Category Archives: Taliban

Hundreds of Hazaras killed by ISKP since Taliban took power, say rights group

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Human Rights Watch says Taliban is failing to protect Shia minority from violent attacks on mosques, schools and workplaces

Hazara communities in Afghanistan are being targeted in violent attacks by the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), Islamic State’s affiliate in Afghanistan, with more than 700 people killed in 13 attacks in the past year, according to a report by Human Rights Watch.

In the report, Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused the Taliban of doing little to protect Hazara and other religious minorities from suicide bombings and deadly attacks, and failing to provide adequate medical care and assistance to victims and their families, despite pledging to do so when they took power in August 2021.

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Afghan female judge fleeing Taliban appeals after Home Office refuses UK entry

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Lawyers say the woman, who is in hiding in Pakistan with her son, will be killed if sent back to Afghanistan

A female former senior judge from Afghanistan who is in hiding from the Taliban with her son has filed an appeal to the Home Office after her application to enter the UK was denied.

Lawyers for the woman – who is named as “Y” – said on Saturday they had submitted an appeal on behalf of their client and her son at the Immigration Tribunal, saying she had been left in a “gravely vulnerable position” by the withdrawal of British and other western troops.

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Afghanistan: NGOs call for assets to be unfrozen to end ‘near universal poverty’

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One year since the Taliban regained power, charities say urgent action needed to address economic crisis

One year on from the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, a group of 32 Afghan and international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are urging the international community not to abandon the country’s people, but instead address the root causes of the its economic crisis, stand up for human rights and increase humanitarian aid.

Reflecting a concern that the deep ideological deadlock between the Taliban and the international community is consigning millions of Afghans to destitution, they call for a clear roadmap that will lead to the restoration of the basic functions of the Afghan central bank and the release of Afghanistan’s assets frozen abroad, mainly in the US. The NGOs call for the disbursement of badly needed Afghan banknotes that have been printed but are impounded in Poland.

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‘They’d come to kill me’: The Afghan tax reformer hunted by the Taliban and abandoned by the Britain he served

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A year after the fall of Kabul, Abdullah Sayyid is in hiding, his wife has been murdered and the Home Office seems to have lost his case file

Abdullah Sayyid often thinks about the moment the Taliban broke down his door, burst inside and shot his wife. The gunmen left, but would soon redouble their efforts to kill him because of his work for the British government.

Sayyid’s wife was murdered during the chaotic aftermath of Operation Pitting, the UK’s emergency mass airlift from Kabul that began on 13 August last year.

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Female protesters beaten by Taliban fighters during rare Kabul rally

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Shots fired into air and rifle butts used to attack dozens of women protesting outside Afghan education ministry

Taliban fighters beat female protesters and fired into the air on Saturday as they violently dispersed a rare rally in the Afghan capital, days before the first anniversary of the hardline Islamists’ return to power.

Since seizing control on 15 August last year, the Taliban have rolled back the marginal gains made by women during two decades of US intervention in Afghanistan.

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An Afghan girl’s despair over school ban: ‘We are wilting away at home’

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Since returning to power the Taliban have banned secondary school-aged girls from getting an education. Here Farzana*, 16, tells her story

Last year I was in 11th grade, the second highest-placed student in my class, with an average grade of 95%. Now I sit at home all day doing almost nothing. Sometimes I help my mum with housework, but really there are no distractions for me.

I can’t even read books, because I have lost the will to continue. After you lose 11 years of effort all at once, you can’t hold on to your dreams to make something of your life.

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Afghan cleric killed by explosives in attacker’s artificial leg, say officials

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Taliban in Kabul investigating death of prominent figure they describe as a ‘huge loss’

A prominent Taliban cleric, Sheikh Rahimullah Haqqani, was killed in an attack in a seminary in Kabul when the attacker detonated explosives hidden in a plastic artificial leg, according to officials and Taliban sources.

“Very sadly informed that respected cleric (Sheikh Rahimullah Haqqani) was martyred in a cowardly attack by enemies,” said Bilal Karimi, a spokesperson for the Taliban administration.

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‘The US let him go free’: release of terrorist who killed unarmed Australian soldiers shows contempt for ally, family says

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Exclusive: Father of one of three soldiers slain by Hekmatullah says Australia was ‘sidelined’ in deal between US and Taliban to release terrorist from prison

The family of one of the Australian soldiers killed by rogue Afghan national army sergeant Hekmatullah says Australia was treated with contempt by its closest ally, the US, after it agreed to release the self-professed terrorist from prison.

The Guardian revealed on Monday that the former Afghan national army sergeant, and Taliban plant, Hekmatullah, is again at liberty, and housed under Taliban protection, in the former diplomatic quarter of the Afghan capital Kabul.

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‘I will continue killing foreigners’: soldier who shot dead unarmed Australians treated as ‘returning hero’ by Taliban

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Exclusive: Hekmatullah, who killed three Australian soldiers, is living in a heavily protected luxury Kabul home after being freed from prison

Hekmatullah, the rogue Afghan soldier who killed three unarmed Australian diggers in Afghanistan a decade ago, is living in a luxury home in the capital Kabul, treated as a “returning hero” by the Taliban who released him from prison.

He has said he does not regret killing Australian soldiers, and has vowed he would again kill Australians, or anyone who opposes the Taliban.

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‘They beat girls just for smiling’: life in Afghanistan one year after the Taliban’s return

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Despite their promises of peace and stability, the country is on its knees, and its people are desperate

Maryam* is near the top of her sixth grade class in Kabul, which under Taliban rule means that her education should be ending in a few months.

