Taliban Archives - Page 2 of 3 - Lokmarg

Females In Afghanistan Spent A Terrible Time In 2022

By LokMarg 1st January 2023

Women and girls in Afghanistan spent a terrible time in 2022 after being banned from schooling, higher education, and employment in non-governmental organizations reported TOLO News.

The TOLO News report stated, “Secondary schools were closed to girls at the beginning of the year. Universities were closed for women in December. So was the opportunity for women to work in national and international NGOs.”
Schools for girls were supposed to reopen on March 23, 2022. The Taliban, however, said that schools will remain closed until further notice. They are yet to open.

Islamic emirate officials expressed various opinions on the closure of schools. In an interview with RTA TV, Zabiullah Mujahid said that schools for girls were closed due to religious issues.

Afghanistan’s acting minister under the caretaker Taliban regime later said that schools for girls were closed due to cultural issues and that people are not willing to send their daughters to school.

“If (we) were acting on Pakistan’s instruction, the problems of the schools and other problems would have already been solved. This is a religious issue and it needs Islamic cleric’s agreement,” said Zabiullah Mujahid, the Islamic Emirate spokesman, as quoted by TOLO News.

The TOLO News report also quoted Noorullah Munir, the former minister of education, saying that: “You wouldn’t need to ask me the same question if you ask how many people in this mosque are willing to send their 16-year-old daughter to school. You and I both grew up in the same Afghan society, and the culture is clear to everyone.”

A committee of eight religious experts was formed on May 26, under the leadership of Pakistan’s Supreme Court chief Abdul Hakim Haqqani to look into the reopening of schools for girls. The committee is yet to make its achievements clear.

“The committee has eight members. It includes religious scholars. The committee has done some work to reopen high schools for girls. We hope it can be solved in the near future,” said Inamullah Samangani, former deputy spokesman of the Islamic Emirate, as quoted by TOLO News.

As many as 11.6 million women and girls are no longer receiving vital assistance in Afghanistan, the US envoy to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield said on Saturday in the wake of the Taliban’s decision to ban women from contributing to humanitarian aid efforts in the country.

“The Taliban’s decision to ban women from contributing to humanitarian aid efforts is already having terrible consequences. According to the UN, 11.6 million women and girls in Afghanistan are no longer receiving vital assistance. This dangerous, oppressive ban must be reversed,” Thomas-Greenfield tweeted. (ANI)

TTP Intensifies Attacks Creating Chaos

By LokMarg 26th December 2022

The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) with its supporters has attacked defense establishments in Pakistan 148 times within a year. And the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan has given these terror attacks by TTP a boost. But the central government seems reluctant to take action against them, Khaama Press reported.

The TTP in the last year has conducted hundreds of terror attacks on the police and army headquarters in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Quetta in the Balochistan region. The Khaama Press article quoted unconfirmed reports which said that other militant groups have joined forces with the TTP to expand their terrorist operation in tribal areas of the country.
The Khaama Press in its report also mentioned that these attacks can increase in number as the TTP recently ended the ceasefire that they had with the Pakistani authorities.

However, the common people in Pakistan have been showing their aggression in the matter via protests like the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement [PTM] demanding the establishment to take action against these groups, according to Khaama Press.

Previously, on December 23 a suicide bombing shook Islamabad killing two conspirators and a policeman. Along with this at least three police officers and seven passers-by were wounded in the bombing.

Pakistan’s capital city took place nine miles from the garrison city of Rawalpindi, home of the military and government spy agencies.

“Security has been re-alert in Islamabad. Carrying weapons is not allowed under any circumstances. Election-related meetings will not take place without the permission of the police. Election activities and corner meetings will be allowed inside the four walls,” Islamabad Police tweeted.

Police said the blast took place when police officers spotted a car and ordered the driver to halt for routine checking. Instead of stopping, its driver detonated explosives hidden inside. A female passenger in the car also was killed, Suhail Zafar Chattha, a senior police officer in Islamabad told reporters at the scene

. The TV footage showed a burning car as police officers cordoned off the area. Residents said they saw policemen on motorcycles chasing a car and ordering a man inside the vehicle to come out. Police confirmed that account, saying the suspect blew up the explosive-laden vehicle after being surrounded by police officers.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the bombing and thanked the police. “Police officers stopped the terrorists by sacrificing their blood and the nation salutes its brave men,” Sharif said in a statement.

