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12 kids killed in Afghanistan due to bad weather

Parts of the war-torn Afghanistan have recently been the scene of heavy rain and flooding as dozens of people, according to officials, have lost their lives in flash floods across the country…reports Asian Lite News

Snowfall and freezing weather have killed 12 children in Afghanistan’s Kunar province, according to media reports on Thursday.

The natural disaster took place in Yugal area of Chawkay district, Xinhua News Agency reported citing Afghan media.

Villagers on condition of anonymity said the calamity took place a couple of days ago when the families of nomads were taking their animals to the mountains for grazing. All victims belonged to nomad families, Xinhua reported.

Parts of the war-torn Afghanistan have recently been the scene of heavy rain and flooding as dozens of people, according to officials, have lost their lives in flash floods across the country, Xinhua news agency reported.

In addition to downpour and flooding, more than 1,000 people have been confirmed dead in an earthquake that jolted eastern Paktika and Khost provinces early on Wednesday.

The most affected areas are in Spera District in Khost Province, and Barmala, Ziruk, Naka and Gayan districts in Paktika Province.

More than 1,000 people were killed in Afghanistan after a powerful earthquake hit the country.

“We have over 1,000 dead and over 1,500 wounded. Many villages were destroyed,” Amin Huzaifa, the head of the culture and information department of the Paktika province, told Sputnik.

Afghanistan’s TOLOnews reported that the earthquake occurred around 1:30 AM last night. He said that many of the victims are from the Giyan district of the province.

Taliban spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid said that an emergency cabinet meeting was held on Wednesday, to discuss assistance for the people affected by the earthquake. “In addition to helping the people affected by the earthquake, all relevant organizations were tasked to send rescue teams,” he said.

The disaster comes as Afghanistan continues to struggle with a severe economic crisis since the Taliban took over, as US-led international forces withdrew following two decades of war.

Over this incident, India expressed condolences to the victims and their families impacted by the tragic earthquake in Afghanistan.

ALSO READ: ‘Afghanistan continues to serve as safe haven for JeM, LeT’

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Many children feared dead in Afghanistan earthquake

Unknown numbers are still buried under the rubble of ruined, often mud-built homes by the 6.1 magnitude earthquake. Communication networks have also been badly hit….reports Asian Lite News

Doctors in Afghanistan say that many children may have been killed in Wednesday’s earthquake, media reports said.

More than 1,000 people died in the disaster, while heavy rain, threadbare resources and rugged terrain are hampering rescue workers, BBC reported.

Unknown numbers are still buried under the rubble of ruined, often mud-built homes by the 6.1 magnitude earthquake. Communication networks have also been badly hit.

One woman at a hospital in Paktika province told reporters that she lost 19 family members in the quake, BBC reported.

“Seven in one room, five in another, four in another, then three in another, have all been killed in my family,” she said.



The Taliban authorities have called for more international aid.

The United Nations is among those scrambling to provide emergency shelter and food aid to the remote areas in Paktika.

Survivors and rescuers have told the BBC of villages completely destroyed near the epicentre of the quake, of ruined roads and mobile phone towers — and of their fears that the death toll will rise further.

Some 1,500 people have also been injured, officials said.

Most of the casualties found so far have been in the Gayan and Barmal districts of Paktika. Locals said dozens of villages have collapsed.

“There was a rumbling and my bed began to shake,” a survivor called Shabir told the BBC.

“The ceiling fell down. I was trapped, but I could see the sky. My shoulder was dislocated, my head was hurt but I got out. I am sure that seven or nine people from my family, who were in the same room as me, are dead.”

A mother of six who was badly injured in the earthquake said many in her village had been killed, including seven of her own family members.

“We are very poor. We cannot reconstruct our homes again. We have nothing to eat,” she said.

All her family’s food supplies are buried under the rubble.

“There is nowhere to go. I demand the Taliban to rebuild our houses,” she added.

ALSO READ: ‘Afghanistan continues to serve as safe haven for JeM, LeT’

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‘Afghanistan continues to serve as safe haven for JeM, LeT’

India’s Permanent Representative T.S. Tirumurti noted that the Taliban, which now controls Afghanistan, “is yet to dissociate itself with other terrorist groups such as the Al-Qaeda which continue to remain active”….reports Arul Louis

India has warned of Afghanistan becoming a haven for terrorist organisations that threaten the region and called for unified action against the Islamic State, Al-Qaeda, Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba getting entrenched there.