But the 10-year-old, whose name we have changed to protect her identity, has a strategy to stay in school for another year, and her eyes dance with satisfaction as she explains her plan. “I will make sure I don’t answer too many questions right. I have decided to fail, so I can study sixth grade again.”

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‘Shameful’: Afghans who helped UK abandoned to a life of fear under the Taliban

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Home Office accused of failing to ensure safety of thousands including teachers and translators

Thousands of Afghans who worked for the UK have been abandoned and remain at risk from the Taliban a year after the evacuation from Kabul, a coalition of human rights groups has said.

In a parliamentary briefing, nine expert groups on Afghanistan criticised the British government’s resettlement schemes as “unjustifiably restrictive”. They said it was deeply concerning that the government is currently not offering a safe route for many Afghan women and girls or to oppressed minority groups.

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Afghanistan: bomb in Kabul shopping street injures at least 22 people

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The explosion happened in a western district where the minority Shia Muslim community regularly meet

A bomb exploded in a busy shopping street in Afghanistan’s capital Kabul on Saturday injuring at least 22 people, hospital officials and witnesses said.

The blast occurred in a western district of the city where members of the minority Shia Muslim community regularly meet.

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How Ayman al-Zawahiri’s ‘pattern of life’ allowed the US to kill al-Qaida leader

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After a decades-long hunt the simple habit of sitting out on the balcony gave the CIA an opportunity to launch ‘tailored strike’

In the end it was one of the oldest mistakes in the fugitive’s handbook that apparently did for Ayman al-Zawahiri, the top al-Qaida leader killed, according to US intelligence, by a drone strike on Sunday morning: he developed a habit.

The co-planner of the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington in 2001 had acquired a taste for sitting out on the balcony of his safe house in Sherpur, a well-to-do diplomatic enclave of Kabul. He grew especially fond of stepping out on to the balcony after morning prayers, so that he could watch the sun rise over the Afghan capital.

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Zawahiri’s killing unlikely to weaken al-Qaida significantly

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Analysis: The terrorist leader had been ill and key tasks are likely to have been handled by others for several years

Ayman al-Zawahiri was a low-key but effective leader of al-Qaida whose death will cause the terrorist organisation some short-term turbulence but is unlikely to cause any major long-term problems.

A decade ago, killing Zawahiri would have made a major difference. Now, though the nature of his death demonstrates the US’s continuing ability to strike individual enemies even in hostile environments and raises questions about the Taliban’s relationship with extremist groups, it is unlikely to weaken al-Qaida significantly.

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Fears over building works at Afghan Buddhas of Bamiyan site

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Unesco says it has not been consulted on project and local experts are alarmed at Taliban plans

The Taliban have launched construction work on a tourism complex just metres from the cliff that held the Bamiyan Buddha statues, which archeologists and experts warn could cause permanent damage to the sensitive world heritage site.

The project aims to “rebuild” a historic bazaar, which was destroyed in the civil war of the 1990s. Under the Taliban blueprint, the area will become a tourism centre with restaurants, guesthouses, parking, public toilets and handicraft and grocery shops.

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Taliban policies risk de facto university ban for Afghan women, say officials

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Secret schools formed as girls banned from classes languish with no accredited route to university

The Taliban’s ban on girls studying at high schools will become a de facto ban on university degrees for women if it stays in place, a Taliban spokesperson and university officials have said.

Girls will not have the documents needed to enrol in higher education, or the academic capacity to start university courses after nearly a year out of school.

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Foreign Office admits multiple errors in UK’s exit from Afghanistan

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Officials say they can not provide hope of resettlement for Afghans who worked for UK civilian schemes

The UK Foreign Office has admitted a catalogue of errors over its handling of Britain’s exit from Afghanistan, but has shut the door on many Afghans who helped the UK prior to the Taliban takeover last August, saying it will not provide false hope that they will be given the chance to come to the UK.

Foreign Office officials say it is difficult to judge whether Afghans who worked on UK-funded civilian schemes, such as the British Council, are truly in danger from the Taliban, saying the evidence is that the threat primarily applies to those who provided security support to the UK.

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‘Every part is useful’: the man who wants Afghanistan to swap opium for hemp

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Oil from the versatile plant makes cannabis medicine CBD and its fibre has a range of uses but the Taliban need convincing

The smell seemed unmistakable, the dried buds looked familiar and the Taliban checkpoint guards, who had never heard of CBD, a non-psychoactive cannabis compound, were disgusted by the pungent cargo of Amin Karim’s truck.

“They said to me: ‘Aren’t you ashamed of yourself, Haji?’” using an honorific for an older man, as they poked through the piles of hemp headed for Kabul last October.

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Taliban presiding over extensive rights abuses in Afghanistan, says UN

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Allegations include 160 killings of ex-government officials and security forces, torture and punishments

Taliban authorities have presided over widespread human rights abuses since they took control of Afghanistan last August, the UN said, including 160 killings of former government officials and members of the security forces, and dozens of cases of torture, arbitrary arrests and inhumane punishments.

A UN report, released on the day an Australian journalist said she had been detained in Kabul and forced to tweet a retraction of her reporting, also detailed a broad assault on the press. In total 173 media workers were affected by abuses including detention, threats, ill-treatment and assault.

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Send us a man to do your job so we can sack you, Taliban tell female officials

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As economy collapses, women from Afghanistan’s finance ministry say they have been asked to suggest male relatives to replace them

The Taliban have asked women working at Afghanistan’s finance ministry to send a male relative to do their job a year after female public-sector workers were barred from government work and told to stay at home.

Women who worked in government positions were sent home from their jobs shortly after the Taliban took power in August 2021, and have been paid heavily reduced salaries to do nothing.

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