Category: Afghanistan

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Protest Against Pakistan Rocks Kabul

Massive protests rock Kabul as over 1000 people raise anti-Pakistan slogans to condemn the Pakistan’s plot to install a puppet regime in Kabul

Gunshots were heard as Afghans protest in front of the Pakistani Embassy in Kabul against Pakistan’s interference in Afghanistan’s internal affairs, the Khaama news reported.

Another video clip shows protesters running away from a prominent city hotel where ISI chief Faiz Hameed stayed during his recent visit to meet the Taliban leaders.

The protesters gathered at the gate of the Pakistani embassy and said that they do not want a puppet government in Afghanistan and asked for an inclusive government.

Protesters were chanting “death to Pakistan” and asked for the Pakistani embassy to leave Afghanistan.

Around 1000 people joined the protest. They chanted slogans like Freedom, Allahu Akbar, We want an independent government, We don’t want a Pakistani puppet government, Pakistan leaves Afghanistan etc.

The Taliban fighters reportedly conducted aerial gunshots to disperse the protestors but they were still protesting and fewer people were dispersed.

In the meantime, people in Blakh and Daikundi provinces too took to the streets yesterday and last night and chanted slogans against Pakistan.

Iran has also reacted to the airstrikes in Panjshir province and the spokesperson of the country’s foreign ministry has asked for investigations over what he called the interference of foreign jets.

Another report says co-leader of the resistance front in Panjshir province Ahmad Masoud in a voice clip called on people of Afghanistan to resurrect against the Taliban.

Tuesday’s demonstration comes after the Taliban claimed total control over Afghanistan a day earlier, saying they had won the key battle for the Panjshir Valley, the last holdout of resistance against their rule.

Despite capturing power on August 15, the Taliban have yet to announce a government. Pakistan’s intelligence chief Faiz Hameed was in Kabul at the weekend, reportedly to be briefed by his country’s ambassador but is likely to have also met with Taliban officials.

Problems in Pakistan

Meanwhile, our reporter Hamza Ameer says that the Pakistani Taliban are intensifying their terror attacks on security forces.

As the Afghan Taliban has claimed complete control of Afghanistan and are working towards forming a government in the country, Pakistan is witnessing a new surge of terror attacks in the country, which are being claimed by the Pakistani faction of the Afghan Taliban, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

In the most recent terror attack, a suicide bomber detonated his explosives near a security checkpoint in the restive south-western Pakistan, claiming the lives of at least three paramilitary personnel and wounding at least 15 others.

 As per reports, the suicide bomber walked towards the checkpoint guarded by the paramilitary Frontier Corps on the Quetta–Mastung Road in Balochistan province, about 25 km of the provincial capital Quetta.

 The TTP has also recently issued a warning to the Pakistani media, asking them to refrain from calling it a terrorist organisation. 

  “We call on journalists and media houses of Pakistani media to stop their biasness in the ongoing war between the TTP and the Pakistani security forces,” read a letter issued by the group.

 “We have seen that titles like ‘terrorist’ and ‘extremist’ are used with our name, which shows the deliberate biasness of the media. It is warned and directed to mention TTP as TTP only and not with such titles that are given by our enemies,” the statement read.

 The TTP warned of dire consequences if their concerns are not addressed.

  “Being bias is against the very ethics of journalism and also will attract more enemies for you (Pakistani media).”

Protests in Kabul against Pakistan’s plan to install a puppet government

 TTP was among the first to issue a congratulatory letter to the Afghan Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, while also vowing to continue efforts for the imposition of Islamic law and a Muslim state.

 It should be noted that TTP is the Pakistani faction of the Taliban, which is in allegiance with the ideology of Al Qaeda. However, in the past, Pakistan’s military offensive operations have kept them on the run.  But it seems that the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan has given confidence to the TTP factions, who have launched a new offensive, targeted at the Pakistani security forces and law enforcement agencies. 

  Afghan Taliban have maintained that they will not allow their soil to be used by any terror element to spread instability or terror in any country including Pakistan.  However, the Afghan Taliban have also have hinted their suggestion to Pakistan that the country can also negotiate with the TTP, in a similar way that US forces have negotiated and come down to a peace agreement with them in Afghanistan.