India’s Permanent Representative T.S. Tirumurti told the UN Security Council on Thursday, “We need to see concrete progress in ensuring that such proscribed terrorists, entities or their aliases do not get any support, tacit or direct, either from Afghan soil or from the terror sanctuaries based in the region.”

“The linkages between groups listed (as terrorist organisations) by the UNSC (Security Council) such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Jaish-e-Mohammed, as well as provocative statements made by other terrorist groups operating out of Afghanistan pose a direct threat to the region,” he said.

He noted that the Taliban, which now controls Afghanistan, “is yet to dissociate itself with other terrorist groups such as the Al-Qaeda which continue to remain active”.

India’s Permanent Representative T S Tirumurti addresses the emergency meeting of the Security Council

Therefore, he added, unified action was needed to “ensure that Afghanistan does not become a haven” for other terrorist organisations, including the “local Islamic State affiliate known by the acronym ISIS-K, Al-Qaeda, Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba”.

Tirumurti heads the Council’s panel overseeing the implementation of its sanctions relating to Afghanistan that is known as the 1988 Sanctions Committee after the resolution setting it up.

He said that the committee’s report issued in May indicates “that the current authorities need to take much stronger action to fulfil their anti-terrorism commitments”.

In particular, he added that “there is a significant increase in the presence of ISIL-K in the country and their capacity to carry out attacks. ISIL-K, with its base reportedly in Afghanistan, continues to issue threats of terrorist attacks on other countries”.

ISIS-K has claimed responsibility for the attack on gurdwara Karte Parwan in Kabul last week and has threatened to strike elsewhere.

Under-Secretary-General Martin Griffiths, who is the UN’s Emergency Relief Coordinator, described the “desperate situation” of starvation and drought in Afghanistan which has been compounded by the earthquake this week.

Asking for more aid to that country while pledging to ensure that they are administered properly, he said, “Without intervention, hunger and malnutrition will intensify with devastating consequences. Drought will persist, wreaking havoc on crop yields and availability of safe water.”

Tirumurti said that India has sent Afghanistan 30,000 tonne of wheat, 13 ton of medicines, 500,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccines and winter clothing.

India has signed an agreement with the World Food Programme (WFP) for the distribution of 50,000 tonne of wheat in Afghanistan.

The wheat supply through the WFP was held up by Pakistan but has since been allowed and they are being sent to Afghanistan.

India has also sent 1 million doses of the Covaxin vaccine to Iran to innoculate Afghan refugees living there against Covid-19, Tirumurti added.

He said that an Indian team had gone to Afghanistan this month to meet representatives of the international organisations involved in distribution of the humanitarian assistance and to visit places where Indian programmes and projects are being implemented like Indira Gandhi Children Hospital, Habibia High School, Chimtala sub-power station and the WFP wheat distribution centre.

According to the Ministry of External Affairs, the team headed by Joint Secretary J.P. Singh was also to have met with representatives of the Taliban.

Trina Saha, the Acting US Mission’s Minister Counselor for Political Affairs, said that if the Taliban wants to normalise relations with the international community, it should heed the Council’s demand “to reverse the steps it’s taken to exclude women from social, political and economic life — immediately”.

“This is a perilous moment for Afghanistan,” she said, adding, “We have been alarmed by the resumption of fighting and reports of abuses against civilians in various parts of Afghanistan, including in Panjshir.”

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Death toll in Afghan earthquake shoots up to 1100

The government has announced that it will pay 100,000 Afs for the families of victims and 50,000 to those injured….reports Asian Lite News

The Taliban-led government in Afghanistan has announced that the death toll in the devastating 6.1-magnitude quake that hit Paktika province earlier this week has increased to 1,100, while the number of injured persons has also climbed to 1,600.

In a statement on Thursday, the Ministry of State for Disaster Management said that more than 1,000 of the injured are in critical condition and the number of the wounded is is increasing day by day, as some people are still trapped under the debris, reports TOLO News.

Local officials and residents of Paktika have said more than a thousand houses have been destroyed in the earthquake, deemed to be the deadliest in two decades, that struck the districts of Gayan and Barmal on Wednesday.

The epicentre was 44 km from Khost city and tremors were felt as far away as Pakistan and India.

The residents of the affected areas have also said they have nothing to eat and no shelter.

“People do not have tents, there is no food, people are living outdoors, we need everything,” a resident told TOLO News.

They are also appealing to humanitarian agencies and the Taliban government to provide immediate assistance.

