The Taliban knocked on her door 3 times. The fourth time, they killed her

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CNN: Najia was at home with her three young sons and daughter in a small village in northern Afghanistan when Taliban fighters knocked on their door. Najia’s daughter Manizha, 25, knew they were coming — her mother had told her they’d done the same thing the previous three days, demanding that she cook food for up to 15 fighters. “My mother told them, ‘I am poor, how can I cook for you?'” said Manizha. “(The Taliban) started beating her. My mother collapsed and they hit her with their guns — AK47s.”  Click here to read more (external link).

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China Says It’s Ready to Work with Taliban – What Comes Next?

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Nike Ching
VOA News
August 17, 2021

WASHINGTON – With the U.S. military drawdown in Afghanistan, China says it is ready to move ahead in its relations with the Taliban, but foreign policy experts say Beijing remains apprehensive about what comes next and may not devote a vast security and economic commitment to Afghanistan in the near future.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke Monday with Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi about developments in Afghanistan. The State Department said the two discussed the security situation and the two countries’ respective efforts to bring their citizens to safety.

“China keeps in contact and communication with the Afghan Taliban on the basis of fully respecting Afghanistan’s sovereignty and the will of all parties in the country and has been playing a constructive role in seeking a political solution to the Afghan issue,” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Monday during a briefing.

Hua’s remarks were seen as the latest indication that China is laying the groundwork to endorse the Taliban as Afghanistan’s legitimate government.

On July 28, Wang Yi met with Taliban political chief Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar in Tianjin. China has said it hoped the Afghan Taliban would “unite with various political parties and ethnic groups to form a broad and inclusive political structure.”

China, one of the countries that neighbors Afghanistan, pulled out its diplomats in 1993 following the civil war in Afghanistan. The Beijing government never established an official relationship with the Taliban after it seized power in 1996.

“I think in the end, China will recognize a Taliban-led government,” said Andrew Small, a senior transatlantic fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

The Taliban have said they hope to develop good relations with China in the rebuilding of Afghanistan and will never allow any forces to use Afghanistan’s territory to harm China, according to a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman, Hua Chunying during a Monday briefing.

While Beijing welcomes the Taliban’s gestures, it is also worried about the potential negative security and economic impact after the U.S. pullout, according to Small.

“This is an outcome that China had been fearing for some time,” Small told VOA via Skype on Monday. “They still have difficult and tentative and often quite tense relations with the Taliban, and this is not going to transform into some vast level of Chinese influence [or] Chinese economic commitments in the near future. They’re going to proceed quite cautiously, quite apprehensive about what comes next.”

The U.S. along with China, Russia and Pakistan, have said jointly they do not support the establishment in Afghanistan of any government “imposed by force.”

The four countries are members of the so-called Extended Troika on Peaceful Settlement in Afghanistan.

Some regional observers said it is in both Washington’s and Beijing’s interest to have a peaceful political settlement in Afghanistan. However, Small said it is rare that the U.S. and China have been able to “work relatively closely together over the last decade” as they continue to head into a rival relationship.

Other analysts, including Seth Jones, director of the International Security Program at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, are skeptical about substantial U.S.-China cooperation on Afghanistan as it “sits right in the middle of” Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative.

“I think it’s going to be very hard for the U.S. to cooperate closely with the Chinese in Afghanistan. Perhaps in a few areas, like on the humanitarian front — there can be collaboration and minimizing civilian impact, including humanitarian atrocities,” Jones told VOA via Skype on Monday.

“But the reality is that the Chinese are trying to move into a vacuum that the U.S. is leaving in Afghanistan,” Jones said.

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Amrullah Saleh: I am the acting President

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Amrullah Saleh twitted today that per the constitution, he is Afghanistan’s Acting President.

Reports of life under Taliban rule

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Restraint in Kabul, but executions, killings of officials, captured soldiers in other places. Barely any women in Kabul. Residents scared.

WHO ‘extremely concerned’ about Afghanistan crisis

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Fox News: The World Health Organization (WHO) said it is “extremely concerned” over the “evolving security and humanitarian situation” in Afghanistan and called for health workers to be “respected and supported.” On Tuesday, a spokesperson told Reuters that WHO is also concerned about the spread of coronavirus in the region, and how the Taliban rise in power is thwarting efforts to send medical supplies and support to the region. Click here to read more (external link).

Taliban Say They Will Soon Announce ‘Inclusive’ Afghan Government

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Sohail Shaheen

By Ayaz Gul, Ayesha Tanzeem
VOA News / August 17, 2021

ISLAMABAD/KABUL – The Taliban said Tuesday talks on the formation of an “inclusive Islamic” government in Afghanistan are near conclusion as the radical movement consolidates its hold over the war-torn country.

The Taliban stunned the world over the weekend when they retook power in Kabul, the national capital, conquering almost all of the 34 Afghan provinces in just over a week’s time.

Their lightening battlefield advances were primarily the outcome of the largely unexpected surrender or retreat by U.S.-trained Afghan security forces in the face of Taliban attacks.

Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen said Taliban leaders are engaged in “hectic” discussions with other rival groups and U.S. special peace envoy, Zalmay Khalilzad, in Doha, Qatar, which houses the Taliban’s political office.

“In a few days there will be, of course, a transfer of power,” Shaheen told VOA by phone from the Qatari capital. “The deliberations and talks are underway to form an Afghan inclusive Islamic government. It will be announced soon,” he added.

The United States and the global community in general have vowed not to recognize any government in Kabul imposed by force, fearing Taliban-led rule would prolong the Afghan civil war and threaten human rights in the country.
Women’s rights are of particular concern, with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday calling on the Taliban to protect “the hard-won rights of Afghan women and girls.”