Protests in Kabul against Pakistan’s plan to install a puppet government

  The world may see Pakistan in contentment or satisfaction or celebration with the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan, but this remains a fact that the development in Afghanistan has opened up a new and more dangerous set of challenges for the country as factions like the TTP have started to show their presence in various parts of the country, putting at risk the overall security situation and lives of locals.

Members of Afghan diaspora also staged protests against Taliban and Pakistan.

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500 Afghans who worked for NATO evacuated

File photo taken on Aug. 22, 2021 shows foreign forces entering the Kabul airport in Kabul, Afghanistan. (Xinhua/IANS)

In total, NATO has airlifted more than 120,000 people from the airport in the Afghan capital, the statement read…reports Asian Lite News.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) on Monday said that over 500 Afghan nationals, who assisted its forces during the war in Afghanistan, have been evacuated from the Taliban-controlled country, and temporarily accommodated at military bases across Europe.

“More than 500 Afghans who have worked with NATO and their families have been evacuated and are safely housed at temporary facilities in Bases around Europe supported by Allied troops,” the alliance said in a statement, adding that coordination with the allies is underway to provide the evacuees with essential support and settlement in member countries.

In total, NATO has airlifted more than 120,000 people from the airport in the Afghan capital, the statement read.

The Taliban entered Kabul in mid-August, leading to the collapse of the US-backed government. The large-scale evacuation of foreign nationals and Afghans seeking to leave their homeland from fear of Taliban rule lasted until August 31. (ANI)

ALSO READ-Pakistan turns its back on Afghan refugees

READ MORE-PM vows rescue of Afghans who supported UK forces

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Pakistan turns its back on Afghan refugees

According to the UNHCR, Pakistan hosts more than 1.4 million registered Afghans who have been forced to flee their homes….reports Asian Lite News

Pakistan is not setting up any camp to accommodate a new wave of Afghan refugees on its territory after the Taliban takeover of the war-torn nation, Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad said.

Addressing a press conference here on Monday, the Minister said that his country is allowing Afghan nationals holding Pakistani visas and other documents to enter the country, but there is no other policy so far for refugees, reports Xinhua news agency.

Ahmad added that the situation at the country’s two border crossings with Afghanistan is under control and there is no influx of refugees anywhere along the borders.

The official noted that Pakistan is keen to see peace prevail in Afghanistan and supports its development.

Ahmad’s remarks came more than a week after Inter Services Public Relations’ (ISPR) Director-General Babar Iftikhar said that there was no influx of Afghan refugees along the borders with Pakistan, and the people who have valid documents to enter Pakistan are being allowed to pass.

The border crossings and other border posts are open for trade with Afghanistan as it is a landlocked country, and on humanitarian grounds, it is improper to keep the borders closed indefinitely.

According to the UNHCR, Pakistan hosts more than 1.4 million registered Afghans who have been forced to flee their homes.

ALSO READ: 98 Pakistani nationals return after being stranded in India for over a year

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PAK ROLE IN KABUL AIRPORT BLAST: The Plot To Hoodwink

Gurdwara-attack-mastermind-Aslam-Farooqi

The Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISKP) might have claimed responsibility for the attack, but without Pakistan’s patronage and management, camouflaged in intricate webs of deceit, the terrorist group could not have carried out the attack on its own …. Writes Kaliph Anaz

Pakistan’s fig-leaf of deniability in the devastating Kabul Airport attack, which killed over 100 Afghans and more than a dozen American soldiers, must be exposed without delay. The smokescreen of a cover up that is being orchestrated by vested interests is a portender of another Cold War in the making and needs to be cleared at the earliest.

The Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISKP) might have claimed responsibility for the attack, but without Pakistan’s patronage and management, camouflaged in intricate webs of deceit, the terrorist group could not have carried out the attack on its own.

It is quite easy to see where the web of connections tracing Pakistan’s involvement in the Kabul attack start–in Jalalabad, Lahore and Bahawalpur.

Jalalabad is the capital of Nangarhar province in Afghanistan, adjacent to the Pak border, where the Haqqani Network has ruled supreme for several decades. With the decline of Al Qaeda and ISIS, the Haqqani Network is one of the deadliest and resourceful terrorist groups in the world today. The network is supported and protected by Pakistan which has offered several sanctuaries to the group in the tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan.

Without the Haqqani Network, the Taliban could not have run over Afghanistan as it did this year.  Jalaluddin Haqqani, the leader of the terror conglomeration, is also a founding member of the Taliban and is part of the group’s decision-making shura or council. The network, the only global terrorist entity to survive two-decades of sanctions and military action, acts as the pincer head of the Taliban military operations.

