Pakistan, Afghanistan, and UNHCR to Hold Talks on Afghan Refugees

January 15, 2025 Current News Articles

Bibi Amina Hakimi

TOLOnews’ Reporter

14 Jan 2025

The ministry also reported that over the past two weeks, more than 200 Afghan families have returned to Afghanistan from Pakistan.

The Ministry of Refugees and Repatriations has announced plans to hold a trilateral meeting with Pakistan and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to address the situation of Afghan refugees in Pakistan.

The ministry also reported that over the past two weeks, more than 200 Afghan families have returned to Afghanistan from Pakistan.

Abdul Mutalib Haqqani, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Refugees and Repatriations, said about the trilateral meeting: “It has been agreed that a trilateral meeting will be held between the Islamic Emirate, Pakistan, and UNHCR, but the exact date has not yet been determined.”

With the worsening of relations between Kabul and Islamabad, Pakistan has intensified pressure on Afghan refugees. Over the past 14 days, incidents of deportation, arrests, and mistreatment of Afghan refugees in Pakistan have increased.

At the same time, the Ministry of Refugees and Repatriations reported a meeting between officials from the Islamic Emirate’s embassy in Pakistan, including the embassy’s refugee affairs attaché, and the Chief of Police in Islamabad. According to a statement from the ministry, the challenges faced by Afghan refugees in Pakistan were discussed during this meeting.

Ehsanullah Ahmadzai, a refugee rights activist, told TOLOnews: “The governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan must jointly establish a mechanism to address these issues so that the problems faced by Afghan refugees in Pakistan can be resolved quickly.”

On the other hand, some Afghan refugees in Pakistan have complained about the ongoing deportation and arrests of refugees in the country.

Nasir Bayat, an Afghan refugee in Pakistan, told TOLOnews: “My request to the government of Pakistan is this: You hosted us for forty years, and now, in these difficult circumstances that we are facing, please do not expel us from here.”

Waheeda Ghulami, another Afghan refugee in Pakistan, said: “Afghans in Pakistan are facing difficulties due to the non-renewal of their visas. This lack of visa renewals leads to forced deportations by the Pakistani police. We urge the United Nations and human rights organizations to address this issue.”

Following increased tensions and clashes between Pakistan and the Islamic Emirate, Pakistan has accelerated the expulsion of Afghan refugees from the country since the beginning of January.

Biden: Afghanistan No Longer Poses a Threat to the US

January 14, 2025 Current News Articles

Mohammad Bashir Soltani

Tolo News

14 Jan 2025

Biden added that the United States has maintained its capability to manage Afghanistan remotely over the past three years.

Joe Biden, the President of the United States, said in his final speech as president on Monday (January 13) that Afghanistan has not been a safe haven for terrorists or a threat to the US since the withdrawal of American forces.

In his speech, the US president also mentioned that Washington has been able to manage Afghanistan remotely.

Speaking about the nature of threats from Afghanistan, he said: “When we got Bin Laden during the Obama-Biden administration, the primary objective of war had been accomplished. And I believe that going forward, the primary threat of al-Qaeda would no longer be emanating from Afghanistan, but from elsewhere. And so we do not need to station a sizable number of American forces in Afghanistan.”

Biden further added that contrary to assumptions, Afghanistan did not become a safe haven for terrorists after the US withdrawal, and the United States has maintained its capability to manage Afghanistan remotely over the past three years.

“Remember, critics said if we ended the war, it would damage our alliances and create threats to our homeland from foreign-directed terrorism out of a safe haven in Afghanistan. Neither has occurred. Neither has occurred. Our alliance has stayed strong. We’ve used our over-the-horizon capabilities to strike in Afghanistan and elsewhere when we had to,” Biden said.

The US president also referred to the withdrawal from Afghanistan as one of his administration’s significant achievements, saying that there was no justification for the extensive US military presence in Afghanistan.

Amanullah Hotaki, a political analyst, commented on Biden’s remarks, saying:

“Over the past four years, Biden has frequently spoken about Afghanistan and often made contradictory statements. Afghanistan was not a safe haven for terrorists in the past, it is not now, and it will not be in the future.”

