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At least 320 dead after 6.3-magnitude earthquake hits west Afghanistan

October 7, 2023 Current News Articles

Guardian staff and agencies

A magnitude 6.3 earthquake has killed at least 320 people in western Afghanistan, the UN has said.

The epicentre was 24.8 miles (40km) north-west of the region’s largest city, Herat, and was followed by an aftershock with a 5.5 magnitude, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) reported.

Crowds of residents fled buildings in the city at about 11am as the quakes began, lasting for over an hour. There have been reports of landslides and people being trapped under buildings

“We were in our offices and suddenly the building started shaking,” 45-year-old Herat resident Bashir Ahmad told Agence-France Presse. “Wall plasters started to fall down and the walls got cracks, some walls and parts of the building collapsed.”

“I am not able to contact my family, network connections are disconnected. I am too worried and scared, it was horrifying,” he said.

Women and children stood out in the wide streets, away from tall buildings, in the moments after the first quake.

“Significant casualties are likely and the disaster is potentially widespread,” a preliminary USGS report said. “Past events with this alert level have required a regional or national level response.”

A map posted on the USGS website indicates seven earthquakes in the region, including a magnitude 5.9 earthquake 21.7 miles north-north-west of Herat, a 6.3 magnitude earthquake 20.5 miles north-north-east of Zindah Jan and another 6.3 magnitude earthquake 18 miles north-north-east of Zindah Jan, which is about 26 miles west of Herat city.

“All people are out of their homes,” Samadi said. “Houses, offices and shops are all empty and there are fears of more earthquakes.

“Me and my family were inside our home, I felt the quake.”

There was no immediate comment from Taliban government officials on possible casualties or damage.

Telephone connections were down, causing difficulties in obtaining precise details from the impacted areas. Social media videos showed hundreds of people in the streets outside their homes and offices in Herat city.

Heart province borders Iran. The quake was felt in the nearby provinces of Farah and Badghis, according to local media reports.

In June 2022, a powerful earthquake struck a rugged, mountainous region of eastern Afghanistan, flattening stone and mud-brick homes. The quake was Afghanistan’s deadliest in two decades, killing at least 1,000 people and injuring about 1,500.

The country is frequently hit by earthquakes, especially in the Hindu Kush mountain range, which lies near the junction of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates.

Afghanistan is already in the grip of a grinding humanitarian crisis, with the widespread withdrawal of foreign aid since the Taliban returned to power in 2021.

ayib: ‘Gender Apartheid’ Belongs on UDHR Meeting Agenda

October 7, 2023 Current News Articles

TOLOnews

TV Network

7 Oct 2023

Zabiullah Mujahid, said the Islamic Emirate is committed to the rights of women within a Sharia structure.

The Afghan envoy at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva suggested that the issue of “gender apartheid” be an “item on the agenda of the 75th anniversary of the UDHR (The Universal Declaration of Human Rights).”

The legal advisor of the Afghanistan Mission in Geneva, Mohibullah Tayib said this at a meeting voicing concerns over issues of human rights in Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, Hannah Neumann, a German member of the European Parliament, urged that “flexible visas” be provided for human rights defenders who are

“under threat” in Afghanistan.She said that the situation in Afghanistan “seems devastating, media spotlight has shifted – but our attention should not!”
“There are things we can do: advocate for gender apartheid to be recognized as a crime under international law, make sure that human rights defenders under threat are given flexible visas, so that they can continue their important work in Afghanistan,” she said.

Human rights defenders meanwhile urged the Islamic Emirate and the international community to pay attention to the rights of women in Afghanistan.
“In the current circumstances, there is no attention to the situation of women; neither by the Islamic Emirate nor from the international community,” said Frozan Daudzai, a human rights activist.

The Islamic Emirate’s spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, said the Islamic Emirate is committed to the rights of women within a Sharia structure.

