Defying Taliban demands, authorities in Uzbekistan say dozens of aircraft flown into their territory as the former Afghan government collapsed last summer are the property of the United States and will not be returned to the interim government in Kabul.

The decision is likely to complicate efforts by the Uzbek government to engage with the Taliban and ultimately develop trade routes through its southern neighbor to Pakistan and the Indian Ocean.

Afghan air force personnel flew almost 50 helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft to Uzbekistan in mid-August as former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country and Taliban forces overran the capital, Kabul. Several more aircraft and Black Hawk helicopters were taken to neighboring Tajikistan to prevent them from falling into Taliban hands.

Taliban leaders have since insisted that the aircraft are Afghan property and demanded them back.

Addressing an Afghan air force ceremony in Kabul in January, Taliban Defense Minister Mohammad Yaqoob said his government would never allow the aircraft to be seized or used by its northern neighbors.

“I respectfully call on [Uzbekistan and Tajikistan] not to test our patience and not to force us to take all possible retaliatory steps [to retake the aircraft],” Yaqoob said without elaborating.

But Ismatulla Irgashev, a senior adviser to Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, told VOA during a recent interview in Tashkent that the aircraft would not be going back to Kabul.

“The U.S. government paid for them,” said Irgashev, his nation’s most senior diplomat dealing with Afghan matters. “It funded the previous Afghan government. So, we believe it is totally up to Washington how to deal with them.

“We’ve kept this military equipment in agreement with the U.S. and have told the Taliban so.”

The escape of the pilots with the aircraft marked one of the Taliban’s few setbacks during the chaotic period that marked their complete takeover of Afghanistan.

Little has been said since about the issue, in part because of the sensitivity of the issue in Uzbek-Afghan relations and the reluctance of officials on all sides to discuss it.

But U.S. defense officials confirmed to VOA that both Uzbekistan and Tajikistan have no plans to give the aircraft to the Taliban.

“The aircraft continue to be the subject of regional security engagement with the governments of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan,” a U.S. Defense Department spokesperson, Army Major Rob Lodewick, said when asked about the fate of the planes and helicopters.

As of August 21, 2021, there were 46 aircraft in Uzbekistan and 18 in Tajikistan, the official said. These included Mi-17 UH-60 helicopters as well as PC-12, C-208, AC-208 and A-29 fixed-wing aircraft.

A U.S. defense official, speaking to VOA on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss the sensitive subject, that the U.S. has “gotten eyes” on the aircraft in the two countries and said that they technically belong to the U.S. military services that procured them for the Afghan security forces.

What ultimately happens to the aircraft, though, has yet to be decided.

“[The Department of Defense] is still determining final disposition options,” the official said, noting there is interest from government agencies inside the United States, as well as from foreign partners. “This isn’t going to be finalized for some time.”

Despite the mystery surrounding the fate of the former Afghan aircraft, U.S. officials have long expressed confidence that they would not be handed over to Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers.

“It’s safe to assume that they will not be sent into Afghanistan to be used by the Taliban,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said in January in response to a question from VOA. “But as to what they end up doing and where they end up going and who ends up with them, we are still working our way through that decision-making process.”

Unofficial estimates from the region say about 500 to 600 Afghans were aboard the aircraft that flew to Uzbekistan and another 140 to 150 flew to Tajikistan.

The pilots all were transferred to the United Arab Emirates in September and November last year and are being resettled in the United States.

Ayaz Gul in Islamabad and Jeff Seldin in Washington contributed to this report.
…

Afghanistan lost two more local radio stations in April, as economic hardship hits the country’s media community.

The stations – Paktia Ghag, in Paktia province, and Sadai Maimana, in Faryab province – cited financial constraints in announcing the closure.

“We were not able to pay either the electricity bill or our expenses,” Zabiullah Ayoubi, managing editor of Paktia Ghag, told VOA.

For Ayoubi the closure is the end of an era. He worked at the station for 14 years, but says that since the Taliban seized control in August, he and his colleagues have not been paid.

Unless the economic problems are resolved, the station will remain shuttered, Ayoubi said.

More than 40% of Afghan media outlets closed between the Taliban takeover in August and the end of last year, according to media groups Reporters Without Borders and the Afghan Independent Journalists Association.

A joint survey by the media rights groups found up to 60% of journalists, around 6,400 people, lost their jobs in that period.

Taliban media guidelines and restrictions, coupled with economic hardship since the takeover, have impacted the finances of the media sector.

Previously, media could rely on international organizations for support, and private companies and the government for advertising revenue. But those sources have dried up.

Overall Afghanistan is facing a devastating humanitarian and economic crisis, the United Nations says.

The Taliban also ordered media organizations to share advertisements before airing them.

In an April 15 letter, viewed by VOA, the Taliban Ministry of Information and Culture said that media outlets are “obliged” to share advertisements that have “political, security or social aspects” with the ministry.

Revenue lost

Without financial assistance, local media will not survive, says Zahid Shah Angar, founder of the Suli Paigham radio station in the eastern province of Khost.

“Except the state-run radio and TV stations in the province, others do not have the means to sustain themselves, and they will definitely shut if there is no financial assistance,” Angar added.

Programs funded by donors and non-governmental organizations in agriculture, health, democracy and other sectors were key sources of revenue for media outlets. Private companies also provided paid advertising.

“Unfortunately, we do not have any of these sources now,” Angar said.

For eight months, his station has been unable to pay its 22 employees, Angar said. “We lost all our income sources.”

Additionally, four women who worked for the station stopped coming to work.

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid has said that women can still work, but Angar said, “Our female colleagues are not willing to continue.”

“Even if our female colleagues are willing to work, we will not be able to pay them,” he added.

For others in media, the economic fallout was a shock.

Sefatullah Zahedi, owner of Radio Sakoon in Helmand province, invested $30,000 in establishing his radio station.

“I did not expect that something like this would happen,” he said. “I was thinking that the international community has invested here and will give us advertisements, projects and (sponsor) shows. But the opposite happened.”

Radio Sakoon’s office in the capital Lashkar Gah, was damaged in the fighting and Zahedi had to spend $10,000 on repairs.

Now he faces more problems: paying the rent and salaries.

“I am spending from my own pocket. I pay the rent, salaries, utilities, food and the internet,” Zahedi said.

Some of the journalists in the province who lost their jobs work for him on a volunteer basis.

“I told them that instead of doing nothing, they can work with me. I told them that we have a place, food, and the internet. Because they did not have anything else to do, they came to work with us.”

Zahedi said four radio and three TV stations ceased operation in Helmand since the Taliban’s takeover.

Call for assistance

Economic problems are one of the main reasons media outlets are closing, says Hujatullah Mujadidi, vice president of the Afghanistan Independent Journalists Association.

“Unfortunately, the system collapsed and the international organizations halted their financial support. The government and private companies also stopped giving ads.”

He and other Afghan media organizations have been calling on international organizations to support media, and for the Taliban to ensure media freedom, and greater access for journalists.

If media outlets are not supported, Mujadidi said, “We will witness the closure of more outlets, and it will result in silencing freedom of expression and a loss of jobs.”

“It will be a catastrophe for media in Afghanistan.”

This story originated in VOA’s Afghan service.
…

Sri Lanka’s president has agreed to replace his older brother as prime minister in a proposed interim government to solve a political impasse caused by the country’s worst economic crisis in decades, a prominent lawmaker said Friday.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa agreed that a national council will be appointed to name a new prime minister and Cabinet comprised of all parties in Parliament, lawmaker Maithripala Sirisena said after meeting with the president.

Sirisena, who was president before Rajapaksa, was a governing party lawmaker before defecting earlier this month along with nearly 40 other legislators.

However, Rohan Weliwita, a spokesperson for Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, said the president has not communicated any intent to remove the prime minister and a decision will be announced if such a step is taken.

Sri Lanka is near bankruptcy and has announced it is suspending payments on its foreign loans until it negotiates a rescue plan with International Monetary Fund. It has to repay $7 billion in foreign debt this year, and $25 billion by 2026. Its foreign reserves stand at less than $1 billion.

The foreign exchange shortage has severely limited imports, forcing people to wait in long lines to buy essentials such as food, fuel, cooking gas and medicine.

President Rajapaksa and his family have dominated nearly every aspect of life in Sri Lanka for most of the last 20 years. Protesters who have crowded the streets since March hold them responsible for the crisis and are demanding that they quit politics.

On Thursday, businesses were closed, teachers absent and public transportation interrupted as Sri Lankans joined a general strike to pressure the president to step down.

Rajapaksa earlier reshuffled his Cabinet and offered a unity government in an attempt to quell the protests, but opposition parties refused to join a government headed by the Rajapaksa brothers.

Both the president and prime minister have held on to their positions, while three other Rajapaksa family members resigned from the Cabinet earlier in April in what appeared an attempt to pacify angry protesters.

The weak, divided opposition has been unable to form a majority and take control of Parliament on its own.
…

A Turkish court on Friday acquitted 33 people, including two Bloomberg reporters and other journalists from local media, of spreading false information about the economy in an article and tweets at the height of a currency crisis in 2018.

The case followed a criminal complaint filed in August 2018 by the BDDK banking watchdog over an article by Bloomberg about the effects of a sharp decline in the lira and how authorities and banks were responding.

