Tolo News: The Ministry of Public Health on Saturday reported 218 new positive cases of COVID-19 out of 2,473 samples tested in the last 24 hours. The ministry also reported 10 deaths and 677 recoveries from COVID-19 in the same period. The figures show a significant decrease in the daily COVID-19 cases in the last week. Click here to read more (external link).
Tolo News in Dari – August 6, 2021
Taliban Shuts Key Afghan Border Crossing with Pakistan Until Demands Are Met
Ayaz Gul
VOA News
August 6, 2021
ISLAMABAD – Afghanistan’s Taliban insurgents closed a major crossing point Friday for travel and trade with Pakistan, demanding the neighboring country end the alleged mistreatment of Afghan travelers and ease other restrictions.
The abrupt closure of the busy Spin Boldak crossing into the southwestern Pakistani town of Chaman has stranded hundreds of travelers and trucks carrying commercial goods in both directions, according to traders and witnesses.
The Taliban’s swift battlefield advances against Afghan government forces since early May have enabled them to seize control of dozens of districts across the conflict-hit country, including most of landlocked Afghanistan’s trade crossings with neighboring countries.
They include Iran, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Pakistan. The loss of these trade routes is estimated to have cost the Afghan government tens of millions of dollars in revenues.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid defended the move, alleging Afghan travelers are being mistreated by the Pakistani side.
“They [Pakistan] open the border gate only for two, three hours during the entire day for people traveling from Afghanistan, including patients, [Afghan] refugees, traders and others,” Mujahid told VOA.
He demanded that Pakistan open the border route for the entire day, as had been the case in the past, arguing it was not possible for such a large number of people to cross over in such a short period of time.
“Men and women are extensively frisked and traders are also harassed,” Mujahid said.
Since the Taliban captured the Spin Boldak crossing, he added, Pakistani authorities also have banned entry of Afghans who possess refugee status and national identification cards. “Until Pakistani authorities address these issues and remove the restrictions, the border gate will remain closed,” Mujahid said.
Pakistani officials have not commented on the closure of the border by the Taliban.
“Around 700 trucks and 2,000 people are stuck on both sides of the border,” Imran Khan Kakar, a senior member of the Pak-Afghan Chamber of Commerce in Chaman, told VOA.
Khan said Pakistani border officials told the traders they were in contact with the Taliban and the two sides were scheduled to meet later in the day to discuss the issue.
Pakistan had sealed the Chaman-Spin Boldak crossing after the Afghan insurgent group seized control of it in the second week of July, halting all trade and traffic through the usually bustling crossroads in the region.
Last week, Islamabad partially reopened the facility to allow travelers and truck convoys stranded on both sides of the border to resume their journey.
Pakistani officials argued the partial reopening of the crossing was a humanitarian gesture, noting Islamabad recognizes the Afghan government in Kabul as the legitimate entity and not the Taliban insurgency.
The Taliban’s capture of Spin Boldak and surrounding districts of the embattled Afghan province of Kandahar have fueled Pakistan’s tensions with the Afghan government, which has long accused Islamabad of backing the insurgents.
There are five crossings on the nearly 2,640-kilometer border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Three of them are used for travel and bilateral and transit trade activities, while the rest are dedicated to travelers, including Afghan refugees.
Pakistan, which denies accusations of links with the Taliban, still hosts about 3 million Afghans as registered refugees and economic migrants.
Taliban Overrun Afghan City Near Iran Border As Senior Media Official Gunned Down In Kabul
RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi
August 6, 2021
Local officials in western Afghanistan say Taliban fighters have entered the provincial hub of Zaranj and its Kabul-backed governor and other senior officials have fled, leaving the militant group poised to capture its first major population center since an all-out offensive began four months ago.
A provincial administration official in a neighboring province said on August 6 that the capital of Nimroz Province is now largely under Taliban control although local police and other security forces are still resisting in some parts of the city.
Local officials describe panic among terrified residents that left many Afghan families scrambling to cross the border into Iran.
Zaranj has a recent population of around 50,000 people.
