Afghanistan’s Media Freedom in Retreat as Taliban Advances

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Ayesha Tanzeem
VOA News
July 25, 2021

ISLAMABAD – The day the Taliban entered Balkh district, 20 km west of Mazar e Sharif, the capital of Balkh province last month, local radio station Nawbahar shuttered its doors and most of its journalists went into hiding.

Within days the station started broadcasting again, but the programming was different. Rather than the regular line-up, Nawbahar was playing Islamist anthems and shows produced by the Taliban.

The switch in programming is a far cry from how Nawbahar usually operates. The station started up in the northern province in 2004—broadcasting news and entertainment in Dari and Pashto languages thanks to funds from the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Its experience reflects a growing trend for Afghanistan’s independent media. As the security situation deteriorates, so does the situation for all the other gains the country made in the last 20 years, including press freedom.

The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism says Afghanistan went from zero independent media under Taliban rule to 170 radio stations, more than 100 newspapers, and multiple TV stations since the U.S.-led invasion of the country 20 years ago.

Now that foreign troops are almost gone and the Taliban have nearly doubled the territory under their control, many journalists working in insecure areas are fleeing to safety.

Nearly 50 journalists in territory newly under Taliban control have either been forced to leave or evacuated out of fear for their lives in recent weeks. More than 20 media outlets have stopped operating, while others are forced to broadcast Taliban propaganda, according to Najib Sharifi, president of Afghan Journalists Safety Committee that monitors threats against media.

“We have at least five media stations, private media outlets, that have been taken over by the Taliban, and through these five stations, Taliban broadcast their propaganda,” Sharifi told VOA. “They have also stopped broadcasting of music and voices of women.”

Sharifi said that in many areas the Taliban seems to be reverting to the same practices they used in the 90s when they ruled the country under a brutal Islamist code, under which women had no place in public life.

In a WhatsApp call to VOA, Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen denied the allegations.

“We only took over radio stations run by Kabul government since they were government owned, and we replaced that government. But private radio stations are allowed to operate, and we have told journalists to operate them normally.”

Shaheen said that women were allowed to broadcast as long as they wear a hijab, but “music is a different matter.”

Despite Taliban denials and reassurances, local journalists continue to flee as the militants approach. Four VOA reporters are among the dozens who have left for the relative safety of the capital, Kabul.

One of those is Lina Shirzad, a contributor who worked in Faizabad, the capital of Badakhshan province. As a female journalist working in a conservative province, her work was twice as hard. But Shirzad said she had started receiving anonymous death threats.

“They told me to stop working in media, but I continued. I never expected that Taliban would surround my hometown and I won’t be able to work as a journalist anymore,” she said.

Shirzad has left the area, but she worries about family who remained.

“When I make calls to find out about the situation, it seems like it’s getting worse,” she said.

Afghanistan was already one of the most dangerous countries for journalists. Last week, Pulitzer Prize winning Reuters photographer Danish Siddiqui was killed when the Afghan special forces he was embedded with came into direct contact with the Taliban.

Now, with the mass movement of journalists from some areas, the physical risks have compounded threats to the flow of free and impartial information at a time when accusations of human rights atrocities are rising from both sides.

“We are facing an extensive media blackout in areas that have been captured by the Taliban,” Sharifi said. “We don’t know what’s going on there because there are no journalists to report what’s happening with people, what’s happening with the Taliban, how they offer governance to the people, how they offer services to the people.”

As if physical threats and lack of access was not enough, journalists in Afghanistan are increasingly facing yet another hurdle—an avalanche of propaganda and fake news through social media.

“A significant amount of propaganda is being orchestrated and disseminated, mostly by the Taliban,” Sharifi said, adding that it was becoming very difficult for journalists to filter between fact and fiction.

Journalists in Afghanistan say they are not just worried about their careers but the future of journalism.

“If the current situation continues, then you might as well have a funeral for journalism or freedom of press in Badakhshan and other provinces in the north,” Shirzad said.

Afghanistan Reports 414 New Cases of COVID-19, 52 Deaths

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Tolo News: The Ministry of Public Health on Sunday reported 414 new positive cases of COVID-19 out of 1,124 samples tested in the last 24 hours. The ministry also reported 52 deaths and 1,224 recoveries from COVID-19 in the same period. The figures show a slight increase in the number of both new cases and fatalities compared to the daily report on Saturday. Click here to read more (external link).