Fercan Yalinkilic and Kerim Karakaya were on trial over the article, while other defendants in the case, including journalists Sedef Kabas and Merdan Yanardag, as well as economist Mustafa Sonmez, were tried for their tweets about the economy.

Turkey’s lira plummeted in 2018 on concerns over President Tayyip Erdogan’s influence on monetary policy and deteriorating ties between Ankara and Washington. In August 2018, it fell to 7.24 against the dollar, its lowest at the time.

At the end of last year, another currency crisis sparked by series of rate cuts requested by Erdogan saw the lira fall as low as 18.4 before rebounding. The currency crisis stoked inflation, which hit 61% in March.

The defendants had always denied the charges.

The court ruled on Friday that the defendants’ actions did not constitute a crime and acquitted 33 defendants.
…

The fall of the U.S.-backed government in Afghanistan gave Taliban fighters access to more than $7 billion worth of American military equipment, according to data in a report submitted this week to U.S. lawmakers and confirmed by the Pentagon.

The findings, first reported by CNN, shed light on the extent to which Washington sought to build, support and maintain the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) as a counterbalance to the Taliban and terror groups such as al-Qaida and the Islamic State Khorasan.

The report also details the bounty of weaponry and equipment awaiting Taliban officials once the last U.S. troops left Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on August 30, 2021, nearly two decades after the first U.S. forces arrived.

According to the report and to the Pentagon, the just more than $7 billion of U.S. military equipment is what was left of $18.6 billion worth of weapons and other equipment provided to the ANDSF from 2005 through August 2021.

It includes aircraft, vehicles, munitions, guns and communication equipment, as well as other gear, “in varying states of repair,” according to Defense Department spokesperson Army Major Rob Lodewick, who emphasized that the military hardware and gear was the property of the now defunct Afghan government.

“The $7.12 billion figure cited in the department’s recent report to Congress corresponds to ANDSF equipment and not U.S. military equipment used by our forces,” Lodewick said in a statement. “Nearly all equipment used by U.S. military forces in Afghanistan was either retrograded or destroyed prior to our withdrawal.”

Top U.S. defense officials have repeatedly faced criticism from some high-profile lawmakers who have called on them to account for the U.S. pullout as well as the collapse of the U.S.-backed government.

“We all witnessed a horror of the president’s own making,” Senator Jim Inhofe, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, told Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin this past September, calling the way events played out “avoidable.”

“Everything that happened was foreseen,” Inhofe said at the time. “President Biden and his advisers didn’t listen to the combat commander. He didn’t listen to Congress, and he failed to anticipate what all of us knew would happen.”

Defense officials, however, sought on Thursday to defend the military’s actions and downplay the significance of the $7 billion in U.S. equipment and weaponry left behind, some of which had been brandished publicly by Taliban fighters.

“We’re not naive. … Obviously, that’s happening,” a U.S. defense official told VOA, speaking on condition of anonymity in order to discuss the report, which has yet to be released to the public.

But the official cautioned that the equipment being used by the Taliban is not the same as that used by U.S. and allied forces before they left Afghanistan.

“It’s not state-of the-art stuff,” the defense official said. “Everything that we provided to the Afghan forces was not on the same level as ours or those of our allies.”

The official also said that even the higher-end equipment was unlikely to give Taliban forces much of a boost.

“The high-end equipment, the aircraft, the UAS [Unmanned Aerial Systems], the precision munitions for the aircraft … that’s very dependent on maintenance,” the official said, noting that many of those systems “suffered very poor readiness rates” even when U.S. forces and contractors were on the ground helping Afghan forces.

“A lot of this stuff is likely to quickly become nonoperational,” the official added.

Pentagon officials also told VOA that only a sliver of U.S.-owned and -operated equipment was left behind when the last U.S. troops departed Afghanistan, estimating its value at just more than $150 million before it was destroyed or otherwise rendered inoperable.
…

Explosions ripped through two separate passenger vehicles in northern Afghanistan on Thursday, killing at least nine people and injuring 13 others.

The bombings took place within minutes of each other in different parts of Mazar-e-Sharif, the capital of Balkh province, said Mohammad Asif Waziri, a provincial police spokesman.

“The targets appear to be Shiite passengers,” Waziri said.

No group immediately claimed responsibly for the deadly violence. It is the latest in a series of bombings to rattle Afghanistan this month, killing dozens of people and injuring scores of others.

Last week, a bomb exploded at a Shiite Muslim mosque in Mazar-e-Sharif, killing 12 worshippers and wounding around 90 others. A day later, a bomb exploded inside a packed mosque in northeastern Kunduz province during Friday prayers, killing 33 people and injuring nearly 50 others.

While the Islamic State terrorist group’s regional affiliate, Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISIS-K), claimed responsibility for the mosque bombing in Mazar-e-Sharif, no one has yet claimed the Kunduz attack.

ISIS-K has stepped up its attacks against the Hazara community since the Taliban retook control of Afghanistan in August 2021. The United States and coalition troops withdrew from the country later that month, ending their almost 20 years of involvement in the war with the Taliban.

Up to 10% of the country’s estimated 40 million people are Afghan Hazara. The community is considered the most persecuted minority group in Afghanistan and is discriminated against by many in the Sunni-majority country.

ISIS-K is a Sunni-based militant group like the Islamist Taliban, but the two are bitter foes.

The Taliban reiterated in a statement this week that their security forces have almost eliminated the ISIS-K threat in Afghanistan, saying efforts are ongoing to dismantle the terror group’s few remaining hideouts.

But domestic and foreign critics remain skeptical about those claims. They note that IS militants have demonstrated their ability to strike at will anywhere in the country and pose a key challenge for the Taliban to maintain national security and address terrorism-related concerns of Afghanistan’s neighbors, as well as the world at large.

Some information for this report came from Agence France-Presse.
…

This week’s suicide attack in Karachi that killed three Chinese nationals poses a challenge for Pakistan’s new leaders at a time when they may be looking to improve ties with Beijing.

A separatist group, the Baluchistan Liberation Army (BLA), claimed responsibility for the blast, saying a lone female suicide bomber had carried it out. Pakistan’s government quickly said it would find and punish those responsible.

“I strongly condemn this cowardly act of terrorism. The perpetrators will surely be brought to justice,” Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif wrote on Twitter.

But Pakistan has been trying for more than a decade to halt separatist militants’ attacks on Chinese workers. The militants have targeted Pakistani and Chinese workers involved in development projects in Baluchistan, accusing them of extracting resources without compensating local people. In 2019, Washington designated the BLA as a terrorist organization.

As China’s investments in Pakistan have grown, particularly since the creation of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) creating links from Pakistani ports to Chinese road networks, relations with Beijing have only grown more important.

Analysts expect the Sharif administration to strengthen economic and political relations with the Chinese government, noting that it was under Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan’s prime minister from 2013 to 2017 and the brother of the incumbent, that the CPEC was solidified.

“We can certainly expect to see a renewed focus and a center of attention on CPEC because it aligns so well with the core sort of goals of the PML [Pakistan Muslim League] and both Sharif brothers,” said Madiha Afzal, a foreign policy fellow at the Brookings Institution, a research group in Washington.

Other analysts such as former Pakistani Ambassador to the United States Husain Haqqani, who served from 2008 to 2011 under then-Prime Minister Yousuf Reza Gilani, said there is room to improve the China-Pakistan relationship following the ouster of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, who lost a no-confidence motion in parliament this month.

“It is important to note that Mr. Imran Khan was a particularly inept leader, and he also was prone to a lot of erratic and whimsical decision-making,” said Haqqani, who is now director of South and Central Asia at the Hudson Institute, a research group in Washington.

“The Chinese did not like that, so there was a problem of style that affected certain aspects of the Sino-Pakistan relationship. A more experienced and more calm-demeanored political leadership will take away that part of that irritant out of the relationship,” Haqqani said.

Role of the military

Other analysts, including Christine Fair of Georgetown University in Washington, say regardless of who is in power, Pakistan’s army largely sets the country’s foreign and economic policies. And because the army prioritizes its relationship with China, so will the country’s civilian leaders.

“I don’t think they have a choice, because you can’t really rely upon [the] U.S. weapons supply,” Fair said. “You just can’t, because the United States is kind of fed up with Pakistan. Plus, the Pakistan army loves to use its relationship with China as a way of leveraging its importance vis-a-vis the United States.”

As evidence of the military’s influence, analyst Madiha Afzal pointed out that before Khan’s election in 2018, his party had called for scrutinizing or renegotiating the terms of Beijing’s loans for building the economic corridor.

“It never happened because Pakistan’s military’s relationship with China was sort of a constant and remained strong, and Khan eventually sort of came around to that side of things as well,” Afzal said.

Now, both the military and the country’s civilian leaders have a common challenge in the separatist group responsible for this week’s attack. A spokesman for BLA warned of “harsher” attacks unless China halts its projects in the country.
…

The nations of Central Asia find themselves walking a tightrope over the war in Ukraine, unhappy over Moscow’s unprovoked attack on another former Soviet republic but economically dependent on Russia and fearful of angering its leader.

The response, in Uzbekistan and elsewhere, has been a carefully guarded policy of neutrality as laid out last month in remarks to the Uzbek Senate by then-Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov.

“We recognize the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine” and consider the breakaway regions of Luhansk and Donetsk to be Ukrainian territory, he said. Yet, he added, Tashkent values its deep political and economic ties with Russia.

