Category: Afghanistan

The second round of intra-Afghan talks after more than three weeks of break resumed on January 6 without significant progress…reports Asian Lite News

The European Unions (EU) special envoy to Afghanistan, Roland Kobia, has called for an immediate end to violence in the war-torn country, followed by a ceasefire.

Taking to Twitter on Saturday, Kobia said: “If some parties don’t like the term «ceasefire», call it truce, cessation of hostilities, moratorium, silent period. Whatever the semantics until it stops rivers of Afghan blood. You have an opportunity with new US administration to show you -really- want peace. Now”.

Without naming anyone or party, he stated there is a good opportunity with the new US administration of President Joe Biden, but political parties in Afghanistan have to demonstrate how much they are intended to have a prolonged peace, Khaama Press reported.

Violent incidents mostly in the shape of target killing has been on rise over the past couple of months amid the tough and slow peace dialogue between negotiating teams of the Afghan government and Taliban group in Doha.

The second round of intra-Afghan talks after more than three weeks of break resumed on January 6 without significant progress, reports Xinhua news agency.

According to local media reports, no official dialogue has been held between the two sides over the past 10 days.

Abdullah Abdullah, chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation, said last week that he had instructed the government negotiating team to focus on ceasefire and violence reduction to make the talks succeed.

However, the Taliban has demanded the resignation of the Afghan president from power as precondition for ceasefire and making peace.

A member of Taliban negotiating team Sher Mohammad Abas Stanikzai, according to media reports, has said that the armed group was ready “to make peace if Ashraf Ghani resigns” from power.

President Ghani has rejected the demand, saying that he is not the obstacle to peace rather he is a champion for peace in Afghanistan.

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The arrested Taliban leader was also a military chief for several Afghan central provinces, according to the agency…reports Asian Lite News

A Taliban militant group’s acting provincial governor for Kabul province has been arrested, the Afghan National Directorate for Security (NDS), the country’s national intelligence agency, confirmed on Sunday.

“Taliban’s acting provincial shadow governor Mohammad alias Hajji Lala has been arrested by NDS Special Forces,” Xinhua news agency quoted the NDS as saying in an announcement.

The arrested Taliban leader was also a military chief for several Afghan central provinces, according to the agency.

Meanwhile, Zabihullah Mujahid, a purported Taliban spokesman, rejected the report as a baseless claim.

Taliban militants, who ruled the country before being ousted in late 2001, renewed armed insurgency, killing government troops as well as civilians.

Their so-called leadership council has appointed governors as well as judges for nearly all 34 Afghan provinces.

Also read:8,500 Afghan civilians killed, wounded in 2020

No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks. However, Afghan officials blame the Taliban militant group for the bomb explosions in recent months…reports Asian Lite News

Three people were killed and 13 others injured in Afghanistan’s twin bomb explosions, the latest in a string of attacks in the militancy-hit country, authorities said on Wednesday.

In the capital city Kabul, two police officers were slightly wounded when an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) struck a police pickup truck in Police District 15 Wednesday morning, Kabul police spokesman Ferdaus Faramarz told Xinhua.

The IED was likely to be detonated by remote control and a Criminal Investigation Department team of Kabul police was investigating the case, he said.

In southern Uruzgan province, two police officers and a civilian were killed and 10 civilians, and a policeman wounded in a similar incident on Tuesday night, according to the Provincial Governor.

The police pickup truck was destroyed by the explosion that occurred in Police District 1 of provincial capital Tirin Kot city, Governor Mohammad Omar Shirzad told Xinhua, adding the wounded were receiving treatment in a provincial hospital in Tirin Kot.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks. However, Afghan officials blame the Taliban militant group for the bomb explosions in recent months.

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The Afghan National Defence and Security Forces (ANDSF) discovered a car heavily packed with explosives in Wardak province and defused 32 IEDs in Kandahar province in the past 24 hours…reports Asian Lite News

 The Afghan Ministry of Defence said on Monday that the military have discovered a car bomb and defused 32 Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) in two provinces.

The Afghan National Defence and Security Forces (ANDSF) discovered a car heavily packed with explosives in Wardak province and defused 32 IEDs in Kandahar province in the past 24 hours, Xinhua news agency quoted the Ministry as saying.

The IEDs were found in Kandahar’s Panjwaye, Arghandab and Zharay districts, while the forces detected the car bomb allegedly prepared by Taliban militants to target security forces, the statement said.

The ANDSF remains in control of most of Afghanistan’s population centres and all of 34 provincial capitals, but Taliban insurgents control large portions of rural areas, staging coordinated large-scale attacks from time to time.