Another Haqqani member of importance is Khalil Haqqani, considered to be the Taliban’s emissary to Al Qaeda, an asset shared by CIA and ISI for long and currently claiming himself to be the Taliban’s head of security for Kabul.

The relationship between the Haqqani Network and Taliban is not a secret.  Nor is the relationship the two groups share with Pakistan. So, where does ISKP fit in with this troika of evil?

On the face of it, ISKP is an adjunct of ISIL (ISIS), a global terrorist entity that claims to fight for an Islamic “caliphate” in Iraq and Syria, and beyond. The ISKP emerged in the Nangarhar province of Afghanistan in 2015 and since then has been part of the terrorist enclave in the Af-Pak region. Although the ISKP had initially declared itself to be against the Taliban and al Qaeda for straying away from jihad, its policy of drawing in disgruntled cadres from the Taliban and other terrorist groups in the region came in handy for ISI to infiltrate its leadership and ranks.

The ISKP leadership came from the Haqqani Network or Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (headquartered in Lahore), two global terrorist entities with close ties to the Pakistan Army. The most recent report of the UN Secretary General on the threat posed by ISIL, ISKP’s new leader, Shihad al-Muhajir was a former hard-core member of the Haqqani Network. Not only do the groups share cadres, they are also partners in drug trafficking, militancy and ties to Pakistan. Besides the working relationship, these two groups are also bound through tribal and marriage ties.

Evidence of this complex relationship was confirmed, according to a recent New York Times report, when biometric profiling of detained ISKP terrorists revealed that biometrics data of certain terrorists were already stored in the database; they were previously arrested as Haqqani Network members. In other words, the leaders and cadres often shifted between the groups depending on requirements.

If there was a proof required to establish the ties between the HaqqaniNetwork-ISKP and Pakistan, it surfaced when the Pakistani leader of ISKP, Aslam Farooqi (Abdullah Orakzai) was arrested by Afghan security forces in Kandahar last year. He was involved in the March 2020 attack on a gurdwara in Kabul which killed over 25 persons. Farooqi revealed how the ISKP was not only associated with the Haqqani Network but was also deeply involved in Pakistani groups like LeT and JeM. Farooqi was in fact a LeT leader before he migrated to ISKP, a clever tactic put in place by Pakistan Army to outsource terrorist attacks without getting its sleeves bloodied, or that of the Taliban.

People queue up to board a military aircraft of Germany and leave Kabul at Kabul airport, Afghanistan. (XinhuaIANS)

Another former LeT leader whose arrest in April 2020 confirmed this troika was Muneeb alias Abu Bilal. He was an ISKP leader with close ties to the Taliban’s Peshawar shura, LeT and the Haqqani Network.

One of the most telling proofs of the involvement of the Haqqani Network-ISKP-LeT in the Kabul attack is the modus operandi–a planned assault using multiple offensive tactics, with specific objectives, including mass casualties. The Pak Army tactic, the Kabul Airport attack revealed, was quite straightforward–LeT cadres, already operating out of many provinces in Afghanistan, would carry out reconnaissance of potential targets, the Haqqani Network would prove organisation and logistical planning and ISKP, with its cadres trained in camps run by JeM (headquartered in Bahawalpur) carry out the attack and claim responsibility. This strategy was evident in the May 12, 2020, attack on the Dasht-e-Barchi hospital in Kabul and the bombing of the Sayed ul-Shuhada High School in Kabul on May 8, killing over  90 people, mostly schoolgirls.

In a documentary, an Afghan media group, Tolo News, last year revealed how ISI was acting as a HR department for the Haqqanis as well as ISKP supplying them with cadres from LeT and JeM besides giving the group around $200 million as aid every year. Former Pakistan ambassador to the US and author, Hussain Haqqani, labelled the relationship quite succinctly- “ISKP is an outcome of the ideological extremism of Pakistani jihadi movements.”

The ISKK’s claim of carrying out the Kabul attack is a smokescreen created by Pakistan Army to distance itself, the Taliban and the Haqqani Network from such a ghastly act of terror. Pakistan is eager for the international community, including China, to recognise the Taliban as a `moderate force`, to pre-empt possible FATF blacklisting if the Haqqanis were to be accused while showing emphatically who really the kingmaker in Afghanistan is.