Kamilov echoed President Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s insistence that Uzbekistan will not join military blocs or deploy its forces abroad. Others in Mirziyoyev’s administration say Tashkent’s “stand on the war is firm” and that neutrality is its mantra. Any mention of the war brings a reminder of the nation’s neutrality.

U.S. Ambassador to Uzbekistan Daniel Rosenblum said Washington understands why Tashkent will not explicitly denounce Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aggression.

WATCH: Ambassador Daniel Rosenblum speaks with VOA’s Navbahor Imamova:

Among the pressures it faces is the nation’s reliance on remittances from citizens who work in Russia, which accounted for 11.6% of Uzbekistan’s gross domestic product in 2020. The figures for Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan were even higher, at 31% and 27% respectively.

“We deeply respect the fact that due to geography and history, Uzbekistan has to balance a lot of interests and get along with its neighbors, who are also trading partners and important sources of investment,” Rosenblum told VOA.

But, he said, the United States expects real neutrality.

“We understand you’re not going to be criticizing the invasion or providing the kind of aid that many countries in Europe are to Ukraine, military aid and things of that nature,” he said. “But you’re also not going to be cheering on or aiding and abetting the other side.”

Uzbek officials told VOA they hear the American ambassador but fear Moscow.

“We are obviously afraid of Russia,” confessed one policymaker, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “We don’t agree with them, but we see what becomes of a country if you get on the nerves of the Kremlin and President Putin.”

“Who will defend us if we are attacked?” a veteran Uzbek lawmaker pointedly asked. “We must take care of ourselves.”

That fear has led the government to maintain a tight rein on public reporting about the war. State media do not attempt independent coverage but simply repeat official positions. Private outlets in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, meanwhile, have faced official scrutiny when they attempted to analyze the conflict objectively or question the war.

Officials at several major news sites and channels told VOA they prefer self-censorship to dealing with angry authorities. In Uzbekistan, VOA found that nearly a dozen reporters, editors and bloggers were called in by the State Security Service in March because of their coverage of Ukraine.

Government officials say such measures are necessary to combat misinformation and disinformation but deny that independent media are being silenced.

“Uzbek media are covering Ukraine,” said Komil Allamjonov, a former presidential press secretary and head of Uzbekistan’s media regulator. “No one is banned from touching the topic, but we must be neutral and unbiased. This is not ‘our’ war. Uzbekistan has no journalists on the ground. Relying on foreign media requires caution and responsibility.”

Allamjonov, who owns a TV channel in Tashkent, co-chairs the Public Foundation for Support and Development of National Mass Media in Uzbekistan, together with Mirziyoyev’s eldest daughter, Saida Mirziyoyeva.

Talking to VOA from Geneva, where they were meeting U.N. agencies, Allamjonov said Uzbekistan deserves a robust media, capable of representing the public interest at home and abroad.

“Media freedom is key, and the way forward,” said Allamjonov. “We need international assistance in promoting accountability, capacity building and media literacy. Our fund is open for cooperation with development agencies, watchdogs and advocacy groups.”

But one Uzbek TV news director in Tashkent, who spoke on condition of anonymity, acknowledged that most Uzbek outlets shy away from analyzing the conflict in Ukraine.

“It’s not like we are reporting live from Ukraine or Russia,” the news director said. “We pick up international sources like yours. The most we can do is engage the public, experts and officials. But since we can’t control what people say, we choose not to touch the topic.”

That leaves most Central Asians to get their information about the war from digital and foreign media, including Kremlin-funded outlets.

“There’s a lot of Russian media penetration here,” Rosenblum said. He said Uzbeks value media in their own language but find it hard to avoid Russia’s “false and distorted picture of Ukraine and the rest of the world.”

“The volume of voices we’re hearing from the Russian media drowns out others. It’s so loud, so vehement, so aggressive that it makes it seem that’s what everyone is thinking and saying,” he said.

Rosenblum is sympathetic to the Uzbek fear of provoking Russia but worries this will yield an information blockade and promote misleading content.

“I’m unaware of any effort to block the falsehoods that are coming out of the Russian media. … That’s also not ‘neutral’ and ‘balanced,’ right? So, if you’re going to be balanced and neutral, it must be on both sides,” he said. “It helps to give a fully rounded picture of what’s happening, so the media should be allowed to do its job.”

It is hard to verify reports about the war, the diplomat admitted. “But at the end, there is truth and there are facts. And I deeply believe that the facts of what is happening in Ukraine are coming out to the world. And it’s revealing a tragedy, a human tragedy.”

Noting that Mirziyoyev has repeatedly cited the need for vocal and critical media as a watchdog, he said, “If you’re going to have a principle that professional, truthful, aggressive reporting is important to the health of a society, then that should apply all the time. It shouldn’t just be, you know, when it’s convenient.”
…

With the onset of the “fighting season” in Afghanistan, small pockets of anti-Taliban resistance appear to be forming across much of the country.

The development, coupled with a spike in deadly attacks by the Islamic State terrorist group, could threaten the Taliban’s hold on power eight months after their takeover of Afghanistan.

In recent weeks, about a half-dozen previously unknown “resistance” groups have announced their existence, vowing to fight the Taliban alongside the National Resistance Front, the only prominent anti-Taliban group.

The new groups have names such as the Afghanistan Freedom Front and the Afghanistan Islamic National & Liberation Movement. But beyond claims made on social media, little is known about their kinetic power.

Researchers who have studied the groups say while they all share the goal of toppling the Taliban’s eight-month-old government, they are hobbled by a lack of unity and coordination.

“It will take some coordination and unity to be able to have a more decisive effect in terms of contesting Taliban governance,” said Peter Mills, Afghanistan researcher at the Institute for the Study of War, who recently published a study of anti-Taliban groups.

As a result, the anti-Taliban groups have been unable to coalesce into a broader resistance movement, said Jonathan Schroden, director of the Countering Threats and Challenges Program at the Center for Naval Analyses (CNA), a nonprofit research and analysis organization.

“In that regard, they still retain relatively low levels of capability overall,” Schroden said.

But lack of coordination is not the only weakness preventing them from becoming an effective fighting force. Among other things, insurgent groups require external support. Yet in contrast to the 1990s, when Russia, Iran and India all backed the Northern Alliance against the Taliban, no country has rushed to the new anti-Taliban cause.

Consequently, in the short term, Schroden said, the groups will likely represent little more than “low-level annoyance” for the much-better-armed and numerically larger Taliban.

For their part, since routing the National Resistance Front from the Panjshir Valley in September, the Taliban have largely dismissed these groups as opposition propaganda.

But insurgencies have a way of persisting for many years, experts say, and what may be a small, inchoate patchwork of cells today could turn into a full-blown, bloody insurgency.

In the long term, several factors could tip the scales in the fight, Schroden said: the anti-Taliban groups’ success in finding a “state sponsor,” their ability to coalesce under a “common banner” and growing popular discontent with the Taliban regime.

Here is a look at the anti-Taliban groups:

National Resistance Front of Afghanistan

Led by Ahmad Massoud, the son of the late Northern Alliance commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRFA) is the “most well-developed” of all the anti-Taliban outfits, said Mills, who estimates it has a few thousand fighters.

In addition to its homebase of the Panjshir Valley north of Kabul, the group operates in the nearby Andarab valley through an affiliate known as the Andarab Resistance Front, a collection of small cells headed by local commanders who have declared loyalty to Massoud.

The two fronts sometimes “interoperate,” Mills said.

“We know, for example, that the NRFA was providing support and sending forces to work with the Arab Resistance Front and fighting in the Andarab,” he said.

The NRFA claims to operate in at least a dozen provinces, including Panjshir and Baghlan. In a recent interview with the London-based Afghanistan International Radio, Ali Maisar Nazary claimed the Taliban had “suffered repeated defeats in Panjshir, Andarab and other parts of the Hindu Kush mountains.”

The claim could not be independently verified. But Mills said the NRFA has demonstrated that “they’re able to hold some rural, remote kind of valley, some of this remote, rural mountainous terrain in places like Baghlan, parts of Takhar, Panjshir, parts of Badakhshan.”

Afghanistan Freedom Front

This group popped up on March 11 when it announced its launch on Twitter and Facebook with the goal of “fighting for freedom of the country from occupation.”

It has not disclosed its leadership, but recent reports have indicated that General Yasin Zia, a former defense minister and chief of general staff, is one of the Front’s leaders.

Zia, who served as an aide to the late Ahmad Shah Massoud in the 1990s, could not be reached for comment.

In the weeks since the March announcement, the group has claimed attacks on Taliban targets in several provinces, from Badakhshan in the north to Kandahar in the south, offering as proof nighttime videos of fighting.

While the dark videos are not always easy to verify, “we know at least some of these attacks that are being claimed and discussed are real and are happening,” Mills said.

One incident Mills said he was able to confirm was an April 8 video of a daytime hand grenade attack on a police station in Kandahar.

“We were able to see someone actually throwing a grenade into this police station in Kandahar,” Mills said.

Afghanistan Islamic National & Liberation Movement

This is believed to be the only major Pashtun anti-Taliban group. Led by Abdul Mateen Sulaimankhail, a former Afghan Army special forces commander, the group launched on February 16. Sulaimankhail has said he set up the group in response to the Taliban’s alleged killings of former military personnel, calling their amnesty a “lie.”

In an April 13 interview with the Afghanistan International TV network, Sulaimankhail claimed his group was engaged in “military and political activities” in 26 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces, a claim questioned by researchers. Citing security reasons, he declined to say how many members his group has.

