New waves of Afghan refugees moved to Iran and Pakistan due to several reasons including fear of death threats and persecution by Afghanistan’s de facto regime….reports Asian Lite News
The Afghan refugees who migrated to Pakistan after the Taliban took over fearing persecution are undergoing continuous suffering and an extremely “inhuman and hateful” mistreatment, the Khaama Press reported.
Ever since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021, Pakistan is one of the primary destinations where Afghan refugees have migrated in search of better conditions. New waves of Afghan refugees moved to Iran and Pakistan due to several reasons including fear of death threats and persecution by Afghanistan’s de facto regime.
However, in Pakistan, the migrants have continued to suffer numerous challenges including arbitrary detentions, harassment, and imprisonment by Pakistani police, because of being unable to provide valid residential permits and visas.
Notably, Pakistani police and other relevant agencies have continued to detain and incarcerate Afghan refugees in different parts of the country, including the capital city of Islamabad, despite having refugees having United Nations Higher Commissioner for Refugee’s (UNHCR) certificate, the Khaama Press reported.
Maniza Kakar, an attorney of Afghan prisoners in Karachi earlier claimed that Pakistani police tore the residential documents of some Afghan nationals while they were arrested.
The alleged mistreatment of Afghan refugees by the Pakistani government has been labelled “inhuman and hateful”, leading to widespread criticism not just in Pakistan and Afghanistan, but beyond.
“In less than two years, I have been detained three times by the police – harassed, humiliated and bitten due to not having a valid residential permit. Life has become extremely difficult for me in Pakistan. Every time, I come across police, I keep running from one ally to another to avoid possible imprisonment and forceful deportation to Afghanistan,” the Khaama Press quoted an Afghan refugee.
Another Afghan refugee who has freshly moved to France said to Khaama Press that, “Pakistan does not offer you anything other than countless sufferings. He asked other immigrants to follow up on their immigration cases, otherwise, they will continuously face mistreatment, harassment and humiliation”.
Most Afghan refugees currently residing in Pakistan, are undergoing an extremely lengthy process, causing ambiguity and hopelessness
According to Amnesty, over 3.7 million Afghans who fled Afghanistan for political and economic reasons now reside in Pakistan. Moreover, only 1.4 million people have official registration.
Meanwhile, The Afghanistan Embassy in Islamabad also requested Pakistan to cease detaining Afghans earlier this month after 250 people were held for lack of travel documents by counterterrorism officials and other agencies, as per Khaama Press. (ANI)
Afghan students attend school in Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan, March 20, 2022. (Photo by Sanaullah Seiam/Xinhua/IANS)
Patel said that not only is the Taliban holding Afghanistan’s future back, but they also continue to stand in the way of their desire for international acceptance…reports Asian Lite News
The US has said that recognition of the Taliban depends on the behaviour of the Taliban leaders towards Afghan women, Khaama Press reported.
Principal Deputy Spokesperson for the US Department of State, Vedant Patel said that if Taliban authorities do not respect women’s rights, they will not only make Afghanistan fall behind but also undermine the international legitimacy of this country.
Patel said that not only is the Taliban holding Afghanistan’s future back, but they also continue to stand in the way of their desire for international acceptance and legitimacy.
Meanwhile, the UN special envoy for Afghanistan Roza Otunbayeva has said that the “April 5 restrictions against the Afghan women working for the United Nations places a question mark over our activities across the country,” TOLO News reported.
She said the Taliban gave no explanation to the UN for the ban.”We have been given no explanation by the de facto authorities for this ban and assurances that it will be lifted.”
Otunbayeva while speaking at the UN Security Council’s Meeting on the situation in Afghanistan, said that the UN does not want to put the lives of its female staff at risk and therefore asked them to not report to the office and also asked the male staff to stay home to respect non-discrimination. (ANI)
The United Arab Emirates Permanent Representative to the UN, Lana Nusseibeh, said the UNSC will hold a meeting on Afghanistan on June 21…reports Asian Lite News
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is scheduled to hold a session on Afghanistan in Kabul, the UN said in a statement on Wednesday, Khaama Press reported.
