A bomb exploded in southwestern Pakistan late Thursday, killing at least four people and injuring 15 others.

Police said the explosive device was planted in a vehicle parked outside a college in central Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province, and triggered by a timer.

In a statement released to the media, the provincial health department confirmed the casualties. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Baluchistan routinely experiences militant attacks against Pakistani security forces and civilians.

The violence is often claimed by separatist Baluch militant groups or the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which officials say orchestrates anti-state activities out of neighboring Afghanistan.

Thousands of Pakistanis, including security forces, have been killed in TTP-claimed suicide bombings and other terrorist attacks over the past years.

Pakistan recently engaged the militant outfit in peace talks with the help of Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban, leading to a 30-day cease-fire.

The TTP, however, refused to extend the truce after it expired in early December, accusing Pakistani authorities of breaching terms of the deal. Since then, the group has resumed attacks on Pakistani troops and police forces, particularly in tribal districts next to the Afghan border.
…

Afghanistan’s former president said he had no choice but to abruptly leave Kabul as the Taliban closed in and denied an agreement was in the works for a peaceful takeover, disputing the accounts of former Afghan and U.S. officials.  

Former President Ashraf Ghani said in a BBC interview that aired Thursday that an adviser gave him just minutes to decide to abandon the capital, Kabul. He also denied widespread accusations that he left Afghanistan with millions in stolen money.  

Ghani’s sudden and secret departure Aug. 15 left the city rudderless as U.S. and NATO forces were in the final stages of their chaotic withdrawal from the country after 20 years.  

“On the morning of that day, I had no inkling that by late afternoon I would be leaving,” Ghani told BBC radio.  

His remarks conflicted with other accounts.

Former President Hamid Karzai told The Associated Press in an interview earlier this month that Ghani’s departure scuttled the opportunity for government negotiators, including himself and peace council chairman Abdullah Abdullah, to reach an 11th-hour agreement with the Taliban, who had committed to staying outside the capital.

After calling the government defense minister Bismillah Khan, the interior minister and police chief and discovering all had fled the capital, Karzai said he invited the Taliban into Kabul ” to protect the population so that the country, the city doesn’t fall into chaos and the unwanted elements who would probably loot the country, loot shops.”

But Ghani in his radio interview with British Gen. Sir Nick Carter, former chief of defense staff, said he fled “to prevent the destruction of Kabul,” claiming two rival Taliban factions were bearing down on the city and were ready to enter and wage a bitter battle for control. There was no evidence upon the Taliban entry of the rival factions Ghani referred to.  

The insurgents, who in the days prior to the push into Kabul had swept over much of the country as Afghan government forces melted away or surrendered, quickly took control of the palace. According to humanitarian aid workers, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they wanted to speak privately and who were there at the time, the Taliban moved to protect their compounds.

Still, the Taliban takeover was met with widespread fear and a deep longing by many to flee their desperately poor homeland despite billions of international money over the 20 years the U.S.-backed governments had been in power.

In the BBC interview, Ghani denied widespread accusations that he left Afghanistan with a cache of stolen money. The U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction John Sopko has been tasked with investigating those allegations.  

Successive Afghan governments, as well as independent foreign and Afghan contractors, have been accused of widespread corruption, with dozens of reports by Sopko documenting the most egregious incidents. Washington has spent $146 billion on reconstruction in Afghanistan since the overthrow in 2001 of the Taliban, who had harbored al-Qaida and its leader, Osama bin Laden. Yet even before the insurgents returned in August, the poverty level in Afghanistan was at 54%.  

Earlier this week, Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, an investigative reporting organization with 150 journalists in more than 30 countries, listed Ghani among the world’s most corrupt leaders. Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko was named the most corrupt, with Ghani, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and former Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz among the finalists for the title of most corrupt.

After being told by his national security adviser Hamdullah Mohib that his personal protection force was not capable of defending him, Ghani said he decided to leave. Mohib, who “was literally terrified,” gave him just two minutes to decide whether to leave, Ghani said, insisting he was not sure where he would be taken even after he was on the helicopter getting ready to take off.

Ghani did not address the rapid and swift collapse of the Afghan military in the weeks leading up to the Taliban takeover, but he did blame an agreement the United States had signed with the Taliban in 2020 for the eventual collapse of his government. That agreement laid out conditions for the final withdrawal of the remaining U.S. and NATO forces ending America’s longest war. It also provided for the release of 5,000 Taliban prisoners, which Ghani said strengthened the insurgent force.
…

Pakistan has begun dispatching thousands of metric tons of wheat to Afghanistan as relief assistance, saying the humanitarian and economic situation in the neighboring country requires the urgent attention of the international community.

Islamabad has pledged about $28 million worth of humanitarian aid to Kabul, including 50,000 metric tons of wheat, winter shelter and emergency medical supplies.

While scores of trucks have transported food and medical supplies to Afghanistan in recent weeks, a Pakistani Foreign Ministry statement said Thursday the first consignment of 1,800 metric tons of wheat was handed over to Afghan authorities at the northwestern Torkham border crossing between the countries.

“It is critical that the world community upscale its efforts to reach out to the Afghan people on an urgent basis to help address the humanitarian crisis and stabilize the economic situation,” the statement emphasized.

Pakistani leaders maintain that worsening humanitarian and economic conditions could force Afghans to take shelter in neighboring countries and the world at large unless urgent aid arrives in Afghanistan.

Pakistan already hosts about 3 million Afghan refugees, as well as economic migrants, and it has refused to accept a new influx of refugees citing its own economic difficulties.

The United Nations estimates nearly 23 million people, about 55% of the population in Afghanistan, face extreme levels of hunger, and nearly 9 million of them are at risk of famine in the wake of years of war and international sanctions.

The humanitarian situation has deteriorated following the Taliban military takeover of the country and the withdrawal of the U.S.-led coalition in August. The development prompted Washington to immediately suspend its cash flow to the Afghan economy, which mostly depended on foreign financial assistance over the past 20 years.

The Biden administration also has seized Afghanistan’s roughly $9.5 billion worth of assets and imposed financial sanctions on the Taliban, plunging the economy into unprecedented upheaval and making it difficult for people to get enough to eat.

The Taliban have been seeking global legitimacy for their interim government in Kabul and release of the frozen funds.

Pakistan, which is known for its close contacts with the Islamist group, has been urging the United States and other nations to engage with the new rulers in Afghanistan to prevent the looming humanitarian and economic disaster there.

The U.S. Treasury Department acted last week to ease sanctions against Kabul, saying it would issue licenses to ensure some international aid could flow to Afghanistan, as long as it did not reach Taliban leaders sanctioned by Washington. The licenses also would allow Afghans living abroad to send money to their families. 
…

Indian police on Thursday arrested a Hindu religious leader for allegedly making a derogatory speech against India’s independence leader Mohandas Gandhi and praising his assassin.