The group has claimed responsibility for attacks in its home base of Nangarhar and several other provinces, but it has offered little proof of the attacks, with videos posted on the group’s Facebook page showing armed masked men indoors vowing to fight the Taliban.

While the group’s recent claim of killing a Taliban commander in Helmand appears credible, Mills said its “actual capability seems to be limited.”

Other groups

In recent weeks, small cells of self-styled anti-Taliban fighters affiliated with Tajik warlord Ata Mohammad Noor have appeared in videos purportedly shot in northern Afghanistan.

In a recent video, one of several masked armed men describes them as members of the “high council of resistance,” led by Noor, former Balkh province governor. The man then vows the group is prepared to launch “guerrilla attacks” as soon as they receive orders from Noor, who is believed to be living in exile in the United Arab Emirates.

Noor’s nephew Sohail Zimaray was killed in a shootout with Taliban forces in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif late Thursday, police said.

While the so-called “Noor guerillas” claim to be operating in every province in northern Afghanistan, Mills said he had “not seen them carry out any attacks or claim any attacks.”

Other groups that have publicized their efforts in recent weeks include Freedom Corps, Liberation Front of Afghanistan, Liberation Front of Afghanistan, Soldiers of Hazaristan, Freedom and Democracy Front.

Little is known about their leadership or capabilities.
…

China has pressed long-time ally Pakistan to ensure the security of Chinese nationals in Pakistan and swiftly bring to justice those behind a bombing Tuesday that killed three Chinese teachers.

“The blood of the Chinese people should not be shed in vain, and those behind this incident will surely pay the price,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Wednesday, without elaborating.

The deadly attack took place at the entrance to the China-run Confucius Institute in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi, when a suicide bomber blew herself up near a van transporting Chinese staff.

The director of the institute was among the three Chinese teachers killed. A Pakistani driver was also killed and a Chinese teacher was injured.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said in its statement that assistant Foreign Minister Wu Jianghao called Islamabad’s ambassador to Beijing, Moin ul Haque, to express his “extremely grave concern.”

“He demanded that the Pakistani side should immediately make [a] thorough investigation of the incident, apprehend and punish the perpetrators to the full extent of the law,” the statement said.

The outlawed Baluch Liberation Army (BLA) insurgent group took responsibility for plotting the attack and released a picture of the purported bomber.  Pakistan and the United States list the group as a terrorist organization.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said that its diplomatic missions in Pakistan would continue to urge relevant authorities to “handle properly the follow-up matters of those killed, treat the injured, and resolutely crack down on the terrorist organization involved.”

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attack and promised to do whatever it takes to bring the perpetrators to justice. Sharif visited the Chinese Embassy in Islamabad following the attack to express his condolences.

“We are deeply shocked and distressed at this dastardly attack on our Iron Brothers,” read the note written by Sharif at the embassy, in which he reiterated that “we remain committed to eliminating all militarists and terrorists from Pakistani soil,” according to Chinese state media.

Critics questioned the official claims, citing a lack of progress in Pakistan’s investigations into previous attacks on Chinese workers in the country, which, analysts say, has become the most dangerous place for Chinese overseas.

Mustafa Hyder Sayed, who heads the Islamabad-based Pakistan-China Institute, said the security of Chinese nationals in Pakistan has become the biggest concern for Beijing in terms of furthering its bilateral economic cooperation.

“I think this is an inflexion point in Pakistan-China cooperation because this has now crossed a red line as far as China is concerned,” Sayed told VOA.

“Pakistan has repeatedly vowed to have foolproof security arrangements for the Chinese; however, we have not been able to walk the talk, and our rhetoric has not been able to materialize into action,” he said.

Sayed said he expected that the future presence of Chinese individuals in Pakistan, whether through its Chinese companies, Confucius Institutes or other projects, “would be now conditional and linked to robust and effective preemptive measures for security of the Chinese in Pakistan.”

Confucius Institutes, established in universities around the world, offer Chinese language graduate classes. Critics say Beijing is trying to use them to promote its foreign policy agenda.

The BLA, which operates out of natural resources-rich southwestern Baluchistan province along with several other banned separatist groups, has been waging insurgent attacks against Pakistani forces and Chinese nationals in the province.

Baluch separatists oppose Chinese investments, particularly in Baluchistan, claiming China and Pakistan are depriving people in the impoverished region of their natural resources.

The BLA has expanded its violent activities to other parts of Pakistan, particularly Karachi, in recent years, and used a female suicide bomber for the first time in Tuesday’s attack.

Beijing has invested more than $25 billion over the past seven years in large-scale infrastructure development projects in Pakistan, including Baluchistan, under China’s global Belt and Road Initiative.

The bilateral program, known as the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, or CPEC, has built road networks and power plants across Pakistan and the Gwadar deep-water port in the turbulent province.

In a post-attack video message on Tuesday, a masked BLA commander claimed that his group has formed a “special unit” to target Chinese officials and installations to ensure CPEC projects “will fail miserably” in Baluchistan.

“President Xi Jinping, you still have time to quit Baluchistan, or you will witness a retaliation from Baluch sons and daughters that you will never forget,” warned the militant commander, referencing the Chinese leader.

The BLA had taken responsibility for staging a 2018 gun and bomb attack against the Chinese consulate in Karachi in which two Pakistani security guards were killed.

In 2020, BLA militants in the city tried to storm the Pakistan Stock Exchange, where a Chinese consortium has a 40% stake, but security forces engaged the assailants in the parking area and killed all of them.

Pakistan accuses rival India of supporting and funding Baluch militants to undermine CPEC, accusations that New Delhi rejects.

In July, a suicide car bombing of a bus convoy transporting Chinese workers to the China-funded Dasu hydropower project under construction in the northern region of Kohistan killed nine of the workers and three Pakistani security guards. It was the largest loss of life of Chinese nationals in Pakistan. 

Jaime Moreno contributed to this report. 
…

A mentally impaired Malaysian man has been executed on drug trafficking charges in Singapore despite appeals from human rights activists and celebrities to spare his life.

The family of 34-year-old Nagaenthran Dharmalingam says he was hanged before dawn early Wednesday, hours after a court rejected a last-ditch legal challenge brought by his mother. The family broke down in tears after the court’s decision.

Nagaenthran had been on death row in Singapore since 2010 for trafficking less than 43 grams of heroin into the city/state, which has some of the world’s toughest drug laws. His lawyers and anti-death penalty advocates said he had an intelligence quotient or IQ score of 69, a level recognized as a disability.

But Singapore’s courts ruled that Nagaenthran was aware of his actions when he was arrested.

His case attracted worldwide attention, with the European Union, Malaysian Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob and British billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson joining human rights activists in urging Singapore to either pardon him or commute his sentence to life in prison.

Maya Foa, the director of British-based human rights group Reprieve, issued a statement saying Nagaenthran was “the victim of a tragic miscarriage of justice” and accused Singapore of a “flagrant violation of international laws.”

Nagaenthran’s family said his body will be returned to Malaysia where a funeral will be held in his hometown.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
…

Deposed Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been convicted of one of several corruption charges brought against her by the military junta that overthrew her civilian government last year.    

A judge in the capital, Naypyitaw, sentenced the 76-year-old Suu Kyi to five years in prison after announcing the verdict during a hearing Wednesday, according to a source close to the hearings. Her trial has been held behind closed doors, and her lawyers are banned from speaking to the press.  

Suu Kyi was accused of accepting a bribe of $600,000 in cash and 11 kilograms of gold bars from Phyo Min Thein, a member of her National League for Democracy political party and the former chief minister of Yangon, Myanmar’s biggest city. 

Suu Kyi has been charged with numerous crimes by the military junta, including breaching the Official Secrets Act, inciting public unrest and misusing land for her charitable foundation. She has already been convicted of several other charges, including illegally importing and possessing portable two-way radios, violating coronavirus restrictions, inciting public unrest and violating the Natural Disaster Management Law for breaking COVID-19 restrictions. 

She potentially faces well over 100 years in prison if convicted on all charges. 

Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party won the November 2020 general elections in a landslide over the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party. The junta claimed widespread electoral fraud in the elections as its reason for toppling the civilian government on February 1, 2021, and invalidating the results. The civilian electoral commission denied the allegations before it was disbanded. 

Suu Kyi, who led the ousted government as state counselor, President Win Myint and other high-ranking officials have been jailed since the coup. 

Suu Kyi earned the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her long resistance to Myanmar’s long-running military regime, which kept her in some form of detention for more than two decades. She led the NLD to a sweeping landslide victory in general elections in 2015, Myanmar’s first after the military agreed to hand over power to a civilian government.   

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and  Agence France-Presse. 
…

Police in Pakistan said Tuesday three Chinese nationals and their local driver were killed in a suicide bombing of a van in the southern city of Karachi.

Senior police officers told reporters the victims were traveling to the city’s Chinese-built Confucius Institute when the blast hit their van at the entrance.

The slain Chinese included the director of the institute, which offers Chinese language graduate classes, and two female teachers. Another Chinese national and the Pakistani driver for the foreigners were injured in the attack. 

Ghulam Nabi Memon, the Karachi police chief, said the blast may have been the work of a suicide bomber but an investigation was underway. He noted an initial review of closed circuit video from the site showed a person dressed in a female black burqa walked up to the van just before the explosion.

