U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman met Friday with leaders in Pakistan to discuss developments in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan and ways to advance cooperation across the bilateral relationship.

Sherman, who arrived in the country late Thursday from neighboring India, is the most senior U.S. diplomat to visit Islamabad since President Joe Biden’s administration took office.

She opened her visit with a meeting with the Pakistani national security adviser, Moeed Yusuf, before holding delegation-level talks with Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi.

Qureshi’s office quoted him as sharing Pakistan’s optimism with the U.S. delegation that the Taliban-led government in Afghanistan “will work for peace and stability, as well as for the betterment of all Afghans.” 

He emphasized the need for “positive participation” of the international community in Afghanistan to enable the flow of humanitarian and financial resources to help “build a sustainable economy to alleviate the suffering of the Afghan people.”

Qureshi emphasized the importance of “close and regular engagement” between Pakistan and the United States to promote “mutual interests and common regional goals,” the statement said.

Pakistan’s traditionally tumultuous relationship with the United States, however, is under renewed pressure in the aftermath of the dramatic Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August.

The tensions are rooted in long-running allegations that Pakistan has had deep ties with, and covertly supported, the Taliban, as the Islamist insurgents battled the U.S.-backed Afghan government for almost 20 years — charges denied by Islamabad.

Late last month, a group of 22 Republican senators introduced legislation to impose sanctions on the Taliban and on all foreign governments that support the hardline Islamic group.

The bill also seeks official input from U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken about his assessment of the role Pakistan played in supporting the Taliban’s return to power in Kabul.

“It is an attempt to pass the buck,” Qureshi told a recent news conference, responding to the proposed legislation.

“Scapegoating Pakistan would be overlooking ground realities. And they have to understand that a partnership with Pakistan is required in the future, as well, to achieve stability in Afghanistan and the region,” Qureshi said.

Islamabad insists it is being blamed for America’s failures in Afghanistan, even though it facilitated peace talks between the United States and the Taliban that culminated in the February 2020 agreement between the two adversaries. That paved the way for Washington to withdrawal all its troops from Afghanistan in late August.

Washington says it is closely monitoring whether the Taliban will uphold their promises of tolerance and govern Afghanistan through an inclusive political system where all ethnicities are represented while also ensuring protection of women’s rights.

Islamabad has maintained it is not in a rush to recognize the new Taliban government, but it has been urging the U.S. and other countries to engage with the new rulers in Kabul rather than abandoning the turmoil-hit country.

Russia, China and Iran also have moved to directly engage with the Taliban and have called for the removal of sanctions, including the unfreezing of Afghan financial assets mostly deposited in the U.S. federal reserves. All of these countries, however, also have stopped short of granting diplomatic recognition to the Taliban unless they deliver on their commitments.

“The crisis in Afghanistan has had a damning effect on U.S.-Pakistan relations,” Raoof Hasan, special assistant to Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, wrote in a recent article.

“An investment of over 70 years in building a relationship has ended up at the beginning again. I believe that the two countries need to engage in a multifaceted dialogue to reorient, even reinvent, this relationship,” Hasan said in the Lahore-based Pakistan Politico magazine.

The bilateral tensions come as Islamabad campaigns for resetting its relationship with Washington and others on what Islamabad calls “geo-economics,” or development and trade, to move away from the traditional security-based partnership.

Adam Weinstein, a research fellow at the Washington-based Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, said expectations are low for a significant outcome of Sherman’s visit to Pakistan.

“Pakistan wants the United States to formally recognize the Taliban and accept a geo-economic reset that broadens U.S.-Pakistan relations to issues beyond security. Neither is going to happen anytime soon,” Weinstein said.

Counterterrorism remains a key area, however, where the U.S. will need Pakistan’s cooperation to counter any future terror threat now that American troops are out of Afghanistan.

“If Washington’s diplomatic outreach to Pakistan revolves around counterterrorism to the exclusion of all other issues, then that’s not diplomacy but rather militarized diplomacy,” Weinstein said.

“Washington has grown accustomed to the political expediency of managing U.S.-Pakistan relations through the generals and intelligence agencies. This habit is likely to continue, but Sherman’s visit is still welcome outreach from a civilian diplomat,” he said.