Analysts say that international legitimacy for any future government is crucial for ensuring that the strife-torn country continues to receive much-need assistance for Afghan reconstruction.

Shaheen said the Taliban are determined to arrange an inclusive governance system to address international concerns, reiterating his group does not believe in a monopoly of power.
“We believe that monopoly of power has not worked in the past. So, that’s why we want to have some Afghan fighters, politicians in the future government in order to have a durable peace in the country and open a new chapter of peace, co-existence and tolerance and reconstruction of Afghanistan,” he said.

Shaheen declined to clearly state whether Afghan women will be part of the future government.

“About women, we have announced already that they can have access to work and education by observing hijab. Today, you may have seen on (Afghan) TV stations women wearing hijab and doing their job,” he said.

Female news anchors broadcast news on Afghan mainstream television stations without interruption but covering their heads with a cloth or hijab.

Shaheen said the Taliban announced Tuesday a “general amnesty” for all, including government officials, and urged them to return to work.

Kabul streets

Residents in Kabul said life was returning to normal in the city of more than six million as they ventured out of their homes.

A female journalist for the private Tolo News channel could be seen on the streets reporting on the latest situation but acknowledging there were a very few women seen in the markets. She said women feared the unknown.  A woman anchor was seen interviewing a Taliban official.

However, there were reports of incidents elsewhere in Afghanistan where women complained of harassment by the Taliban. Shaheen dismissed those reports as baseless, saying they were the work of “spoilers” to defame the Taliban.

In Kabul, a so-called Taliban complaint commission has been swiftly set up and officials there have been urging residents to reach out the commission with any complaints of harassment or violence so they can be addressed.

Taliban officials have also been visiting government offices and hospitals to assure staff there, women, not to worry and continue performing their duties as usual.

Taliban rule

During their first stint in power – from 1996 until 2001 when they were ousted by the U.S.-led invasion in the wake of the September 11th attacks – the Taliban ruled Afghanistan with a strict interpretation of the Quran and Sharia law.

A swift whipping across the back of the legs by cadres from the ‘Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice’ was common for those tardy at prayer times.

Public floggings, amputations of limbs for thieves and even executions were scheduled for Fridays – sometimes held at the national stadium. And women were mostly barred from working or studying and forced to wear an all-covering burqa in public.

Two days after taking over the capital, the Taliban are patrolling the city in small convoys. “They don’t harass people but of course the people are scared,” a shopkeeper told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Meanwhile, evacuation flights resumed Tuesday at Kabul’s international airport after a chaotic day in which thousands of people gathered there as diplomats and civilians tried to leave Afghanistan in the wake of the Taliban takeover.

In another development, Amir Khan Muttaqi, a top Taliban leader and member of the group’s Doha-based political office, arrived in the Afghan capital, where his delegation held meetings with former president Hamid Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah, head of the Afghan National Reconciliation Council.

The discussions focused on security and governance-related issues; a Taliban official told VOA on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media.

“We are in contact with the leaders of the respected Islamic Taliban movement,” Karzai said in a post-meeting joint video statement with Abdullah posted on the official Facebook page of the former president.

Some information for this report came from AFP.

India Evacuates Diplomatic Staff From Kabul, Top U.S. Diplomat Denies Fleeing

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Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
August 17, 2021

India has become the latest major country to evacuate its embassy in Kabul, leaving only a handful of embassies from global and regional powers operating in the Afghan capital as the top U.S. diplomat in Kabul dismissed reports that he had left the country.

The Russian, Chinese, and Pakistani embassies are among the diplomatic missions still operating in Kabul as foreign governments are scrambling to evacuate their nationals, Afghans who worked alongside them, and others considered vulnerable under Taliban rule following the group’s capture of Kabul two days earlier.

Military flights evacuating diplomats and civilians resumed from the city’s international airport on August 17, a day after chaotic scenes at the facility interrupted evacuation operations.

“In view of the prevailing circumstances, it has been decided that our ambassador in Kabul and his Indian staff will move to India immediately,” Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman Arimdam Bagchi tweeted on August 17.

An Indian aircraft carrying diplomatic personnel landed in India’s western state of Gujarat during the day, according to media reports.

Meanwhile, U.S. Charge d’Affaires Ross Wilson dismissed reports that he had left Afghanistan, saying on Twitter: “Contrary to false reports, @USEmbassyKabul staff & I remain in #Kabul working hard to help 1000s of U.S. citizens and vulnerable Afghans & continuing engagement here.”

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said that the number of the Iranian Embassy staff had been drastically reduced but that routine tasks would not be disrupted.

On August 16, the Kazakh Foreign Ministry told RFE/RL that its embassy in Afghanistan had reduced its staff but that its activities will continue.

Uzbekistan also announced it had no plans to close its Kabul embassy.

Russia has said it would only partially evacuate its embassy staff.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke separately with officials in Pakistan, Russia, Britain, the European Union, Turkey, and NATO about Afghanistan, including “the developing situation and our efforts to bring our citizens to safety and assist vulnerable Afghans,” according to the State Department.

Russia has said it would only partially evacuate its embassy staff.

Its ambassador Dmitry Zhirnov is set to hold talks with Taliban representatives on August 17 to discuss the security of Russian citizens and the embassy’s personnel.

European Union foreign ministers are also set to hold an emergency meeting in Brussels later on August 17 to discuss evacuation plans and the situation in general in Afghanistan.

With reporting by the BBC, The Indian Express, IRNA, and RFE/RL’s Kazakh Service

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.

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