Local television channels later aired the footage showing the female attacker detonating the bomb as the slow-moving van was entering the institute.

An outlawed Baluch separatist group, known as the Baluch Liberation Army took responsibility for the attack, saying it was the work of female bomber.

An outlawed Baluch separatist group, known as the Baluch Liberation Army reportedly took responsibility for the bombing, saying a female bomber carried out the attack. 

It was not immediately possible to verify the militant claims from independent sources.

The Pakistani foreign ministry condemned the Karachi attack as “reprehensible terrorist” act. 

“The cowardly incident is a direct attack on the Pakistan-China friendship and ongoing cooperation. Pakistan and China are close friends and iron-brothers,” said a ministry statement in Islamabad.

The BLA had taken credit for staging a 2018 gun and bomb attack against the Chinese consulate in Karachi that killed two Pakistani security guards. 

The militant group, along with other Baluch separatists, operate mainly out of Pakistan’s southwestern Baluchistan province. The militants are opposed to Beijing’s economic investments under a multi-billion-dollar China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). 

The CPEC, an extension of Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative, has built roads, power plants and the deep-water Gwadar port in Baluchistan.

Pakistan accuses rival India of supporting and funding Baluch militants to undermine CPEC, charges New Delhi rejects. 

In February, the BLA assaulted two Pakistan Army bases in Baluchistan and the ensuing clashes had lasted three days, killing nine soldiers and 20 assailants.

The insurgent group is designated as a terrorist organization by Pakistan and the United States.

BLA militants tried to storm the Karachi Stock Exchange building in 2020, where Chinese consortium has a 40 percent stake, but security forces engaged the assailants in the parking area and killed all of them. 

The insurgent group is designated as a terrorist organization by Pakistan and the United States. 

“Pakistan remains the most dangerous place for overseas Chinese workers which is a real problem,” tweeted Adam Weinstein, a research fellow at the U.S.-based Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.

Last July, a suicide car bombing of a bus convoy transporting Chinese workers to a China-funded Dasu hydropower project under construction in the northwestern Kohistan region killed nine Chinese and three security guards. It was the largest loss of life of Chinese nationals in Pakistan.
…

The United States condemns recent attacks at mosques and education centers in Afghanistan that targeted civilians and schoolchildren.

“It’s a huge concern to us right now in the middle of Ramadan,” said a senior State Department official. It is “inhumane,” “unjust” and “unacceptable” to target Afghan women, children and vulnerable populations.

Last Friday, Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities said a bomb blast inside a packed mosque in northeastern Kunduz province has killed at least 33 worshipers, including children.

There were no immediate claims of responsibility, though officials suspected Islamic State militants could be behind the bloodshed.

The deadly assault came a day after a bomb ripped through a Shiite Muslim mosque in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif, and days after attacks on the Mumtaz Education Center and the Abdul Rahim Shaheed School in Kabul.

The Taliban recognize that the security in Afghan and the rights of vulnerable populations are issues that the U.S. takes “very seriously,” said the official, while stopping short of elaborating on whether there has been direct communication with the Taliban on recent attacks.

Monday, U.S. Special Envoy Rina Amiri spoke to VOA State Department Bureau Chief Nike Ching about women, girls and human rights in Afghanistan.

She said the Taliban “should emphatically be held accountable” for a decision March 23 to renege on their commitment in girls’ education, continuing to bar girls in grades seven to 12 from attending school.

The U.S. has made it clear to the Taliban that “they have to implement on concrete deliverables to the Afghan population, including getting girls the right to school,” said Amiri when asked if the Taliban’s ban on girls’ education has made it even less likely for the U.S. to release frozen Afghan funds.

The following are excerpts from the interview. It has been edited for brevity and clarity.

VOA: First, I’d like to get your response on recent attacks against schools and mosques in Afghanistan, where children and civilians were among the victims. How worried is the U.S.?

Amiri: Oh, We’re deeply … first, we extend our deep condolences to the families that have suffered so immensely, that are suffering even more devastating losses right now. It’s a huge concern to us right now in the middle of Ramadan, and at a time that is holy for Muslims throughout the world. Afghan women, children and vulnerable populations are being targeted is inhumane. It’s unjust and it’s unacceptable.

VOA: Is there any communication with the Taliban regarding recent attacks?

Amiri: The Taliban recognize that this is an issue that we take very seriously. We are particularly concerned about the situation of the vulnerable populations, ethnic and religious groups that have been under increasing attack. And the situation of women and children are continuing to go in a very negative direction. The longer this continues in this way without robust response from the Taliban, the greater the country is going to suffer more devastating consequences.

VOA: In late March, the Taliban reversed their commitment and barred Afghan girls from attending school beyond sixth grade. You have joined other senior U.S. officials to condemn such [a] decision. But in reality, how would the Taliban be held accountable?

Amiri: The Taliban should emphatically be held accountable. The Taliban made commitments to the Afghan population and the international community that they would open up girls’ schools on March 23. They did it repeatedly, they made the statement repeatedly even a week before they reneged on their decision. They had said that they would open up girls’ schools.

This is a decision that has been made from the top. And it’s coming directly from the Taliban. There is no excuse for it. It’s unacceptable. It has put Afghanistan in a reverse position and makes the situation – not just Afghan women and girls, but the population – it puts them at risk of greater poverty, greater suffering and greater instability.

If you look at anywhere in the world, the greatest indicator of a country’s ability to progress – at an economic level in terms of peace in terms of stability – is the degree to which women and girls are engaged, are allowed education, are allowed the opportunity to work and to contribute to the viability of their country. You cannot just completely take away the rights of 50% of the population and expect to have a better outcome.”

VOA: Why did the Taliban make such [a] decision? Is it a reflection of [an] internal rift?

Amiri: I don’t… I cannot speak on behalf of where the Taliban stands on these issues. But what I can say is that the decision that they’re making is bad for the country. It’s bad for the Taliban as a group, and it’s bad for the viability of a secure and stable Afghanistan.

VOA: So this decision has made it even less likely [for the U.S.] to release the frozen Afghan funds?

Amiri: The Taliban understand that not only in the last six, seven months, but for the last several years, what has been very clear to the Taliban is that: They have to deliver on their commitments. They cannot just deliver on in terms of rhetoric. They have to implement on concrete deliverables to the Afghan population, including getting girls the right to school, for women to have the right to work and to create a culture of hope rather than a culture of repression.

The direction that they’re taking the country – by making these decisions – that’s going to lead to greater instability, greater conflict, greater migration, a greater brain drain. It’s a direction that’s going to take Afghanistan on an even more negative course.

VOA: On March 14, 12 women received [the] State Department’s International Women of Courage Award. But there was not an Afghan honoree, which was rare. How do you respond to critics who [say] it’s sending a disappointing message to Afghan women?

Amiri: There’s a collective recognition – not just by the U.S., but globally, the international community – that the Afghan women are the bravest women. … Quite honestly, I think what I understand in terms of the deliberations is that it was very hard to come back and say we’re going to pick one woman out of hundreds of thousands of brave Afghan women.

VOA: Does the fact that the U.S. does not maintain an embassy in Kabul make it more difficult to recommend an Afghan awardee?

Amiri: There were a host of different challenges and that certainly was one of them. It’s a situation [that] changed overnight on August 15, all of the efforts that were underway inside the country. There was a fundamental reorientation that had to be done in terms of how do you support them? How do you engage with the women inside the country and those that have been recently in exile? Given the situations with the Taliban and what they’ve done on women’s rights, it’s appropriate to have an office (at the State Department) that is exclusively focused on these issues.

 
…

The U.S. government strongly reacted to a statement made by a group of 14 independent United Nations experts who say certain U.S. policies regarding Afghanistan contribute to the sufferings of ordinary Afghans, particularly women and children.  

The freezing of $7 billion in Afghan assets in the United States, as well as the international financial sanctions imposed on the Taliban, have worsened the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, the experts warned.  

“While gender-based violence has been a long-standing and severe threat to women and girls, it has been exacerbated by the measures imposed by the U.S., together with the drought and widening gender-based discrimination adopted by the de facto authorities,” the experts said in a statement Monday. 

A U.S. State Department spokesperson called the statement inaccurate and misrepresenting.  

“The statement by independent experts who advise the U.N. Human Rights Council but are not U.N. staff contradicts members of the U.N. leadership who have publicly welcomed the February 11 executive order, understanding that it is part of an effort to protect and facilitate access to $3.5 billion in Afghan central bank assets for the benefit of the Afghan people,” the spokesperson told VOA.  

In the executive order, President Joe Biden released half the frozen Afghan assets for a humanitarian assistance trust fund for Afghanistan but kept the other half for ongoing litigation made by some U.S. families that lost loved ones in the 9/11 terror attacks in 2001. A federal judge will decide if the remaining $3.5 billion can be given to the plaintiffs.  

“The February 11 actions marked a significant step forward in the United States’ effort to facilitate access to a significant portion of the funds for the benefit of the Afghan people. If we hadn’t taken action, all of the reserves would have been inaccessible indefinitely,” the spokesperson said.  

Sanctions  

As a group, the Taliban have been under strict terrorism-related U.S. financial sanctions for more than two decades.  

With the Taliban now in power in Afghanistan, the U.S. sanctions are extended over the Afghan central bank and other financial institutions controlled by the group.  