During her visit to India, Sherman made it clear her trip to Pakistan was for a “particular set of reasons” in the context of Afghanistan.

“We don’t see ourselves building a broad relationship with Pakistan,” Indian media quoted the U.S. diplomat as telling an event in the Indian city of Mumbai on Thursday. 

“But we all need to know what’s going on in Afghanistan. We all need to be of one mind in the approach to the Taliban. We all need to make sure that we have the capabilities that we need to ensure everybody’s security, including India’s and the U.S. of course. And so, I’m going to have some very specific conversations,” Sherman said.
…

A powerful bomb ripped through a crowded Shi’ite Muslim mosque Friday in Afghanistan’s northeastern Kunduz province, killing and injuring scores of worshippers.

No one immediately took responsibility for the bombing in the Sayed Abad area of the provincial capital, also called Kunduz.

The United Nations tweeted that it was “deeply concerned” by reports of “very high” casualties in the attack. 

“Initial information indicates more than 100 people killed and injured in a suicide blast inside the mosque,” the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan tweeted.

Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed the attack, saying it “killed and injured a number of countrymen.” He said Taliban forces were at the site and an investigation was underway. Mujahid gave no further details.

Other Taliban officials suspected the Islamic State Khorasan Province terrorist group was behind the deadly attack, which followed Sunday’s suicide bombing of a main mosque in Kabul.

That attack in the center of the Afghan capital killed at least eight people. IS-Khorasan claimed responsibility for it, saying a number of Taliban members were among the dead.

The terror group has taken credit for carrying out other deadly bombings in recent days against Taliban fighters in Kabul and elsewhere in Afghanistan.

The Taliban regained power in August in Afghanistan after waging an insurgency against U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan for 20 years. But the Islamist group’s nascent government is now facing a challenge from IS-Khorasan.

The Taliban said earlier this week that their security forces have launched an operation against IS-Khorasan bases, destroying one of them in Kabul and capturing at least 15 members of the group.

Afghan media quoted Mujahid on Thursday as downplaying the threat posed by IS-Khorasan, vowing Taliban forces will soon suppress it.

“We don’t call Daesh a threat, but we call it a headache,” Mujahid said, using a local acronym for IS-Khorasan. “It creates headaches in some places but is immediately taken out in every incident; (they) have been chased out and their sanctuaries found,” the TOLO news channel quoted the Taliban spokesman as saying.
…

Assailants fatally shot two schoolteachers in Indian-controlled Kashmir on Thursday in a sudden rise in targeted killings of civilians in the disputed region, police said.

Authorities blamed militants fighting against Indian rule for the attack in the outskirts of Srinagar, the region’s main city.

Police said militants fired at a female teacher and her male colleague inside a government school from a close distance and later fled. Both died on the spot, police said. Government forces cordoned off the area and launched a search for assailants.

The victims were members of Hindu and Sikh minorities.

Thursday’s incident marks the seventh targeted killings in six days.

On Tuesday, gunmen shot and killed three men in separate attacks that police also blamed on militants. One of the victims was a prominent Kashmiri Hindu minority chemist while another was a street food vendor from India’s eastern state of Bihar. The third victim was a taxi driver.

Dilbag Singh, the region’s police director-general, said officers began an investigation into the killings and were working on “some clues and leads about the killers in previous cases.” He said the assailants would be arrested soon.

The killings were widely condemned by pro-India as well as anti-India politicians.

Kashmir has remained on edge after New Delhi in 2019 stripped the region’s semi-autonomy, scrapped its statehood and removed inherited protections on land and jobs. Authorities have since brought a slew of new laws, which critics and many Kashmiris fear could change the region’s demographics.

The Himalayan territory is divided between India and Pakistan. Both archrivals claim it in its entirety.

Rebels in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir have been fighting New Delhi’s rule since 1989. Most Muslim Kashmiris support the rebel goal of uniting the territory, either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.

India insists the Kashmir militancy is Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. Pakistan denies the charge, and most Kashmiris consider it a legitimate freedom struggle. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict.
…

Developments in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan are likely to dominate the discussions between U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and senior Pakistani officials during the American’s high-profile visit to Islamabad this week.