The Khaama Press News Agency is the largest online news service for Afghanistan. “UN Security Council is scheduled to hold a session on Afghanistan today at 10:00 hour New York local time (18:30 hours Kabul local),” the statement read.
It added that the “head of UNAMA, Roza Otanbayeva, is scheduled to brief the Council as part of the session”.
The United Arab Emirates Permanent Representative to the UN, Lana Nusseibeh, said the UNSC will hold a meeting on Afghanistan on June 21, as per Khaama Press.
The Security Council’s current President, Nusseibeh, announced: “We will convene a comprehensive meeting on the situation in Afghanistan on June 21.”
“Our focus will be concentrated on Afghanistan’s situation, women’s rights in particular, over which all the members of the Security Council have agreed,” she added, as per Khaama Press.
Nusseibeh, meanwhile, assured reporters in New York that the UN Security Council would continue to work on Afghanistan’s issues, particularly women’s rights. (ANI)
Hundreds of hectares of poppy farms have been smashed across Badakhshan over the past two months…reports Asian Lite News
Afghan counter-narcotic police have destroyed poppy farms on 123 acre of land in northern Badakhshan province, Provincial Director for Information and Culture Qari Maazudin Ahmadi said.
The illegal crop, according to the official, has been destroyed around the provincial capital Faizabad city and adjoining areas over the past couple of days.
Hundreds of hectares of poppy farms have been smashed across Badakhshan over the past two months, the official said pon Wednesday, adding police won’t allow anyone to cultivate poppy or other illegal crops in the province.
Afghan counter-narcotic police have accelerated the poppy eradication campaign as police personnel has destroyed 80 acre of poppy farms in the northern Jawzjan province since early May, Xinhua news agency reported.
Afghanistan-Opium
Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, the supreme leader of the Afghan caretaker administration, issued a decree in April last year to ban the cultivation of illegal crops, including poppy, and drug processing and trafficking.
Earlier in May, the counter-narcotics department of the Taliban-led Ministry of Interior (MoI) said that it destroyed 4,000 hectares of poppy fields in the country.
Head of the Taliban-led MoI, Hasibullah Ahmadi, said the process of destroying poppy fields is ongoing in Badakhshan, Kunduz, Takhar and Faryab provinces. “About 4000 thousand hectares of land have been cleared of drug cultivation in the center and provinces of the country,” Ahmadi noted, according to Tolo News.
As per the Kabul Security Command, after the Taliban returned to power, more than 1,000 people were arrested in connection with drug trafficking and its sales in the capital.
“1000 suspects have been arrested and turned over to the law in Kabul. These were the narcotics sellers and smugglers,” said Kabul security department spokesman Khalid Zadran, according to Tolo News.
Some farmers whose poppy fields have been destroyed asked the current government to provide them with alternative crops.
“We ask the current government to provide us with an alternative to opium cultivation and help us because our children are dying of hunger,” said Wali Mohammad, a resident of Uruzgan.
The Taliban-led Ministry of Interior (MoI)’s counter-narcotics department said that based on the surveys of recent years, there are between 3.5 million and four million drug users in the nation. The MoI has recently begun a new survey on the matter.
In a separate incident in May, at least four farmers died, and five others were injured in a dispute over the poppy field destruction in the northeastern Darayim district of Badakhshan province of Afghanistan.
The incident took place in the hamlet of Doabe Tagab in the Badakhshan region’s Darayim district, when the Taliban troops reportedly arrived to burn the locals’ paddy fields. A disagreement developed when the farmers demanded payback for the money invested in their lands. As a result, farmers came under fire from Taliban forces, resulting in four deaths and five injuries.
Another local source claimed that 15 people were harmed in the altercation, including the district commander and six additional Taliban members, reported Khaama Press.