While the sanctions target Taliban leaders and policies, their enforcement also hurt the Afghan economy and contribute to the worsening humanitarian crisis in the country, aid agencies say.   

“Humanitarian actors face serious operational challenges due to the uncertainty caused by banks’ zero-risk policies and over-compliance with sanctions,” the statement said. 

U.S. officials maintain that they work closely with the U.N. and U.S. allies to respond to the crisis in Afghanistan.  

“We have worked with the U.N. and a private-sector company to ship cash into Afghanistan to provide liquidity for humanitarian assistance activities,” the State Department spokesperson said.  

To facilitate humanitarian aid delivery to Afghanistan, the U.S. Treasury Department has offered waivers from sanctions, but experts say the waivers have not been effective. 

Hungriest nation 

Afghanistan has the highest number of people in emergency food insecurity in the world, according to relief agencies. About 95% of the country’s estimated 36 million population cannot afford enough food. 

To tackle the crisis, donors have pledged $2.4 billion toward a U.N. call for $4.4 billion in humanitarian assistance to Afghans in 2022.  

Now, with most Western donors focused on responding to the crisis in Ukraine, the Afghanistan humanitarian appeal has only received 13.5% of the pledged funding.  

The U.S., which has pledged $720 million in humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan since August 2021, is the single-largest humanitarian donor to the country. 
…

Afghanistan should join a list of the “worst of the worst” violators of religious freedom in the wake of the Taliban’s return to power, a U.S. advisory body is recommending to the State Department.

In its annual report issued Monday, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom says religious minorities have “faced harassment, detention and even death due to their faith or beliefs” since the Taliban reimposed its harsh interpretation of Sunni Islam on Afghanistan. It also cited attacks on religious minorities by an Islamic State affiliate that is an enemy of the Taliban.

Afghanistan is among 15 nations that the commission says should be on the State Department’s list of “countries of particular concern.” The commission, in its report summary, defined these governments as the “worst of the worst” in tolerating or engaging in “systematic, ongoing and egregious violations of religious freedom.”

The commission, created in 1998 under the International Religious Freedom Act, makes nonbinding policy recommendations to the administration and Congress. The State Department has adopted some but not all of its recommendations in the past.

In the new report, the commission recommends maintaining 10 countries currently on the State Department list, including China, Eritrea, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.

It also recommends adding four more in addition to Afghanistan — India, Nigeria, Syria and Vietnam. The commission criticized the Biden administration for removing Nigeria from the list last year.

The report said that in Afghanistan, many minority Jewish, Hindu and Sikh residents have fled the country after the Taliban returned to power. It said many members of other religious minorities, such as Ahmadiyya Muslims, Baha’is and Christian converts are worshipping in secret for fear of persecution.

Many religious minorities fled Afghanistan out of fear for what could happen under the Taliban, rather than in response to specific actions or edicts issued by the Taliban.

Some Sikhs still live and worship in Kabul, and the report notes that Taliban representatives visited a Sikh gurdwara or house of worship to assure them of their safety. But the report said many Sikhs and Hindus have fled to India “due to the lack of safety and security.”

The commission also cited a Human Rights Watch report of the Taliban attacking and seizing property of ethnic Hazaras belonging to the Shiite Muslim minority, plus an Amnesty International report of a Taliban massacre of Hazara men in 2021.

Several deadly attacks on Hazaras have been attributed to Islamic State in Khorasan Province or IS-K, which is hostile to the Taliban and has proven to be an intractable security challenge. The cover of the commission’s report includes a photo of a deadly attack by IS-K on a Shiite mosque last year in Kunduz province.

The report echoes CIA World Factbook data from 2009, which said non-Muslim Afghans comprised a tiny fraction of the population. It said 99.7% of Afghans are Muslim, most of them Sunni Muslims, with about 10% to 15% Shiite Muslims.

“The Taliban, while they promised they would form an inclusive government, promising they would be a different kind of government, their actions have proven otherwise,” commission chair Nadine Maenza said in an interview. She said that even members of the Sunni majority who don’t share the Taliban interpretation of Islamic law are being required to conform to strict dress codes and other measures.

The annual report, while based on developments in 2021, foreshadowed worries about a Russian invasion of Ukraine, citing religious persecution in Russia of Jehovah’s Witnesses and of religious minorities such as Muslim Tatars in Crimea, which Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014. The State Department first designated Russia as a country of particular concern last year.

“We fear that violence will continue to increase because of Russia’s blatant violation of religious freedom in Russia and in this conflict that exists in Ukraine,” said commission member Khizr Khan at an online news conference Monday.

This year’s report marks the first time since 2001, when the Taliban last ruled in Kabul, that the commission recommended designating Afghanistan as a country of particular concern, the report said. The State Department last year already listed the Taliban on a similar list of non-state violators of religious freedom based on its actions before returning to power in August.

The commission recommended sanctioning individual Taliban officials deemed responsible for severe violations of religious freedom and urged that those facing persecution receiving priority in refugee resettlement.

In its report, the commission cited Myanmar’s military for “atrocities against religious communities”; China for detaining Uyghur and other Turkic Muslims “arbitrarily in concentration camps, prisons and forced labor”; Pakistan for enforcement of anti-blasphemy laws that endanger minorities; and India for worsening conditions for religious minorities under its Hindu-nationalist government.

The commission also recommended that 12 countries be placed on a “special watch list” due to religious freedom concerns. They include three on the State Department’s list — Algeria, Cuba and Nicaragua — along with Azerbaijan, the Central African Republic, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Turkey and Uzbekistan.
…

The European Union (EU) and India agreed on Monday to set up a trade and technology council to step up cooperation, as the bloc’s chief held talks with officials in New Delhi who have seen a flurry of top visits since the start of the Ukraine war.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is on a two-day trip to India’s capital, part of Western efforts to encourage New Delhi to reduce ties to Russia, its main weapons supplier, following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

India has refrained from explicitly condemning Russia’s invasion, while calling for an immediate end to violence. Moscow calls its actions in Ukraine a “special military operation.”

The United States is the only other country that has a technical agreement with the EU similar to the one signed on Monday with India.

“I think this relationship today is more important than ever,” von der Leyen said in her opening remarks during a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “We have a lot in common but we are also facing a challenging political landscape.”

She identified cooperation on security, climate change and trade as the main areas of focus.

“Both sides agreed that rapid changes in the geopolitical environment highlight the need for joint in-depth strategic engagement,” an EU-India joint statement said.

“The Trade and Technology Council will provide the political steer and the necessary structure to operationalize political decisions, coordinate technical work, and report to the political level to ensure implementation and follow-up in areas that are important for the sustainable progress of European and Indian economies.”

Von der Leyen’s visit comes days after British Prime Minister Boris met his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, and agreed to increase bilateral defense and business cooperation. Johnson was preceded by U.S. officials and the foreign ministers of Russia and China.

The EU chief was expected to offer to increase sales of European military equipment to India and relaunch talks on a free trade deal, a senior EU official said before the talks began.

“They reviewed progress in the vibrant India-EU strategic partnership & agreed to deepen cooperation in areas of trade, climate, digital technology and people-to-people ties,” Indian Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Arindam Bagchi, said on Twitter.

Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said after meeting Von der Leyen that they “exchanged views on the economic and political implications of the Ukraine conflict.”

Like many European countries, India has continued to buy oil from Russia despite sanctions imposed on Moscow from the United States and other developed countries.
…

Faced with a grave financial crisis, Sri Lanka sought urgent assistance from China amounting to $2.5 billion. Chinese authorities responded Friday, weeks after Sri Lanka made the request for financial support, saying it would extend $31 million in “urgent emergency humanitarian aid.” 

Sri Lanka has also been seeking to delay the repayment of $11 billion in Chinese loans since January 10 when Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited the country’s capital, Colombo. China has not responded to the request.

For years, China has tried to create a global image of being a dependable friend to developing countries. But Sri Lankan leaders, including President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, have tested that image by consistently and publicly asking for bail-out funding.

Image matters a lot to China because it is trying to persuade dozens of governments to adopt its infrastructure building program, the Belt and Road Initiative. Beijing has poured more than $800 billion into BRI projects since 2013. BRI is an essential tool for China’s quest to sell more goods and obtain contracts for its construction companies — in addition to challenging what it refers to as “American hegemony.”

On the other hand, China has been accused by some, including the U.S., of pursuing a kind of “debt-trap diplomacy” meant to bring economically weak countries to their knees, dependent on China for support. Chinese diplomats deny such accusations.

China’s reluctance to roll over BRI loans comes as a surprise among analysts and diplomats.

“China has hesitated from granting Sri Lanka moratoria or debt restructuring,” Ganeshan Wignaraja, a senior fellow at the National University of Singapore, told VOA.

“China worries that this would create a new precedent in its lending practices. It seems reluctant to initiate similar negotiations with other indebted countries that have received large Chinese Belt and Road loans,” he said.

Among the reasons cited for Sri Lanka’s debt crisis: deep tax cuts enacted before the COVID pandemic shut down tourism and reduced remittances from Sri Lankans working overseas as well a move to organic farming that did not yield enough rice, forcing the country to import it, sometimes at inflated prices.

Under the pressure of $51 billion in foreign debt, Sri Lanka is asking for help from the International Monetary Fund. That includes $11 billion from China’s BRI projects. This includes $11 billion spent by Chinese lenders on BRI projects in Sri Lanka.