The push in Zaranj follows news earlier in the day of the assassination in Kabul by the Taliban of the head of the Afghan government’s Information and Media Center, Dawa Khan Menapal.
Menapal’s killing was the latest incident signaling Taliban militants’ increased focus on government targets as they also continue major offensives in other big cities including Herat, also in western Afghanistan, and Kandahar and Lashkar Gah in the south.
The intense fighting and reports of heavy civilian casualties are on the agenda as the UN Security Council prepares to discuss the security situation in Afghanistan later on August 6 at the request of the Afghan government, Norway, and Estonia.
A local elder in Nimroz, Haji Abdul Satar Noorzai, said that government officials fled as the Taliban advanced in Zaranj.
A Nimroz provincial administration official who did not want to be identified said residents were fleeing in panic, with some crossing the border into neighboring Iran.
He said Taliban fighters had posted photos of themselves taking over the nearby district of Kang and then approaching Zaranj itself.
“Residents of the city spent the night in fear and panic, and this morning 40 percent of Zaranj’s residents crossed the border into Iran via the Pul-e Abrisham, [an Iranian-built bridge] which borders the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the official said.
He said Iran had set up a refugee camp at the border “and took in anyone who entered the country, military or civilian.”
He estimated that there were only around 60 security troops left in Zaranj.
“The rest of the city is under Taliban control,” the official said.
Later, reports said Iran had closed its border with Afghanistan in Sistan-Baluchistan Province due to the situation across the border in Zaranj.
Fighting in Afghanistan has intensified since May 1, when the United States and other countries officially began withdrawing their forces in a pullout that is expected to be completed this month.
Taliban militants now control large portions of the country and are confronting Afghan forces in and near a handful of large cities.
A spokesman for the Taliban militant group, Zabiullah Mujahid, claimed responsibility for Menapal’s killing in a text message to Radio Azadi, saying it was a “targeted attack.”
“Unfortunately, the savage terrorists have committed a cowardly act once again and martyred a patriotic Afghan,” Interior Ministry spokesman Mirwais Stanikzai said.
Militant attacks in the capital earlier in the week targeted the residence of Afghanistan’s acting defense minister, as well as a building that houses the Afghan intelligence service.
Gunmen also shot dead a district governor in the Maidan Wardak Province on August 3.
Taliban commanders later vowed they would be targeting government officials in retaliation for Afghan and U.S. air strikes against militant fighters.
The United Nations and humanitarian groups have expressed alarm this week at revenge killings by the Taliban targeting civilians caught up in fighting that has increasingly moved to population centers including provincial capitals.
The chairwoman of the Afghanistan Human Rights Council, Shaharzad Akbar, expressed disbelief at Menapal’s death and added a “reminder” to the Taliban: “Targeting civilians is a war crime.”
“These murders are an affront to Afghans’ human rights & freedom of speech,” U.S. charge d’affaires to Afghanistan Ross Wilson said in a tweet.
Wilson said “we are saddened & disgusted” by Menapal’s killing.
He called him “a friend and colleague, whose career was focused on providing truthful information to all Afghans about #Afghanistan.”
Menapal worked for RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi as a Kandahar correspondent from February 2006 to May 2010.
Three Taliban commanders told the Reuters news agency this week that the militants were changing their strategy from capturing rural areas to focusing on cities.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Aleksandr Bikantov told a press conference in Moscow on August 4 that “the Taliban has no resources to capture and hold major cities, including the country’s capital, Kabul.”
“Their offensive is running out of steam,” Bikantov said, adding however that the security situation in the country “is degrading.”
On August 6, five Central Asian heads of state meeting in the Turkmen city of Avaza warned about the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan, which shares borders with the post-Soviet republics of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan.
Tajikistan’s president, Emomali Rahmon, noted that militants control the entire border between Tajikistan and Afghanistan.
“A number of terrorist organizations are actively strengthening their positions in these areas,” Rahmon said.
Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoev called for a “full cease-fire” and “mutually accepted negotiated compromises” in Afghanistan.