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UN humanitarian chief in Kabul, stresses woman rights

During his visit today (Sunday), Griffiths met with Mullah Baradar and the leadership of the Taliban in Kabul to engage with the authorities on humanitarian issues…reports Asian Lite News

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has sent Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths to Kabul for talks with the Taliban leadership, a top official of the world body confirmed

“At the request of the Secretary-General, Martin Griffiths is currently in Kabul. During his visit today (Sunday), Griffiths met with Mullah Baradar and the leadership of the Taliban in Kabul to engage with the authorities on humanitarian issues,” Xinhua news agency quoted Stephane Dujarric, Guterres’ spokesman, as saying in a statement.

In this meeting, Griffiths reiterated the humanitarian community’s commitment to delivering impartial and independent humanitarian assistance and protection to millions of people in need, said the statement.

Griffiths emphasised the critical role of women in the delivery of aid and called on all parties to ensure their rights, safety and well-being, according to the statement.

He called for all civilians, especially women and girls and minorities, to be protected at all times and expressed his solidarity with the people of Afghanistan, it addd.

The authorities pledged that the safety and security of humanitarian staff, and humanitarian access to people in need, will be guaranteed and that humanitarian workers, both men and women, will be guaranteed freedom of movement.

The authorities pledged to cooperate with the humanitarian community to ensure assistance is delivered to the people of Afghanistan, said the statement.

Further meetings are expected in the coming days, it said.

Griffiths will also meet and convey his thanks on behalf of the UN to representatives of humanitarian organisations, who remain operational in the country and have assisted 8 million people this year, said the statement.

Presently in Afghanistan, half of the population, 18 million people, need humanitarian assistance to survive.

A third do not know where their next meal is coming from. More than half of all children under 5 are at risk of acute malnutrition.

A severe drought, the second in four years, will further contribute to hunger in the months ahead.

Now more than ever, the people of Afghanistan need the support and solidarity of the international community, the statement added.

ALSO READ: Biden’s Afghanistan logic is Lincoln in reverse

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Biden’s Afghanistan logic is Lincoln in reverse

Rather than a ‘new birth of freedom’ (as was said in the Gettysburg Address), Biden has sought to consign Afghans into slavery, writes Prof. Madhav Nalapat

Compare the justification offered by President Joe Biden for his scurrying away from Afghanistan with the Gettysburg speech of Abraham Lincoln, the greatest US President ever. Sadly for the US, Lincoln chose as his Vice-President Andrew Johnson, who on Lincoln’s death in 1865 became the worst US President ever.

Had Lincoln chosen a running mate who shared rather than despised his views on race, black citizens may not have had to wait almost a hundred years after the defeat of the Confederacy before Civil Rights laws were passed by the US Congress in 1964. Andrew Johnson remained opposed to the emancipation of African-Americans, and helped ensure that the defeated Confederate (slavery favouring) states retained much of the discriminatory laws and practices that Lincoln had fought the civil war to abolish.

On 19 November 1863, when Lincoln delivered his speech at Gettysburg, it was evident that the Union would prevail over the Confederacy. He asked for more sacrifices, so that the war could be victoriously concluded. So that “the dead shall not have died in vain”. After blacks having been imprisoned in slavery for so long, Lincoln wanted to keep the promise in the 1776 Declaration of Independence that “all men are created equal”. Lincoln said that there would be “a new birth of freedom”, such that government “by, for and of the people shall not perish from this earth”. It took until 2009 before the son of a black professor and a white idealist became the 44th President of the US, with Joe Biden as his Vice-President.

It must be added that President Biden has gone much further than his former boss dared in trying to push outwards the boundaries that constrained the underprivileged and prevented them from becoming the success stories that the American Dream was meant to ensure. The social welfare schemes that Biden has presented for approval to the US Congress are far more ambitious than the cautious steps agreed to by Barack Obama, who spent federal money more on the wealthy than on the poor. President Lyndon B Johnson got much of his Great Society (the immense expansion in the social welfare net that came about during his tenure in the White House) through the US Congress before the blowback generated by the Vietnam war drained him of political capital.