Night Curfew Enforced in Afghanistan to Stem Taliban Advance

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Ayaz Gul
VOA News
July 24, 2021

ISLAMABAD – Authorities in Afghanistan on Saturday enforced an indefinite nighttime curfew across most of the country as government forces struggle to curb Taliban advances.

The Islamist insurgent group has made rapid battlefield gains in recent weeks, bringing it close to capital cities of all 34 Afghan provinces and the nation’s capital, Kabul.

A spokesperson for the Afghan interior ministry told VOA that all provinces have been placed under the 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. curfew with the exception of Kabul, Nangarhar and Panjsher provinces.

“Terrorist groups often undertake terrorist and other subversive acts late in the night, so a nighttime restriction on public movement has been enforced to curb the violence,” said Ahmad Zia Zia.

The Taliban unleashed a widespread offensive in early May, when the United States and NATO allies began pulling their last remaining troops from Afghanistan. Since then the insurgents have overrun more than half of roughly 420 Afghan districts, without a fight in many cases.

As of last week, the U.S. military said 95% of its withdrawal had been completed and the process is on track to finish by the end of next month.

Stepped up Taliban attacks have forced the U.S. military in recent days to launch airstrikes to enable Afghan security forces to contain insurgent advances.

The Afghan government has blamed its battlefield losses on a lack of U.S. air support for security forces on the ground since May.

The Taliban denounced the latest U.S. airstrikes as a breach of the group’s February 2020 agreement with Washington that paved the way for the foreign forces’ withdrawal after nearly 20 years of war in Afghanistan.

“It is a clear violation of the signed agreement that will have consequences,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid warned in a statement.

U.S. officials have described Taliban offensives as a violation of the Islamist group’s agreement to support a peacefully negotiated resolution of the conflict, as outlined in that same February 2020 agreement.

General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Wednesday that about 212 district centers are currently in Taliban hands, and insurgent forces are advancing on the outskirts of 17 provincial capitals.

“Strategic momentum sort of appears to be sort of with the Taliban,” Milley told reporters during a briefing at the Pentagon.

“What they’re trying to do is isolate the major population centers,” he added. “They’re trying to do the same thing to Kabul, and roughly speaking … a significant amount of territory has been seized.”

The Afghan fighting largely subsided, as usual, during this week’s three-day Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha that ended on Thursday.

But both warring sides have since resumed attacks against each other.

Afghan Defense Ministry officials claimed Saturday that security forces killed nearly 300 insurgent fighters across several provinces in the past 24 hours, though Taliban and government officials routinely offer inflated battlefield claims.

U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday assured Afghan counterpart Ashraf Ghani of Washington’s diplomatic and humanitarian support.

A White House statement said the two leaders in a phone call “agreed that the Taliban’s current offensive is in direct contradiction to the movement’s claim to support a negotiated settlement of the conflict.”

Biden told Ghani that his administration would remain diplomatically engaged “in support of a durable and just political settlement” to the Afghan war.

The U.S. State Department noted on Friday the ongoing violence in Afghanistan was largely driven by the Taliban and called for an immediate end to it.

“We call on the Taliban to engage in serious negotiations to determine a political roadmap for Afghanistan’s future that leads to a just and durable settlement,” Jalina Porter, principal deputy spokesperson, told reporters in Washington.

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Biden Assures Ghani Of Continued U.S. Support For Afghan Security Forces, Humanitarian Aid

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Joe Biden

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
July 24, 2021

U.S. President Joe Biden spoke by phone with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, emphasizing that the United States will continue its support for Afghanistan, including developmental and humanitarian aid.

Biden also reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to continue supporting the Afghan security forces to defend themselves, the White House said in a statement on July 23.

Biden and Ghani agreed that the Taliban’s current offensive is in direct contradiction to its claim to support a negotiated settlement of the conflict, the statement said.

In recent weeks Taliban militants have brought large swaths of Afghanistan under their control, including key border crossings, as U.S.-led international forces withdraw from the country, raising increasing concerns that the Afghan government may collapse.

Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen said in an interview with the AP on July 23 that the militants will lay down their weapons when a negotiated government acceptable to all sides in the conflict is installed in Kabul and Ghani’s government is gone.

“I want to make it clear that we do not believe in the monopoly of power because any governments who [sought] to monopolize power in Afghanistan in the past, were not successful governments,” said Shaheen, apparently including the Taliban’s own five-year rule in that assessment.