The responsibility for the attack was later taken by TTP. In a statement, TTP announced that the killing was orchestrated because of the killing of their senior leader.

This violence comes days after several Pakistani Taliban detainees overpowered guards at a counterterrorism center in north-western Pakistan after snatching police weapons and taking three officers hostage. (ANI)

Women Banned From Univs For Not Sticking To Dress Code: Taliban

By LokMarg 22nd December 2022

Taliban-appointed Education Minister in Afghanistan on Thursday said Afghan women were banned from university ‘for not following dress code’ which has sparked a global backlash.

The continuation of co-education and lack of observation of hijab by students were among the reason cited by Taliban minister Neda Mohammad Nadim for banning Afghan women from university, TOLO news reported.

“The presence of women at dormitories and their arrival from provinces without male companions, lack of observation of hijab by students, the continuation of co-education male, and the existence of some faculties for girls that are in contrast with the Islamic law and Afghan pride,” TOLO news quoted Nadim as saying in Radio Television Afghanistan (RTA).

He added that “some reforms planned by the Islamic Emirate were not implemented in the higher education sector.”

On Wednesday, the UN mission in Afghanistan shared the outrage of millions of Afghans and the international community over the decision by the Taliban to close universities to female students across the country until further notice and called on the de facto authorities to immediately revoke the decision.

In a statement, the UN mission said the UN and its humanitarian partners also urge the de facto authorities to reopen girls’ schools beyond the sixth grade and end all measures preventing women and girls from participating fully in daily public life,” the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said.

“Banning women from attending university is a continuation of the systematic policies of targeted discrimination put in place by the Taliban against women,” the UNAMA statement read.

Since 15 August 2021, the de facto authorities have barred girls from attending secondary school, restricted women and girls’ freedom of movement, excluded women from most areas of the workforce, and banned women from using parks, gyms, and public bathhouses. These restrictions culminate with the confinement of Afghan women and girls to the four walls of their homes.

The UN mission argued that preventing half of the population from contributing meaningfully to society and the economy will prove devastating for the whole country. “It will expose Afghanistan to further international isolation, economic hardship, and suffering, impacting millions for years to come,” the statement said.

The UN estimates that restricting women from working can result in an economic loss of up to USD 1 billion – or up to five percent of the country’s GDP. The ban of women from universities, including female teachers and professors, will contribute to additional economic losses.

The UN mission said excluding women and girls from secondary and tertiary education not only denies them this right, it denies Afghan society as a whole the benefit of the contributions that women and girls have to offer. (ANI)

Under Taliban, Lives Of Ex-Afgh Security Forces Under Grave Threat

By LokMarg 3rd December 2022

In Afghanistan, the Taliban continue to torture and detainment forcefully security officials who had worked under the previous government, because of which the life of these officials has become miserable, according to a report in the Afghan Diaspora Network (ADN).

The Taliban took over Afghanistan after US and NATO forces left in August 2021. Several reports and incidents of killings, torture, and forced detainment of security officials who had worked under the previous government have been observed, because of which the life of these officials has become miserable, says the report.
All these incidents are the result of retaliatory revenge that the Taliban is trying to assert on these former officials from the Afghan police, army, intelligence, and militias that were fending off the Taliban with the help of NATO forces says the author of ADN report, Elhamudin Afghan.

Many of these former defence officials were successfully able to flee Afghanistan as they were well connected to officials in the US and NATO forces. At present many of these security officials who have escaped have settled in western countries or have crossed the border and reached Iran. However, those who were unsuccessful in leaving Afghanistan when the Taliban took over in 2021 are now bearing the brunt.

For the past two weeks, there have been daily reports of killings in the eastern region of Nangarhar province. ADN reported quoting Radio Azadi which reported that the bodies of six people associated with the former government were found in different areas of Jalalabad City. Much like what happened in Eastern Nangarhar, in Kabul, an elite forces soldier of the former government was killed along with his two brothers and his cousin in recent weeks, the report mentioned.

ADN reported quoting a November 2021 Human Rights Watch report to state that the Taliban had killed more than 100 of these former Afghan defence officials within just three months of their takeover of Afghanistan’s Ghazni, Helmand, Kunduz, and Kandahar provinces.

During that time Afghan social media users shared many graphic videos of torture and killings done by the Taliban to grab the attention of the western forces. It is pertinent to say that no government has yet recognized the Taliban’s government.