This comes as a new administration in the United States is set to take office in less than a week. Previously, Afghanistan’s caretaker government had also called on the incoming US administration to reconsider its policies toward Afghanistan.

CNN reporter defends Afghanistan story that led to defamation lawsuit

January 14, 2025 Current News Articles

By Jeremy Barr

The Washington Post

January 13, 2025

Chief national security correspondent Alex Marquardt denied that his report about security contractor Zachary Young was a “hit piece.”

CNN chief national security correspondent Alex Marquardt told a Florida jury Monday that he never had any ill intent while reporting a 2021 story that featured security contractor Zachary Young.

Young sued the network in 2022, arguing that he was defamed by Marquardt’s report, which focused on private contractors who were charging large amounts of money to evacuate Afghans from the country after the Taliban regained control. Young was shown charging tens of thousands of dollars to evacuate Afghans who faced possible death, paid by corporations such as Bloomberg LP and Audible. A defamation trial in Young’s case against CNN began last week in Panama City, Florida. If the jury finds for Young, the network could be on the hook for millions of dollars.

“I wasn’t going after him. I never was going after him,” Marquardt testified.

“It was not a hit piece. I don’t do hit pieces,” he said. “Good reporters shouldn’t. I like to think of myself as that, and I didn’t do a hit piece.”

Under intense questioning from Devin “Velvel” Freedman, Young’s lawyer, Marquardt defended his reporting.

“I reported the facts. I reported what I found,” Marquardt said. “Everything in there was factual, accurate and, I believe, fair.”

“You needed a bad guy for your scandal story,” Freedman said later in the morning. “You hated him, did you not?”

“No, that’s not true,” Marquardt replied.

Young’s legal team is attempting to convince a jury that Marquardt was negligent in his reporting out of a desire to harm Young, who told the jury last week that both his business as a security contractor and his personal life was harshly affected by CNN’s segment.

The trial is, in some ways, a referendum on the act of reporting — specifically, television news reporting. Freedman argued that Marquardt was seeking out dirt on Young; the journalist said he was simply pursuing leads on a story of significant public interest.

The jury on Monday watched behind-the-scenes footage of Marquardt calling Young. After his initial call, the cameras recorded Marquardt standing over his phone as if he were making another call; the lawyer referred to it as a “fake phone call,” but the journalist said it was a standard production practice to take additional photos and video.

“I appreciate that you’re trying to paint this as some sort of scandal,” Marquardt told Freedman.

And when the lawyer accused Marquardt of participating in “theater” by referring to Young as a “character” in an internal message, he responded that “this is the lingo that we use in television news — the people who appear in stories are called ‘characters.’ Certainly I was not engaging in ‘theater.’”

At another point in Marquardt’s testimony, Freedman accused him of “profiting on war and refugees [his] entire career” because of his decades of experience reporting on conflicts around the world.

Still, the lawyer presented evidence to the jury that he argued was proof that Marquardt was angling to hurt Young. “We gonna nail this Zachary Young [expletive],” the journalist said in a message to an editor about a week before the segment aired on CNN. “Gonna hold you to that one, cowboy,” the editor responded.

Young’s team has also shown jurors messages in which CNN employees refer to Young as a “s—bag” with a “punchable face.” “It’s your funeral, bucko,” Marquardt said in one message.

“From what I had seen in his communications with a lot of people, I could tell that there were some unsavory traits,” Marquardt said when asked to explain his messages.

The jury is expected to begin deliberations on a verdict as soon as Thursday. If the jury finds CNN guilty of defamation, jurors could also choose to award Young punitive damages, typically a much larger amount.

To meet the standard for punitive damages, Young will have to prove that CNN intended to harm him and knew what it was reporting was false.

The Taliban made me marry my boss: how one word led to a forced marriage

January 13, 2025 Current News Articles

Haniya Frotan

It was a normal summer morning in July last year when 19-year-old Samira* made her way to the carpet-weaving shop where she worked in Kabul to pick up her wages. She had no way of knowing that in just a few hours, her life as she knew it would be over.

She would end the day in a Taliban police station, a victim of forced marriage with her entire future decided for her by a group of strangers with guns.