Sherman, who was due to arrive late Thursday, is the most senior U.S. diplomat to visit the South Asian nation since President Joe Biden’s administration assumed office in Washington.

Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Asim Iftikhar said that “views will be exchanged on all issues of mutual interest, including the bilateral relationship, as well as the regional situation” in meetings with the American delegation.

“We look forward to reinforcing a balanced Pak-U.S. relationship that is anchored in mutually beneficial cooperation in all areas, including security, trade, investment, energy and regional connectivity,” Iftikhar said at a weekly news conference.

Pakistan’s traditionally tumultuous relationship with the United States, however, is under renewed pressure in the aftermath of the dramatic Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August.

The tensions are rooted in long-running allegations that Pakistan has had deep ties with, and covertly supported the Taliban, as the Islamist insurgents battled the U.S.-backed Afghan government for almost 20 years — charges denied by Islamabad. 

Late last month, a group of 22 Republican senators introduced legislation to impose sanctions on the Taliban and on all foreign governments that support the hardline Islamic group.

The bill also seeks official input from U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken about his assessment of the role Pakistan played in supporting the Taliban’s return to power in Kabul.

“It is an attempt to pass the buck,” Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told a recent news conference, while responding to the proposed legislation. “Scapegoating Pakistan would be overlooking ground realities. And they have to understand that a partnership with Pakistan is required in the future, as well, to achieve stability in Afghanistan and the region,” Qureshi said.

Islamabad insists it is being blamed for America’s failures in Afghanistan, even though it facilitated peace talks between the United States and the Taliban which culminated in the February 2020 agreement between the two adversaries. That paved the way for Washington to withdrawal all its troops from Afghanistan in late August.

Washington says it is closely monitoring whether the Taliban will uphold their promises of tolerance and govern Afghanistan through an inclusive political system — where all ethnicities are represented while also ensuring protection of women’s rights.

Islamabad has maintained it is not in a rush to recognize the new Taliban government, but it has been urging the U.S. and other countries to engage with the new rulers in Kabul rather than abandoning the turmoil-hit country. 

Russia, China and Iran also have moved to directly engage with the Taliban and have called for the removal of sanctions, including the unfreezing of Afghan financial assets mostly deposited in the U.S. federal reserves. But all of these countries also have stopped short of granting diplomatic recognition to the Taliban unless they deliver on their commitments.

“The crisis in Afghanistan has had a damning effect on U.S.-Pakistan relations,” Raoof Hasan, special assistant to Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, wrote in a recent article.

“An investment of over 70 years in building a relationship has ended up at the beginning again. I believe that the two countries need to engage in a multifaceted dialogue to reorient, even reinvent, this relationship,” Hasan said in the Lahore-based Pakistan Politico magazine.

The bilateral tensions come as Islamabad campaigns for resetting its relationship with Washington and others on what Islamabad calls “geo-economics,” or development and trade, to move away from the traditional security-based partnership.

Adam Weinstein, a research fellow at the Washington-based Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, said expectations are low for a significant outcome of Sherman’s visit to Pakistan.

“Pakistan wants the United States to formally recognize the Taliban and accept a geo-economic reset that broadens U.S.-Pakistan relations to issues beyond security. Neither is going to happen anytime soon,” Weinstein said.

Counterterrorism remains a key area, however, where the U.S. will need Pakistan’s cooperation to counter any future terror threat now that American troops are out of Afghanistan.

“If Washington’s diplomatic outreach to Pakistan revolves around counterterrorism to the exclusion of all other issues, then that’s not diplomacy but rather militarized diplomacy,” Weinstein said. 

“Washington has grown accustomed to the political expediency of managing U.S.-Pakistan relations through the generals and intelligence agencies. This habit is likely to continue, but Sherman’s visit is still welcome outreach from a civilian diplomat,” he said.
…

A top U.S. government investigator told lawmakers Wednesday that the U.S. effort in Afghanistan, which spanned both Democratic and Republican administrations, was a massive failure costing trillions of dollars. That testimony comes as lawmakers examine why the U.S withdrawal from Afghanistan this year was so chaotic. VOA’s congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson has more.