With reporting by Reuters, AP, AFP, and TASS
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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Deutsche Bank, Standard Chartered Sued Over Afghanistan Dead
Bloomberg: Deutsche Bank AG, Standard Chartered Plc and Danske Bank A/S were sued by the families of Americans killed and wounded during the war in Afghanistan who claim they “knowingly facilitated transfers of millions” of dollars that provided aid to terrorists in the region. Click here to read more (external link).
Cries of ‘Allahu Akbar’ in Support of ANDSF Spread Across Nation
Tolo News: Like millions of people across Kabul, Afghans in other provinces on Wednesday night chanted the slogan “Allahu Akbar” (God is the greatest), in a show of support for Afghan forces fighting the Taliban. The rallying cry began earlier in Herat city and has been reported in other areas across the nation as well. In the latest waves of support, Afghans in Kapisa, Baghlan, Nuristan and Sar-e-Pul provinces chanted the slogan to show support for the Afghan forces. Click here to read more (external link).
Taliban looking to seize control of at least one province: Dostum
Dostum
Ariana: Former first vice president, Marshal Abdul Rashid Dostum said on Thursday that Taliban have accelerated their efforts to seize control of at least one province in the country. According to Dostum, Herat, Takhar, Jawzjan, Kandahar, and Helmand are the provinces of choice that the Taliban is hoping to have control over. Click here to read more (external link).
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1TV Afghanistan Dari News – August 5, 2021
Afghan Forces Launch Air Strikes In South As Taliban Threatens To Target Other Big Cities
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
August 5, 2021
The Afghan Air Force on August 5 resumed air strikes against Taliban positions in southern Afghanistan as militants made additional gains in the country’s north.
A Defense Ministry statement said air strikes were carried out across the country, including in the southern Helmand Province where government forces are battling for control of the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah.
Taliban commanders quoted by Reuters said on August 5 that the militants’ “priority” was to overrun airports in Kandahar and Herat but that soon other major cities could be targeted, too.
“The operations in Kandahar and Herat are very much important to us and our priority is to capture the two crucial airports or airbases in Kandahar and Herat,” the commander said.
Residents in Lashkar Gah reported heavy bombing near the government radio and television station, which is under Taliban control.
Nine of that city’s 10 districts have fallen into the militants’ hands.
Before launching the counterattack in Lashkar Gah on August 5, the army urged the city’s 200,000 residents to evacuate but it was unclear if routes out of the city were safe.
In northern Afghanistan, the Taliban took control of most of the provincial capital of Sar-e Pol, according to provincial council leader Mohammad Noor Rahmani.
Fierce fighting also has occurred around Herat, near the western border with Iran, and Kandahar in the south.
The Taliban have been conducting an all-out offensive since early May, when U.S.-led international forces stepped up a final withdrawal that is scheduled to be completed by the end of this month.
Afghan security forces have been increasingly using air strikes, raising concerns about civilian casualties across the country.
Three Taliban commanders who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity cited their goals of overtaking Herat, Kandahar, and Lashkar Gah and suggested their offensives were a response to the United States’ delaying withdrawal plans first agreed under then-President Donald Trump.
“Mullah Yaqoob argued that when U.S. didn’t fulfil their commitment why should Taliban be made to follow the accord?” the Kandahar-based commander said in a reference to the Taliban’s top military commander.
He suggested that more big cities could be targeted for siege and said Yaqoob’s arguments had outweighed the Taliban political office’s arguments.
“Mullah Yaqoob has decided to capture Kandahar and Herat and now Helmand and then it could be Kunduz, Khost or any other province.”
Taliban fighters have also carried out revenge killings and indiscriminate violence in areas they capture, and the group warned after several attacks in Kabul that it would also be targeting government officials in “retaliatory operations.”
The United Nations said on August 4 it had received reports of mounting civilian deaths and damage to critical infrastructure in Helmand and Kandahar.
“Hospitals and health workers are becoming overwhelmed by the number of wounded people,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told a press briefing.