That morning, as she waited alone outside her employer’s shop to collect her salary while he ate his lunch, the Taliban’s “morality police” were on patrol nearby.

“I had to wait because the workshop was an hour’s walk from home,” she says. “The shop was near a main road. Unluckily, I was sitting right outside the door when the Taliban passed by and suddenly noticed me.”

The Taliban officials roam the streets enforcing the Islamic fundamentalists’ strict interpretation of sharia religious law, such as bans on women speaking or showing their faces outside their homes or travelling without a male relative. They can make decisions about people’s lives and liberties on the spot, say human rights activists, including forcing them to marry.

Under Taliban rule, girls aged over 12 are not allowed to attend school, so carpet-weaving is one of the few areas where women and girls deprived of education can still work.

More than 20 women and young girls along with Samira worked for the carpet-weaving business, located in the basement of an unfinished building in a poverty-stricken neighbourhood. They earned about 7,000 Afghanis (£80) a month.

That day, Samira says, she was “frozen with fear” as they approached her. “They asked, ‘Who is this man [her employer] to you? Why are you alone? What are you doing here? How can you allow such a thing? What are you doing with a man who isn’t your relative?’”

The Taliban officers arrested Samira and Mohammad*, 42, on charges of an immoral relationship and contacted both of their families.

Women with covered heads sit in rows at three upright looms, while others crouch overstretched material in the middle of the workspace. — *Weaving carpets is one of the few forms of work still open to women and girls. Photograph: Atif Aryan/Stockimo/Alamy*

“No matter how many questions they asked, I had no answers because they kept insulting me with hurtful words and curses. They pushed us into their car and took us to the police station.”

Samira says that out of fear, she did not give the Taliban her father’s phone number, so her sister Yasmin* and her sister’s husband came to the police station instead.

Fearing for the teenager’s safety and worried she might be imprisoned, they told the Taliban that Samira and Mohammad were engaged. Mohammad’s family, who were also frightened, said the same thing.

Without any further investigation, the Taliban forced Samira to marry her employer, a man who already had a wife and two children. His eldest son is the same age as Samira.

The marriage was officiated at the station that same day by the Taliban police, who have been given the authority to perform marriage rites since the Islamists’ takeover in 2021. The only witnesses from their respective families were Samira’s sister and brother-in-law, and Mohammad’s father.

Shaharzad Akbar, director of the Afghan human rights organisation Rawadari, says Samira’s story is not uncommon, but many women remain fearful of coming forward to share their story.

“[In the minds of the ‘morality police’] they have to do something when they find a man and a woman together,” she says. “Women are not supposed to be working with men and so this forced marriage is their solution.

“The Taliban police’s power to marry two people is not something that is clear in law. Taliban officials feel entitled to make decisions about people’s lives and liberties and there are no consequences – they are coming up with rules on the spot,” says Akbar.

After the marriage ceremony, the Taliban took them both to Mohammad’s house, but Samira’s nightmare did not end there.

When her father, uncle and older brothers learned what had happened, they broke into Mohammad’s house with sticks, shovels and other tools and beat Samira. Samira does not even remember which of her relatives hit her with the shovel. The marks from the wounds on her forehead are still visible six months later, she says.

Yasmin says she had intended to take Samira home before her father had arrived and had to tell Samira she could not now return home. Her father told her: “My honour is gone. How can I face the neighbours and the community?”

Yasmin tried to persuade her father but to no avail. “I apologised repeatedly, telling him that Samira hadn’t done anything wrong and that it was a misunderstanding. I asked him to let her come back now that the Taliban were gone, but no one would listen, not even my mother.

“Because of one word [engaged], my sister’s life was ruined,” she says.

A woman and a child huddle in the middle of a snowy road. They are wrapped up in relatively thin clothing and are covered in snow

Before being barred from school, Samira says she had dreams of becoming an engineer, despite the mockery of her brothers, who told her: “What does a girl have to do with becoming an engineer? When you grow up, your father will find you a husband.”

Samira, who remains living with Mohammad and his first wife, says she is now struggling with depression and that the only place where she is allowed to go is her sister Yasmin’s house. Neither her father nor her mother will speak to her. She says the men in her family are “no different from the Taliban”.