The locals, horrified by the Taliban’s actions, demanded that those responsible be brought to justice. On the other hand, the Taliban were seen establishing a roadblock in the area out of concern about a local uprising.
According to a UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report, opium cultivation in Afghanistan has increased by 32 per cent over the previous year to 233,000 hectares since the Taliban’s takeover in August 2021, making the 2022 crop the third-largest area under opium cultivation since monitoring began, Khaama Press reported.
Conversely, opium prices have skyrocketed in Afghanistan since the Taliban imposed the ban on cultivation in April 2022.
A further crackdown on May 25 resulted in the arrest of thousands of PTI party members, while pressure was applied to Khan’s political allies to quit politics…reports Asian Lite News
Amid Pakistan’s deteriorating political and economic situation, experts spoke about the various factors and forces at play and expressed serious doubts about the country being able to see free and fair general elections.
In a webinar hosted by The Democracy Forum (TDF) titled ‘Repercussions of Pakistan’s descent into anarchy’, the commentators discussed about the current events in Pakistan that will affect the entire South Asia region, impacting the poor in particular and driving the nation to the point of political and economic implosion. In his opening comments, TDF President Lord Bruce said of Pakistan’s scheduled October election for its National Assembly that amidst a deteriorating political and economic scenario, many commentators believe it is very unlikely to be free and fair, further attenuating the already fragile nature of democracy.
“With the ruling PDM coalition government forced to make unpalatable fiscal reforms as a consequence of reviving a stalled IMF programme, the resulting cost-of-living crisis has given the opposition PTI party, led by Imran Khan, a chance to revive its fortunes through the forthcoming election”, said Bruce.
Khan’s May 9 detention on corruption charges by paramilitary troops of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) led to violent civil disturbances in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and later in Lahore and Rawalpindi. While Pakistan’s supreme court overruled the arrest and ordered Khan’s release, with chief justice Umar Ata Bandial declaring the NAB had acted illegally, the government was quick to condemn this decision and let it be known that Khan would be arrested again.
A further crackdown on May 25 resulted in the arrest of thousands of PTI party members, while pressure was applied to Khan’s political allies to quit politics.
At the very heart of this political crisis, said Lord Bruce, lies the deep personal enmity between General Asim Munir, Chief of the Army Staff, (COAS) and Imran Khan. “Their feud dates from June 2019 when Munir was sacked by Khan as Director General of Inter-Services Intelligence.
Bilal Gilani, executive director of the pollster Gallup Pakistan observes: “Pakistan’s future (is) likely to be decided not by elections or public opinion, but by who (wins) the power battle between the military and Khan”, with one side having “the ability to bring the public out; the other… the ability to bring the arms out.”
Lord Bruce also cited political historian Ahmed Rashid’s suggestion that Pakistan faces ‘the worst crisis since 1971’, with three major challenges concurrently which appear to have no solution in sight: first, the principal institutions of state – the judiciary, parliament and the military – are at war with each other; second, the security of its international border with Afghanistan is threatened by rampant terrorism; third, the economy is in dire straits with inflation now running at 37 per cent, and likely to rise further, while the country’s external public debt and liabilities now exceed USD 126 billion – of which 20 per cent is owed to Chinese lenders, creating considerable repayment and debt servicing pressure.
Islamabad-based writer, physicist and activist Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy noted that Imran Khan, who rose to power on the shoulders of the army, was a political novice whom the military believed shared their values – a supporter of the Taliban, anti-India, involved in the Punjabi establishment, hence the ideal candidate for PM.
“His time in power was a rough period, due to mismanagement and his links with groups such as the militant TLP, who demanded that Pakistan sever relations with France over blasphemy issues. Khan agreed and hosted TLP leaders in his office. And when Kabul fell to the Taliban, Imran Khan lauded this,” said Hoodbhoy.
Khan did not, argued Hoodbhoy, attack the army – to some degree a stabilising force in Pakistan – for making India his country’s perpetual enemy, or for putting the Afghan Taliban in power, etc – he attacked it because it withdrew its support for him.