Afghan and international aid agencies are assessing the damage and delivering supplies, but this is a major and developing crisis, one which comes on top of the country’s already dire humanitarian situation, says a BBC report.

The UN, which is also helping support victims, is warning of the risk of a possible cholera outbreak.

The government has announced that it will pay 100,000 Afs for the families of victims and 50,000 to those injured.

Afghanistan is prone to quakes, as it is located in a tectonically active region, over a number of fault lines including the Chaman fault, the Hari Rud fault, the Central Badakhshan fault and the Darvaz fault.

Over the past decade more than 7,000 people have been killed in earthquakes in the country, according to the UN’s Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports.

There are an average of 560 deaths a year from earthquakes.

Most recently, back-to-back earthquakes in the country’s west in January killed more than 20 people and destroyed hundreds of houses.

ALSO READ: UAE offers condolences to Afghanistan earthquake victims

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UAE offers condolences to Afghanistan earthquake victims

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The UAE expressed its sincere condolences and solidarity with the Afghan people over the victims of the powerful earthquake…reports Asian Lite News

The UAE expressed its sincere condolences and solidarity with the Afghan people over the victims of the powerful earthquake that struck the Khost and Paktika provinces in southeastern Afghanistan, which killed more than thousand people.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MoFAIC) expressed its sincere condolences and sympathy to the Afghan people and to the families of the victims of this tragedy, as well as its wishes for a speedy recovery for the injured, state media WAM reported.

In the aftermath of the devastating 6.1-magnitude earthquake in Afghanistan’s Paktika province that killed at least 1,000 people, the country’s Taliban-led government has appealed for international aid, the media reported on Thursday.

ALSO READ:Over 1,000 killed in Afghanistan deadliest earthquake

The earthquake on Wednesday, deemed to be the deadliest to strike the country in two decades, and subsequent landslides also injured 1,500 people in the two districts of Gayan and Barmal.

The epicentre was 44 km from Khost city and tremors were felt as far away as Pakistan and India.

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Now is the time for solidarity with Afghanistan: UN chief

The United Nations in Afghanistan is fully mobilised, and UN teams are already on the ground assessing the needs and providing initial support, said Guterres…reports Asian Lite News

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said that he was saddened by the tragic loss of life in the earthquake that struck Afghanistan.

“Hundreds of people have reportedly been killed and injured, and this tragic toll might continue to rise,” he added on Wednesday in a statement.

“My heart goes out to the people of Afghanistan who are already reeling from the impact of years of conflict, economic hardship and hunger. I convey my deep condolences to the families of the victims and wish a speedy recovery to the injured,” he said.

The United Nations in Afghanistan is fully mobilised, and UN teams are already on the ground assessing the needs and providing initial support, he added.

“We count on the international community to help support the hundreds of families hit by this latest disaster. Now is the time for solidarity,” Guterres said.

Guterres’ Deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said later on Wednesday that the World Health Organisation and several non-governmental organisations are deploying mobile health teams, medicines and medical equipment to Afghanistan’s Paktika and Khost provinces and mobilising additional medical supplies, Xinhua news agency reported.

The UN Children’s Fund has deployed at least 12 teams of health workers to the worst-hit Giyan district in Paktika, and several mobile health and nutrition teams to Barmal district of Paktika, and Spera district in Khost. The World Food Programme, along with its humanitarian partners, is conducting a vulnerability assessment mission in the remote areas hit by the earthquake.

UN humanitarians said the Taliban are responding, including with search-and-rescue efforts. But heavy rain and wind are hampering efforts with helicopters reportedly unable to land on Wednesday afternoon, according to Haq.

Those whose homes have been damaged or destroyed are seeking shelter with family and friends, with some reportedly living in the open. The Taliban have delivered food and emergency tents to some of these families. But more assistance is required, he said.

Given the unseasonable heavy rains and cold, emergency shelter is an immediate priority. Other immediate needs include emergency trauma care, non-food items, food assistance and water and sanitation hygiene support, Haq added.

ALSO READ: Earthquake: Taliban seek int’l aid

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Earthquake: Taliban seek int’l aid

The earthquake on Wednesday, deemed to be the deadliest to strike the country in two decades, and subsequent landslides also injured 1,500 people…reports Asian Lite News

In the aftermath of the devastating 6.1-magnitude earthquake in Afghanistan’s Paktika province that killed at least 1,000 people, the country’s Taliban-led government has appealed for international aid, the media reported on Thursday.