“So we do not want to repeat that same formula.”

Earlier on July 23, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Biden and his administration support the leadership of the Afghan people, including Ghani.

In their call Biden and Ghani reportedly discussed the importance of Afghans coming together to support their common interest in security and peace, and Biden “underscored continued U.S. diplomatic engagement in support of a durable and just political settlement.”

The statement also said the Biden administration has requested $3.3 billion from Congress for the Afghanistan Security Forces Fund, including $1 billion to ensure the Afghan Air Force and Special Mission Wing are able to support ongoing combat operations.

The request also includes $1 billion to purchase and deliver supplies for Afghan forces, such as fuel, ammunition, and spare parts, and $700 million to pay the salaries of Afghan soldiers.

The United States recently announced more than $266 million in additional humanitarian assistance and released $300 million in development and other nonhumanitarian assistance, the statement said.

Also on July 23, the U.S. State Department condemned the Taliban’s targeted attacks on former interpreters and other Afghans as well as the destruction of infrastructure, urging the group to prevent such actions.

“We vehemently condemn the targeted attacks, the destruction of vital infrastructure, as well as other attacks against the people of Afghanistan,” State Department spokeswoman Jalina Porter said at a briefing.

In virtual talks with Congress, Afghan lawmakers on July 23 voiced alarm over the state of the Afghan Air Force, saying that one-third of their fleet of 160 aircraft are inoperable and there is a shortage of U.S.-made precision-guided rockets, hampering Kabul’s efforts to halt Taliban advances.

The assassinations by the Taliban of Afghan pilots has also become a problem, the lawmakers said.

With reporting by Reuters, AFP, and AP

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.

Afghanistan: 203 Cases of COVID-19, 32 Deaths Reported

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Tolo News: The Ministry of Public Health on Saturday reported 203 new positive cases of COVID-19 out of 1,346 samples tested in the last 24 hours. Data by the ministry shows that the total number of cases is 143,869, total deaths stand at 6,425 and total recoveries are at 91,835. According to the data, COVID-19 positivity rate in the country is 15.08%. Click here to read more (external link).

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Trade-Hindering Turmoil On Afghan-Pakistan Border Is Just Part Of Problem

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Radio Mashaal / RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi
July 23, 2021

CHAMAN, Pakistan — Despite allegations of a massacre near a border crossing between southern Afghanistan and Pakistan, foot traffic is resuming across this normally bustling trade and travel crossroads in South Asia.

The partial reopening at a key point of the Afghan-Pakistani border follows a purported deal between Taliban fighters and Pakistani officials.

But ongoing delays and reports of the mounting civilian casualties in nearby Afghan districts under Taliban control highlight major obstacles to the normalization of trade or other aspects of life in the region amid a dire security situation.

In the southern Afghan province of Kandahar, the district around the Spin Boldak border crossing into Pakistan is among dozens that have fallen into Taliban hands since the withdrawal of U.S.-led international troops began in May.

Afghan government forces are said to be trying to retake the district from the militants.

But a Pakistani official told RFE/RL’s Radio Mashaal that the partial reopening of the Spin Boldak crossing adjacent to the Pakistani town of Chaman was the result of a July 21 meeting between Taliban representatives and Pakistani border officials.

The source, who did not want to be identified because he was not authorized to talk publicly about the situation, said the Taliban has agreed to allow people to cross the border on foot each day from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m.

A former head of the Pakistan Traders Association, Daro Khan Achakzai, told Radio Mashaal on July 23 that merchants are suffering due to insecurity in the area.

He said even though the border is now being opened for foot traffic, containers full of goods intended for trading remain stranded on both sides.

Achakzai said the area on the Afghan side of the border is under Taliban control and that Pakistan doesn’t recognize Taliban authority.

He said that means Pakistan also is not accepting documents on things like customs fees — inflicting huge losses on trapped traders.

And while would-be traders and others are eager to see the checkpoint fully reopened, renewed traffic could complicate a precarious security situation that already has Islamabad and Kabul sniping undiplomatically in public.

Cross-Border Tensions

Afghan officials routinely accuse Pakistan of supporting the Taliban and abetting cross-border attacks.

Such fears intensified on July 22 when Afghan officials alleged Taliban fighters had stormed and looted homes and killed at least 100 innocent civilians in attacks throughout Spin Boldak on orders from their Pakistani “bosses.”