“Without knowing the full story, without even asking me why I had gone to the factory’s office at that time of day, they feel entitled to call me a prostitute, just like the Taliban did, and enforce the marriage between Mohammad and me.”

As well as frequent reports of the forced marriage of girls and women, Rawadari says 1,202 men and women have been subjected to cruel punishments, including public execution, since the Taliban’s takeover in 2021.

A spokesperson for the Taliban said: “This claim is incorrect. No organisation or individual can force any sister into marriage. So far, this matter has not been brought to our attention, but if it is, it will definitely be investigated. Such a claim is not true.”

However, Richard Bennett, UN special rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan, said there had been a worsening trend of forced and child marriages in Afghanistan, despite a Taliban order in December 2021 that banned forced marriages.

“Many Afghans have informed me that forced and child marriages still occur widely with impunity, including with Taliban members, especially in rural and remote areas.

“The ban on girls’ education above grade 6 increases exposure of girls to abuse, including early marriage. These marriages often lead to more suffering for women and girls, including marital rape, abuse, forced pregnancy and forced labour.”

* Names have been changed to protect their identities

Pakistan must move beyond Security-Centric Policies, says former Ambassador

January 13, 2025 Current News Articles

By Fidel Rahmati

Khaama Press

January 13, 2025

*Outgoing ambassador of Pakistan in Kabul Mansoor Ahmad, September 1, 2022. (PHOTO: Screenshot from interview video)*

A visionary approach to Afghanistan relations should focus on the full spectrum of ties with Afghanistan rather than being confined to selective security aspects, Pakistan’s former ambassador to Afghanistan states.

Pakistan’s former ambassador to Afghanistan, Mansoor Ahmad Khan, stated that Islamabad has failed to convince the Taliban to take action against terrorist groups, including Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). He emphasized the need for Pakistan to shift away from its decades-old security-focused approach toward Afghanistan.

In an article published in Dawn on Monday, Ahmad Khan highlighted the escalating cross-border attacks by groups like TTP and the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), which have caused heavy casualties among Pakistani civilians and military personnel.

The inability to secure cooperation from the Afghan Taliban to combat these groups has strained relations between Islamabad and Kabul, further deepening the divide between the two sides.

Ahmad Khan pointed out that the 2,600-kilometer border shared by the two countries, along with a population of 50 million with interlinked social, religious, ethnic, and economic ties, makes effective border management essential for peace and stability.

He noted that the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, which was relatively calm until the 1970s, has turned into a hub for regional and global terrorist activities, especially during the foreign interventions from 2001 to 2021 in Afghanistan.

Three years after the Taliban’s return to power, Ahmad Khan observed that Pakistan’s expectations for them to suppress groups like ISIS, TTP, and BLA have not been met. He also accused TTP of receiving external funding from countries hostile to Pakistan-Afghanistan relations.

Ahmad Khan criticized Pakistan’s reliance on pressure tactics, such as restrictions on visas, refugees, trade, and transit, calling them ineffective. Cross-border military strikes, he argued, have only worsened tensions between Islamabad and the Taliban.

He proposed that Pakistan adopt a political strategy, advocating diplomatic engagement with the Taliban based on principles of sovereignty, mutual respect, and non-interference. He stressed the importance of shifting focus from selective security concerns to a comprehensive bilateral relationship.

He pointed out that Proposed railway projects like Quetta-Kandahar and Peshawar-Jalalabad aim to enhance trade and transit between Pakistan and Afghanistan. These initiatives would boost economic activities, reduce transportation costs, and connect South Asia with Central Asia, promoting regional integration and stability.

The escalating tensions between Pakistan and the Taliban, fueled by cross-border militancy and strained diplomatic ties, highlight the urgent need for a balanced and collaborative approach to ensure regional stability. Without meaningful cooperation, the cycle of violence is likely to continue.

A political strategy that prioritizes economic integration, infrastructure development, and multilateral cooperation with regional and global partners could pave the way for improved relations. Strengthening ties through mutual benefits rather than unilateral demands may help stabilize the fragile dynamics between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Afghan refugees deserve special support: Former US House Speaker

January 13, 2025 Current News Articles

By Fidel Rahmati

Khaama Press

January 13, 2025

Newton Gingrich, former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, stated that Afghan refugees who fought alongside American forces and risked their lives deserve special support. He emphasized that America must not abandon its allies in difficult circumstances.

