Stranded Afghan Pilots Begin Leaving Uzbekistan

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VOA News
September 12, 2021

Some Afghan pilots who have been held in Uzbekistan for about a month began leaving Sunday for the United Arab Emirate, Reuters reported.

A U.S.-trained Afghan pilot told Reuters that one group would depart Uzbekistan on Sunday for the UAE under a U.S.-brokered deal, despite Taliban demands that they return to Afghanistan.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday that pilots would go to the U.S. military base in Doha, Qatar, before being relocated to third countries.

It was not immediately clear what would happen to the 46 aircraft in Uzbekistan, which included A-29 light attack planes and UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters, according to Reuters.

Hours before the fall of Kabul on August 15, a total of 585 Afghan military personnel and their families flew to Uzbekistan aboard 22 military aircraft and 24 helicopters. They were intercepted by Uzbek military aircraft and forced to land at an international airport in Termez, just across the border from Afghanistan.

The Taliban pressured the Uzbek government to hand over the aircraft and the pilots, current and former U.S. officials told Reuters. The Taliban seized aircraft including helicopters and drones late last month and have demanded that any vehicles taken before they declared their takeover of Kabul be returned.

Uzbekistan, which supported the Taliban before last month’s takeover, had urged the United States to take action because they feared increased tensions with their neighbors around the pilots.

Neither the U.S. State Department, the United Nations nor the Taliban have publicly commented on Sunday’s reported development.

Pilots at the Uzbek camp near the city of Termez described tense situations, restrictions on movement and a lack of medicine and food, prompting outrage from international rights groups.

About a week ago, according to Reuters, U.S. officials arrived in the camp to screen the Afghans using biometrics since many fled with just what they wore.

John Herbst, a former U.S. ambassador to Uzbekistan, praised the evacuation, telling Reuters, “I hope we have plans under way to make sure the aircraft they got out get back to the United States and certainly do not return to the Taliban.”

Iranian MP: Pakistan’s ISI head is involved in Panjshir Valley offensive as well as the formation of the Taliban cabinet

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“Iran should not allow Pakistan to play the role of the U.S. in Afghanistan.”

The Focus of the Taleban’s New Government: Internal cohesion, external dominance

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Afghanistan Analysts Network: Set alongside their sustained military campaign in the Panjshir, the only province that held out against the Taleban takeover, and their violent response to protests across the country, it seems the movement’s priorities have coalesced – internal cohesion, monopolisation of power, silencing of open dissent and dividing the ‘spoils of war’, in terms of government posts, between themselves. Also noticeable, reports AAN’s Martine van Bijlert (with input from Kate Clark and Thomas Ruttig), is the absence, still, of Taleban supreme leader, Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada. Click here to read more (external link).

Taliban Sets Out Restrictions For Women To Study At Universities In Afghanistan

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Abdul Baqi Haqqani

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
September 12, 2021

Women in Afghanistan will only be allowed to study in universities in gender-segregated classrooms and Islamic dress will be compulsory, a member of the new Taliban government has said.

Abdul Baqi Haqqani laid out the new policies at a news conference in Kabul on September 12, several days after Afghanistan’s new rulers formed an all-male government.

The world has been watching closely to see to what extent the Taliban might act differently from its first time in power, in the late 1990s. During that era, girls and women were denied an education, and were excluded from public life.

The Taliban insurgents have suggested they have changed, including in their attitudes toward women.

Haqqani, in charge of education, said the Taliban did not want to turn the clock back 20 years. “We will start building on what exists today,” he said.

However, female university students will face restrictions under the Taliban, including a compulsory dress code. Haqqani said hijabs will be mandatory but did not specify if this meant compulsory head scarves or also compulsory face coverings.

Gender segregation will also be enforced, Haqqani said. “We will not allow boys and girls to study together,” he said.

Haqqani said that where no women teachers were available, special measures would be adopted to ensure separation.

“When there is really a need, men can also teach [women] but in accordance with Shari’a, they should observe the veil,” he said. Classrooms will be curtained off to divide male and female students where necessary, and teaching could also be done through streaming or closed-circuit TV.

Classrooms divided by curtains have already been seen in many places since the Western-backed government collapsed and the Taliban seized Kabul last month.

Haqqani told reporters that subjects being taught in universities would also be reviewed but did not elaborate. The Taliban, who subscribe to a harsh interpretation of Islam, have banned music and art during their previous time in power.

Women in Kabul and elsewhere in Afghanistan have protested in large and small groups against Taliban rule and efforts to curtail their rights. In some cases, the Taliban has responded with force, wielding whips, beating women with batons, pointing guns and firing weapons into the air.

With reporting by AP 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.

Genocide In The Panjshir Valley – The Taliban Begins To Round-Up All Males 12 And Over

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AND: This is a first-hand report from an asset on the ground in the Panjshir Valley in Afghanistan with whom AND Magazine is in contact.

Taliban forces in the Panjshir Valley are rounding up all males 12 and over and taking them away. The individuals being taken are not being questioned. There is no indication that any of these individuals will ever return. No camps have been built to hold them. Residents of the valley assume that they will all be killed as part of a “genocidal cleansing.”

Click here to read more (external link).

Taliban raid home of civil activist, harrass, and beat her and her family

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