Gandhi was shot dead by a Hindu extremist during a prayer meeting in the Indian capital in 1948, because he was considered sympathetic toward Muslims during the partition of the Indian subcontinent by British colonialists in 1947 into secular India and Islamic Pakistan.

Kalicharan Maharaj was arrested in central Madhya Pradesh state on Thursday for allegedly promoting hatred between religious groups in a speech earlier this week, the Press Trust of India news agency cited police officer Prashant Agrawal as saying.

According to media reports, Maharaj said “Gandhi destroyed the country … salutations to Nathuram Godse, who killed him.”

He will be formally charged in court after the police complete an investigation. If convicted, he can be jailed up to five years.

Attacks by Hindu hard-liners against Muslims and other minorities have intensified after Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in 2014, and won a landslide reelection in 2019.

The opposition is also demanding the arrest of several saffron-robed Hindu religious leaders for making highly provocative speeches against Muslims at a closed-door religious parliament, known as Dharam Sansad, earlier this month in the northern holy city of Haridwar. They called on Hindus to arm themselves for “a genocide” against Muslims, according to a police complaint.

Police in Uttarakhand state, which is ruled by Modi’s nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, said they were questioning suspects. No arrests have been made.

Muslims comprise nearly 14% of India’s 1.4 billion people.
…

China spent much of 2021 addressing threats across Asia with a growing sophistication — the result of economic clout and superpower status — that tolerated few compromises, Asia experts say.

In the diplomacy department, Chinese President Xi Jinping said in November his country would always be a “good friend and good partner” to Southeast Asia, where some governments resent Beijing’s maritime expansion.

Turning to another would-be border flashpoint, China offered in September to build new infrastructure in Taliban-run Afghanistan.

But between those overtures, the Chinese government passed its border law, which authorizes use of weapons along its 22,117-kilometer land boundary.

Last year, China got locked into a deadly standoff with India — still a source of tension despite talks in 2021. It also flew military planes into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone almost daily in 2021.

“I think they have more tools in their toolkit and more levers to pull if they need to punish countries that are not abiding by China’s interests,” said Derek Grossman, senior defense analyst with the U.S.-based Rand Corporation research organization.

Multilayered diplomacy

Sino-foreign flaps came up throughout the year.

The 200-plus Chinese fishing boats that suddenly moored in a disputed tract of the South China Sea soured Beijing’s relations with rival claimant Manila early in 2021, for example, while the spread of civil unrest in Myanmar after the country’s military coup in February challenged China to stop rebels from spilling over its border. Taiwan stood its ground all year rather than negotiating over China’s goal of unification.

At an Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in late November, Xi pledged to always be a “good friend” to ASEAN to assuage the Philippines and three other claimants to the contested sea, analysts told VOA. A month earlier, Xi had advocated peaceful unification with Taiwan, a self-ruled island where polls show most citizens prefer autonomy.

“China’s behavior is not really historically new,” said Eduardo Araral, associate professor at the National University of Singapore’s public policy school. “That has been always the behavior of rising great powers. ASEAN countries have a basis for their concern, for their worry, about the rise of China. That’s why President Xi’s assurances would probably be very much welcome.”

Xi’s government added deeds to words by offering COVID-19 vaccines and personal protective gear to multiple countries, scholars say.

Filipinos noticed, said Aaron Rabena, research fellow at the Asia-Pacific Pathways to Progress Foundation in metro Manila. “The public, they’re quite skeptical. They’re not as receptive as the (Philippine) government when it comes to Chinese vaccines, but a lot in the public has received Chinese vaccines because they didn’t have much of a choice,” he said.

Pandemic diplomacy helped “burnish” China’s image in much of the world, said Jeffrey Kingston, a history instructor at the Japan campus of Temple University.

Speedy help for Afghanistan was among China’s top achievements in 2021, Kingston added.

China intends to invest billions of dollars if the Taliban can guarantee security for Chinese workers and their assets, the Taliban’s acting deputy minister of information and culture said in October.

A return to authoritarian rule in Myanmar has helped China’s interests in the Southeast Asian nation’s gas pipes and natural resources, Kingston said. Myanmar was expected to grow closer to China as Western countries oppose junta rule.

‘Wolf warrior’ remarks, rising resentment in US, EU

China garnered less welcome attention around Asia and beyond largely for what became known as its “wolf warrior” diplomacy, a widely used term that the think tank National Bureau of Asian Research defines as open expression of “controversial thoughts” that may hurt bilateral relations.

“The wolf warrior diplomacy has been a total failure in terms of projecting a positive image of China around the world,” Kingston said. “All it’s done is generated anxiety in Asia, which basically has backfired on Beijing’s intentions.”

Beijing’s comments and military movement in Asia catalyzed a banding together by Western allies in favor of ASEAN’s South China Sea claimants, Rabena said, pointing particularly to a renewal of the U.S-Philippines Visiting Forces Agreement on military cooperation, which ensures the continuation of bilateral engagements with the armed forces of the Philippines that “range from expert exchanges” to joint “training exercises,” according to the U.S. Department of Defense.

Many European Union members hope China will follow United Nations maritime rules in the South China Sea to ensure consistency with other world waterways and to protect booming seaborne trade in goods with Asia.

Western countries have come together this year as well to support Taiwan, a fellow democracy, over China.

Fatigued by a 3-year-old trade dispute with the United States, hopeful of a zero COVID-19 caseload and intent on charting their own economic future, Chinese officials have turned on expatriates from much of the world over the past year by curbing immigration, analysts have told VOA.

That shift dovetails with the land boundary law, which took effect in October partly to stop infections coming from abroad.

“Clearly, the border closures and tensions with the U.S. and tensions with Europe are on their mind,” said Ker Gibbs, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, who plans to spend much of his time in California from December onward partly because of the pandemic-linked border controls.

“China wants a cooperative relationship with both major economies … and they’re having a struggle right now, frankly,” he told VOA.

Going into 2022, the Winter Olympics in Beijing are expected to test China’s ties with the world following months of calls overseas for boycotts and U.S. President Joe Biden’s announcement that his country would not send diplomats. China’s response to the pileup of boycotts and how it would make Xi look overseas will be analyzed by China scholars in the weeks to come.

 
…

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday announced the appointment of Rina Amiri as special envoy for Afghan women, girls, and human rights.

The appointment comes as women in the country are facing increasing oppression by the ruling Taliban following the U.S. withdrawal in August.