“We can tell you that we are deeply concerned about the safety and protection of people in Lashkar Gah, in the south, where tens of thousands of people could be trapped by fighting,” Dujarric said.
The UN also urged donors to fund the Humanitarian Response Plan for Afghanistan, which Dujarric said had received less than half of the needed $1.3 billion to date.
“We, along with our humanitarian partners in Afghanistan, are assessing needs and responding in the south, as access allows,” he said.
The European Union on August 5 urged “an urgent, comprehensive and permanent cease-fire” and condemned Taliban militants’ attacks.
The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, and its commissioner for aid and crisis management, Janez Lenarcic, accused the Taliban of abandoning its stated commitment to seeking a negotiated peace.
While stepping up its offensive across Afghanistan, the Taliban also targeted institutions and officials in the capital in an attempt to disable the decision-making centers of the government.
On August 3 and 4, Taliban suicide bombers and armed attackers struck at the residence of acting Defense Minister Bismillah Khan Mohammadi and Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security building, killing at least eight people and wounding dozens.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid warned on August 4 of more attacks targeting top Afghan government officials.
He said that the attack on Mohammadi “is the beginning of the retaliatory operations against the circles and leaders of the Kabul administration who are ordering attacks and the bombing of different parts of the country.”
The Taliban said the Kabul raid was in response to stepped-up air strikes against the insurgents by Afghan and U.S. military forces.
Recently, hundreds of Afghan security troops fled into neighboring Tajikistan and Uzbekistan in the face of the Taliban offensive.
Even as it has stepped up its diplomatic efforts including through direct meetings with the Taliban, Russia has expressed concern about Taliban advances in connection with the U.S. and NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan were expected to begin a major military exercise near Tajikistan’s border with Afghanistan on August 5, with Moscow announcing it will deploy four Tu-22M3 supersonic strategic bombers during the drills.
More than 2,500 soldiers are set to take part in the joint exercise, in the Tajik region of Khatlon until August 10.
Up to 1,800 of the soldiers will be from Russia, which has its largest foreign base in the ex-Soviet republic of Tajikistan.
Moscow also recently announced an expansion of its Central Asian bases.
With reporting by AP, dpa, Reuters, and AFP
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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Taliban Shuts Down Afghanistan’s Independent Media In Newly Gained Territory
Taliban militants (file photo)
Frud Bezhan
Mustafa Sarwar
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
August 5, 2021
Afghanistan’s thriving media scene has been hailed as one of the biggest achievements of the past 20 years, following the Taliban’s ban of independent media during its brutal former regime that was ousted in 2001.
But the resurgent Taliban is rapidly reversing those gains by stamping out the free press in the swaths of territory it has seized from government forces in recent months.
The militant group has forcibly shut down dozens of local radio stations, newspapers, and broadcasters in the scores of districts it has captured since the start of the U.S.-led foreign military withdrawal on May 1.
Other media outlets have closed in fear of Taliban reprisals, with many of their journalists fleeing their homes or going underground. The Taliban has been blamed for killing dozens of reporters and media workers in recent years.
The few outlets allowed to operate have been forced to broadcast Taliban propaganda. They have been banned from airing music or women’s voices. News reports have been replaced by Taliban-approved bulletins, recitations from the Koran, and Islamic sermons.
‘Forced To Work For The Taliban’
Nawbahar Balkh Radio, a commercial station based in Balkh, a district in the northern province of the same name, shut its doors last month when the Taliban seized control of the area.
Many of its 18 employees, including four women, fled or went underground. Only two technicians remained behind.
Within days, the station was broadcasting again. But this time the Taliban was in charge.
“Those who stayed were forced to work and broadcast for the Taliban,” said a former employee of the station who fled to the provincial capital, Mazar-e Sharif.
The ex-employee, who spoke to RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi on condition of anonymity, said the station has become a mouthpiece for the Taliban.
“The Taliban uses the radio station to spread propaganda against the government,” the former employee said. “It also broadcasts religious sermons. Music and entertainment shows are banned.”