Hoodbhoy also highlighted the difficulties in the US-Pakistan relationship, as the Americans have taken a step back and the Pakistan economy has become a ‘war economy’.
Although Dr Hoodbhoy felt the seminar title was less apt now as things in Pakistan were starting to stabilise to ‘a normal state of crisis’, he said the economy is running out of steam and it will be only a matter of months before Pakistan reaches an inflection point.
Dr Harlan Ullman, a Senior Advisor at the Atlantic Council and a former advisor to Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, spoke of seminal events that had tested the US’ relationship with Pakistan, leading to Washington regarding Islamabad as more of an enemy than a friend, including assassinations and various terrorist incidents.
Ullman argued that the US does not see engagement with Pakistan as worthwhile in the wake of the evacuation of Kabul, the ongoing feudal system whereby political and economic power are concentrated in the hands of a few families, political turmoil and the Imran Khan debacle.
“Today, the US is much more interested in India as part of the Quad, and while China has some remaining interest in Pakistan, it also has other interests,” said Ullman.
One area where Ullman was less concerned than others was in the security of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons, as the country has a three-key system which would make it very difficult for them to fall into the hands of terrorists.
Ultimately, however, Pakistan could be a hotspot that could exceed Taiwan or Ukraine. There is no desire on the part of the army to have an external crisis, given the state of Pakistan’s economy, said Ullman, concluding that Pakistan, as a polity, was on the point of no return.
Offering a more optimistic view was Dr Sumrin Kalia, a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Global Prosperity, University College, London, who joined the debate from Karachi, where, she said, life was relatively normal due to a vibrant civil society that is capable of being democratic.
“Civil groups are not coming out in support of Imran Khan because he did not invest in grass-roots democratic groups, and his politics were mainly theatrics. Yet the State has not really been able to connect with the people; and when they are not heard, they can turn to populist forces such as Khan,” said Dr Sumrin Kalia.
For senior Bangladeshi journalist and author Syed Badrul Ahsan, Pakistan has been on an unfortunate journey as far as elections are concerned. After its first election took place at a provincial level in March 1954, it took nine years for a constitution to be framed, though it did not survive for more than two years before martial law took hold. While the notion of ‘basic democracy’ was introduced by former President General Ayub Khan, it was actually a blow to democracy as it did not include all the people.
Ahsan argued that Pakistan has never had democracy in the true sense, so the idea of the country going back to democracy is not accurate. Pakistan’s military rulers have long put pressure on civilian rulers and, although elections will be held, to what extent will the election commission prevail? You can be sure, Ahsan concluded, that the army will not release its hold on politics.
“In Pakistan, governments are in office but not in power – behind them will always be the army.” But he too struck a cautiously optimistic note: he did not think Pakistan was descending into anarchy as some kind of hope can be derived through Imran Khan’s followers. For the first time, the civilian population has erupted in anger, and the army will have to bear this in mind,” said Ahsan.
Military coups are usually used to remove governments, argued Tim Willasey-Wilsey, a former senior British diplomat and currently visiting professor at King’s College, London.
“So, the big difference in Pakistan today is that the army is acting against an opposition party, not the government, which is still in place,” said Wilsey adding that the army likes being popular and sees itself as the guarantor of Pakistan’s nationhood. But it has become unpopular, acting against the crowd, which may lead to an antagonistic relationship with the people, as has happened in Myanmar and Syria.
Wilsey also looked at how the demographics have changed vis-a-vis the army – whereas once the sons of the elites would join the military and progress to the top, now those sons go abroad. The officer corps now hails from the lower middle class and may lack the ability to make certain decisions, which is concerning.
Wilsey also referred to leadership styles in South Asia, with ‘smart’ leaders like Modi, who know how to act, and leaders like Khan, more populist than bright. State mechanisms, both in Asia and elsewhere, are, he concluded, failing to control populist leaders.