“The Islamic Sharia has determined the rights of men and women. The Islamic Emirate is committed to the rights which it has given to the men and women…. Afghanistan is an Islamic country, and its people also seek Islamic law and sharia laws,” Mujahid said.

The US special envoy for Afghan women and human rights, Rina Amiri, in a meeting held on the margins of the UN General Assembly last month, called on the Islamic Emirate to reconsider their decisions.

Several Strong Earthquakes Shake Western Region of Country

October 7, 2023 Current News Articles

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Pakistan Turns Up Heat Over Cross-Border Attacks

October 6, 2023 Current News Articles

Ayaz Gul
Voice of America
October 05, 2023 6:28 PM

FILE - Pakistan army troops observe the area from hilltop post on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, Aug. 3, 2021. Pakistan says increased terrorist attacks from the neighboring country are straining an already difficult bilateral relationship. — FILE – Pakistan army troops observe the area from hilltop post on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, Aug. 3, 2021. Pakistan says increased terrorist attacks from the neighboring country are straining an already difficult bilateral relationship.

ISLAMABAD — A senior Pakistani diplomat said Thursday that while the Taliban had brought peace and security to Afghanistan, increased terrorist attacks from the neighboring country threatened stability in Pakistan, putting strains on an already difficult bilateral relationship.

“Unfortunately, the peace dividends for us are missing,” Asif Durrani, Pakistan’s special representative on Afghanistan, told an international seminar in Islamabad.

He said his government was engaged in a sustained dialogue with the Taliban to seek an end to the cross-border terrorism orchestrated by fugitive leaders and militants of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, a globally designated terrorist organization.

“The TTP attacks on Pakistan along the borders have increased. They are taking shelter on the Afghan soil,” the envoy stated.

“I cannot blame the government in Afghanistan at the moment,” Durrani stressed. “But we as Pakistan expect that the kind of peace they have brought in their land should also contribute to peace in our borderlands, and those TTP people who are taking shelter in Afghanistan either should be returned to Pakistan or be neutralized.”

The seminar was organized by the state-run Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad in collaboration with the United States Institute of Peace.

Surge in militant attacks

Since the Taliban seized control of the neighboring country in August 2021, Pakistan has seen a dramatic surge in militant attacks that have killed hundreds of civilians and security forces. Officials say TTP leaders and other members have moved their operation bases to Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover and enjoy greater freedom of movement there.

The rising TTP-led attacks in Pakistan are the primary source of tensions between Islamabad and de facto Taliban rulers in Kabul, amid allegations Afghan nationals have also taken part in some of the recent suicide bombings and other terrorist raids.

Last month, members of a Durrani-led delegation to Kabul were reportedly told by their Taliban interlocutors that the Afghans had captured 200 TTP members for their involvement in cross-border attacks and had taken other steps to “neutralize” the militant activity. But Pakistani officials said the measures did not lead to a reduction in attacks.

FILE - Pakistani Taliban patrol in Shawal, in the Pakistani tribal region of South Waziristan, Aug. 5, 2012. The Taliban win in Afghanistan in August 2021 has given a boost to militants in neighboring Pakistan. — FILE – Pakistani Taliban patrol in Shawal, in the Pakistani tribal region of South Waziristan, Aug. 5, 2012. The Taliban win in Afghanistan in August 2021 has given a boost to militants in neighboring Pakistan.

TTP calls itself an extension of the Afghan Taliban to Pakistan, and its leaders pledge allegiance to Hibatullah Akhudzada, the supreme leader of the Taliban government in Kabul.

This week, the militant violence prompted the Pakistani government to order all illegal immigrants, including more than 1.7 million Afghans, to leave the country by November 1 or face deportation. The Taliban decried the move and urged Islamabad to review the decision.

“Pakistan’s decision to expel Afghans is unjustifiable and inhumane, and we condemn it,” Taliban Defense Minister Muhammad Yaqoob told a graduation ceremony at the police academy in the Afghan capital.