Biden’s complacent advisers failed to warn him that the pell-mell rush the 46th US President ordered from Afghanistan could turn as politically toxic as Vietnam was for Lyndon Johnson. Both Trump and Biden ignored the risks of cravenly scooting from Afghanistan. It had been a saunter for Biden to get elected on November 4, 2020. Much of the year had been spent in his house in Delaware, earning him the nickname “Basement Biden”. That tag failed to persuade an overwhelming number of US voters that despite his house-bound ways, the 78-year=old Democrat was preferable to Donald Trump, who from almost the start of his presidential term spent his energies towards winning a second term.

ALSO READ: Pakistan in dilemma as Taliban victory revives TTP

Trump saw the path to this through “Sound and Fury” special effects perfected in “The Apprentice” television series. Given the jangled nerves caused by SARS-Cov-2 on US citizens, Trump’s 24/7 pyrotechnics were the last thing most wanted. Far better to have Ol Grandpa Joe as the occupant of the White House than Trump, he of the Access Hollywood tapes, who had been elected over Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Were President Biden to succeed in getting his Social Security legislation through the US Congress, it may mitigate the political effect of the disaster caused by his order to withdraw forthwith all US forces from Afghanistan. President Biden has lost much of his electoral appeal as a consequence of the Afghan withdrawal. And small wonder. While Lincoln spoke of the equality of man, Biden clearly did not consider Afghans to be the equal of US citizens, as witness the cavalier manner in which he ignored the interests of the people of Afghanistan, the overwhelming majority of whom dislike the Taliban.

This collective of Wahhabi extremists are those whom Trump (through the surrender at Doha) and Biden have handed over Afghanistan. This decision has the potential to once again occupy an unwelcome prominence in global geopolitics, given the Taliban’s hospitality towards extremist groups, including those with a penchant for mass terror attacks. Rather than a “new birth of freedom” (as was said in the Gettysburg Address), what Biden did was to consign Afghans to slavery, including through the forcible cohabitation of ageing extremists with very young women. Many for most of their lives have experienced at least some of the freedoms promised by those who sent troops into their country to “liberate” it.

As it turns out, not from but for the Taliban. Under Biden’s watch, what is being witnessed is “government by, for and of the Taliban”. At Gettysburg, Lincoln was emphatic that the Union soldiers who perished during the Civil War should not have “died in vain”. In other words, the way US soldiers did in Afghanistan. In place of a “new birth of freedom”, what confronts the people of Afghanistan is the rebirth of the horrors of servitude to extremists.

Had Biden seemed contrite about the consequences of his actions, voters may have forgiven him. What has been inexcusable is the manner in which the 46th President of the US has (in true Trump fashion) doubled down on false justifications for what he has ordered in Afghanistan. If not his boss, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin must be aware that the withdrawal not of troops but US logistical support kneecapped the Afghan National Army and made its collapse inevitable.

ALSO READ: Afghan resistance ready for talks with Taliban

Austin was silent when Biden blamed the Afghan military for the fiasco caused by the withdrawal of all US support to the Afghan forces that had lost thousands of lives since 2001 in protecting US troops as well as their own people from the Taliban. This represents a degree of ingratitude that makes the world likely to regard the US as a power that it is unsafe to ally with. If Joe Biden is the C-in-C of the Quad, forget about China, even Cambodia would be able to overawe that force.

The months ahead will show whether post-surrender President Biden can get his domestic agenda through a US Congress in shock over his botching up the situation in Afghanistan. This is especially so through pulling the plug from the logistical support that was essential for the Afghan military to continue to subdue the Taliban, which it continued doing despite President Trump surrendering to the Taliban at Doha on 29 February 2020.

Joe Biden handed over the Afghan forces to the Taliban in the manner of a Thanksgiving turkey being presented to revellers. Biden scurried away from Afghanistan to ensure that the Democrats prevailed in the 2022 midterms and the 2024 Presidential polls. The President may instead have handed over both these contests to the Republicans, provided Trump supporters in that party manage to escape from the reality that the original architect of the defeat of the US, the betrayal of the Afghan people, was Donald J. Trump.

ALSO READ: Taliban claims capture of Panjshir province

ALSO READ: ‘Taliban to announce govt after technical issues are resolved’

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‘Taliban to announce govt after technical issues are resolved’

The new government of the Taliban is said to be an interim and replacement that will be responsible for the arrangement of grand gathering…reports Asian Lite News

The Taliban is set to announce an interim government in Afghanistan after technical issues are resolved, officials of the Islamic Emirate said.

The officials said that the Taliban has finalised negotiations over the new inclusive government, Khaama News reported on Monday.