The allegation echoed similar charges during recent months in other parts of the country where the Taliban has taken over more sparsely populated districts.

A Taliban spokesman dismissed claims of that group’s involvement in attacks on civilians in Spin Boldak.

“The Taliban have always denied any involvement in the incident, which has sparked a huge public outcry,” Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Mirwais Stanekzai told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi on July 23.

“But in the Spin Boldak area where the killings took place, no group other than the Taliban holds power,” Stanekzai said. “It is under Taliban control, and everything that happens there depends on the Taliban.”

The head of Mirwais Hospital in Kandahar told Radio Azadi this week that more than 300 wounded people were admitted over a span of 10 days from nearby war zones, including Spin Boldak.

He said the fighting also killed at least 77 people whose bodies were brought to the hospital, “most of them unidentified.”

He said “it seems that many civilians are among those killed.”

Stanekzai said “the vast majority” of those killed “were civilians and innocent people,” including some who “used to work in the government but have been sitting at home for a long time now.”

Many of the dead are young people, including athletes, activists, entrepreneurs, vloggers, and people “suspected of sympathies with the government of Afghanistan,” he said.

‘Revenge’ Killings

In newly captured areas, the ministry spokesman said, Taliban gunmen have “initially been friendly to the people but after they took control of the area, they harassed people and even killed some people in retaliatory attacks.”

Stanekzai charged that “the Taliban have killed…for revenge.”

A number of the latest reports appear to testify to revenge killings in the area.

Taliban gunmen evicted and killed a comedian and former Afghan soldier overnight on July 22-23 who was popular on social media in Kandahar’s Dand district, which the group overran several days ago. Photos from the scene showed his corpse with his hands tied.

Officials in Kandahar said the Taliban also dragged a tribal elder from Daman district, Mahboob Khan, from his home and shot him dead.

The violence has been so alarming that the withdrawing U.S. forces acknowledged they have conducted recent air strikes to support Afghan security forces, reportedly including in Kandahar.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told Radio Azadi on July 23 that “several air strikes” near the city of Kandahar killed three Taliban fighters.

Mujahid said the Taliban “condemns these U.S. air strikes.” He accused the United States violating its February 2020 Doha agreement with the Taliban that paved the way for the withdrawal of international forces.

With heightened international concerns over the Taliban offensive, Kabul was forced on July 23 to publicly refute as “baseless propaganda” a Taliban claim that the militant group now controls 90 percent of Afghanistan’s borders.

Afghan government forces have been battling to regain control of Spin Boldak since Taliban fighters captured the district earlier in July.

In the intervening days, Pakistani authorities have repeatedly closed and reopened the Spin Boldak-Chaman crossing.

Its so-called Friendship Gate, a towering brick structure built in 2003, normally facilitates tens of thousands of border crossings a day.

But hundreds of Pakistani and Afghan trucks have been stranded on both sides of the border since its closure on July 18 to coincide with Eid al-Adha, one of Islam’s major holidays.

Unlike the Torkham border crossing at the Khyber Pass — which carries traffic between the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad and the Pakistani city of Peshawar –there are few visa restrictions on traffic through the Spin-Boldak-Chaman crossing.

Traders and other entrepreneurs on either side of the Torkham crossing have also complained bitterly that the border closure there has affected their businesses.

Maqsood Anwar Mashal, head of the Chamber of Commerce in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, told Radio Mashaal earlier this month that reopening trade routes is a matter of life and death for the province.

“Unless there is peace in Afghanistan, our province will drown because we have no other market,” Mashal said. “The social, economic — there are all kinds of relationships — they are ours and we are their food. We are one people.”

Written by Andy Heil in Prague with reporting by RFE/RL’s Radio Mashaal in Chaman, Pakistan, and RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi in Kandahar, Afghanistan

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 NSA warns of possible influx of Taliban recruits from Pakistan

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Hamdullah Mohib

Ariana: Afghan National Security Advisor (NSA) Hamdullah Mohib said Friday that as many as 15,000 militants could enter Afghanistan from Pakistan to fight the Afghan Security and Defense Forces (ANSDF). Speaking in an interview with Sky News on Friday, Mohib stated that Pakistan has been a safe haven for the Taliban and that the group has been using Pakistani Madrasas, religious schools, to recruit fighters. Click here to read more (external link).

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