In a television interview with CBS, Gingrich highlighted that Afghan refugees who saved American lives and opposed the Taliban merit an exceptional level of care and assistance.

During the “Face the Nation” program, Gingrich explained his efforts during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan to collaborate with various individuals to help evacuate America’s allies from the country.

He stated, “When someone is fully allied with you and risks their life alongside you, you cannot abandon them. This is a fundamental principle.”

The U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021 resulted in the deaths of at least 13 American soldiers and led to the collapse of the Afghanistan government.

More than three years after the withdrawal, many former U.S. collaborators remain outside the U.S., waiting in other countries for a chance to begin a new life.

Recently, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the renewal of agreements to transfer Afghan allies to the United States, signaling continued efforts to fulfill America’s commitments to its partners.

Despite the relocation of 183,000 Afghan citizens, including local allies, over the past three years, many are still awaiting resettlement. Addressing their needs promptly is critical to upholding U.S. values and global credibility.

The Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) program plays a vital role in supporting Afghan allies. Expanding its scope and streamlining the process would help provide the security and opportunities these individuals deserve for their sacrifices and loyalty.

Girls’ Education is a fundamental right: Hamid Karzai welcomes Islamabad Conference Statement

January 13, 2025 Current News Articles

By Fidel Rahmati

Khaama Press

January 13, 2025

Hamid Karzai, the former president of Afghanistan, welcomed the final statement from the International Conference on Girls’ Education in Islamic Countries held in Islamabad. He emphasized that girls’ education is an undeniable and fundamental right.

On Monday, January 13, Karzai posted on his social media account, asserting that denying girls’ education is against Afghanistan’s national interests and broader well-being, calling it unjustifiable.

Karzai stated that providing educational opportunities for all young people not only restores hope for a dignified life within the country but also helps prevent forced migration and sets Afghanistan on a path toward progress, development, and self-reliance.

He stressed that Afghanistan’s reliance on the knowledge and talent of its youth is key to building a stronger and better future for the nation.

The International Conference on Girls’ Education in Muslim Societies, held in Islamabad, concluded without the Taliban’s participation. The conference emphasized the importance of girls’ education in Islamic countries, highlighting its support from religion, constitutional laws, and international standards.

Although the conference’s statement did not directly address the ban on girls’ education in Afghanistan under the Taliban, it firmly opposed restrictions on women’s education in Islamic nations.

Karzai’s support for girls’ education underscores a growing call from Afghanistan’s leaders and the global community to prioritize education as a fundamental right and a means of national progress.

The conference in Islamabad and statements like Karzai’s highlight the urgent need for the international community to advocate for the restoration of education rights for Afghanistan’s women and girls, ensuring their inclusion in the country’s future development.

Pakistan watches with caution as old ally Taliban gets closer to India

January 13, 2025 Current News Articles

By Abid Hussain
Al Jazeera

Islamabad, Pakistan – When the Taliban took over Kabul in August 2021, then-Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan famously said the Afghan group had “broken the shackles of slavery” as they returned to power for the first time since 2001.

Taliban’s ascension was seen as a boost to the regional influence of Pakistan, long regarded as the patron of the Afghan group in pursuit of “strategic depth” for Islamabad.

This doctrine reflected Pakistan’s military interest in maintaining a strategic hold over Afghanistan through the Taliban and using it as leverage against India, its traditional adversary.

Three years later, that calculation appears to have flopped, instead leaving Pakistan’s officials fuming at ties with Kabul even as the Taliban edges closer to an unlikely partner: India.

India’s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri met acting Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi in Dubai last week, marking the highest-profile public engagement between New Delhi and the Taliban. That meeting followed a series of steps taken by both sides that suggest a dramatic break from a quarter century of animus and distrust rooted in Pakistan’s support of the Taliban.

If this shift leads to an expansion of Indian influence in Afghanistan, that could strain Islamabad-Kabul ties, warned Iftikhar Firdous, co-founder of The Khorasan Diary, a portal tracking regional security issues. “Ultimately, the Afghan people, reliant on Pakistan’s borders, will bear the brunt of this tug-of-war,” he told Al Jazeera.