TDF Chair Barry Gardiner MP lamented the military’s clampdown on opposition within Pakistan’s politics, as he believed that this was destroying the capacity to have important democratic dialogue, which he found deeply worrying.
Pakistan, he concluded, is in a position whereby democratic norms are being lost, and with their absence, winds are blowing that could impact everyone. (ANI)
Afghan refugees called the world community, the UN and other organizations to pay attention to their horrific situation….reports Asian Lite News
Afghan Refugees took out another rally in front of the United Nations (UN) building in the capital of Kyrgyzstan, and demanded to send them to Western European countries, including the USA or Canada, Khaama Press reported.
They called the world community, the UN and other organizations to pay attention to their horrific situation. Most of them claimed they had been mandated refugees in the country for the last two decades with only a refugee card, as per Khaama Press. The Khaama Press News Agency is an online news service for Afghanistan.
“We live in exile and without rights, without the opportunity to obtain citizenship of the country, normal access to education, medicine, the possibility of official employment. We want to have basic human rights. If Kyrgyzstan does not need us, then we see the only way out — resettle us to third countries as soon as possible,” the participants in the rally said.
In June 2022, Afghan refugees staged several demonstrations near the United States (US) Embassy and UN House buildings. They requested to either give them Kyrgyz citizenship or send them to another country, according to Khaama Press.
After the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in August 2021, Kyrgyzstan impose restrictions on issuing visas to Afghanistan citizens. It was done in response to the regime change in the country and to prevent the refugees from mass inflow and unwelcome visitors from Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, Nearly 13,876 Afghan nationals living “illegally” in Iran were repatriated to their home country through Iran’s northeastern border crossing over the past nine days, media reported.
The move aimed to counter the illegal presence of foreign nationals in Iran, IRIB news agency report quoted Majid Shoja, the border police commander of the northeastern Iranian province of Khorasan Razavi, as saying on Tuesday.
Shoja called on foreign nationals to enter Iran through official and legal gateways lest they should face “serious legal actions,” Xinhua news agency reported.
According to Afghanistan’s Ministry of Refugees, more than 60,000 Afghan refugees have reportedly returned home from Iran since January, and over 2.5 million registered Afghan refugees reportedly have been living in Iran. (ANI/IANS)
Many Afghans have fled to Pakistan for fear of persecution after the Taliban took over Afghanistan in August 2021….reports Asian Lite News
Amnesty International said today on World Refugee Day that the government of Pakistan must urgently stop arbitrarily arresting and harassing Afghan refugees and asylum seekers, many of whom are fleeing persecution by the Taliban, Khaama Press reported.
Many Afghans have fled to Pakistan for fear of persecution after the Taliban took over Afghanistan in August 2021. These migrants have been arbitrarily arrested, put in detention, and have suffered threats of deportation. Causing the delays in the registration procedure, Most Afghan refugees still need to possess Proof of Registration (PoR) cards which is the identity proof document allowing them to reside in Pakistan routinely. Many of them who had ordinary visas while entering Pakistan have also expired, as per Khaama Press.
Dinushika Dissanayake, Amnesty’s Deputy Regional Director for South Asia, said, “It is deeply concerning that the situation of Afghan refugees in Pakistan is not receiving due international attention.”
According to Amnesty International, many refugees in Pakistan do not want to go back to Afghanistan. Also, the organization called on the U.N. agency for refugees to “expedite registration and reviews of applications from Afghans seeking refugee status in Pakistan.”
They also emphasize the refugee’s request that nations sponsoring relocation programmes should speed up the visa application process, according to Khaama Press.
According to Amnesty, over 3.7 million Afghans who fled Afghanistan for political and economic reasons now reside in Pakistan. Moreover, only 1.4 million people have official registration.
Meanwhile, The Afghanistan Embassy in Islamabad also requested Pakistan to cease detaining Afghans earlier this month after 250 people were held for lack of travel documents by counterterrorism officials and other agencies, as per Khaama Press.