Gulbin Sultana, an associate fellow at the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses in New Delhi, believes China has a hidden agenda for refusing to reschedule its loans to Sri Lanka.

“China wants to take advantage of Sri Lanka’s inability to repay loans in time. Beijing is waiting for a good time to enter into a debt-to-equity swap and acquire land in Sri Lanka,” she said. Such a swap would turn past loans into equity, giving China ownership of the project in Sri Lanka.

Sultana cited the precedent of the Chinese-funded Hambantota port project, which was put through the swap mechanism in 2017 after Sri Lanka failed to repay the debt on time. China acquired 70% ownership after converting loans to equity in the port.

Sri Lanka is in a difficult position regarding ongoing Chinese-funded projects. “If Sri Lanka suspends work on the projects to avoid taking more loans, it will be forced to pay compensation to the Chinese for the work stoppage,” Sultana said.   

Beijing is not worried that the loss of image in Sri Lanka would harm BRI projects in other countries.

“Different countries opt for Chinese loans because they do not have the necessary funds for new projects. They do not always consider China’s global image in making decisions. They consider their local situation and whether other countries are coming forward with offers of assistance,” Sultana said.

Taking a somewhat different view, Colombo-based think tank Verite Research said China is not entirely responsible for Sri Lanka’s predicament.  China has contributed just 15 per cent of Sri Lanka’s foreign debt, it said pointing out that a big part is the country’s borrowings through sovereign bonds sold in several countries.

“While Sri Lanka is being made the poster child of falling into the Chinese debt trap, where it is largely perceived that the nation’s sovereignty and geo-political space is compromised, the latest insights by Verité Research narrate a different story,” the think tank said in an article posted on its website. “Of Sri Lanka’s total external debt, Verité Research identifies that less than 15 percent is from China.”
…

An active-duty South Korean marine who made an unauthorized overseas trip — reportedly an attempt to reach Ukraine — has been arrested after arriving back home, Seoul’s military said on Monday.

The serviceman, whose identity was withheld, left South Korea without permission while on duty on March 21, the Marine Corps said in a statement, adding that he was arrested immediately after returning home.

South Korea banned its nationals from traveling to Ukraine shortly before conflict broke out this year, citing safety concerns.

Active duty servicemen are specifically banned from any overseas trips without prior approval, and leaving without permission is considered desertion, which is a crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

“We will take stern measures in accordance with laws and regulations after investigating why he had left his duty,” the Marine Corps said.

According to the Yonhap news agency, the man flew to Poland in an apparent attempt to join the Ukrainian army in its fight against Russia.

He was not, however, able to enter the war-torn country as access was denied at the Polish-Ukraine border, Yonhap reported.

The unidentified marine is widely believed to have uploaded a YouTube video on April 9 in which he said he had a “difficult time” in the South Korean armed forces.

“But I couldn’t help but act when I heard about Ukraine, where people are faced with a much more difficult situation,” he said in the footage, his face hidden from view.

‘Volunteer fighter’ killed

The defense ministry said the man was a conscript.

All able-bodied South Korean men are required to serve in the military for nearly two years, mainly due to the threat of conflict with nuclear-armed North Korea.

The two Koreas remain technically at war, as their 1950-53 conflict ended with an armistice and not a peace treaty.

Reports of bullying and other forms of abuse have long tainted South Korea’s military. Such cases have previously resulted in suicides and deadly shooting sprees.

The announcement came days after Seoul’s foreign ministry said it had received intelligence that at least one South Korean volunteer fighter — who entered Ukraine without government permission — had died.

Seoul banned its citizens from traveling to Ukraine in mid-February, but there are four South Korean nationals who are believed to be in the country as of Friday, the ministry added.

“We urge South Koreans who have entered Ukraine without permission to leave the country as soon as possible,” the ministry said.

“There are serious concerns about your personal safety due to intensifying hostilities in southeastern Ukraine.”
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With about two weeks to go before the presidential election in the Philippines, the race has turned into a rematch between Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr., son of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, and current Vice President Leni Robredo.

Robredo narrowly defeated Marcos in the 2016 vice presidential race. Marcos claimed election fraud and later launched a protest before the Presidential Electoral Tribunal. A partial recount showed Robredo’s votes increased and after four years of legal drama, the case was dismissed.

Six years after that failed campaign, Marcos, whose father was ousted for massive corruption and human rights abuses in a people’s revolution in 1986, is the presidential front-runner in the May 9 elections.

But Robredo, a human rights lawyer and the leader of the opposition to President Rodrigo Duterte, is offering a serious challenge.

In a survey taken in March and released in early April, the younger Marcos is still seen leading with 56 points, although his number went down by four points from the previous survey. Robredo’s numbers, meanwhile, enjoyed a big jump – rising nine points to 24.

The survey asked for the respondents’ first choice of presidential and vice presidential candidates. The same survey also indicated that Marcos’ running mate, Sara Duterte, daughter of President Rodrigo Duterte, is the leading vice presidential candidate at 56 points.  

Robredo’s camp attributes her gain in the survey to the hard work of her supporters campaigning for her.

The gap between the two is still wide, but political analysts believe a lot can happen before the May elections and that Marcos should not be complacent.

Aries Arugay, political science professor at the University of the Philippines Diliman, said Robredo currently has momentum and can still pull off a repeat of her come-from-behind victory in the 2016 polls.

“The possibility is still there because our assumption is, if we base on the Pulse [Asia] survey, that’s already stale. That was taken more than a month ago,” Arugay told VOA.

Arugay said that the surveys now validate the groundswell of support for Robredo in massive campaign rallies, but this momentum must be maintained until the end of the campaign period.

“If more people can be convinced that Vice President Leni Robredo has a fighting chance, there will be a bandwagon [effect],” he said. “The voting culture of Filipinos is that they must perceive that their vote is important and can be counted.”

Robredo’s momentum is observed in her jam-packed rallies across the country. Her army of supporters has also been conducting an aggressive house-to-house campaign to convince more people to vote for her.

Marcos’s popularity is based on the nostalgia of alleged prosperity and the “golden age” of Filipino society during his father’s dictatorship in the 1980s. Political observers and disinformation researchers say his campaign is buoyed by a massive disinformation and propaganda network.

A study of news outlet VERA Files, a Facebook fact-checking partner in the Philippines, showed Marcos gained from “misleading” posts on social media while Robredo is the biggest disinformation victim.

In 2019, Meta took down a network of Facebook pages and groups linked to President Rodrigo Duterte and Senator Imee Marcos for allegedly disseminating false information.

As it becomes clearer that the May polls could boil down to Marcos and Robredo, other presidential candidates have said they will not back out of the race.

Manila Mayor Isko Moreno, world boxing champion and Senator Manny Pacquiao, Senator Panfilo Lacson and former Defense Secretary Norberto Gonzales have rejected attempts to make them withdraw from the race despite their low numbers in surveys.

Moreno ranks far third in opinion polls with eight points, while other presidential candidates fall well behind him.
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The frenzied fury against Muslims began with provocative songs played by Hindu mobs that called for violence. It ended with Muslim neighborhoods resembling a war zone, with pavements littered with broken glass, charred vehicles and burned mosques.

On April 10, a Hindu festival marking the birth anniversary of Lord Ram turned violent in Madhya Pradesh state’s Khargone city after Hindu mobs brandishing swords and sticks marched past Muslim neighborhoods and mosques. Videos showed hundreds of them dancing and cheering in unison to songs blared from loudspeakers that included calls for violence against Muslims.

Soon groups of Hindus and Muslims began throwing stones at each other, police said. By the time the violence subsided, the Muslims were left disproportionately affected. Their shops and homes were looted and set ablaze. Mosques were desecrated and burned. Overnight, dozens of families were displaced.

“Our lives were destroyed in just one day,” said Hidayatullah Mansuri, a mosque official.

It was the latest in a series of attacks against Muslims in India, where hardline Hindu nationalists have long espoused a rigid anti-Muslim stance and preached violence against them. But increasingly, incendiary songs directed at Muslims have become a precursor to these attacks.

They are part of what is known as “saffron pop,” a reference to the color associated with the Hindu religion and favored by Hindu nationalists. Many such songs openly call for the killing of Muslims and those who do not endorse “Hindutva,” a Hindu nationalist movement that seeks to turn officially secular India into an avowedly Hindu nation.

For some of the millions of Indian Muslims, who make up 14% of the country’s 1.4 billion people, these songs are the clearest example of rising anti-Muslim sentiment across the country. They fear that hate music is yet another tool in the hands of Hindu nationalists to target them.

“These songs make open calls for our murder, and nobody is making them stop,” said Mansuri.

The violence in Khargone left one Muslim dead and the body was found seven days later, senior police officer Anugraha. P said. She said police arrested several people for rioting but did not specify whether anyone who played the provocative songs was among them.

India’s history is pockmarked with bloody communal violence dating back to the British partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947. But religious polarization has significantly increased under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government, with minority Muslims often targeted for everything from their food and clothing style to inter-religious marriages.

The hate-filled soundtracks have further heightened tensions, but the creators of these songs see them as a form of devotion to their faith and a mere assertion of being a “proud Hindu.”

“India is a Hindu nation and my songs celebrate our religion. What’s wrong with that?” said singer Sandeep Chaturvedi.

Among the many songs played in Khargone before the violence, Chaturvedi’s was the most provocative. That song exhorts Hindus to “rise” so that “those who wear skull caps will bow down to Lord Ram,” referring to Muslims. It goes on to say that when Hindu “blood boils” it will show Muslims their rightful place with their “sword.”