However, Durrani said that Pakistan and Afghanistan “enjoy a symbiotic relationship” and attempted to downplay tensions as mere “rivalries between cousins” under local traditions. “But that does not mean that we have become enemies. Not at all.”

Foreign ministers meet

Meanwhile, Pakistani Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani and his Taliban counterpart, Amir Khan Muttaqi, met on the sidelines of a China-hosted international conference Thursday.

Jilani’s office in Islamabad said he “underscored that challenges confronting regional peace and stability be addressed in collaborative spirit through collective strategies.”

Muttaqi’s spokesman said the two sides had discussed bilateral trade and problems facing Afghan businessmen and refugees in Pakistan. The Taliban foreign minister cautioned Jilani that “negative media statements, hurdles facing transit trade and harassing Afghan refugees” could adversely affect mutual ties.

Pakistan provides landlocked Afghanistan access to international markets through its land and seaports.

This week, Islamabad banned more than 200 items “prone to smuggling” under its Afghan transit trade agreement with Kabul and imposed a 10% process fee on commercial goods imported into Afghanistan through Pakistan.

The restrictions have upset the Taliban, and they have urged Pakistani officials to reverse them, warning they would harm bilateral trade and transit cooperation.

Pakistan also conducts its trade with landlocked Central Asian countries through Afghanistan, and there has been a significant increase in the transit trade since the Taliban takeover two years ago.

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New Delhi Says Afghan Embassy is ‘Functioning’

October 6, 2023 Current News Articles

TOLOnews

TV Network

6 Oct 2023

Political analysts suggested that the Islamic Emirate should pursue the issue to find a solution for it.

Arindam Bagchi, spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs of India, said that “my understanding is that the embassy in New Delhi is functioning or continuing to function.”

This comes as the Afghan embassy in New Delhi said in a statement late September that it is ceasing its activities on October 1, 2023.

Bagchi said the Indian External Ministry is in touch with the Afghan diplomats “who are there in the embassy, as well as with the Afghan diplomats who are in consulates in Mumbai and Hyderabad.”

“However, we received communication last week … from the embassy, indicating that it intends to suspend operations at the end of September … of course such a decision is an internal matter of foreign mission,” Bagchi said. “On our part, we will continue with our efforts to assist the people of Afghanistan.”

The Consul General of Afghanistan in Hyderabad, Zakia Wardak, and acting Consul General of Afghanistan in Mumbai, Sayed Mohammad Ibrahimkhil, met with senior officials of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs on October 3, 2023, according to a joint declaration of the consulates, which was shared by Zakia Wardak.

The statement gave details of meetings between the Afghan Consuls General and Indian officials:
– The Indian government will not close the Afghan embassy in New Delhi and both consulates will remain functional and continue their operations for the benefit of Afghan nationals.
– The Indian government assured continued humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan.
The declaration also criticized an “assertion” by Afghan ambassador in New Delhi Farid Mamundzai, saying that the Consulates General “unequivocally disavow and seek to clarify the assertion made by Mamundzai concerning the alleged closure of the Consulates General and other related allegations” and “it is crucial to note that Ambassador Farid Mamundzai has been absent from the Embassy for an extended period, and these decisions have been undertaken without prior consultation or consensus with the leadership of the Consulates General in Mumbai and Hyderabad.”
“These decisions appear to be motivated by personal and internal matters within the embassy,” the statement said.

Political analysts suggested that the Islamic Emirate should pursue the issue to find a solution for it.

“The continuation of the support of India from the Afghan diplomats have solved the concerns regarding the closure of Afghanistan’s embassy in India,” said Nisar Ahmad Sherzai, political analyst.

“The Foreign Ministry of India put forward two choices for the Afghan diplomats. One of them was to engage with the Taliban and accept the envoys of the Taliban,” said Sayed Noorullah Raghi, a former Afghan diplomat.

The Islamic Emirate has yet to comment in this regard but earlier said that the Foreign Ministry seeks a solution for the ongoing chaos in the Afghan embassy in India.