Carla Babb contributed to this report.
…

At least 20 people are dead and more than 200 injured after a strong 5.7 magnitude earthquake struck southwest Pakistan early Thursday morning.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the epicenter of the quake was about 100 kilometers east of Quetta near the Afghan border, and was centered about 20 kilometers below the surface.

The coal-mining town of Harnai in Baluchistan province sustained the brunt of the earthquake. The quake caused as many as 100 mud houses to collapse, trapping many residents inside as they were sleeping. Television footage showed people running out of their houses in panic as buildings shook. Authorities say women and children were among the victims.

Officials said it would take hours to reach many of the hardest-hit areas in the coal mining region. The Pakistan military said its forces and helicopters were helping civilian authorities in carrying out the rescue efforts.

A massive power outage forced rescue workers to use flashlights to treat the injured at hospitals.

The powerful tremors triggered landslides at two places on the main highway linking Quetta to Harnai, according to the National Disaster Management Authority.

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

 
…

Pakistan has appointed Lieutenant General Nadeem Anjum as the country’s new spy chief.

He takes over as director-general of Inter-Services Intelligence from Lieutenant General Faiz Hameed, who ran the ISI for more than two years and will next become the army’s Peshawar Corps commander.

The Pakistan army’s media arm announced the appointments Thursday as part of a series of military leadership changes.

Military observers in the country reacted to the appointments, saying that Hameed’s appointment meant he could be a leading candidate for the country’s top military position, chief of the army staff, next year.

Anjum, the new ISI head, held senior leadership posts in two of the country’s biggest counterterrorism operations in recent years. Most recently, he was inspector general of the Frontier Corps during the Rudd ul Fasaad operation focused on eliminating terrorist sleeper cells.

Hameed served in the ISI as a military commander for five years. He worked as director-general of internal security for two years before managing the espionage agency for the rest of his time in the ISI.

He rose to attention in 2017 after the religious party Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan mounted a protest in Islamabad over changes to the affidavit that candidates must submit during elections. After 22 days of demonstrations that included violence, Hameed took part in negotiations that resulted in an agreement, which he officially signed as a witness.

Court case

Following that, Hameed’s name reappeared during a supreme court case stemming from the Panama Papers, an international leak of financial documents in 2016 showing how rich people hide their wealth. The published documents included information about former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who was later sentenced to prison on corruption charges related to the disclosures.

At one time, Islamabad High Court Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui claimed that Hameed had urged judges to deny bail to Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz. The Pakistan army refuted the allegations made against Hameed; however, Miriam Nawaz on Thursday again alleged the military leader had improperly weighed in on the case. Pakistan’s minister of state for information and broadcasting dismissed her claims as baseless.

Amjad Shoaib, a defense expert and retired lieutenant general, told Voice of America that Hameed’s nomination as Peshawar Corps commander was an important signal because it is customary in the Pakistan army for the army chief to have first been a corps commander.

This will be Hameed’s first posting as a corps commander, making him one of just a few front-runners who could replace the current army chief, General Qamar Javed Bajwa, whose term is expected to end in November 2022.

Shoaib also said that Hameed was highly engaged in Afghanistan in recent months, and as Peshawar Corps commander, he will likely be in a better position to assist the Pakistani army on Afghan issues.

This story originated in VOA’s Urdu Service.
…

The head of the World Food Program in Afghanistan said Wednesday that the humanitarian crisis in that country is growing at “an incredible pace,” and it is now a “race against time” before winter sets in.   

“Winter is on our doorstep,” Mary-Ellen McGroarty, WFP’s country director in Afghanistan, told reporters virtually from Kabul. “We have a harsh winter in Afghanistan. With fuel prices going up, people are going to struggle to feed themselves and keep themselves warm.”  

Before the Taliban swept into Kabul on August 15 and took over the government, the country was already in a crisis due to a combination of years of drought, conflict, corruption and then the coronavirus. More than 18 million people needed humanitarian assistance, including 14 million who were food insecure. Two million children are at risk of severe malnourishment.   

The U.N. says the number of people in severe need is expected to increase as food and fuel prices skyrocket and jobs dry up.   