Old friend, new partner

From the 1980s when it backed the mujahideen against the Soviet Union through the first two decades of the 21st century, Pakistan was a primary backer of the Taliban, many of whose leaders found shelter on Pakistani soil.

India, by contrast, viewed the group as a Pakistani proxy, shuttering its embassy in Kabul after the Taliban first came to power in Afghanistan in 1996. It blamed the Taliban and its current allies in the government, including the Haqqanis, for repeatedly attacking Indian diplomatic missions in Afghanistan — the embassy in 2008 and 2009, and the Indian consulates in Jalalabad in 2013, Herat in 2014 and Mazar-i-Sharif in 2015.

Yet, a decade later, those equations no longer stand.

December 2024 saw Pakistan and Afghanistan exchanging strikes on each other’s territories, as Pakistan faced its deadliest year of violence, particularly against its law enforcement, since 2016. Pakistan said it was targeting Afghan bases of the Pakistan Taliban armed group, known by the acronym TTP, which Islamabad accuses the Afghan Taliban of harbouring.

Meanwhile, India appeared to have recalibrated its approach, engaging diplomatically with Taliban officials.

The first significant meeting took place in Kabul in November 2024, when JP Singh, joint secretary of India’s Ministry of External Affairs overseeing the Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran desk, met acting Afghan Defence Minister Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob.

A week later, the Taliban nominated Ikramuddin Kamil as their envoy to New Delhi, even though India is yet to formally recognise the current rulers of Kabul.

And after last week’s meeting between Misri and Muttaqi, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs described India as a “significant regional and economic partner”.

‘Geography does not change’

Some Pakistani analysts say Islamabad has no reason to worry — at least yet.

Asif Durrani, a former Pakistani special representative to Afghanistan, said that Pakistan and Kabul share a relationship deeper than what New Delhi and Kabul share. “India left Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover and has now returned upon assessing mutual business opportunities. Both India and Afghanistan are sovereign nations free to forge ties,” Durrani told Al Jazeera. “Pakistan may not object unless these relations become inimical to its interests,” he added.

Maleeha Lodhi, Pakistan’s former ambassador to the United Nations, United States, and the United Kingdom, echoed this sentiment.

“Landlocked Afghanistan depends principally on Pakistan for trade as well as transit trade. Geography does not change just because India now seeks closer ties with Kabul,” she told Al Jazeera.

But while Afghanistan’s geography hasn’t changed, much else has, in recent years.

While India has poured in more than $3bn in Afghanistan during the last two decades, the primary trade route for the Afghan government remains the Pakistani border, where tensions have been escalating, as Islamabad’s worries about TTP attacks have grown.

The TTP, founded in 2007, shares ideological roots with the Afghan Taliban and has waged a violent rebellion against Pakistan. Data from last year showed more than 600 attacks in Pakistan, resulting in about 1,600 deaths, including nearly 700 law enforcement personnel. Most of these attacks were claimed by the TTP.

Pakistan has held multiple meetings with Afghan authorities, including a visit by its special representative, Mohammad Sadiq, in December after a TTP attack killed 16 Pakistani soldiers.

However, during Sadiq’s visit, who is serving his second tenure in this role, Pakistan’s military launched air attacks in Bermal, a district bordering Pakistan. The Afghan government, which denies sheltering armed groups, stated that the strikes killed at least 46 people, including women and children. Merely days later, Afghan Taliban retaliated, saying they targeted “several points” in Pakistan.

Lodhi pointed to Sadiq’s reappointment as special representative as a sign of efforts to repair ties. “Pakistan and Afghanistan are diplomatically re-engaging to reset relations after a year of intense tensions. Improved relations are a strategic imperative for both nations,” she said.

But the meeting between Misri and Muttaqi last week also included a conversation on a subject that some experts say could be another layer of complexity to Pakistan’s ties with the Afghan Taliban: development of Iran’s Chabahar port by India.

