Kabul Residents Tired of Increasing Armed Robberies

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8am: Kabul residents complain of an increase in armed robberies, saying thieves are looting people’s homes under the name of the Taliban. Residents say they have contacted Taliban security officials several times to raise the issue, but the thefts have not been investigated. Meanwhile, the Taliban admit that armed robberies have been reported in some parts of Kabul and that thieves are abusing the Taliban name. According to Taliban security officials, their forces are trying to arrest perpetrators. Click here to read more (external link).

Dozens More Afghans Linked To Women’s Soccer, Basketball Are Evacuated From Afghanistan

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Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
October 21, 2021

World soccer’s governing body FIFA says a second group of 57 Afghan refugees linked to women’s soccer and basketball has been evacuated from Afghanistan to Qatar.

The group, comprising women and children, landed in Doha on October 20 on a Qatar Airways flight, FIFA said in a statement on October 21.

It thanked the Qatari government “for its support in facilitating extensive discussions and ensuring the safe passage of these individuals, deemed to have been at the highest risk.”

Last week, FIFA worked with Qatar’s government to evacuate almost 100 soccer players and their families from Afghanistan, including female players. Albania has also been collaborating with FIFA more recently to get endangered athletes out of Afghanistan.

Dozens of female athletes have managed to flee Afghanistan since the Taliban seized control of Kabul from the internationally recognized government in mid-August, with the refugees being accepted in Australia, Pakistan, Britain, Portugal, and elsewhere.

“I am also calling on all of our friends in governments and in the football community across the world to help us in obtaining residence permits and visas for the evacuees so that they can start a new life in safe and secure circumstances,” FIFA President Gianni Infantino said.

Under the Taliban’s brutal rule between 1996 and 2001, women and girls were not allowed to attend school or work or play sports.

The Taliban claims it plans to show more moderation than during its last reign, but the United Nations and rights groups have voiced concerns about the enforcement of severe restrictions on women.

The Taliban-led government hasn’t publicly stated its policy on the future of women’s sports, but a deputy head of the group’s cultural commission, Ahmadullah Wasiq, said in September that Afghan women might not be allowed to play sports because their bodies would show during competitions.

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 Musicians Face Uncertain Future

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Tolo News: According to the musicians, music was the only way of income but as they have abandoned it for over two months and are currently facing severe economic challenges. “Any country that doesn’t have culture and national music will never develop,” said Asif Khalili, a musician. The musicians called on the [Taliban] government to facilitate alternative job opportunities for them if music is not allowed anymore. Click here to read more (external link).

Taliban Strikes Journalists In Kabul As Women Protest For Their Rights

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Protest against Taliban (file photo)

By RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi
October 21, 2021

Taliban militants have attacked several journalists covering a Kabul rally by a group of women demanding “work, bread, and education,” spurring concerns about the deterioration of the rights situation under Afghanistan’s new rulers.

After it toppled the internationally recognized government in Kabul in mid-August, the Taliban claimed it would show more moderation than during its brutal rule from 1996 to 2001, when girls were not allowed to attend school and women were banned from work, education, and sports.

However, the United Nations and rights groups have slammed the Taliban’s “broken” promises to allow women to work and girls to have access to all levels of education, and blamed Afghanistan’s new rulers for imposing “wide-ranging restrictions” on media and free speech.

With girls in only five of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces allowed to attend secondary schools, and the vast majority of women ordered not to return to work, a group of about 20 women marched in the streets of Kabul on October 21 to defend their rights.

The demonstrators chanted slogans such as “Don’t politicize education” before the Taliban intervened.

At one point a Taliban fighter struck a foreign photographer with the butt of his rifle and kicked him as another militant punched the journalist, according to AFP.

At least two other journalists were hit as they scattered, pursued by Taliban fighters swinging fists and launching kicks, the news agency reported.

“The situation is that the Taliban don’t respect anything: not journalists — foreign and local — or women,” said Zahra Mohammadi, one of the protest organizers.

Taliban officials did not immediately comment. Afghans have staged scattered street protests since the Taliban takeover, many with women at the forefront, despite a ban on unauthorized demonstrations.

The previous day, the UN children’s agency, UNICEF, tweeted: “The education of ALL girls in Afghanistan must resume now.”

“Millions of children have already lost out on learning because of conflict and COVID-19. As schools reopen, girls cannot, and must not, be left behind.”

