban and the Islamic State” and the need to “construct credible cases capable of being proved beyond reasonable doubt in the courtroom.”
The ICC prosecutor said one focus of a new investigation would be the deadly August 26 attack on Kabul airport, an incident claimed by IS-K, in which 13 U.S. service members and more than 100 Afghan civilians were killed.
Some material in this report came from Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
Afghanistan: Taliban ban Helmand barbers from trimming beards
BBC News: The Taliban have banned hairdressers in Afghanistan’s Helmand province from shaving or trimming beards, saying it breaches their interpretation of Islamic law. Anyone violating the rule will be punished, Taliban religious police say. Some barbers in the capital Kabul have said they also received similar orders. Click here to read more (external link).