The Chabahar factor

The Afghan Foreign Ministry, in its statement on the meeting between Muttaqi and Misri, said they spoke about enhancing trade using Chabahar port, which can help otherwise landlocked Afghanistan bypass Pakistan to receive and send goods.

Chabahar is in Iran’s Sistan-Baluchestan province, just across the border from Pakistan’s Balochistan province — a resource-rich part of the country where Islamabad has long battled separatist groups. Many of these rebels have sought refuge in Iran.

Iran launched air raids on Pakistani soil in January 2024, targeting alleged hideouts of anti-Tehran armed groups that have found shelter in Balochistan. Pakistan also retaliated with its strikes.

While tensions between Iran and Pakistan following those strikes eased, Islamabad has long accused New Delhi of fomenting the Baloch nationalist movement.

Pakistan has cited the 2016 arrest of Kulbhushan Yadav, alleged by Islamabad to be an Indian spy operating in Balochistan. India denies the charges, claiming Yadav was abducted from Iran.

“Indian involvement in Balochistan and its support for separatists is a longstanding Pakistani narrative, underscored by Yadav’s capture,” Firdous said.

Against that backdrop, “references to Chabahar port and its involvement in Afghan-Indian trade will be seen by Pakistan as interventionist,” the Peshawar-based analyst added.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA

Biden speaks with relatives of Americans held by Taliban, but deal to bring them home still elusive

January 13, 2025 Current News Articles

BY ERIC TUCKER

Associated Press

January 12, 2025

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden spoke Sunday with relatives of three Americans the U.S. government is looking to bring home from Afghanistan, but no agreement has been reached on a deal to get them back, family members said.

Biden’s call with family members of Ryan Corbett, George Glezmann and Mahmood Habibi took place in the waning days of his administration as officials try to negotiate a deal that could bring them home in exchange for Muhammad Rahim, one of the remaining detainees at Guantanamo Bay.

Corbett, who had lived in Afghanistan with his family at the time of the 2021 collapse of the U.S.-backed government, was abducted by the Taliban in August 2022 while on a business trip and Glezmann, an airline mechanic from Atlanta, was taken by the Taliban’s intelligence services in December 2022 while traveling through the country.

Officials believe the Taliban is still holding both men as well as Habibi, an Afghan American businessman who worked as a contractor for a Kabul-based telecommunications company and also went missing in 2022. The FBI has said that Habibi and his driver were taken along with 29 other employees of the company, but that all except for Habibi and another person have since been freed.

The Taliban has denied that it has Habibi, complicating talks with the U.S. government and the prospect of finalizing a deal.

On the call Sunday, Biden told the families that his administration would not trade Rahim, who has been held at Guantanamo since 2008, unless the Taliban releases Habibi, according to a statement from Habibi’s brother, Ahmad Habibi.

“President Biden was very clear in telling us that he would not trade Rahim if the Taliban do not let my brother go,” the statement said. “He said he would not leave him behind. My family is very grateful that he is standing up for my brother.”

Dennis Fitzpatrick, a lawyer acting on behalf of Glezmann’s family, expressed dismay at the lack of progress, saying in a statement, “President Biden and his national security adviser are choosing to leave George Glezmann in Afghanistan. A deal is available to bring him home. The White House’s inaction in this case is inhumane.”

Ryan Fayhee, a lawyer acting on behalf of Corbett’s relatives, said the family was grateful to Biden for the call but also implored him to act on the deal.

“A deal is now on the table and the decision to accept it — as imperfect as it may be — resides exclusively with the President,” Fayhee said in a statement. “Hard decisions make great Presidents, and we hope and believe that President Biden will not let perfection be the enemy of the good when American lives are at stake.”

The White House confirmed the call with the families in a statement in which it said they “discussed the U.S. Government’s continuing efforts to reunite these three Americans with their families. The President emphasized his Administration’s commitment to the cause of bringing home Americans held hostage and wrongfully detained overseas.” A spokesperson did not directly address the complaint from the families.

If a deal is not done before Jan. 20, it would fall to the incoming Trump administration to pick up negotiations, though it’s unclear if officials would take a different approach when it comes to releasing a Guantanamo detainee the U.S. government has deemed a danger.

Just 15 men remain at Guantanamo, down from a peak of nearly 800 under former President George W. Bush.