Locals of Eastern Nuristan province said that the district officials of the Taliban in Laghman province have arrested, tortured, and then killed in September this year, Bahrumudin Nuristani who was a commander in the previous Afghan army in the Mandol district.

People in the Mandol and Doaba districts of Nuristan province demanded a probe into Nuristani’s murder. ADN reported quoting a BBC report that the Taliban had admitted that Nuristani was arrested and later died in Taliban’s detention.

ADN took interviews of two members of the former Afghan security forces- Shawkat Tareen and Abdullah Bawar – both pseudonyms used by the writer to hide the identities for security reasons.

Tareen recalled the day when the Taliban took over, a day that he and all his colleagues cried. That day people from the Taliban tore Afghan flags, scattered papers, and insulted them. And now they have no hope for life as they are now suffering, he was quoted as saying.

“I remember that, on the day of the regime’s fall, most of the soldiers cried. The Taliban pulled down our national flag, scattered our papers, and insulted us. This is our terrible memory. Now we have no hope in life because we are suffering,” Tareen said.

The former Afghan official said that he now has neither physical, mental, social, nor economic security, he is currently unemployed, depressed, and can sleep only with the help of sleeping pills.

He also pointed out that he was frightened about hearing that four of his former colleagues had died between Iran and Turkey on the road to Europe and that his two daughters are suffering under the Taliban regime, which has banned girls from attending schools beyond the sixth class.

Similarly, another security official from Eastern Laghman province quoted in the ADN report states he was detained but released in August 2021. He said in the interview given to ADN that he now does not believe that he will be able to see an organized military for Afghanistan and added that if he gets a chance he will flee Afghanistan.

The ADN report points out that in recent months, Afghan social media users have started a campaign to gain the attention of Western countries that had been engaged in Afghanistan, begging them to save the lives of former Afghan security forces stuck in Afghanistan. (ANI)

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Pakistan Again Tops List Of Nations At-Risk Of Mass Killings

By LokMarg 3rd December 2022

For the third time in a row, Pakistan has topped the list of nations at the highest risk of experiencing mass killings, according to the latest assessment by the US think-tank Early Warning Project.

Pakistan faces multiple security and human rights challenges, including increasing violence by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, the Early Warning Project said in its 28-page report.
The Early Warning Project is a joint initiative of the Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Dickey Center for International Understanding at Dartmouth College.

The other Asian nations in the top ten list include Myanmar ranked second and Yemen, in the third spot.

Early Warning Project is a research organization that identifies countries at risk of mass violence. The report cites violence by a local offshoot of the Taliban as one of the main challenges for the nation already facing political and economic crises.

Notably, this report comes as Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) called off the ceasefire with the government this week. TTP ended the ceasefire agreed with the government in June and ordered fighters to stage attacks across the country.

“As military operations are ongoing against mujahideen in different areas […] so it is imperative for you to carry out attacks wherever you can in the entire country,” the banned outfit said in a statement.

The Islamic group’s violent campaign had been picking up pace in recent months, with the most significant attack coming in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s (KP) Lakki Marwat district last month, in which at least six policemen were killed.

The TTP, a Pakistani offshoot and close ally of the Afghan Taliban, is listed as a foreign terrorist organization by the United States and the United Nations. According to UN estimates, it has between 4,000 to 6,500 fighters in Afghanistan. Its spread is beyond the tribal belt, to Pakistani cities.

“The Early Warning Project judged there was an ongoing mass killing perpetrated by the Taliban Movement of Pakistan and associated militias as of the end of 2021; this risk assessment relates to the possibility of a new and distinct nonstate-led or state-led episode beginning, not to the ongoing episode continuing or increasing,” the report said. (ANI)

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Girls School Attacked in Pakistan’s Waziristan; 1 Dead

By LokMarg 2nd December 2022

One person was killed and security personnel injured in an attack when unknown militants opened fire on a girls’ school in Pakistan’s South Waziristan on Thursday, according to Dawn.

The attack took place in a school in the Azam Warsak area of the South Waziristan district.

The Army Public School for Girls was celebrating Parents’ Day when the militants started shooting from a nearby mountain. According to Dawn, which cited police authorities, all of the people inside the school at the time of the attack–students, parents, staff, and security personnel–were unharmed.

Masti Khan, the deceased, was struck by a bullet while he was walking by the school, according to a police official. The injured security guard was taken to a hospital. The terrorists escaped to the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region when security forces retaliated, an official added.