Acting minister of information and culture and spokesperson of the Taliban Zabiullah Mujahid said that they are fully prepared for the announcement and are working harder to secure the arrival of foreigners to the ceremony.

“I cannot disclose the exact date of announcing the incoming government but it will be very soon. For the time being, we are busy solving some technical issues of the process,” he added.

The new government of the Taliban is said to be an interim and replacement that will be responsible for the arrangement of grand gathering, Loya Jirga, and other measures for the establishment of a permanent government.

(Image Source ANI)

Meanwhile, Anaamullah Samangani, a member of the Taliban’s cultural commission, said: “Now we live in a completely independent Afghanistan. The new government will be announced very soon,” TOLO News said.

Meanwhile, political analysts say the Taliban should consider merit-based appointments in the future government. “Dozens of our ministries are technical ministries and for them we need technical people,” said Sayed Eshaq Gilani, a political analyst.

A number of residents of the country meanwhile urge the Taliban to form an inclusive government and open the public institutions. “To any department that people go, it is closed. This has created problems for the people,” said Habibullah, a Kabul resident.

“The Taliban should form an inclusive government that everyone should be included in,” Abdul Ali Nazari, a resident of Kunduz province said.

Baradar meets top UN official

Taliban’s deputy head Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar met UN under-secretary-general Martin Griffiths, urging the UN’s humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan on Sunday, reported local media.

Baradar met Martin Griffiths at the country’s foreign ministry in Kabul. Griffiths said that the UN will continue its support and cooperation to Afghanistan, TOLOnews reported on Sunday.

Earlier, the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) termed the Afghanistan situation a “humanitarian emergency of internal displacement” as more than half a million Afghan civilians have been displaced from the war-ravaged country.

“More than half a million Afghan civilians have already been displaced. The full impact of the evolving political situation isn’t clear. What is clear is that we are witnessing large-scale displacement amid what is now a humanitarian emergency of internal displacement,” UNHRC tweeted.

Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said that he will convene a high-level humanitarian conference for Afghanistan on September 13.

Secretary-General Guterres, in a statement on Tuesday, expressed his deep concern about the humanitarian and economic crisis in Afghanistan and the threat of a total collapse in basic services.

ALSO READ: Pakistan in dilemma as Taliban victory revives TTP

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Taliban claims capture of Panjshir province

This comes hours after Panjshir resistance spokesperson Fahim Dashti was reported dead in a clash with the Taliban on Sunday….reports Asian Lite News

The Taliban has claimed the capture of the Afghan province of Panjshir, the last resistance stronghold in the country, TOLO News reported on Monday.

“Recent efforts to ensure complete security in the country have also brought results, and the Panjshir province has come under the full control of the Islamic Emirate (the name used by the Taliban),” said Taliban spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid, as quoted by Sputnik.

This comes hours after Panjshir resistance spokesperson Fahim Dashti was reported dead in a clash with the Taliban on Sunday.

But the National Resistance Front (NRF) of Afghanistan has denied Taliban claims and said that the resistance forces are present at all strategic positions across the valley to continue the fight.

They further assured the people of Afghanistan that the struggle against the Taliban and their partners will continue until justice and freedom prevails.

The information was shared through the unverified Twitter account of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan.

“Taliban’s claim of occupying Panjshir is false. The NRF forces are present in all strategic positions across the valley to continue the fight. We assure the people of Afghanistan that the struggle against the Taliban & their partners will continue until justice & freedom prevails,” tweeted the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan.

After the fall of Kabul on August 15, Panjshir province remained the only defiant holdout where resistance forces led by Ahamd Masoud, the son of late former Afghan guerrilla commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, were fighting the Taliban. The geography has witnessed heavy conflict between the warring sides in the past four days and both parties are claiming to have inflicted heavy casualties.

Panjshir has been the stronghold of the National Resistance Front, led by Ahmad Massoud and former Vice President Amrullah Saleh, who declared himself caretaker president. On Sunday, Massoud said that he was ready to cease fighting and start negotiations if the Taliban abandoned the province.

Panjshir was the last Afghan province holding out against the armed group that swept to power last month. Taliban has been facing stiff resistance after pushing deep into the country’s holdout in Panjshir Valley.

Both sides claimed to have the upper hand in Panjshir but neither could produce conclusive evidence to prove it.