Earlier this week, the Taliban announced that women would no longer be able to travel long distances without a male escort. Women already faced severe restrictions on education and work.

“We desire a peaceful, stable and secure Afghanistan, where all Afghans can live and thrive in political, economic and social inclusivity,” Blinken said in a statement.

Amiri is an Afghan-born scholar who served in the State Department under former president Barack Obama. She has spent two decades advising governments and the United Nations on Afghanistan issues.

According to Reuters, the Biden administration faced harsh criticism from women’s rights groups for failing to guard the lives and ensure safe passage of female activists in Afghanistan. Amiri was one of those critics, the news agency reported.

Some information in this report comes from Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
…

Tram Pham tears up recalling how tough life was at first in the U.S. But she also remembers the joy she felt as a 22-year-old refugee from Vietnam when a nurse spoke to her in her native language and guided her through a medical screening required of new arrivals. 

Nearly three decades later, Pham hopes to pay that comfort forward as a registered nurse at the same San Jose, California, clinic that treated her family. The TB and Refugee Clinic at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center is screening people from Afghanistan who began seeking asylum in the U.S. after American troops withdrew from the country in August. 

Pham can’t speak Farsi or Pashto. But she can soothe patients stressed out over the job they can’t find or the rent that’s due. The other day, she held the hand of an older Afghan woman as she cried out her fears. 

“I can see patients from all over the world come in. I see, you know, Vietnamese patients. I see a lot of refugee patients,” she said. “I see myself.” 

The TB and Refugee Clinic joins a vast network of charities and government organizations tasked with carrying out President Joe Biden’s plan to relocate nearly 100,000 people from Afghanistan by September 2022. Nearly 48,000 Afghans have already moved off U.S. military bases and settled in new communities, the U.S. State Department said in an email, including more than 4,000 in California. 

The operation has been hampered by the need to scale up quickly after steep cutbacks to refugee programs under President Donald Trump. But the community response has been overwhelming and enthusiastic, said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, one of nine national resettlement agencies. 

“We know that resettlement isn’t a weekslong or monthslong process. Success requires years of effort. And so, that’s where it’s really important to have strong community ties,” Vignarajah said. 

The nonprofit, which operates in at least two dozen states, has resettled roughly 6,000 newly arrived Afghans since summer, including 1,400 in northern Virginia, 350 in Texas, 275 in Washington and Oregon and 25 in Fargo, North Dakota. 

The state of Oklahoma has received about half of the 1,800 people it was told to expect, said Carly Akard, spokeswoman for Catholic Charities of Oklahoma City. Akard said that in their rush to escape, many of the refugees arrived without identification. 

“They fled and didn’t have anything,” she said. 

In San Jose, the clinic is scrambling to hire more people and reallocate staff for the more than 800 people expected in the county through September. Not only is the number a large increase from the 100 people the clinic assessed in all of the last fiscal year, but it is uncertain when they will arrive, said health center manager Nelda David. 

But David said that won’t stop the staff of roughly three dozen from rolling out the welcome mat at the clinic, founded four decades ago specifically to assist Southeast Asians after the Vietnam War. Most of the nurses, assistants and other staff are immigrants or former refugees themselves, and they understand the shock of starting over in a new country.

Medical interpreter Jahannaz Afshar welcomes Farsi speakers at the front door even before they check in for their first visit. In a windowless office, she explains what to expect over at least four visits as part of a comprehensive health assessment, which includes updating immunizations and checking for infectious diseases. A medical exam is required of all refugees. 

But Afshar, who moved from Iran in 2004, also explains cultural differences, such as the American preference for personal space and chitchat. She’ll tell newcomers how to take the bus or use the public library, and reassure them that in the U.S., people help without expectation of getting anything in return. 

Most staff members are bilingual, and come from a number of countries, including China, Myanmar, Sierra Leone and Mexico, said Mylene Madrid, who coordinates the refugee health assessment program. But staff can help even without speaking the same language. 

An Afghan woman was tense and nervous when she arrived the other day for her first medical exam. By the end of the hourslong visit, however, she was cracking jokes and sharing photos with public health assistant Nikie Phung, who had fled Vietnam decades earlier with her family. 

Another new arrival from Afghanistan dropped by the clinic complaining of chest pains but was so anxious she couldn’t elaborate on her symptoms. Pham, the nurse, asked if she could hold her hand. They sat as the woman sobbed, then finally spoke of the stress of having her entire family living in a cramped hotel room. 

By then, her pains had receded. Pham noticed that the woman’s daughter and son-in-law were upbeat and more comfortable speaking English. She pulled the daughter aside. 

“Would you please spend time with your mom?” she asked her. “Talk to her more.”

Staff members have gone out of their way to connect patients to jobs, furnish empty apartments and tap the broader community for rent and other relief. They’ve stocked diapers for babies and handed out gift baskets at Thanksgiving. During a routine visit, a patient mentioned he needed car repairs for work. Within weeks, the clinic had raised $2,000 to give him. 

“Your heart is different,” says Jaspinder Mann, an assistant nurse manager originally from India, of immigrants’ desire to help. 

Afshar says she can’t imagine what refugees are going through. The former apparel designer and her husband were not fleeing strife and shootings when they chose to leave Iran. And yet, she, too, struggled at first. 

“And this is one of the things that I always share,” she said. “That even though it’s going to be hard, later you’re going to be happy because … you’re going to learn so much and you’re going to grow so much.” 

At the clinic, she hops on the phone to arrange an eye exam for Mohammad Attaie, 50, a radio technician who fled the capital of Afghanistan, Kabul, this summer with his wife, Deena, a journalist, and their daughter. Sana, 10, adores her new school in San Jose, but the couple worries about finding work when they can’t speak the language. 

Still, seeing people like Afshar and Pham gives them confidence. 

“They are successful. They’re working here. Their language skills are good. I am hoping that in less than a year I can stand on my feet,” Deena Attaie said, speaking in Farsi.
…

The Taliban on Tuesday released a prominent Afghan TV station owner who was detained for two days, according to the independent media monitoring group Afghanistan Journalists Center (AFJC).

The Taliban did not say why Mohammad Arif Noori, the founder and owner of Noorin TV, was detained.

AFJC in a statement said it “condemns the arbitrary detention of Mr. Noori”, calling it an “infringement of press freedom.”

Noori was taken from his home in Kabul on Sunday afternoon, according to his son Roman Noori.

The younger Noori accused Taliban forces of “raiding” and searching his family’s house without a warrant before taking his father to an unknown location.

The motive for the elder Noori’s arrest remains uncertain. But Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told the Afghanistan Independent Journalists Association (AIJA) that the arrest was not related to Noori’s media activities, AIJA said in a statement sent to VOA. 