The earthquake on Wednesday, deemed to be the deadliest to strike the country in two decades, and subsequent landslides also injured 1,500 people in the two districts of Gayan and Barmal.

The epicentre was 44 km from Khost city and tremors were felt as far away as Pakistan and India.

In a statement, senior Taliban official Abdul Qahar Balkhi said the regime was “financially unable to assist the people to the extent that is needed” as Afghanistan is in the midst of an ongoing humanitarian and economic crisis, the BBC reported.

Despite help from “aid agencies, neighbouring countries and world powers”, he said that “the assistance needs to be scaled up to a very large extent because this is a devastating earthquake which hasn’t been experienced in decades”.

Meanwhile, Taliban Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada claimed that hundreds of homes were destroyed and that the death toll was likely to increase as rescue teams and emergency workers are still looking for people buried in the debris, Khaama Press reported.

According to locals in the affected areas, the aftermath of the massive quake was poorly handled by the Taliban.

Five helicopters were sent to the location by the Taliban cabinet members approximately eight hours after the incident during an emergency meeting, to facilitate medical evacuation. Khaama Press quoted the locals as saying.

The Taliban’s relief team is said to have reached the scene around 11 hours later to aid the victims.

The government has announced that it will pay 100,000 Afs for the families of victims and 50,000 to those injured.

Afghanistan is prone to quakes, as it is located in a tectonically active region, over a number of fault lines including the Chaman fault, the Hari Rud fault, the Central Badakhshan fault and the Darvaz fault.

Over the past decade more than 7,000 people have been killed in earthquakes in the country, according to the UN’s Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports.

There are an average of 560 deaths a year from earthquakes.

Most recently, back-to-back earthquakes in the country’s west in January killed more than 20 people and destroyed hundreds of houses.

ALSO READ: UN envoy bats for girls’ education in Afghanistan

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Afghan earthquake kills at least 280 people

The quake has damaged dozens of houses in the region and also caused land sliding in Paktika, local sources said…reports Asian Lite News

At least 280 people were killed and 595 injured after an earthquake struck Afghansitan’s Paktika province early on Wednesday, the state-run media reported.

Some 255 people lost their lives in Barmal, Ziruk, Naka and Gayan districts of Paktika province, the most-hit eastern province, state-run Bakhtar News Agency reported, citing the latest local sources.

Helicopters and rescue teams have arrived in the affected areas. In neighbouring Khost province, at least 25 people were killed and 95 others wounded, the report said.

The quake, with a magnitude of 6.1, jolted 44 km southwest of Khost, according to the US Geological Survey.

The quake has damaged dozens of houses in the region and also caused land sliding in Paktika, local sources said.

Local officials say the death toll could rise if the central government did not provide emergency help.

The Deputy Prime Minister in Taliban-led government, who heads the Relief and Disaster Control Authority, directed all concerned parties to reach the affected areas as soon as possible, and to use all available resources. “Save the lives of those affected and provide the necessary assistance to them,” he was quoted as saying by the state-run news agency.

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Kashmir Sikh group vows to repair Kabul gurdwara

An ambulance arrives at the scene of a blast in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, Sept. 17, 2019. An explosion rocked Police District 9 in the Afghan capital of Kabul on Tuesday as the country is to hold a presidential election next week, police spokesman Ferdaus Faramarz said. (Xinhua/Rahmatullah Alizadah/IANS)

United Kashmiri Sikh Progressive Forum has promised Rs 10 lakh for the repair and renovation of Karte Parwan Gurdwara, reports Asian Lite News

United Kashmiri Sikhs Progressive Forum (UKSPF) Chairman Baldev Singh Raina on Monday announced to provide Rs 10 lakh for the repair and renovation of Karte Parwan Gurdwara in Kabul.

On Saturday, Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) attacked Karte Parwan Gurdwara in Kabul. According to ISKP, ‘Abu Mohammed al Tajiki’ carried out the attack which lasted for three hours.

“United Kashmiri Sikh Progressive Forum will give Rs 10 lakh for the repair and renovation of Karte Parwan Gurdwara and we will raise more funds. In these difficult times we want to assure that every Sikh of India is with Afghan Sikhs and Sikh Community will rebuild the whole Afghanistan and always support the government,” said Raina.

Condemning the attack, the UKSPF chief urged the Government of Afghanistan to take care of Sikh minorities.

“We urge the Government of Afghanistan to take care of Sikh minorities and I assure you that they will always be available for the growth and development of the country. Sikhs of Afghanistan and India also share a bond of love and brotherhood,” said Raina.