Photo taken with mobile phone on Aug. 22, 2021 shows trucks waiting to cross border at a border crossing point between Pakistan and Afghanistan, in southwest Pakistan’s Chaman. (Str/Xinhua/IANS)
Pak uses tools to disturb tribals along border
Pakistan’s policy of disturbing the tribal people along its border regions with Afghanistan has many dimensions, Afghan Diaspora Network reported. The various tools employed by Pakistan include frequent cross-border firings, violation of Afghan airspace through drones, economic blockade, and disputing Afghanistan’s sovereignty by issuing National Identity Card (NIC) cards to Afghans in border areas.
It is well known that the Pakistani leadership and the Army never miss a chance of inflicting cruelty on poor tribals on the pretext of the Durand Line, Hamid Pakteen wrote in the Afghan Diaspora Network report. Afghanistan has not accepted the 2,640-kilometre borderline as it divides traditional Pashtun regions. The tribal groups have said that the Durand line has left them with a fractured identity despite having a common culture and ethnicity.
Pakistan and Afghanistan have had differences on the matter since the formation of the former in 1947. The intensity of firing at the border has been particularly high after the Taliban came to power in August 2021, the report said.
Unilateral establishment of fences and border posts along the disputed border have been a common sight, apparently to counter-terrorism on international borders. The fencing has been painful for Pashtun and Balochi tribal communities living on both sides of the border, including their agricultural land, traditional trade, and movement of labour.
The tools used by Pakistan include harsh economic measures on Afghan people through frequent blockades at Chaman and Torkham which are the major border crossings, affecting the revenue of the Taliban, according to the Afghan Diaspora Network report. In recent years, another tool used by Pakistan involves the issuance of NICs to the residents of Barmal, which is a district in Paktika province in Afghanistan.
The decision of Pakistan has reportedly sparked a strong protest by Afghanistan through its embassy in Islamabad. Afghanistan has said that providing NICs to people is a violation of its national sovereignty and territorial integrity. Kabul is believed to have raised the demand from Pakistan to discontinue the distribution of the cards immediately, warning that it could negatively affect the ties between the two nations.
Afghanistan is believed to have demanded Pakistan discontinue the distribution of the cards immediately, warning that it could negatively impact the diplomatic relations between the two countries, Hamid Pakteen wrote in the Afghan Diaspora Network report. The residents of Barmal are Pashtuns, predominantly from the Kharoti and Wazir tribes. (ANI)
Afghan students attend school in Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan, March 20, 2022. (Photo by Sanaullah Seiam/Xinhua/IANS)
Heather Barr considered the 2020 Doha Agreement as an example of ignoring women’s rights for a political settlement…reports Asian Lite News
The Doha agreement, which was signed between the US and the Taliban, is less transparent and also excluded Afghan women from political engagement to a great extent, Heather Barr, the associate director of the Women’s Rights Division at Human Rights Watch said, Khaama Press reported on Sunday.
In a tweet, Heather Barr on Saturday accused Zalmy Khalilzad, the former US Special Representative for Afghanistan reconciliation of undermining women’s rights in the Doha Agreement. Barr said that neglecting women or not considering them in a part of discussions about Afghanistan was contrary to the principles of the UN Security Council Resolution 1325.
Barr considered the 2020 Doha Agreement as an example of ignoring women’s rights for a political settlement, reported Khaama Press.
She further added that Doha Agreement paved the way for the Islamic Emirates’ return to Afghanistan, which eventually caused the systematic violation of women’s rights after 2021.
This comes as human rights organizations had previously criticized the violation of basic rights of women, including accessing education, work, and political and social engagements by the Taliban regime, according to Khaama Press.
Afghanistan’s women have faced numerous challenges since the Taliban returned to power in 2021. Girls and women in the war-torn country have no access to education, employment and public spaces.
Taliban has imposed draconian restrictions on the rights to freedom of expression, association, assembly, and movement for women and girls.
Not only this, Taliban leaders have also disregarded international calls for women and girls to be given access to education and employment. Apparently, they have also issued warnings to other nations not to meddle in Afghanistan’s domestic affairs.