Over the course of the last 40 days, militants have attacked six times the Azam Warsak Police Station, resulting in the deaths of seven police officers. Following an uptick in militant attacks, the police are said to have left the bordering police stations of Raghzai and Khankot, Dawn reported.

Since the outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan broke the ceasefire with the government on November 28 and vowed to carry out attacks throughout the nation, this was the first attack in the area to target a girls’ school.

According to Dawn, the Quetta attack signals the new beginning of a violent post-ceasefire campaign by the TTP, unless the security establishment and political leadership start to nip this evil in the bud.

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Taliban Says India May Restart 20 Projects In Afghanistan

By LokMarg 30th November 2022

Taliban on Wednesday said that India may restart 20 stalled projects in Afghanistan.

The Ministry of Urban Development and Housing (MUDH) of Afghanistan said that the Indian charges d’affaires, Bharat Kumar, expressed India’s interest in improving relations and the resumption of Delhi’s projects in Afghanistan, reported Tolo News.

Kumar made the remarks in a meeting with the Minister of Urban Development and Housing, Hamdullah Nomani.

The agency quoting the MUDH Ministry said, “It is expected that India will resume work on at least 20 projects in several provinces of the country. Kumar made the remarks in a meeting with the Minister of Urban Development and Housing, Hamdullah Nomani, in Kabul.

“Projects they were implemented during the former government but were delayed due to political changes or other issues–they are now interested in resuming these projects, said Mohammad Kamal Afghan, a spokesman for the MUDH.

Economists said they believe that the implementation of the projects will facilitate job opportunities and boost development in the country, reported Tolo News.

“The resumption of these projects can also create job opportunities for the people and it can promote people’s income and drive Afghanistan out of political isolation,” said Darya Khan Baheer, an economist.

“The restart of these projects will decrease the level of poverty and unemployment,” said Nazkamir Ziarmal, an economist.

The Pajhwok Afghan News meanwhile said that Urban Development and Land Affairs Acting Minister Mawlavi Hamdullah Nomani had urged the Indian business community to invest in the urban development sector of Afghanistan.

On its Twitter handle, the Ministry wrote that acting Minister Nomani met the charge de affairs of the Indian embassy in Kabul. During this visit, the acting Minister Nomani said: “The Indian businessmen can invest in the urban and housing sector, especially in the New Kabul City project”.

Numani further added, “India implemented some projects in Afghanistan in the past, while some of them remained incomplete due to non-payment”. He asked the Indian government to clear its stance about the incomplete projects as well.

Locals believe that implementing the projects will facilitate job opportunities, decrease poverty and unemployment, and boost development in the country.

In addition, the visiting Indian envoy was requested to provide the Afghan nationals with scholarships for master’s and Ph.D. degrees in the civil and urban development field to increase Afghan engineers’ capacity further.

Charge de affairs Bharat Kumar said the ministry could share information about all the mentioned projects. He will convey the message to the Indian government to solve their problems and make all projects ready to use.

I have received some details about the New Kabul Project, and I would talk about them to Indian investors as well, Kumar said.

India had to stop all its projects once the Taliban took over the reins of power in August 2021. India then closed its embassy, which restarted functioning a few months ago. India still has security issues as several civilian projects, religious places, and the Russian embassy were targeted recently by suspected Islamic State terrorists.

India, before the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban, had invested in developmental and capacity-building projects of around three billion dollars.

The significant projects India supported in Afghanistan were: The 42MW Salma Dam in Herat province was inaugurated in 2016 and is known as the Afghan-India Friendship Dam. The other high-profile project was the 218-km Zaranj-Delaram highway built by the Border Roads Organisation. Zaranj is located close to Afghanistan’s border with Iran.

India built the Afghan Parliament in Kabul for $90 million. A block in the building is named after former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

In 2016, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Prime Minister Modi inaugurated the restored Stor Palace in Kabul, initially built in the late 19th century. India also constructed one of its leading hospitals in Kabul.

India, in the past, has been supporting in developing the human resources, giving training to professionals and offering a considerable number o scholarships and admissions to Afghan students to study in India.

The Indian projects are mostly people-centric in all 34 provinces of Afghanistan. The projects were aimed at making Afghanistan a self-sufficient nation. India also operationalized air freight corridors and the Chabahar Port to enhance regional connectivity to Afghanistan.