McGroarty said the crisis has escalated at an “incredible pace” since August.

“I was out in Kabul today, and the situation it is just desperate,” the aid official said. “I had women crying at me for food, because, again, the work has dried up. There is no work. There is no opportunity to find food.”  

She said many women told her they have only a bit of dry bread and water to eat.  

The country is also experiencing a severe economic and financial crisis. Overwhelmingly dependent on foreign assistance to support its economy, the arrival of the Taliban has seen that funding dry up.   

“We need to find solutions to get the economy restarted,” McGroarty said.   

She warned that without a solution, it is “a matter of probably weeks” before the Afghan economy collapses.   

U.N. agencies reached five million Afghans with assistance in September, and WFP reached 3.8 million with food assistance.   

The U.N. has appealed for nearly $606 million for the rest of this year and has only received a little over one-third of that amount.   

 
…

Hundreds of Afghans flocked to the passport office in Kabul on Wednesday, just a day after news that it would re-open this week to issue the documents, while Taliban security men had to beat back some in the crowd in efforts to maintain order.

Taliban officials have said the service will resume from Saturday, after being suspended since their takeover and the fall of the previous government in August, which stranded many of those desperate to flee the country.

“I have come to get a passport but, as you can see here, there are lots of problems, the system is not working,” one applicant, Mahir Rasooli, told Reuters outside the office.

“There is no official to answer our questions here to tell us when to come. People are confused.”

A spokesman for the Taliban officials running the passport department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Poverty and hunger have worsened since the Islamist movement took over Afghanistan, which already suffered from drought and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Half a million people have been displaced in recent months, the United Nations says, and the number will only grow if health services, schools and the economy break down.

The hundreds who descended on the passport office came despite advice that distribution of passports would only begin on Saturday, and initially only for those who had already applied.

The crowd pressed against a large concrete barrier, trying to hand documents to an official who stood atop it, in a scene reminiscent of the chaos at Kabul airport in the last stages of evacuation after the withdrawal of U.S. troops.

The official urged them to return home and come back on Saturday.

“I am here to receive a passport, but unfortunately I couldn’t,” said a man in the crowd, Ahmad Shakib Sidiqi. “I don’t know what we should do in this condition.”

The bleak economic outlook drives their desire to leave, said Sidiqi and Rasooli.

“There is no job and the economic situation is not too good, so I want to have a good future for my kids,” said Rasooli.

Sidiqi said he wanted a passport to accompany a member of his family to neighboring Pakistan to seek medical treatment, but added they had no choice except to leave.

“We have to leave Afghanistan,” he said. “It is a bad situation in Afghanistan – no job, no work. It is not a good condition for us to live.”

The Taliban have said they welcome international aid, though many donors froze their assistance after they took power.
…

Shortly after August’s collapse of the Afghanistan government to the Taliban, the Canadian government announced it would initially welcome 40,000 refugees.  

The resettlement is happening amid upheaval in Afghanistan and at the height of the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada. The first refugees to arrive on Canadian soil were immediately quarantined for 14 days in one of five hotels in Toronto. They were then inoculated with COVID-19 vaccines. They are now being resettled in various parts of Canada.  

Chris Friesen is the chief operating officer at the Immigrant Services Society of British Columbia, a government-funded agency. Friesen has spent 30 years helping immigrants and refugees in Canada and says assisting Afghan refugees is unique. 

“What’s the difference between the Afghan movement and other movements is the fact that Canadians, particularly to the armed forces, had spent, many years in Afghanistan,” he said. “There was a personal connection to Afghans and Afghanistan.”  

Friesen said most Afghan refugees left quickly with hardly any possessions, presenting unique sets of challenges for resettlement. None of the usual preparatory paperwork was completed before they arrived in Canada, he said.  

During quarantine in Toronto, Afghan refugees were also given laptop computers or tablets. This allowed Canadian immigration workers to offer English lessons and children’s programming remotely for access to education. 

Among the refugees is Adbul, currently in Vancouver with his family. He is not using his full name to protect relatives still in Afghanistan. 

Abdul has a brother in the United States but wanted to come to Canada because of previous connections he had with Canadians.  