The Taliban 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 bath houses. (ANI)
Afghanistan, Sep 07 (ANI): Afghan nationals including women shout slogans during a protest outside the Pakistan embassy, in Kabul on Tuesday. (ANI Photo)
Amiri warned that women’s rights will be endangered everywhere else if the international community does not take action against women’s rights violations in Afghanistan…reports Asian Lite News
Representatives from several countries at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) criticized the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan and asked the Taliban administration to remove the gender-based restrictions on women and girls, Khaama Press reported.
While reviewing the report of Richard Bennett, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, the council members called the Taliban’s de facto authorities to respect and protect the rights of all people of Afghanistan, including, women, girls, religious minorities and political groups. Envoys from different countries spoke about the critical humanitarian situation in Afghanistan during Monday’s assembly. They particularly focused on bans restricting women and girls from accessing education, work and social engagement, as per Khaama Press.
They demanded that the 9international community should closely monitor human rights violations in Afghanistan and pressurize the Taliban to alter their conduct.
Rina Amiri, the US Special Envoy for Afghan Women, Girls and Human Rights called the women’s rights issues in Afghanistan a strategic priority of the United States. “The US condemns the Taliban’s systematic discrimination against women and girls and stands with the people of Afghanistan to fight for human rights and dignity,” she said.
Amiri warned that women’s rights will be endangered everywhere else if the international community does not take action against women’s rights violations in Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, the French envoy at the meeting said that the Taliban have imprisoned women and girls in houses and darkness. “According to Richard Bennett’s report, such restrictions are not seen anywhere else and the repressive policies the Taliban have launched in Afghanistan are considered a “war crime”, he added.
Whereas, Spain’s representative asked for a comprehensive investigation into the Taliban’s treatment of women, and whether or not it is considered a “war crime”. He also called for the accountability of human rights violators and an end to their immunity, according to Khaama Press. (ANI)
Rashid Khan returns to Afghanistan's squad for ODIs against Bangladesh; no place for Noor Ahmad.
There is no place for left-arm wrist-spinner Noor Ahmad, who was in Afghanistan’s squad for the ODI series against Sri Lanka earlier this month….reports Asian Lite News
Premier leg-spinner Rashid Khan on Sunday made a return to the Afghanistan squad for the three-match ODI series against Bangladesh, starting from July 5 in Chattogram, after being rested for the team’s one-off Test in Mirpur to prioritise his long-term fitness.
Fellow leg-spinner Izharulhaq Naveed, who rose to limelight with an impressive time in last season’s Big Bash League in Australia, has been given a maiden ODI call-up. But there is no place for left-arm wrist-spinner Noor Ahmad, who was in Afghanistan’s squad for the ODI series against Sri Lanka earlier this month.
Other new names in Afghanistan’s ODI squad include Shahidullah, Zia-ur-Rehman, Wafadar Moment, Mohammad Saleem and Sayed Shirzad.
The Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) also named 10 players who will be back-up players for the side’s future ODIs and the World Cup, to be held in India in October-November.
The list of ten back-up players comprises of Karim Janat, Qais Ahmad, Gulbadin Naib, Sharafuddin Ashraf, Naveen-ul-Haq, Darwish Rasooli, Zubaid Akbari, Ihsanullah Janat, Farid Malik and Ishaq Rahimi.
Afghanistan will play all the day-night ODI matches against Bangladesh at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattogram on July 5, 8 and 11. It will be followed by two T20Is between the two teams in Sylhet on July 14 and 16.
Afghanistan squad for Bangladesh ODIs: Hashmatullah Shahidi (captain), Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Ibrahim Zadran, Riaz Hassan, Rahmat Shah, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi, Ikram Alikhil, Rashid Khan, Azmatullah Omarzai, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Abdul Rahman, Shahidullah, Zia-ur-Rehman, Wafadar Momand, Mohammad Saleem, Sayed Shirzad