For Chaturvedi, a self-avowed Hindu nationalist, the lyrics are not hate-filled or provocative. They rather signify “the mood of the people.”

“Every Hindu likes my songs. It brings them closer to their religion,” he said.

Chaturvedi’s assessment is partly true. Despite the tacky production quality, poorly matched lip-synching and repetitive techno beats, many of the music videos for these songs have millions of views on YouTube and are a hit among the country’s Hindu youth.

Music in a variety of languages, and often in praise of various Hindu deities, has historically been an important part of Hinduism. Bhajan, a style of devotional music performed in temples and homes, remains a key part of this tradition. But observers say the gradual rise of Hindu nationalism has encouraged a more aggressive form of music that spawns anti-Muslim sentiments.

Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, a journalist based in New Delhi who has written a biography on Modi, said the hate songs were first harnessed in the early 1990s by Hindu nationalists through audio cassettes that were set to the tune of popular Bollywood music, helping them appeal to younger listeners. The beginning of that decade saw a violent campaign by India’s right wing that in 1992 led to the demolition of a 16th-century mosque in central India by a Hindu mob, catapulting Modi’s party to national prominence.

Mukhopadhyay said the songs have since become a “time-tested trope” of Hindu nationalists to “insult Muslims, disparage their religion and provoke them into responding.”

“Most mob attacks against Muslims follow a similar pattern. A large procession of Hindus enters Muslim neighborhoods and plays hate speeches and incendiary songs which inevitably escalates into communal violence. The songs are, in fact, played with even greater vigor in front of the mosques to elicit a response from Muslims,” said Mukhopadhyay, who has also written about major riots in India.

Over the years, the songs have become common during Hindu festivals and are not just limited to the fringe.

The day violence struck Khargone, T. Raja Singh, a lawmaker from Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, led a similar procession of Hindu devotees in southern Hyderabad city and belted out a self-composed song that made veiled references to the removal of Muslims from the country. Police charged him with “hurting the religious sentiments of people.”

Similar songs that called for Hindus to kill those who do not chant “Jai Shri Ram!” or “Hail Lord Ram,” a slogan that has become a battle cry for Hindu nationalists, were also played in front of mosques in multiple Indian cities on the same day. They were followed by a wave of violence, leaving at least one dead in Gujarat state.

Meanwhile, the demand for these songs keeps rising.

Last week, the singer Laxmi Dubey performed some of her hits before a Hindu gathering in central India’s Bhopal city. In one song, she exhorted a cheering crowd of Hindus to “cut off the tongues of enemies who speak against Lord Ram,” videos from the event showed.

On Saturday, the same song was played in New Delhi during a procession marking another Hindu festival. TV broadcasts showed hundreds of Hindu youth, brandishing swords and homemade handguns, marching through a Muslim neighborhood as loudspeakers blasted the hate-filled music.

In a phone interview, Dubey said it showed her music was widely accepted.

“It is what people want,” she said.
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Authorities in Pakistan have confirmed the first case of wild polio virus in more than a year, dealing a setback to the country’s progress against the highly infectious disease.

A 15-month-old boy was paralyzed by the virus in the turbulent North Waziristan district, which borders Afghanistan, according to an official announcement Friday.

“This is, of course, a tragedy for the child and his family and it is also very unfortunate both for Pakistan and polio eradication efforts all over the world,” said Aamir Ashraf, a top health ministry official in Islamabad. “We are disappointed but not deterred.”

Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan are the only two countries where polio continues to paralyze children, although case numbers in recent years have significantly dropped on both sides of the border. 

The last time a child was paralyzed in Pakistan was in January 2021. There is one wild polio virus infection reported in Afghanistan this year and four in 2021.

Ashraf said health officials are conducting a thorough investigation into the detection of the polio case, and emergency immunization campaigns are underway to prevent further spread of the virus in the country of about 220 million people. 

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s office said he will chair an emergency meeting Monday of a national task force for polio eradication to review eradication efforts.

Polio crippled approximately 20,000 Pakistani children a year in the early 1990s.

The latest case in Pakistan has raised to three the global number of polio infections in 2022, including one in Malawi, according to data from the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI).

The GPEI confirmed in February that Malawi had detected a case of type 1 wild poliovirus (WPV1) in a 3-year-old child suffering from paralysis in Lilongwe. It noted that the virus was “genetically linked to WPV1 that was detected in Pakistan’s southern Sindh province in 2019. 

The detection does not affect the World Health Organization African Region’s wild poliovirus-free certification status officially marked in August 2020, according to the GPEI.
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Sri Lanka’s beleaguered prime minister came under increased pressure to step down Saturday, as staunch allies broke ranks and backed street protests calling for resignations over a worsening economic crisis.

Media minister Nalaka Godahewa announced his support for the thousands outside President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s office who are demanding he and other members of his family relinquish power.

Sri Lanka is suffering its most painful economic downturn since independence in 1948, with months of blackouts and acute shortages of food, fuel and other essentials.

The crisis has sparked nationwide protests, with angry demonstrators camped outside Rajapaksa’s office for more than two weeks.  

Under pressure, the president dropped two of his brothers — Chamal and Basil — and nephew Namal from the cabinet this month, but protesters rejected the changes as cosmetic.

Godahewa, previously a staunch Rajapaksa loyalist, said the president should sack his elder brother, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa — the political head of the family — and allow an all-party interim government to take over.

He said the government had lost its credibility after the police killing of a protester Tuesday. Godahewa said he had offered his resignation, but President Rajapaksa had not accepted it.

“We need to restore political stability to successfully meet the economic crisis,” Godahewa said in a statement on his Facebook page.  

“The entire cabinet, including the prime minister, should resign and (there should be) an interim cabinet that can win the confidence of all.”

Several other senior ruling party members, including Dullas Alahapperuma, a former media minister and cabinet spokesman, have asked the premier to step down.

“I urge the president to appoint a smaller cabinet with a genuine consensus representing all parties in parliament for one year maximum,” Alahapperuma said Saturday.  

‘Be patient’  

But the prime minister rejected their demands, insisting a majority of ruling party lawmakers still supported him.

“A majority of MPs want me, there may be a few who want me to go,” Mahinda told Neth FM radio.

“People must be patient to overcome this crisis,” the 76-year-old added, rejecting calls for a unity cabinet.

“There cannot be any interim government without me as its prime minister.”

Police and the military stepped up security in the central town of Rambukkana on Saturday for the funeral of 42-year-old Chaminda Lakshan, who was shot dead when police broke up a protest against spiraling fuel prices.

Saffron-robed Buddhist monks chanted teachings ahead of the sunset burial at Lakshan’s family home.

Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa visited to offer his condolences to his widow and two children, while a large number of villagers attended.

Police said they had arrested a 28-year-old man who allegedly attempted to torch a fuel tanker before officers opened fire on the crowd, killing Lakshan.

Hundreds of people had been protesting a 64% increase in the price of diesel, commonly used for public transport.

Food, oil and electricity have been rationed for months and the country is facing record inflation.  

Hospitals are short of vital medicines and the government has appealed to Sri Lankans abroad for donations.

Finance minister Ali Sabry, who is in Washington to negotiate a bailout from the International Monetary Fund, warned Friday that the economic situation in the South Asian nation will likely deteriorate even further.

“It is going to get worse before it gets better,” Sabry told reporters. “It is going to be a painful few years ahead.”
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A blast ripped through a mosque during Friday prayers in northern Afghanistan killing 33 people and wounding 43 more, a Taliban spokesman said, just a day after the Islamic State group claimed two separate deadly attacks.

Since Taliban fighters seized control of Afghanistan last year after ousting the US-backed government, the number of bombings has fallen but the jihadist and Sunni IS has continued with attacks against targets they see as heretical.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid tweeted that children were among the 33 dead in the blast at a mosque in the northern province of Kunduz.

“We condemn this crime… and express our deepest sympathies to the bereaved,” he said.

Images posted to social media which could not be immediately verified showed holes blown through the walls of the Mawlavi Sikandar mosque, popular with Sufis, north of Kunduz city.

Jihadist groups such as IS bear a deep hatred for Sufis who they view as heretics and accuse them of polytheism — the greatest sin in Islam — for seeking the intercession of dead saints.

“The sight at the mosque was horrifying. All those who were worshipping inside the mosque were either injured or killed,” said Mohammad Esah, who owns a shop near the mosque.

A nurse at a nearby district hospital told AFP over the phone that between 30 to 40 casualties had been admitted from the blast.

Multiple bomb blasts

It comes a day after the Islamic State group claimed a bomb attack at a Shiite mosque in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif that killed at least 12 worshippers and left 58 people injured.

They also claimed a separate attack in Kunduz city on Thursday, which killed four people and wounded 18.

No group has yet to claim twin blasts on a boys’ school in a Shiite neighbourhood of Kabul on Tuesday, which killed six and wounded more than 25.

Shiite Afghans, who are mostly from the Hazara community that makes up between 10 and 20 percent of Afghanistan’s population of 38 million, have long been the target of the IS, who consider them heretics.

Earlier on Friday the Taliban authorities said they had arrested the IS “mastermind” of Thursday’s bombing at the mosque in Mazar-i-Sharif.

Taliban officials insist their forces have defeated IS, but analysts say the jihadist group is a key security challenge.
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