In other areas it has captured, the Taliban has permitted radio stations to operate but have imposed restrictions on their content.
Sedaye Kokcha Radio, a private station in the Jurm district of the northern province of Badakhshan, was banned from broadcasting some of its shows. The insurgents also barred female employees from coming to work.
“We are currently broadcasting agricultural, health, and literary programs, but we are censoring music programs,” says Nasir Ahmad Akhgar, the director of the station. “Only men are working at the station now.”
Looted And Destroyed
For the past seven years, Radio Dehrawud broadcast news and current affairs programs as well as cultural and entertainment shows.
But when Taliban militants captured the Dehrawud district in the southern province of Uruzgan last month, the radio station fell silent.
“At first, the Taliban didn’t allow us to enter the radio station,” says Mohammad Omar Waziri, the director of Radio Dehrawud who had since fled the district. “Then the equipment at the station was looted. A few days later, the radio station was destroyed.”
The Taliban claimed the station was ransacked before the militant group captured the district. But Afghan media advocacy group NAI contradicted that claim, saying that the Taliban looted and destroyed the station after it captured the Dehrawud district.
Ehsanullah Wolesmal, the managing director of Shama, a private radio station in Tarin Kowt, the capital of Uruzgan, said media outlets feared a possible Taliban takeover of the city.
“Media outlets in Tarin Kowt will be destroyed with the Taliban’s arrival,” he said. “We urge the Taliban to understand that local and private radio stations are neutral and should not be treated in this way.”
In areas under its control, the Taliban has also banned smart phones and social media to prevent people from gaining access to independent information.
Some Afghans have said they were beaten by the Taliban for posting critical comments on Facebook. Members of civil society groups in Taliban areas have been intimidated and detained.
The Taliban has also killed dozens of journalists and targeted independent media outlets that report critically about them. At least 12 Afghan journalists and media workers have been murdered this year, with many of the killings blamed on the Taliban.
In May, the Taliban accused independent media outlets of “one-sided propaganda” and threatened journalists with “consequences.”
Dozens Of Media Outlets Shuttered
At least 35 media outlets have shut down since the Taliban launched its blistering military offensive on May 1, according to Afghanistan’s Information and Culture Ministry. It was not clear how many of the closures were self-imposed or forced by the Taliban.
Six other private media outlets have been seized and are now being run by the Taliban, the ministry said on August 3.
The NAI said its data showed that 51 media outlets have shut down since April: 44 radio stations, five television stations, one media center, and a news agency.
Most of the closures have occurred in provinces that have been the target of Taliban attacks, including the southern provinces of Kandahar and Helmand as well as the northern provinces of Badakhshan, Takhar, Baghlan, Samangan, Balkh, Sar-e Pul, Jawzjan, Faryab, and Badghis.
More than 1,000 journalists and media workers, including 150 women, have lost or left their jobs since April, according to the NAI.
Since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001 that led to the downfall of the Taliban’s five-year reign over the country, the media scene has flourished.
Afghanistan now has an estimated 170 radio stations, more than 100 newspapers, and dozens of TV stations.
Under the Taliban regime there was only state-owned radio, the Taliban’s Voice of Shari’a, which was dominated by calls to prayer and religious teachings.
Taliban Reimposes Repressive Laws
The Taliban’s crushing of press freedom comes as the extremist group has reimposed many of the repressive laws and retrograde policies that defined its extremist 1996-2001 rule.
When it controlled Afghanistan, the Taliban forced women to cover themselves from head to toe, banned them from working outside the home, severely limited girls’ education, and required women to be accompanied by a male relative if they left their homes.
Meanwhile, men were banned from trimming or shaving their beards. They were also forced to pray five times a day. Listening to music and watching television was also outlawed.
Many of those policies have returned in areas now under Taliban control, say residents. That is despite repeated claims by the Taliban that it has changed and that it would not bring back its notorious, restrictive strictures.
Based on reporting by RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi correspondents in Afghanistan. Their names are being withheld for their protection.