The Committee to Project Journalists had called for Mohammad Arif Noori’s immediate and unconditional release.

In a statement, CPJ said dozens of armed men who identified themselves as members of a militia affiliated with Taliban-controlled police district in Kabul stormed Noori’s house and detained him.

“The detention of media owner Aref Noori by a Taliban-affiliated militia marks a serious attack on the independent media in Afghanistan,” CPJ Asia Coordinator Steven Butler said in a statement, referring to Mohammad Arif Noori.

Citing Kashif Noori, another son of the TV executive, CPJ said Noorin TV had operated for the past decade but paused programming this week due to technical issues.

Mohammad Arif Noori is a known supporter of an anti-Taliban group headed by Ahmad Massoud, who fought off Taliban forces in his native Panjshir valley north of Kabul before being overrun in early September.

At least 31 journalists have been detained or arrested by the Taliban since they took over in mid-August, according to the journalists association.

Photojournalist Mortaza Samadi was arrested in September while covering a women’s protest in the western city of Heart and spent several weeks in Taliban detention.

Last week, Jawed Yusufi, a reporter for the independent outlet Ufuq News, was stabbed and badly wounded by three unidentified men in western Kabul, according to his employer and local media advocates.

The Taliban takeover has decimated Afghanistan’s media. A joint survey by AIJA and Reporters Without Borders released last week found that at least 40% of the country’s media outlets have disappeared and more than 80% of Afghan women journalists have lost their jobs over the last four months.

Ayaz Gul contributed to this report from Islamabad.

 
…

Private Turkish and Qatari companies have agreed to jointly operate five airports in Afghanistan, although they are still waiting to reach a final deal with the Taliban, officials said Tuesday.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Monday that a “memorandum of understanding” had been inked in Doha earlier this month, covering Kabul and four other airports in the war-ravaged country.

Cavusoglu said the United Arab Emirates, which operated the civilian part of Kabul airport before the Taliban stormed back to power in August after two decades of war, had also expressed an interest in joining the Turkish and Qatari companies.

He said the issue was discussed during Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed’s visit to the Turkish capital Ankara in late November.

“They said ‘maybe we can run work trilaterally’ but there was never any concrete proposal,” said Cavusoglu.

“We haven’t presented any proposal to them either. But operating the airport briefly appeared on the agenda.”

Turkish and Qatari officials have said little about the details of the memorandum of understanding, refusing to say which companies were to be involved.

Responding to mounting speculation that a deal may be imminent, Afghan civil aviation ministry spokesman Imamuddin Ahmadi told AFP on Tuesday that “no deal has been signed yet.”

The Taliban have already rejected Turkey’s offer to provide security for Kabul airport, which offers an escape route for civilians seeking to flee the impoverished country, as well as a way for humanitarian aid to reach Afghanistan.

Cavusoglu has stressed that no deal can be reached until the hardline Islamist group allows a trusted foreign operator to secure the airport terminal while the Taliban protects its perimeter.

“Our teams went to Kabul… to present our proposals and then our friends in Doha continued the discussions,” Cavusoglu said on Monday.

“It is natural for different countries to make bids in this process,” Cavusoglu added. 

“The Taliban administration had stated it would receive proposals from different countries.”
…

A group of several dozen women protested in Afghanistan’s capital on Tuesday, demanding access to education and jobs under the country’s new Taliban leadership. 

The women marched and chanted messages that included, “Why have you closed schools?” and “Work, food and education.” 

One woman held a sign that said, “We women wake up and hate discrimination.” 

Another sign read, “We are the voice of hungry people.” 

Governments and human rights groups have pressured the Taliban to commit to upholding rights for women since it seized power in Afghanistan in August. 

The Taliban severely curtailed women’s rights during a previous period in power in Afghanistan in the 1990s. 

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

The whereabouts of a prominent Afghan TV station owner remains unknown a day after he was arrested by the Taliban on Sunday, according to the executive’s son.

Mohammad Arif Noori, the founder and owner of Noorin TV, one of Afghanistan’s leading private TV networks, was taken from his home in Kabul on Sunday afternoon, according to his son Roman Noori.

The younger Noori accused Taliban forces of “raiding” and searching his family’s house without a warrant before taking his father to an unknown location. 

“We’ve heard nothing from him in almost 24 hours and the authorities have shared no information with us,” Roman Noori said in a video posted Monday on social media.

The motive for the elder Noori’s arrest remains uncertain. But Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told the Afghanistan Independent Journalists Association (AIJA) that the arrest was not related to Noori’s media activities, AIJA said in a statement sent to VOA.

The Committee to Protect Journalists called for Mohammad Arif Noori’s immediate and unconditional release. 

In a statement, CPJ said dozens of armed men who identified themselves as members of a militia affiliated with Taliban-controlled police district in Kabul stormed Noori’s house and detained him.

“The detention of media owner Aref Noori by a Taliban-affiliated militia marks a serious attack on the independent media in Afghanistan,” CPJ Asia Coordinator Steven Butler said in a statement, referring to Mohammad Arif Noori.

Citing Kashif Noori, another son of the TV executive, CPJ said Noorin TV had operated for the past decade but paused programming this week due to technical issues. 

Mohammad Arif Noori is a known supporter of an anti-Taliban group headed by Ahmad Massoud, who fought off Taliban forces in his native Panjshir valley north of Kabul before being overrun in early September.

At least 31 journalists have been detained or arrested by the Taliban since they took over in mid-August, according to the journalists association.

Photojournalist Mortaza Samad was arrested in September while covering a women’s protest in the western city of Heart and spent several weeks in Taliban detention.

Last week, Jawed Yusufi, a reporter for the independent outlet Ufuq News, was stabbed and badly wounded by three unidentified men in western Kabul, according to his employer and local media advocates.

The Taliban takeover has decimated Afghanistan’s media. A joint survey by AIJA and Reporters Without Borders released last week found that at least 40% of the country’s media outlets have disappeared and more than 80% of Afghan women journalists have lost their jobs over the last four months.

 
…

India’s government on Monday denied a bid by the late Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity to seek foreign funding, a move that would terminate a vital source of assistance for one of the leading groups providing aid and shelter to the country’s poor. 

In a statement released Monday, the Home Ministry said it rejected the MOC’s application for a license renewal on Christmas because of “adverse inputs” in the consideration process. 

The ministry did not elaborate. 

Earlier on Monday, Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister of West Bengal state, where the MOC is headquartered, alleged in a tweet that the government had frozen the charity’s bank accounts during the Christmas holiday. 

The ministry, however, rejected these claims as the MOC confirmed in a statement that its Foreign Contribution Regulation Act renewal application was denied. 

