Page 7 - Afghanistan

UN body in Afghanistan thanks India for aid in combating locust threat

Earlier, the Taliban-controlled Ministry of Agriculture also expressed gratitude for this assistance made through the Chabahar port

Trade resumes as Pak and Afghanistan reopen Torkham border after 10 days

Trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan resumed on Tuesday after the two sides reopened a key northwestern border crossing shut for more than 10 days. Truckers for years have been able to cross the border without documents, so they generally do not have them. But Pakistan began mandating truck drivers get visas last week. The two sides after a series of meetings agreed to reopen the Torkham border crossing but Pakistan set a new deadline of March 31 for the truck drivers to get visas, said Ziaul Haq Sarhadi, a director of the Pakistan-Afghanistan joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Abdul Basir Zabali, the Taliban-appointed spokesman for the police chief in Nangarhar province, said the Torkham crossing was reopened after the two sides talked, but he didn't give details. The Torkham border crossing has been closed a number of times in recent months, mainly following clashes between the security forces for varied reasons including repairs of the border fence by Pakistan.

Taliban enforcing restrictions on single, unaccompanied Afghan women: UN

The Taliban are restricting Afghan women's access to work, travel and healthcare if they are unmarried or don't have a male guardian, according to a UN report published Monday. In one incident, officials from the Vice and Virtue Ministry advised a woman to get married if she wanted to keep her job at a health care facility, saying it was inappropriate for an unwed woman to work, it said. The Taliban have barred women from most areas of public life and stopped girls from going to school beyond the sixth grade as part of harsh measures they imposed after taking power in 2021, despite initially promising more moderate rule. They have also shut down beauty parlors and started enforcing a dress code, arresting women who don't comply with their interpretation of hijab, or Islamic headscarf. In May 2022, the Taliban issued a decree calling for women to only show their eyes and recommending they wear the head-to-toe burqa, similar to restrictions during the Taliban's previous rule between .

4 survivors of Russian plane crash in Afghanistan in 'good health': Taliban

Video footage released by Mujahid's office showed the four men, some of whom had bruising visible on their faces and one with blood stains on his clothes, stepping off a helicopter with Taliban

Russian private jet carrying six people likely crashed in Afghanistan

A Russian private jet carrying six people is believed to have crashed in a remote area of rural Afghanistan, authorities said Sunday. The plane had been operating as a charter ambulance flight on a route from Gaya, India, to Tashkent, Uzbekistan, onward to Zhukovsky International Airport in Moscow. The crash happened Saturday in a mountainous area near Zebak district in Badakhshan province, regional spokesman Zabihullah Amiri said, adding that a rescue team had been dispatched to the area. Badakhshan police chief's office also confirmed the report of the crash in a statement. From Moscow, Russian civil aviation authorities said a Dassault Falcon 10 went missing with four crew members and two passengers. The plane stopped communicating and disappeared from radar screens, authorities said. Russian officials said the plane belongs to Athletic Group LLC and a private individual. The Associated Press could not immediately reach its owners. A separate Taliban statement described the p

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Indian plane not involved in Afghanistan aircraft crash, says Ministry

Indian officials on Sunday said that an Indian plane was not involved in a crash in Afghanistan amid reports that an aircraft from India met with an accident there last night. A senior official said that a Moroccan-registered DF 10 aircraft was involved in the crash in Afghanistan. Another official said the aircraft that crashed in Afghanistan last night was not that of an Indian carrier. The clarification came against the backdrop of reports from Afghanistan that an Indian plane was involved in the crash.

UNDP report indicates worsening economic insecurity in Afghanistan

According to the UNDP report, currently, seven out of 10 people in Afghanistan are not able to meet their basic life requirements and face economic insecurity

100K Afghan children in dire need of support after earthquakes, says UNICEF

Almost 100,000 children in Afghanistan are in dire need of support, three months after earthquakes devastated the country's west, the UN children's agency said Monday. A 6.3-magnitude earthquake shook Herat province on Oct. 7 and a second strong quake struck the same province days later, on Oct. 11, killing more than 1,000 people. The majority of those dead in the quakes in Zinda Jan and Injil districts were women and children, and 21,000 homes were destroyed, UNICEF said in a statement. The atmosphere in these villages is thick with suffering even 100 days after the earthquakes in western Afghanistan when families lost absolutely everything," said Fran Equiza, UNICEF representative in Afghanistan. "Children are still trying to cope with the loss and trauma. Schools and health centers, which children depend upon, are damaged beyond repair, or destroyed completely, he added. As if this was not enough, winter has taken hold and temperatures hover below freezing," Equiza said. "Childr

Pakistan rules out dialogue with banned outfit Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan

Pakistan on Thursday said that it was not interested in a dialogue with the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) after a leading cleric visited Kabul and talked of dialogue following his meeting with the Afghan Taliban leadership. Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch in her weekly press briefing said that Pakistan's stance was clear because the TTP had accepted responsibility for numerous terrorist attacks in the country. The spokesperson said there is no change in Pakistan's policy towards the TTP. "We have no dialogue taking place with the TTP nor do we have the intent to hold talks with it which is responsible for several terror incidents in Pakistan," she said. She once again demanded the Afghan authorities take effective action against terrorist elements including the TTP leadership. She said the Afghan authorities should ensure the elimination of terrorist hideouts and hand over to Islamabad those responsible for terror incidents in Pakistan. "Our demand from t

Tremors in Delhi-NCR after magnitude 6.1 earthquake hits Afghanistan

The epicentre of the magnitude 6.1 earthquake was near Afghanistan

Islamic State claims responsibility of minibus explosion in Afghan capital

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a minibus explosion in the Afghan capital late on Saturday that killed at least five people. The Sunni militant group said its members detonated an explosive device on the bus carrying Shiite Muslims, whom they called disbelievers, in a statement released shortly after the explosion Saturday. It was the first attack in the country in 2024. Fifteen other people were wounded in the attack in Kabul's western Shiite neighbourhood of Dashti Barchi, according to police spokesperson Khalid Zadran, raising the toll on Sunday from an earlier figure of two killed and 14 wounded. The Dashti Barchi area of Kabul has been repeatedly targeted by the Islamic State group's affiliate in Afghanistan. The group has carried out major assaults on schools, hospitals and mosques, and has also attacked other Shiite areas across the country. The United Nations Assistance mission in Afghanistan in a statement on X called for an end to targeted attacks on ..