India presently has been voicing deep concern at the unfolding humanitarian situation in Afghanistan; India donated consignments of humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan. These include 40,000 MTs of wheat, about 50 tonnes of medical aid consisting of essential lifesaving medicines, anti-TB medicines, 500,000 doses of COVID vaccine, essential medical/surgical items, and 28 tons of other disaster relief material. (ANI)

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Afgh: Taliban Publicly Flogs Boy, Girl For Having Pre-Marital Affair

By LokMarg 18th November 2022

The Taliban authorities in Bamyan province on Friday publicly flogged a boy and a girl for having a pre-marital affair, Khaama Press reported citing local sources.

Earlier, a local court in Bamyan province in Afghanistan had ordered public flogging on November 17.
Arezoo and Mohammad Essa have been sentenced to thirty-nine public floggings as they were allegedly in love and had a premarital affair. According to Khaama Press, around 1,000 people witnessed when the couple was being publically punished.

The couple had traveled to Bamyan for casual reasons when they were forcefully detained by Taliban officials.

Taliban Supremo Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada previously in a meeting with court judges said that they must not hesitate in giving Hadd and Qisas punishments as per Islamic law, according to Khaama Press.

Hadd crimes are punishable by death or amputation of limbs and other harsh punishments and Qisas are ruled as per the eye for an eye law of retributive justice.

Since the Taliban’s hostile takeover of Afghanistan, similar incidents have been happening frequently.

A similar incident happened in the Ghor province of Afghanistan. A girl had committed suicide just before the Taliban had planned to publicly stone the woman on October 16 as she had been found guilty of running away from home with a man. The man whom she had run away with was executed on October 13 this year.

Not only this, human rights situation in Afghanistan has also deteriorated. Prior to this, Mahmood Shah Habibi, the former Afghan Aviation Authority Chief had recently traveled to Afghanistan and is missing since August 10 this year.

After the Taliban’s hostile takeover, the social and economic status of the country’s girls has also deteriorated.

The report, titled Breaking point: Life for children one year since the Taliban takeover, shows that 97 percent of families are struggling to provide enough food for their children and that girls are eating less than boys. (ANI)

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Taliban Faces Backlash For Detaining Women’s Rights Activists

By LokMarg 18th November 2022

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan has now demanded reasons for the continued detention of Zarifa Yaqoubi and other human rights activists, Khaama Press reported.

UNAMA has further added that it is seeking to access and contact the detained activists and know their whereabouts. UNAMA has also stressed that the detainees must have the right to contact their family members even when these activists have been detained in unknown locations by the Taliban, Khaama Press reported.
UNAMA has urged this when the harsh treatment of Taliban forces toward human rights activists extremely deteriorates the human rights situation in the country after its hostile takeover of the country.

Previously, Taliban forces had arrested woman journalists and human rights activists which included Zarifa Yaqoubi on November 3. During the arrest armed male and female officers of Taliban forces barged into a press conference held in Dasht-e-Barchi a neighbourhood in Kabul. Just after the arrest, the mobile phones of these detainees including Zarifa Yaqoubi were taken by force.

Yet another woman rights activist Farhat Popalzai had been allegedly detained on November 8. As there has been no information about Farhat’s whereabouts since November 8, Khama Press reported citing local sources.

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Taliban Advocating For Peace: Mann Attacks Previous Punjab Govt

By LokMarg 16th November 2022

Launching a scathing attack on the previous government, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Wednesday said that those patronised criminals during their regime are now raising questions about the peace and harmony of the state.

He said that it is like “Taliban” is advocating for peace.
“Under their regime the jails break incidents occurred. In order to save the daughter’s honour, the police officer was shot in the market and they stepped on them and raised slogans in favour of their boss. They patronised gangsters and now, they question the peace and harmony of the state. It is just like the Taliban take out a candle march and advocate the peace,” Chief Minister wrote in a tweet in Punjabi apparently targeting Congress.

The Chief Minister said the state government is firmly committed to maintaining a law and order situation in Punjab and any anti-social element will not be allowed to disturb the hard-earned peace and communal harmony of the state at any cost.

He said that a few unfortunate incidents occurred in the state but still law and order is intact in Punjab under the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government.

“The crime rate is extremely low in Punjab as compared to Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and other states of the country but still we are taking precautionary measures like cracking down on gun culture and reviewing gun licences issued recklessly by the previous governments so that the law and order situation remains intact,” the Chief Minister said. (ANI)

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