He termed the attack in Karte Parwan Gurdwara as an “attack on humanity and Sikh community which is staying peacefully in Afghanistan.”

Meanwhile, Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri handed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s letter to members of the Afghan Sikh community living in India as he participated in the last rites for Sawinder Singh, a Sikh man who was killed after Islamic State – Khorasan Province (ISKP) attacked Karte Parwan Gurdwara in Afghanistan’s Kabul city, and offered his deepest condolences to the family and Afghan Community living in India.

Further, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has granted e-visas to over 100 Sikhs and Hindus in Afghanistan on priority, said government sources on Sunday.

According to ISKP, ‘Abu Mohammed al Tajiki’, the group claimed that besides submachine guns and hand grenades, four IEDs and a car bomb were also used in the attack.

It further claimed that about 50 Hindu Sikhs and Taliban members were killed in the attack and the attack was conducted as revenge for the insult of Prophet Mohammed by an Indian politician.

However, in the attack, only two people were killed and seven others were wounded.

At least one member of the Taliban forces and a Hindu was killed in the incident, said Abdul Nafay Takor, a spokesman for the Ministry of Interior Affairs, adding that seven people were wounded, reported Tolo News.

The holy Guru Granth Sahib from Gurdwara in Afghanistan’s capital city Kabul was retrieved from the complex, from which plumes of smoke were seen billowing out after the attack early this morning, according to visuals posted on social media.

Visuals posted by locals on social media show a barefoot man carrying the Guru Granth Sahib on his head. The visuals show two or three more people, all walking without footwear accompanying him.

According to Sikh religious belief, the Saroop, a physical copy of the Guru Granth Sahib is considered a living guru. The transportation of Guru Granth Sahib is governed by a strict code of conduct and as a mark of respect, the Guru Granth Sahib is carried on the head, and the person walks barefoot.

Inside the Gurdwara Sahib in Karte Parwan, Kabul, Afghanistan

According to reports, the Holy Book was taken to the residence of Gurnam Singh, president, of Gurdwara Karte Parwan.

Religious minorities in Afghanistan, including the Sikh community, have been targets of violence in Afghanistan post the Taliban came to power last August.

In October, last year 15 to 20 terrorists entered a Gurdwara in the Karta-e-Parwan District of Kabul and tied up the guards.

In March 2020, a deadly attack took place at Sri Guru Har Rai Sahib Gurudwara in Kabul’s Short Bazaar area in which 27 Sikhs were killed and several were injured. Islamic State terrorists claimed responsibility for the attack. (ANI)

ALSO READ: ‘India stands by its CAA commitment’: Doval assures Afghan sikhs

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‘India stands by its CAA commitment’: Doval assures Afghan sikhs

India will sympathetically look at cases of members of the minority community in Afghanistan applying for visas, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval has said and noted that New Delhi will stand by its commitment to Sikhs and Hindus in the neighbouring country.

“The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) clearly states that in case any of the minorities in our neighbouring countries are persecuted on the basis of their religion…we have given visas to large number of Sikhs,” Doval said in an exclusive interview with ANI.

“As flights are available, some of them will be coming back, others will apply, we will look at their cases very sympathetically,” he added.

He was responding to a question on the CAA and if India will be giving visas to more people of minority communities in Afghanistan.

Doval termed the attack on Karte Parwan Gurdwara in Kabul on Saturday last that resulted in the death of two persons as very unfortunate.

“It was a very unfortunate incident. Should not have happened. There are forces…terror and violence these are things with which we have to live in modern times. The Government of India is doing everything. It has assured the Sikhs and Hindus out there that India will stand by its commitment,” he said. added.

Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) took responsibility for Karte Parwan Gurdwara attack in Kabul.

Following the attack on on the gurdwara, India decided to grant e-visas to over 100 Sikhs and Hindus in Afghanistan on priority.

There have been other attacks and incidents of violence against religious minorities in Afghanistan.

Hardeep Puri meets family of Sikh man killed in Kabul, presents PM’s letter to Afghan Sikh community.(Photo: Hardeep Puri/Twitter)

In October last year,15 to 20 terrorists entered a Gurdwara in the Karta-e-Parwan District of Kabul and tied up the guards.

In March 2020, a deadly attack took place at Sri Guru Har Rai Sahib Gurudwara in Kabul’s Short Bazaar area in which at least 27 Sikhs were killed. Islamic State terrorists claimed responsibility for the attack. (ANI)

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