Survivors struggle to rebuild lives 3 months after Afghanistan earthquake

A 6.3 magnitude quake on October 7 killed and injured thousands of people in Afghanistan's west. Three months on, survivors are struggling to rebuild their lives. Some families are living in canvas-coloured tents in Zinda Jan district, the quake's epicentre in the province of Herat, where every home was flattened. People endure the winter conditions with the help of donations and their Islamic faith, but they're anxious about what lies ahead. Habib Rahman, 43, was watching TV at his father-in-law's home when the quake struck. The horror still rings in his ears. He can't get it out of his head. However many details he gave about that day would never be enough, he told The Associated Press. Every squat mud building in Zinda Jan collapsed within minutes. Fear, shouting, panic and shock swept through villages. People used their hands to pull the living and the dead from under the rubble. If we look at this soil and dust, we will go beyond crazy, Habib said. The children are ...

Islamic State group claims responsibility for minibus explosion in Kabul

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a minibus explosion in the Afghan capital late Saturday that killed at least two people. Fourteen others were wounded in the attack in Kabul's western Shiite neighbourhood of Dashti Barchi, according to police spokesperson Khalid Zadran. The Sunni militant group said its members detonated an explosive device on the bus carrying Shiite Muslims, whom they called disbelievers, in a statement released shortly after the explosion Saturday. It was the first attack in the country in 2024. The Dashti Barchi area of Kabul has been repeatedly targeted by the Islamic State group's affiliate in Afghanistan. The group has carried out major assaults on schools, hospitals, and mosques, and has also attacked other Shiite areas across the country. In November, in the same area of Kabul, the IS claimed responsibility for a minibus explosion in which seven people were killed and 20 others were wounded. On October 26, four people were killed and seve

Bus explodes in Afghanistan, killing at least 2 civilians and wounding 14

A minibus exploded in a mostly Shiite Muslim neighbourhood in Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, killing at least two civilians and wounding 14 others, a Taliban official said Saturday, the first attack in the country in 2024. Police spokesman Khalid Zadran said the explosion took place in the western part of the city, in the Dashti Barchi area. The cause remained unknown, but police launched an investigation, he said. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but the Islamic State group's affiliate in the region has in the past targeted Shiite schools, hospitals, and mosques in the same area. Last week during a press conference in Kabul, Taliban Defense Minister Mohammad Yaqoob Mujahid said there had been a 90 per cent decrease in attacks by the IS affiliate in the past year. The IS affiliate has been a major rival of the Taliban since the latter seized control of Afghanistan in August 2021. IS militants have struck in Kabul, in northern provinces and especially whereve

UN Chief Guterres to organise 2nd meeting of special envoys for Afghanistan

Meanwhile, the Taliban has called for the invitation of its representatives to the meeting of the special envoy

Afghanistan can become part of int'l community if it meets obligations: US

The resolution shows that the UNSC supports a "process by which Afghanistan is integrated into the international community only by meeting its international obligations," Miller said

War and empires

Today's anti-"woke" warriors in Congress likely would be surprised by the Boston University anthropologist Thomas Barfield's insightful Shadow Empires: An Alternative Imperial History

Pak, Afghan Taliban to make renewed efforts to ease tensions over TTP

A senior Afghan Taliban leader is expected to arrive in Islamabad early next month, while a leading Pakistani cleric is set to visit Kabul in a fresh bid to reduce bilateral tensions over the outlawed terror group TTP, media reports said on Sunday. Pakistan has consistently called for Afghanistan's Taliban government to take decisive action against the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and related militant groups operating from Afghan soil, including extraditing leaders responsible for attacks in Pakistan. The Taliban government, however, has been hesitant to comply because of historical alliances and ideological ties. The visits are part of efforts to reduce tensions between Kabul and Islamabad concerning the outlawed TTP, which intensified attacks against the security forces in Pakistan in the wake of the Taliban taking over Afghanistan more than two years ago. Mullah Sherin Akhund, a senior Afghan Taliban figure and governor of Kandahar province, is expected in Islamabad early ne

Displaced, crossing borders: Afghan people make tough journeys to survive

The barren desert plain among the mountains of eastern Afghanistan is filled with hundreds of thousands of people. Some live in tents. Others live out in the open, among the piles of the few belongings they managed to take as they were forced from neighbouring Pakistan. The sprawling camp of people returning to Afghanistan through the Torkham border crossing is the latest facet of Afghans' long, painful search for a stable home. More than 40 years of war, violence and poverty in Afghanistan have created one of the world's most uprooted populations. Some 6 million Afghans are refugees outside the country. Another 3.5 million people are displaced within the country of 40 million, driven from their homes by war, earthquakes, drought or resources that are being depleted. Over the course of months, an Associated Press photographer travelled across Afghanistan from its eastern border with Pakistan to its western border with Iran, getting to know displaced people and returned refuges and