“Therefore … we have asked our centers not to operate any of the (foreign contribution) accounts until the matter is resolved,” the MOC said.

According to reports, the federal government clarified that the MOC’s accounts were frozen at the charity’s request. 

Vicar General Dominic Gomes of the Archdiocese of Calcutta said that the development was a “cruel Christmas gift to the poorest of the poor.” 

Nobel laureate Mother Teresa, a Roman Catholic nun who died in 1997, founded the charity in 1950. Since then, it has spread its operations across the world, with more than 3,000 nuns assisting the poor, sick and homeless through hospices, schools, community kitchens and homes for abandoned children, among other services. 

The government’s decision came amid recent accusations from Hindu right-wing groups connected to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party that the MOC is trying to force recipients of its services, such as poor Hindus and tribal communities, to convert to Christianity. 

The charity was also investigated earlier in December in the western state of Gujarat on allegations that it forced girls in its shelters there to read the Bible and recite Christian prayers, claims the MOC denies. 

There has also been a spate of serious physical attacks against Christians, especially in the southern state of Karnataka. According to The Associated Press, a report from the Evangelical Fellowship of India showed that nearly 40 cases of threats or violence against Christians took place in the state this year. 

Disruptions to Christmas celebrations last week and over the holiday weekend were also reported. At Ambala in Haryana, a northern state governed by Modi’s party, a life-size statue of Jesus Christ was vandalized.

In Varanasi, the base of Modi’s parliamentary constituency and Hinduism’s holiest city, activists reportedly burned a model of Santa Claus and chanted anti-Christmas slogans outside a church.

Elias Vaz, national vice president of the All India Catholic Union, criticized these incidents, saying they present a rejection of India’s identity as a highly diverse nation, according to the Reuters news agency.

“The strength of India is in its diversity, and the people who have done this at Christmas are the real anti-nationals,” he said.

Critics have accused Prime Minister Modi’s government of igniting religious tensions across the country with its pursuit of a Hindu nationalist agenda. Since assuming his office in 2014, right-wing Hindu groups have launched more frequent attacks against minorities under claims they are working to prevent religious conversions. 

Within India’s population of 1.37 billion is the second-largest Catholic population in Asia, after the Philippines, of 18 million. Catholics and other Christians make up only 2.3% of the overall population in the majority Hindu nation.

Despite the right to freedom of belief enshrined in India’s constitution, several states have passed or are considering anti-conversion laws. 

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.

 
…

A Pakistani government minister Monday criticized neighboring Afghanistan’s ruling Islamist Taliban for placing curbs on women, denouncing the curbs as “retrogressive thinking” and as posing threat to his country. 
 
Information Minister Fawad Hussain, while speaking to an Islamabad gathering, described the new Taliban government in Kabul as an “extremist regime.” 
 
“We want to fully help the people of Afghanistan. But saying that women can’t travel alone or go to schools and colleges — this kind of a retrogressive thinking is a threat to Pakistan,” Hussain said.
 
It is extremely rare for Pakistani officials to publicly criticize the Taliban who have returned to power in Afghanistan, allegedly with the covert support of Pakistan’s military — charges Islamabad denies. 
 
Hussain spoke a day after the Taliban Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice issued a new directive for women, limiting their ability to travel farther than 72 kilometers unless accompanied by a close male relative. It also advised taxi drivers in Afghanistan to offer rides only to women wearing an Islamic hijab or a headscarf. 
 
Ministry spokesman Sadiq Akif Mahajer defended the restrictions, telling VOA they were in line with Sharia, or Islamic law. 
 
The latest restrictions come weeks after the Taliban asked Afghan television channels to stop showing dramas and soap operas featuring actresses and to require female news anchors to wear hijabs while on the air. 
 

The Taliban militarily regained control of Afghanistan in August as the Western-backed Afghan government and its security forces collapsed in the final stages of the withdrawal by the U.S.-led international forces from the country. 
 
The Islamist movement has since prevented most Afghan women from returning to work and schoolgirls from resuming classes across many provinces, despite pledging a more moderate rule compared with their harsh regime from 1996 to 2001. 
 
No country has recognized the Taliban government, and the global community is refusing to directly engage with Kabul over human rights and terrorism concerns, even as Afghan humanitarian needs have risen to record levels. 
 
The United Nations estimates nearly 23 million Afghans face hunger because of years of war, drought and extreme poverty.  

Last week, Pakistan hosted an emergency conference of Islamic countries, with U.S, Russian, Chinese, and European envoys in attendance, to mobilize increased humanitarian assistance for Afghans. Islamabad has also dispatched scores of trucks carrying food and medicines to the conflict-hit country since the Taliban takeover in mid-August. 
 
Islamabad is worried the worsening Afghan humanitarian and economic crisis could send more refugees to Pakistan and others neighboring countries. 
 
Pakistani leaders have repeatedly urged the Taliban to listen to and address international concerns about rights of Afghan women, fighting terrorism and governing the country inclusively.
 

The Taliban, however, dismiss criticism of their government and polices as interference in internal Afghan affairs, saying they are ruling the country within the framework of Sharia. 
 
Taliban chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, in a recent media interview, defended his group’s interpretation of Islamic laws and condemned governance systems in Muslim countries, including Pakistan, as un-Islamic.
…

Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban issued on Sunday new travel restrictions for the country’s women, an action criticized by the U.S. as further mistreatment of Afghan women by the terror group.

The Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice directive limits a woman’s ability to travel farther than 72 kilometers unless accompanied by a close male relative. It also advised taxi drivers to offer rides only to women wearing an Islamic hijab or a headscarf.

Ministry spokesman Sadiq Akif Mahajer defended the restrictions, telling VOA they were in line with Sharia, or Islamic law. 

The decree also requires drivers of the male-only transport sector in Afghanistan to grow beards, break for prayers and refrain from playing music in their vehicles. 

The latest restrictions come weeks after the Taliban asked Afghan television channels to stop showing dramas and soap operas featuring actresses, to require female news anchors to wear hijabs while on the air. 

The Taliban militarily regained power in August as the Western-backed government in Kabul and Afghan security forces collapsed in the final stages of the military withdrawal by the U.S.-led international forces from the country. 

The global community, however, has not recognized the Taliban government and refused to directly engage with the hardline group over human rights, especially those of women, and terrorism concerns. 

“One of our big issues in terms of any conversations with the Taliban is exactly this point, which is the condition, the status and the treatment of women and girls, including for girls, access to education,” U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris told CBS News in an interview the broadcaster aired on Sunday. 