ALSO READ: Pakistan in dilemma as Taliban victory revives TTP

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Everyone got it wrong on Afghanistan: Gen Carter

The last British and US troops left Afghanistan a week ago, bringing their 20-year military campaign in the country to an end…reports Asian Lite News.

Chief of the Defence Staff Gen Sir Nick Carter on Sunday said that “everybody got it wrong” on how quickly the Taliban would take over Afghanistan.

Talking to BBC, Gen Sir Nick Carter said: “It was the pace of it that surprised us and I don’t think we realised quite what the Taliban were up to.”

Asked whether military intelligence was wrong, he said the government received intelligence from a variety of sources. “It’s not purely about military intelligence,” he said.

The last British and US troops left Afghanistan a week ago, bringing their 20-year military campaign in the country to an end.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab told MPs last week the intelligence assessment had been that there would be a “steady deterioration” in the security situation in August but it was “unlikely Kabul would fall this year”. However, the Taliban took over Kabul in mid-August.

Speaking to the BBC’s Andrew Marr show on Sunday, Sir Nick was asked how the predictions had been wrong.

“I think everybody got it wrong is the straight answer,” he said. “Even the Taliban didn’t expect things to change as quickly as they did.”

Raab has earlier confirmed that UK will not recognise the Taliban as the new government in Afghanistan but said it wants to engage with the group.

Speaking during a visit to Pakistan, the Foreign Secretary said, “Britain will not recognise the Taliban as the new government in Kabul”, reported Al Jazeera.

Raab further stated, “new realities in Afghanistan” must be dealt with and also said that the UK does not want to see the “social and economic fabric of the country broken.”

Meanwhile, stressing the importance of talks with the Taliban, he said that the evacuation process could not have been possible without some degree of cooperation with the group, reported Al Jazeera.

He said it would not have been possible to evacuate some 15,000 people from Kabul without some degree of cooperation with the Taliban, who seized Kabul on August 15.

“We do see the importance of being able to engage and having a direct line of communication,” he said.

In the run-up to government formation, the Taliban is holding talks with several countries around the world in a bid to gain legitimacy.

ALSO READ-UN urged to protect Baloch refugees in Afghanistan

READ MORE-Nepal to inoculate refugees

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‘Refugee crisis could pave way for common EU migration policy’

Foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told a press conference on Friday after an informal meeting of the Foreign Ministers that this task was conditional on whether security conditions are met for talks with the new government in Afghanistan…reports Asian Lite News.

The situation in Afghanistan and the events associated with it could pave the way for the formation of a common migration policy, according to European Commissioner Margaritis Schinas.

Speaking to an Austrian daily Wiener Zeitung, Schinas said, “It is true that we are now in a major crisis, but the European Union (EU) did not cause the situation, yet we are once again called upon to be part of a solution.”

He further said that he wanted to “avoid a reflex” that takes Europe back to the crisis year 2015 “before it is even clear how the situation will develop.”

After Taliban takeover, several thousands of Afghans have been flown out of their homeland either to neighbouring Asian countries or to the US and Europe. The UN’s refugee agency (UNHCR) has said that up to 500,000 Afghans could escape by the year-end, media reported.

Last week, Foreign Ministers of the European Union had agreed to re-establish a joint presence in Kabul to ensure the safe departure of the bloc’s nationals and Afghans who are considered at risk and who could be received by member states.

Foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told a press conference on Friday after an informal meeting of the Foreign Ministers that this task was conditional on whether security conditions are met for talks with the new government in Afghanistan.

“We have been tasked by the Council on coordinating the contacts with the Taliban, the new government in Afghanistan, including with a joint European Union presence in Kabul if the security conditions allow for it,” he said.

“From there, we should support the departure of European nationals that are still there and Afghans at risk that could be received by EU member states… All member states still have quite an important number of either nationals or Afghans that have been cooperating with them or that have been identified as people at risk,” he added.

The second task that the Ministers agreed on was the engagement with regional and relevant international partners to create a regional political platform of cooperation with Afghanistan’s neighbours to face together the challenges created by the new situation.

Addressing an earlier press conference preceding the ministerial meeting, Borrell said the EU was ready to engage but the Taliban must respect human rights, including those of women, and not allow Afghanistan to become a breeding ground for militants.

ALSO READ-Turkey comes down heavily on refugees

READ MORE-US wants Pakistan to keep border open for Afghan refugees