He spent more than 45 years living in Afghanistan, and worked as a journalist based in Kabul. Working for both Afghan and American media outlets for more than 20 years, he saw the risks due to his profession given how the Taliban mistreated journalists. 

“I think my life was in danger. Not only my life, but because of me, my family’s life was in danger,” he told VOA. “And that’s why I was very, I was trying too much to go out because I was in direct threat, even when the government, the ex-government was going on, I was [feeling threatened].”  

Abdul arrived in Canada with his wife and children, who range in age from grade school to university. He is hoping to one day help his mother immigrate. He said he and his wife will take some English courses and other classes and will work toward becoming Canadian citizens.  

“My family is safe here it is very important for me that the future for my kids is somehow defined,” Abdul said. “They will go to school, inshallah [Arabic for “if God wills”] soon and then they will go to college, [some] who were in at university in Afghanistan.”  
…

Afghan refugees will soon be arriving again in the U.S. after a massive campaign to vaccinate them against measles following a small outbreak that caused a three-week pause in evacuations, officials said Monday.

Authorities have administered the vaccination to about 49,000 evacuees staying temporarily on American military bases as well as to those still at transit points in Europe and the Middle East, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

The measles outbreak, detected in 24 people, had put on hold one of the largest refugee resettlement efforts in U.S. history, dubbed Operation Allies Welcome. It also stranded about 15,000 at overseas transit points.

“The success of this vaccination campaign demonstrates our commitment to the health and well-being of arriving Afghan evacuees, the personnel assisting this mission, and the American people,” Dr. Pritesh Gandhi, the DHS chief medical officer, said in announcing the completion of the effort. 

Everyone coming from Afghanistan is also tested for COVID-19. About 84% of the refugees in the U.S. and at overseas transit points have now received vaccinations against the coronavirus, officials said.

The U.S. evacuated about 120,000 people in the chaotic days following the fall of Kabul to the Taliban in August. They were a mix of U.S. citizens, Afghans with legal permanent residency or who were applying for visas and refugee status along with their families.

Testifying before Congress last week, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said the U.S. has admitted about 60,000 people from the airlift out of Afghanistan, about 7% of whom are American citizens and about 6% of whom are permanent residents. About 3% have, along with their families, received the special immigrant visa for people who worked for the U.S. government or its allies during the war as interpreters or in some other capacity.

The rest are a combination of people who are in the process of finalizing their special immigrant visas or are considered likely candidates for refugee status because they are human rights activists, journalists or others who are considered particularly vulnerable under Taliban rule or for some other reasons. All undergo security vetting before they arrive in the U.S.

DHS says a majority of the Afghans being resettled in the U.S. worked for the country in some form or are related to someone who did. The agency projects at least 40% are eligible for the special immigrant visa.

There are about 53,000 Afghans currently staying at eight U.S. military bases and receiving medical care and other assistance before they settle around the U.S. 

Gen. Glen VanHerck, head of U.S. Northern Command, told reporters Thursday that about 4,000 Afghans at the U.S. bases have completed medical screening and the 21-day quarantine required after receiving the vaccine for measles, mumps, rubella, and chickenpox that most Americans receive in childhood, and should be setting in their new homes in the coming days. 

 
…

A woman walks alone past bombed-out windowless buildings in Gaza, black high heels on gray rubble. This image of life during conflict was one of several captured by a young Palestinian photojournalist in May. 

The striking set of images has earned Fatima Shbair the 2021 Anja Niedringhaus Courage in Photojournalism Award, bestowed by the International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF).  

At 24, Shbair is the youngest journalist to be awarded the honor, which was named for a German Associated Press photographer who was killed in 2014 while on assignment in Afghanistan.

Shbair’s photos center on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in May 2021. More than 200 people, including dozens of children, died during the 11 days of fighting. The United Nations said at the time that the Israeli airstrikes might constitute a war crime, and it also condemned tactics used by Hamas.

Shbair, who lives in Gaza City, said that when the airstrikes began, she picked up her camera and continued doing her job: documenting daily life.  

“As photojournalists, it’s our job to focus on the little details that might not be apparent for anyone outside the city,” she told VOA.  