Two days ago, three people were killed and another person was injured in a blast in Kabul.

The blast on Sunday, according to the official, took place at 8.30 a.m. in Police District 8, Xinhua news agency reported.

Arian said that the victims included Zia Wadan, spokesman for the Public Protection Force.

Without providing details, the official blamed the Taliban outfit for the attack.

The militant group has not responded to the allegation.

Since last month, at least 23 people have been killed and 70 others injured in security incidents in Kabul.

Kabul witnessed 15 security incidents late December 2020, including suicide attacks, car bomb attacks, magnetic IED blasts and targeted killings.

Four blasts occurred in Kabul on December 26.

Most of the magnetic IED blasts targeted security vehicles and were near police headquarters buildings in various areas of the city.

Also read:Conflicts scatter 18,000 Afghan families

The blast, according to the official, took place at 8.30 a.m. in Police District 8…reports Asian Lite News

At least three people were killed and another person was injured in a blast in Kabul on Sunday, Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Tareq Arian said.

The blast, according to the official, took place at 8.30 a.m. in Police District 8, Xinhua news agency reported.

Arian said that the victims included Zia Wadan, spokesman for the Public Protection Force.

Without providing details, the official blamed the Taliban outfit for the attack.

The militant group is yet to respond to the allegation.

Since last month, at least 23 people have been killed and 70 others injured in security incidents in Kabul.

Kabul witnessed 15 security incidents late December 2020, including suicide attacks, car bomb attacks, magnetic IED blasts and targeted killings.

Four blasts occurred in Kabul on December 26.

Most of the magnetic IED blasts targeted security vehicles and were near police headquarters buildings in various areas of the city.

Also read:Conflicts scatter 18,000 Afghan families

A chief negotiator of the Afghan government has said that the issue of targeted killings will be discussed when the next phase of the peace talks with the Taliban will resume on January 5.

“This (targeted killings) is one of the serious issues that we need to raise and follow,” TOLO News quoted chief negotiator Masoom Stanekzai as saying on Friday.

The remarks come as six journalists have been killed in various incidents of targeted attacks across Afghanistan in the last two months.

On Friday, Bismillah Adil Aimaq, a journalist and civil society activist in Ghor province, was killed in an attack by unidentified armed men in the city of Feroz Koh.

On Thursday evening, Abdi Jahid, a civil society activist from Baghlan was killed in an attack in Kabul’s PD17 area, police said.

“We witnessed the killing of several journalists here in Kabul and in the provinces. This issue has raised concerns among the Afghan media community,” TOLO News quoted Reza Shaheer, a journalist based in the Afghan capital, as saying.

Since January 2020, 11 Afghan journalists and media workers have been killed, making this one of the deadliest years. Meantime, at least 60 militants have been killed and several others injured in clashes and airstrikes in Afghanistan’s restive Helmand province, the army said on Sunday.

On Saturday, Taliban shadow district chief of Helmand, Mullah Shafiullah alias Mawlawi Nazim, and his five associated were killed in airstrikes in surrounding areas of the province, Xinhua news agency quoted the Afghan Army’s Miwand 215 Corps as saying in a statement.

In addition, 54 Taliban militants had been killed and eight others wounded during separate airstrikes and clashes with the army in Sorgodar and Bushran, on outskirts of provincial capital Lashkar Gah, as well as Naway-i-Barakzai, Garmser and Nad Ali districts from early Friday to Saturday morning, the Defence Ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

“Those among the killed militants were a Taliban divisional commander Abdul Salaam and three militants’ bomb experts,” the statement read.

Eight Taliban’s control and command centres, weapons, vehicles and several rounds of guided rockets were destroyed during the airstrikes, according to the statement.

Helmand province, notorious for poppy growing, is a known Taliban stronghold.

The militant group is yet to make comments on the development.

Meanwhile, the Afghan Supreme Court has sentenced Mohammad Adil, the mastermind of the November 2020 Kabul University attack that claimed the lives of 22 people, to death.

In a statement on Friday, the Supreme Court said that five other collaborators of the attack were sentenced to various jail terms on charges of treason, transfer of explosive materials and cooperation with the Islamic State (IS) terror group which claimed responsibility, TOLO News.

Adil, a resident of Panjshir province, was recruited by Sanaullah, a member of the Haqqani Network terror group, according to Vice President Amrullah Saleh.

He was arrested just a few days after the attack.

Adil had been missing for the last three years and it was rumoured that he has gone abroad for “studies and war”, Saleh added.

On November 2, 2020, at least 22 people were killed and over 40 others were wounded after two gunmen attacked the University.

The victims included 18 students — 16 from the Public Administration Faculty and two from the Law Faculty.

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