“I worry that the Taliban has not complied with what we know to be the appropriate treatment and the right treatment of girls and women. That is one of our greatest considerations and concerns,” Harris said. 

The Taliban have prevented most Afghan women from returning to work and schoolgirls from resuming classes across many provinces, despite pledging a more moderate rule compared with their harsh regime from 1996 to 2001. 

At the time, women had been barred from leaving home without a male chaperone, forced to wear a veil covering them from head to toe and banned from work as well as education. The then-Taliban Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice had been accused of serious human rights abuses, leading to Afghanistan’s isolation from the world. 

The United States and other Western countries, as well as financial institutions, have suspended billions of dollars in financial aid to Afghanistan since the Taliban returned to power in mid-August. 

The suspension of aid and sanctions have plunged the economy into a crisis, increasing humanitarian needs in Afghanistan where the United Nations estimates 23 million people face hunger due to years of war, drought and poverty. 

The Taliban have been urging Washington to unfreeze roughly $9.4 billion in Afghanistan’s central bank assets and remove financial restrictions, maintaining that their new government is representative of all Afghans and working to respect human rights of all the citizens in line with Islamic laws. 
…

The Taliban have dissolved Afghanistan’s election commission, a panel that supervised polls during the previous Western-backed administration, a spokesman for the Islamist government said on Saturday. 

“There is no need for these commissions to exist and operate,” Taliban government spokesman Bilal Karimi said, referring to the Independent Election Commission (IEC) and the Independent Electoral Complaints Commission. 

“If we ever feel a need, the Islamic Emirate will revive these commissions,” he added.

The Taliban swept to power in August as a Western-backed government imploded in the final stages of the military withdrawal of the U.S. and its allies. 

Established in 2006, the IEC was mandated to administer and supervise all types of elections, including presidential, according to the commission’s website. 

Hasty decision

“They have taken this decision in a hurry … and dissolving the commission would have huge consequences,” Aurangzeb, who led the panel until the fall of the previous regime, told AFP. 

“If this structure does not exist, I’m 100 percent sure that Afghanistan’s problems will never be solved as there won’t be any elections,” said Aurangzeb, who like many Afghans goes by one name. 

Halim Fidai, a senior politician in the previous regime, said the decision to dissolve the electoral commission shows the Taliban “do not believe in democracy.” 

“They are against all democratic institutions. They get power through bullets and not ballots,” said Fidai, who was governor of four provinces over the past two decades. 

Before the Taliban takeover, several electoral commission officials were killed by extremist groups.

Ministries dissolved

Karimi said the authorities had also dissolved two government departments this week: the Ministry of Peace, and the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs. 

The deeply conservative Taliban had already shut down the former administration’s Ministry of Women’s Affairs and replaced it with the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. 

That ministry earned notoriety during the Taliban’s first stint in power in the 1990s for harshly enforcing religious doctrine. 

The Islamists are pressing the international community to restore billions of dollars in suspended aid and have pledged a more moderate rule this time around. 
…

Taliban officials in Afghanistan confirmed Friday that they had discussed plans with a joint delegation from Turkey and Qatar for firms from the two countries to run airports in Kabul and other Afghan cities.

The talks came as the international community looks for ways to scale up delivery of urgently needed humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, where millions of people are facing extreme hunger.

Taliban transport ministry spokesman Imamuddin Ahmadi told VOA a preliminary round of discussions with a joint team of Turkish and Qatari companies was held Thursday. He said further meetings were planned for early next week, but no deal had been reached so far.

Before traveling to Kabul this week, Turkish and Qatari companies signed a memorandum of understanding to operate the city’s airport “on the basis of equal partnership,” Turkish media reported Thursday.

Ahmadi said other airports under discussions with the Turkey-Qatar delegation were in the Afghan provinces of Balkh, Herat, Kandahar and Khost.

Ankara agreed to provide security for the Kabul airport after the Taliban took over the country in mid-August following the abrupt U.S.-led foreign troop withdrawal from the country later that month.

Turkey helped the U.S.-backed deposed Afghan government manage and protect the airport for six years until the final international troops left the country August 31.

The abrupt, chaotic U.S. troop exit from the country damaged parts of the Kabul airport. Qatar helped the Taliban repair and make the facility operational again.

The United States and its allies evacuated 124,000 foreign nationals and at-risk Afghans after the Taliban seized control of the capital. But thousands more people want to leave the country, mostly those who worked closely with the former government and Western militaries, fearing Taliban reprisals.

The departure of the foreign forces and financial sanctions on the Taliban have plunged Afghanistan into economic turmoil and worsened the humanitarian crisis stemming from years of war, drought and high levels of poverty.

The U.N. estimates more than half of the country’s nearly 40 million people face starvation, with 1 million children at risk of dying of “severe acute malnutrition.”

Kabul’s airport is currently the main route for flying humanitarian assistance into Afghanistan and for people who want to leave the country.
…

The glaciers in the Himalayas provide water to nearly 25% of the world’s population. But the glaciers are melting at an alarming rate. VOA’s Zubair Dar has more in this report narrated by Bezhan Hamdard.
…

Indian police said Friday they have launched an investigation into an event where Hindu hardliners called for mass killings of minority Muslims.

A speaker at the gathering earlier this month told the crowd that people should not worry about going to jail for killing Muslims, according to a video verified as genuine by AFP.

“Even if just a hundred of us become soldiers and kill two million of them, we will be victorious… If you stand with this attitude only then will you able to protect sanatana dharma (an absolute form of Hinduism),” the woman said. 

The meeting in the northern holy city of Haridwar was attended by at least one member of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The party stands accused of — but denies — encouraging the persecution of Muslims and other minorities by hardline Hindu nationalists since coming to power in 2014. 

Prominent Muslim MP Asaduddin Owaisi tweeted that the comments in the video were a “clear case of incitement to genocide”. 

Modi’s government has not commented on the event.

The woman in the video reportedly added that Indians should “pray to Nathuram Godse”, the Hindu extremist who assassinated Indian independence icon Mahatma Gandhi in 1948. 

‘Cleansing’

Another delegate, Prabodhanand Giri — the head of a fringe Hindu group who is often photographed with senior BJP members — called for a “cleansing” and for those present to be “ready to die or kill”. 

“Like Myanmar, the police, politicians, the army and every Hindu in India must pick up weapons and do this cleansing. There is no other option left,” he is heard to say.

A military crackdown in Myanmar on the heavily persecuted Muslim Rohingya minority is thought to have killed thousands and has forced huge numbers to flee.

A third speaker is heard to say that he wished he had killed Modi’s predecessor, the main opposition Congress party’s Manmohan Singh, who was the first Sikh Prime minister of India. 