The Afghanistan embassy in its statement named the “key factors” affecting its ability to continue its mission effectively as “lack of support from the host government, failure to meet expectations in serving Afghanistan’s Interests.”

Pakistan says its planned deportation of 1.7 million Afghan migrants will be ‘phased and orderly

October 6, 2023 Current News Articles

BY MUNIR AHMED

Associated Press

October 6, 2023

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan will carry out its recently announced plans to deport all migrants who are in the country illegally, including 1.7 million Afghans, in a “phased and orderly manner,” the foreign ministry said Friday.

The statement is likely meant to assuage international concerns and calm fears among Afghan refugees in Pakistan after Islamabad unexpectedly said Tuesday that all migrants — including the Afghans — without valid documentation will have to go back to their countries voluntarily before Oct. 31 to avoid mass arrests and forced deportation.

This sent a wave of panic among those living in this Islamic country without papers and drew widespread condemnation from rights groups. Activists say any forced deportation of Afghans will put them at a grave risk.

Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, the spokesperson for Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Friday the new policy is not aimed at Afghans only.

“We have been hosting Afghans refugees generously for the past four decades” when millions of them fled Afghanistan during the 1979-1989 Soviet occupation, she said.

Those 1.4 million Afghan nationals who are registered as refugees in Pakistan need not worry, she added.

“Our policy is only about … individuals who are here illegally, no matter what their nationality is,” she added. “But, unfortunately there has been a misunderstanding or misrepresentation and for some reason people have starting associating this with Afghan refugees.”

“The laws in Pakistan are similar to laws in many other countries,” Baloch said.

Amnesty International on Thursday asked Pakistan to allow the Afghans to continue to live in the country while the day before, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ spokesman expressed concerns about the new policy.

“As a matter of principle it is critical that no refugees be sent back without it being a voluntary and dignified return,” U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York on Wednesday.

In Kabul, the Taliban government’s chief spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, has also criticized Pakistan’s announcement, saying it was “unacceptable” and that Islamabad should reconsider the decision.

Although Pakistani security forces and police have routinely been arresting and deporting Afghans who have sneaked into the country without valid documents in recent years, this is the first time that the government has announced plans for such a major crackdown.

The developments come amid a spike in attacks by the Pakistani Taliban, who have hideouts and bases in Afghanistan but regularly cross into Pakistan to stage attacks on Pakistani forces.

The outlawed Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, often claim attacks on Pakistani security forces. But they have distanced themselves from a pair of suicide bombings last week that killed 59 people in southwest and northwest areas bordering Afghanistan. Nobody has claimed responsibility for those attacks.

Baloch said some of the migrants without papers, including Afghans, have already started going back to their countries. “We are allowing a grace period until” the end of the month, she said.

Pakistan has long demanded that the Taliban authorities in Afghanistan cease their support for the TTP.

The Pakistani Taliban are a separate group but are allied with the Afghan Taliban, who seized control of Afghanistan in mid-August 2021 as U.S. and NATO forces were in the last weeks of their withdrawal from the country, after 20 years of war. The takeover has emboldened the TTP.

Baloch also said that Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani held talks in China, where he is currently on an official visit, with Afghanistan’s Taliban-appointed Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi.

“Their meeting was very productive, she said without elaborating and urged the Afghan Taliban to disarm the TTP so that the Afghan territory would no longer be a launching pad for attacks in Pakistan.

She, however, insisted that the planned crackdown on migrants who are in Pakistan without proper authorization was not aimed at bargaining with the Afghan Taliban authorities.

“Absolutely, this is not the case all … we only want all illegal migrants to go back,” she said.

India says the Afghan embassy in New Delhi is functioning despite the announcement of suspension

October 5, 2023 Current News Articles

Associated Press

October 5, 2023

NEW DELHI (AP) — The Afghan embassy in New Delhi continues to function, days after it said it was closing due to a lack of diplomatic support in India and the absence of a recognized government in Kabul, India’s foreign ministry said Thursday.