Rahim is one of just three remaining detainees never charged but also never deemed safe for the U.S. to even consider transferring to other countries, as it has done with hundreds of other Muslim detainees brought to Guantanamo but never charged.

The U.S. has described Rahim as a direct adviser, courier and operative for Osama bin Laden and other senior al-Qaida figures and a continuing threat to U.S. national security, despite never charging him or otherwise formally making public any evidence against Rahim in his 17 years at Guantanamo.

Successive U.S. administrations have kept Rahim under wraps to a degree remarkable even for the military-run detention at Guantanamo.

A case-review panel in periodic security assessments has judged him a lasting danger. One typical review in 2019 cited what it said were his “extensive extremist connections that provide a path to re-engagement” if he were ever released. It claimed he had failed to answer questions from the review panel about his past or speak to any change to a more peaceful outlook.

His attorney, James Connell, told a U.N. human rights commission recently that Rahim was being “systematically silenced” by the U.S. Connell claimed to the same panel that a U.S. official had told him “every word Rahim utters on any topic is classified on the basis of national security.”

The Biden administration in September 2022 swapped a convicted Taliban drug lord imprisoned in the U.S. for an American civilian contractor who’d been detained by the Taliban for more than two years.

Associated Press writer Ellen Knickmeyer contributed to this report.

Islamic Conference Statement: Women’s Education ‘Urgent Social Necessity’

January 13, 2025 Current News Articles

TOLOnews

TV Network

13 Jan 2025

According to the 17-article resolution, the participants recognized women’s education not only as a religious obligation but also as a vital societal need.

Participants of the Islamic countries’ conference in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, issued a resolution emphasizing the importance of women’s education.

According to the 17-article resolution, the participants recognized women’s education not only as a religious obligation but also as a vital societal need.

Part of the resolution reads: “Emphasizing that girls’ education is not only a religious obligation but also an urgent social necessity. It is a fundamental right safeguarded by divine laws, mandated by Islamic teachings, reinforced by international charters, and well-established by national constitutions.”

Article five of the resolution also warned against ideologies, norms, and cultural patterns that hinder girls’ education. Participants deemed such actions as misuse of religious principles to legitimize exclusionary policies against women.

The resolution adds: “Issuing cautions against extremist ideologies, fatwas, and opinions rooted in cultural norms and patterns that obstruct girls’ education, which constitute a regrettable perpetuation of societal biases against women. Such actions represent a grave misuse of religious principles to legitimize policies of deprivation and exclusion.”

“From an Islamic perspective, there is no prohibition against acquiring knowledge. Schools must reopen so that girls can continue their education and achieve their aspirations,” said Fatima, a teacher at a local school.

“The demand of all Afghan women and girls, like me, from the Islamic Emirate is to consider this part of Islamic rulings and work to implement it in the country by reopening schools and universities for girls,” said Ayesha, a university student.

Although the Islamic Emirate has yet to comment on the conference and its resolution, its spokesperson, in a recent video statement, highlighted the importance of both religious and modern sciences.

Zabihullah Mujahid said: “Do not oppose education anywhere. Religious sciences are a necessity for society, as are medical and engineering sciences. Scientific knowledge is the future of society, and all sciences are primarily necessary for religion.”

“Education is a religious duty and a social obligation that must be considered by the current authorities. Immediate steps must be taken to provide opportunities and allow women to pursue education, higher studies, and employment,” said Jannat Faheem Chakari, a political analyst.

Meanwhile, former President Hamid Karzai supported the resolution on the importance of women’s education.

In a statement issued by his office, it was noted: “Hamid Karzai, the former president of Afghanistan, welcomes the final declaration of the Muslim World League conference in Islamabad on the opportunities and challenges of girls’ education in the Islamic world. He considers girls’ education an undeniable and fundamental right and deems its prohibition against national interests and the supreme welfare of the country as unjustifiable.”

The two-day conference held in Islamabad was attended by representatives from over forty Islamic countries and global organizations, but no representatives from the Islamic Emirate participated.

Haniya Frotan

Old friend, new partner

‘Geography does not change’

The Chabahar factor

BY ERIC TUCKER

Recent Posts