Another said he had asked hotels from his state not to allow Christmas celebrations. The statement was met with cheers from the audience. 

The BJP denies accusations that its agenda is to turn officially secular and pluralistic India into a pure Hindu nation.

Many in the Muslim community say they have been increasingly subject to attacks and threats since Modi, a lifelong member of a hardline Hindu group, came to power.

Christians have also been subject to violence and harassment, with the BJP government in the southern state of Karnataka this week becoming the latest to introduce legislation outlawing “forceful” religious conversions.

Police in Uttarakhand state, where the controversial gathering took place, told AFP they are “investigating the matter and strict action will be taken against the guilty.”

Michael Kugelman from the Wilson Center hit out at the Indian government over its silence. 

“…not a peep, much less a condemnation, from the gov’t. Sad truth is that this deafening silence isn’t the least bit surprising,” he tweeted Thursday.
…

At least 32 people died Friday when a packed ferry caught fire in southern Bangladesh, police said.

“The three-story Obhijan 10 caught fire mid-river. We have recovered 32 bodies. The death toll may rise. Most died from the fire and a few by drowning after they jumped into the river,” local police chief Moinul Islam told AFP.

The incident happened early in the morning near the southern rural town of Jhakakathi, 250 kilometers south of the capital, Dhaka.

The accident was the latest in a string of similar incidents in the low-lying delta country crisscrossed by rivers.

Experts in the South Asian country of 170 million people blame poor maintenance, lax safety standards at shipyards and overcrowding. 

 
…

India confronted serious security and domestic challenges in 2021 as the country’s military standoff with China showed no signs of easing, a deadly second wave of the pandemic devastated the country and the biggest farmers’ protest in decades challenged Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s authority. Anjana Pasricha reports from New Delhi.
…

Former Afghan army officer Shaista Khan is in the United States now. He fled Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover and has a warning about them. Breshna Tahrik reports for VOA from San Diego, California.

Producer and camera: Breshna Tahrik.
…

India grappled with serious security and domestic challenges this year. Military tensions with China showed no signs of easing, a deadly second wave of the coronavirus pandemic devastated India and the biggest farmers protest in decades challenged Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s authority.

The Asian giants, India and China, ended their most serious confrontation in decades in February by pulling back troops from a disputed border stretch in Ladakh.

But their frontier in the Himalayas remains a dangerous flashpoint as thousands of troops hunker down for a second winter at several other contested points.

Thirteen rounds of talks held between their military commanders to resolve differences hit a stalemate in October with both sides blaming each other for the impasse. China accused India of insisting on “unreasonable and unrealistic demands,” while India said the Chinese side “could not provide any forward-looking proposals.”

The result has been a significant military buildup along the Himalayan frontier.

“Both sides have reinforced their positions. China has been amassing troops, quite significantly, building semi-permanent structures and making a show of force along that long boundary with India,” says Harsh Pant, head of the strategic studies program at the Observer Research Foundation in the capital, New Delhi.

India, which had long focused attention on rival Pakistan, is now preparing to counter the security challenge from its bigger and more powerful neighbor. It is building roads and tunnels to move troops and weapons faster along the China frontier.

Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said last month that relations between the two countries are going through “a particularly bad patch.”

“They [China] have taken a set of actions in violation of agreements for which they still don’t have a credible explanation and that indicates some rethink about where they want to take our relationship, but that’s for them to answer,” he told a panel discussion in Singapore.

As New Delhi prepared to cope with a more assertive China, Prime Minister Modi participated in two summits of the Quad grouping that consists of Australia, India, Japan and the United States. The first was a virtual meeting held by leaders of the four countries in March, the second an in-person summit hosted by U.S. President Joe Biden in Washington in September. The meetings were an effort to reinvigorate the grouping that is seen as a counter to China’s growing power.

“India has woken up in ways that are quite dramatic. Now India is responding in kind to China not only ratcheting up its troops along the border, but also taking important decisions like formalizing Quad and being more engaged with the Quad,” says Pant. “New Delhi has made it clear it will not back down.”

Modi, known as India’s strongest leader in decades, also confronted the most serious domestic crises he has faced during his seven-year rule.

Earlier this year, a deadly second wave of the coronavirus pandemic fueled by the delta variant sickened or killed millions just months after Modi had virtually declared victory against the virus. His critics blamed his government for complacency.

Modi and senior leaders held huge election rallies and Hindu devotees congregated for a pilgrimage even as cases of the COVID-19 disease were rising in the world’s second worst-hit country.

Authorities were also blamed for failing to prepare the health infrastructure and a sluggish immunization program that left most people unprotected in the world’s largest vaccine-producing country when the second wave hit. His government struggled to cope.

“You had oxygen shortages, hospitals overwhelmed and this very tragic sight of bodies awash in the River Ganges which people will take a long time to forget, so he did come in for criticism,” says independent political analyst Neerja Chowdhury. “Things just spun out of control and Modi did not come across as being in charge.”

In the months since, the government has moved with speed to vaccinate the country – by October it celebrated the milestone of administering a billion doses and had fully vaccinated more than half its population by the year end.

Tens of thousands of farmers from northern India also mounted a massive challenge to Modi as they camped on highways around New Delhi, leading a year-long protest against market friendly reforms in the agricultural sector.

They withdrew their protest this month only after Modi scrapped the laws. It was a massive victory for the farmers who had wrested a rare concession from a leader who has seldom tolerated a challenge to his authority.

Political analysts say that although the prime minister still remains popular, the “sheen” has worn off. They point out that while the economy is recovering and most restrictions have been lifted allowing the economy to open, millions of poor people continue to deal with the economic devastation caused by the pandemic.

“Apart from the mishandling of COVID, there was lack of jobs, families had to pull their children out of school because they did not have the money; child marriage was on the increase because parents could not look after them. Malnutrition increased among children,” says Chowdhury. “I think we have not felt yet the enormity of what has happened during 2021 and failed to grasp its fallout fully.”

In the year ahead, India’s primary concerns will be coping with a more assertive China and creating livelihoods for millions of people even as the omicron variant of the coronavirus poses new uncertainties in a country where the pandemic has waned in recent months.
…

The stunning Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in mid-August and the chaotic final U.S. military withdrawal from the country later that month marked an end to America’s longest war, spanning almost two decades, in the outgoing year 2021.

Several weeks after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, American and allied troops invaded Afghanistan and swiftly removed the Islamist Taliban from power for harboring al-Qaida leaders responsible for the carnage.

But the Taliban quickly regrouped and waged a deadly insurgency against the Western-backed government in Kabul and international forces.

On August 15, the insurgent group marched into the capital city after overrunning the rest of the country in just 10 days in the wake of a shockingly rapid collapse of Afghan government forces—whom the U.S.-led coalition trained and equipped for years. 