The Taliban has announced 11 new “journalism rules” that rights groups say could be used to persecute journalists, and detained and beaten a number of them over the past weeks.

With reporting by AFP and Amaj

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.

HRW Calls For ‘Better Pathways’ For At-Risk Afghans

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Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
October 21, 2021

Human Rights Watch (HRW) is calling on United Nations agencies and governments to increase their support for Afghans at risk who are seeking to flee their homeland or have already fled and are now in countries neighboring Afghanistan, transit countries, and countries of resettlement.

In a new policy briefing paper released on October 21, the New York-based human rights watchdog urged UN agencies and governments hosting Afghan refugees and asylum seekers to “focus on increasing refugee resettlement and building better pathways to safe and durable solutions for Afghans needing protection.”

“These include those eligible for family reunification visas or special visas available because of their past work in Afghanistan,” it added.

Since the Taliban seized control of most of Afghanistan in August, many Afghans are at grave risk of reprisal by the hard-line Islamist group, including human rights defenders, women’s rights activists, media workers, judges, and others who previously held official administrative and security positions.

These Afghans “are depending on governments to respect the right to seek asylum,” Bill Frelick, refugee and migrant rights director at HRW, said in a statement.

“Responding effectively to this humanitarian crisis demands refugee and migration policies that are generous, rights-respecting, and culturally sensitive.”

HRW’s call comes after Amnesty International said that Afghans at risk of Taliban reprisals face “formidable obstacles” to seeking safety outside Afghanistan.

The human rights group based in London described how neighboring countries have “closed their borders to Afghans without travel documents, leaving many with no choice but to make irregular crossings.”

Countries across Europe and Central Asia have subjected Afghans to pushbacks, detention, and deportation instead of granting them protection, it also said.

HRW said countries should establish “an orderly departure program” for Afghans seeking to flee, open their borders to asylum seekers, and suspend deportations or returns of Afghans indefinitely.

Governments should also review asylum cases of Afghan asylum seekers that have previously been rejected.

HRW noted that Afghans seeking to flee now have fewer options to depart their country after Pakistan’s national carrier canceled flights between Kabul and Islamabad. However, the private Afghan carrier Kam Airways and Qatar Airways continue to operate limited flights out of Afghanistan.

Governments should also pressure the Taliban-led administration to allow Afghans to exercise their right to leave Afghanistan, according to the group, which cited refugees as saying they had been “harassed, beaten, and extorted by Taliban officials” as they attempted to leave the war-torn country.

HRW also documented abuses against people associated with the former government, including former security forces personnel and members of the judiciary.

“Afghans have many reasons to flee and fear,” Frelick said, adding: “It’s now in the hands of governments around the world to give them reason to hope.”

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.

Pakistani Taliban Attacks Kill Several Members Of Pakistan’s Security Forces

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TTP Flag

Radio Mashaal
October 20, 2021

At least five members of the Pakistani security forces were killed in attacks in the northwest of the country on October 20.

Two soldiers and two police officers were killed when their vehicle was blown up by a roadside bomb in the region of Bajaur near the Afghan border, local police chief, Abdul Samad Khan, told journalists.

Khan said a search operation has been launched in the area.

The Pakistani Taliban, Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), claimed responsibility for the attacks in a statement.

Bajaur, which shares a border with Afghanistan’s Kunar Province, was one of the strongholds of Islamist militants linked to Al-Qaeda before they were pushed back in a series of Pakistani military offensives.

Separately, gunmen attacked a Pakistani Army check post in the same region, killing one soldier, according to a military statement on October 20.

Last week, the TTP claimed a bomb attack on a local political leader in Lower Dir, a district near Bajaur.

The TTP is a separate militant group from the Afghan Taliban, which toppled the Western-backed government in Kabul in mid-August.

However, Pakistan’s militant groups are often interlinked with those across the border in Afghanistan and both follow the same hardline Sunni Islam as its Afghan counterparts.

With reporting by dpa

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.

With aid slow to enter Afghanistan, public health facilities are turning many patients away

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Washington Post: Since August, when Taliban militants took power in the country, conditions have deteriorated further. International donors suspended aid that had funded the bulk of public services in Afghanistan, concerned that the new rulers would severely curtail human rights and revive cruel punishments for those who disobeyed their religious dictates. The hospital’s budget was slashed, and many staffers resigned. Click here to read more (external link).