Arindam Bagchi, the ministry spokesman, told reporters on Thursday that the ministry received a communication last week that the Afghan embassy intended to suspend operation from Oct. 1.

The embassy had said in a statement on Sunday that it would continue to provide emergency consular services to Afghan nationals.

“The embassy in New Delhi is continuing to function. We are in touch with Afghan diplomats who are in the embassy and diplomats who are at consulates in Mumbai and Hyderabad,” Bagchi said.

He said there has been a prolonged absence of the Afghan ambassador, and that a large number of diplomats have left in the recent past.

There was no comment from the Afghan Embassy on Thursday.

India has not recognized the Taliban government, which seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021. It evacuated its own staff from Kabul ahead of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan two years ago and no longer has a diplomatic presence there.

The Afghan Embassy in New Delhi has been run by staff appointed by the previous government of ousted Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, with permission from the Indian authorities.

India has said it will follow the lead of the United Nations in deciding whether to recognize the Taliban government.

Afghans account for around one-third of the nearly 40,000 refugees registered in India, according to the U.N. refugee agency. But that figure excludes those who are not registered with the U.N.

Last year, India sent relief materials, including wheat, medicine, COVID-19 vaccines and winter clothes to Afghanistan to help with shortages there.

In June last year, India sent a team of officials, but not diplomats, to its embassy in Kabul.

Camp to Be Established for Returning Refugees in Nangarhar

October 5, 2023 Current News Articles

Mohammad Amin Pacha

Tolo News

5 Oct 2023

Faiq: We Must Unite to End Suffering of Afghan Women and Girls

October 5, 2023 Current News Articles

TOLOnews

TV Network

5 Oct 2023

Meanwhile, the head of UNAMA, Roza Otunbayeva, told UN News that she “remains hopeful that the Taliban will reverse its stance on women’s rights.”

The Chargé d’Affaires of the Afghanistan Permanent Mission to the UN, Naseer Ahmad Faiq, has raised concerns over the human rights situation in Afghanistan, especially the rights of women and girls.

Speaking at the General Discussion on the Advancement of Rights of Women and Girls before the Third Committee of the General Assembly-78th session, Faiq asked the international community to stand in solidarity with Afghan women and girls.

“A united voice could exert pressure on the Taliban to reverse their policies, heed the demands of the Afghan people and international partners, and honor their commitments. We should not ignore this grave injustice. We must unite to end the suffering of Afghan women and girls under the Taliban’s rule and make ‘leaving no one behind’ a reality for them,” Faiq said.

At the General Discussion on the Advancement of Rights of Women and Girls, a representative of Indonesia said restrictions on women will have a negative impact on the future of Afghan women and girls.

“Recent restrictions placed by the current authorities impact negatively on the future of Afghan women and girls. Accordingly, the responsibility of the international community is clear — to prioritize the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan while safeguarding humanitarian assistance,” said representative of Indonesia, Hari Prabowo.

“Iceland aligns itself to the joint statement read by the United Arab Emirates on the deplorable situation of women in Afghanistan. Member States representatives today may disagree on many agenda items, but no one can deny that setbacks of the Afghan women rights under the Taliban control requires our urgent attention,” said Jörundur Valtýsson, the new Permanent Representative of Iceland to the United Nations.

Although the Islamic Emirate has not yet commented on this issue, previously it said that women’s and girls’ rights are ensured in accordance with the Islamic principles.

“In Afghanistan, those rights which are given to women and girls by Islamic Sharia, nobody is allowed to violate it, and the Islamic Emirate ensures it and considers it as its obligation,” said Zabihullah Mujahid, Islamic Emirate’s spokesman.

Meanwhile, the head of UNAMA, Roza Otunbayeva, told UN News that she “remains hopeful that the Taliban will reverse its stance on women’s rights.”

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