Some of those forces pointed to a lack of food, ammunition and air support. Others surrendered or fled the battlefield after striking deals with the advancing insurgent fighters. 

Western-backed President Ashraf Ghani and top government officials fled Afghanistan just hours after the Taliban rolled into Kabul, creating panic as U.S. emergency airlifts began at Kabul’s international airport. 

“There was a lot of chaos. There was a lot of confusion. I mean, the president of Afghanistan himself had just gotten on an airplane and flown out of the country. Nobody saw that one coming,” said Pentagon spokesman John Kirby.

Troop withdrawal

President Joe Biden and his administration defended his decision to bring all troops home, saying they had long achieved the mission of diminishing al-Qaida and preventing Afghanistan from ever being a terrorist haven.

“This summer, we made good on that promise. … We knew this would be challenging,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a late December news conference in Washington.

“But this is also the first time in 20 years that no U.S. troops are spending the holidays in Afghanistan, and we’re not sending a third generation of American soldiers to fight and die there,” Blinken said.

The Taliban’s return to power prompted concerns, however, about whether the Islamist rulers would cut ties with terrorist groups like al-Qaida, govern the country effectively and respect human rights of all Afghans, especially women. It also raised questions about the U.S. war and ensuing nation-building effort that cost Washington an estimated $2 trillion and the lives of at least 2,400 service members.

Critics such as former U.S. diplomat Robin Raphel, senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, attempted to sum up the troubled Afghan mission while addressing a seminar in Pakistan.

“After 9/11, the U.S. came in anger to Afghanistan, seeking revenge in a country whose history and culture it did not understand that well. It then fell victim to mission creep, trying to create a Western model of democracy on an accelerated timetable at the point of a gun,” she said.

“This resulted in massive corruption, inequality and a fragile [Afghan] government with limited legitimacy living in a bubble in Kabul. So, the Taliban movement, which was in many ways more indigenous and closer to ground reality, made persistent gains, and in the end the government collapsed,” Raphel added.

Evacuation efforts

The U.S. helped evacuate 124,000 people. That effort was marred, though, by an Islamic State terror attack that killed nearly 200 people, including 13 American service members. Days later, a U.S. drone strike the Pentagon says was meant to hit Islamic State attackers, mistakenly hit and killed 10 innocent Afghan civilians.

Meanwhile, the evacuation left hundreds of American citizens and thousands of Afghan allies behind. Rights groups reported abuses and revenge killings of U.S. allies in the months that followed. 

The Taliban takeover sparked an economic meltdown, increasing humanitarian needs to record levels in Afghanistan, which aid workers say stem from years of conflict, drought and extreme poverty.

The Afghan economy was heavily dependent on foreign financial assistance over the past 20 years. The Taliban’s return to power prompted Washington to suspend its cash flow, eliminating 40 percent of the country’s gross domestic product and 75 percent of the government’s budget. 

The Biden administration also has seized Afghanistan’s roughly $9.4 billion worth of assets, largely held in the U.S. Federal Reserve, and imposed financial sanctions on the Taliban, crippling the country’s troubled banking system, with the Afghan currency losing value rapidly.

“Afghanistan’s economy is now in free fall, and if we do not act decisively and with compassion, I fear that this fall will pull down the entire population with it,” U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths warned.

Taliban demands

The Taliban have been demanding the release of frozen funds while international aid agencies say the financial restrictions are hampering relief operations in the country. 

The U.N. estimates more than half of the nearly 40 million population face starvation, with 1 million children at risk of dying of “severe acute malnutrition.”

A group of 46 mostly Democratic lawmakers wrote a letter to President Biden on December 21, asking him to quickly ease ongoing punitive sanctions and unblock the Afghan reserves to avert a humanitarian disaster in the South Asian nation.

The Biden administration maintains that the status of the Afghan reserves is the subject of ongoing litigation brought by victims of the September 11, 2001, attacks and other terrorist incidents “who hold judgments against the Taliban.” 

Washington also faces difficult questions around how the funds can be made available to directly benefit the Afghan people while ensuring the Taliban do not benefit from them as the group remains sanctioned by the U.S. as a specially designated global terrorist group.

The U.S. Treasury decided earlier in December to allow personal and non-personal remittances to be made to Afghans. Washington also played a role in arranging the transfer of $280 million from the World Bank-administered Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund (ARTF) to support humanitarian activities. 

Critics say the U.S. and the international community should look seriously at engaging with the Taliban to address the looming humanitarian crisis, without giving them diplomatic recognition.

“The fact is the United States fought and lost a 20-year war against the Taliban, and it is hard to imagine that that reality doesn’t color the perspectives of some in Washington,” said Laurel Miller, director of the Asia program at the International Crisis Group.

“But I also think that if you step back from that reality and look at the broader picture of U.S. interests, I think it’s quite shortsighted to be complicit in the humanitarian catastrophe that is unfolding there,” said Miller, who served as acting U.S. special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

There are growing fears that economic and humanitarian upheavals will force more and more Afghans to try to leave the country.

Eliminating terrorist ties

The Biden administration is pressing the Taliban to ensure they cut ties with terrorist groups, end reprisals against Afghans affiliated with the deposed government, govern the country inclusively, and allow women and girls to fully participate in public life and get an education.

Taliban leaders have promised to rule the country differently from their previous regime when women were barred from leaving home unless accompanied by a male relative and girls were not allowed to attend schools.

Most girls are barred from returning to the classroom under the current Taliban regime, but officials insist they eventually will resume classes once the government has enough funds to pay salaries to tens of thousands of unpaid teachers and ensure a “safe environment” for female education across Afghanistan.

“We consider human rights, women’s rights and participation by all capable Afghans from various regions our duty. We have done much in this regard and will continue to take further steps,” Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi told an emergency conference on Afghanistan organized by Islamic countries in Pakistan on December 19.

Critics remain skeptical and say the future of Afghans, especially women, under Taliban rule, remains uncertain.

“Women’s rights have come under immense pressure. All young women who went to school over the past 20 years to have a career now see their professional prospects dimmed,” said analyst Torek Farhadi, a former Afghan official. 

Analysts say the international community can still influence the Taliban to moderate their polices in exchange for diplomatic recognition and conditional access to frozen funds to avoid a catastrophe in Afghanistan.

VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb contributed to this report.
…

Farmers in Kandahar’s Arghandab district say years of war, drought, and a lack of market access have wreaked havoc on their farms and livelihoods. Gaja Pellegrini-Bettoli reports from Kandahar. Camera – Filippo Rossi. Roshan Noorzai contributed.
…