Shbair documented everything she saw, including scenes of mourning and commutes across the city, in her poignant photo essay “11 Days of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.”

“Everything happening there deserved to be documented. It doesn’t matter how dangerous it is,” she told VOA. 

Judges praise work 

The body of work, shot under tough conditions, caught the attention of the IWMF judges. 

Members of the judging committee “were really impressed with how she captured these incredibly beautiful images among the wreckage of an ongoing bombardment that she was also living through herself,” Elisa Lees Muñoz, executive director of the IWMF, told VOA.  

“The fact that she was part of this conflict and really trying to survive as a civilian, in addition to trying to survive as a photojournalist, was pretty telling,” Muñoz said.  

Shbair studied journalism in college but taught herself photography while documenting what she calls “different” daily life in Gaza in 2019. By 2020, she was working as a freelancer and selling images to international agencies such as Getty Images. 

But the conflict this May presented new challenges.  

“I left my home and my family for 11 days. I went directly into the field, moving from one office to another,” she said. “I just stayed there in the streets, running toward what was happening. It was not easy, but in some way, I did it.”  

Inspiring images 

The IWMF’s annual award recognizes photography that inspires viewers or helps them better understand the world. Each awardee is given $20,000 and has her work showcased.

Honorable mentions this year were given to Kiana Hayeri, an Iranian Canadian photojournalist based in Afghanistan since 2013, and Adriana Zehbrauskas, a Brazilian documentary photojournalist who covers immigration and the drug trade across borders with Mexico. 

On Thursday, one day after she was named an awardee, Hayeri posted a humble thank you on Instagram, alongside a photo of an older Afghan woman taken in April. 

“As I’m posting this, I’m sitting at my gate, waiting to catch one last plane to go back to #Kabul with a chest filled with contrasting feelings,” Hayeri wrote. 

The award’s namesake, Niedringhaus, also extensively covered events in Afghanistan. She was the recipient of a separate IWMF Courage in Journalism Award in 2005, the same year her team won a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the war in Iraq.  

“(Niedringhaus) is among us with her images,” 2021 awardee Shbair said. “Despite all difficulties, I hope that we will be efficient in continuing her journey to always highlight the truth.” 

 
…

The international community is renewing its focus on Afghanistan’s mineral wealth, believed to be worth more than $1 trillion, lying untapped within its often-hostile geography. 

This comes as the newly formed Taliban government faces a looming economic crisis in the country. The mineral deposits could potentially be a source of income the group is looking for. 

The Taliban had been aware of the financial potential of the minerals well before the U.S. withdrew from the country. 

According to a June 2021 United Nations report, one of the main sources of the Taliban’s income was “mineral exploitation.” 

The report said that in 2020, the Taliban had earned an estimated $464 million from the country’s mining sector as part of their strategy for financial independence. 

The militant group’s leaders “pursued greater financial independence for the Taliban, in part by focusing efforts on controlling unexplored mineral-rich areas of Afghanistan,” the report said. Before the Afghan government collapsed, the Taliban were already in control of 280 out of 710 mining zones. 

Global Witness, a London-based corruption monitoring group, reported in June 2016 that armed anti-government elements including the Taliban earned up to $20 million annually from the illegal mining of lapis lazuli. 

Afghan minerals and China

Analysts are waiting to see whether China will play a role in investing in and extracting Afghanistan’s natural resources. China was already investing in some of Afghanistan’s minerals before the Taliban takeover of the country.

China Metallurgical Group (MCC), a Chinese state-owned company, was awarded a contract in 2007 to develop the Aynak copper mine field in Afghanistan’s Logar province, about 32 kilometers southeast of Kabul. 

According to the then-Afghan government, MCC was to invest $2.8 billion in developing the field, a project that included building an electric power plant and railroad and employing 5,000 people, mostly Afghans led by a few Chinese experts. 

MCC, however, has not been able to extract any copper because of the insecurity in the country. 

After Kabul fell to the Taliban, the company said it was willing to resume work on the project, with some conditions. 

“We would consider reopening it after the situation is stabilized and international recognition, including the Chinese government’s recognition of the Taliban regime, take place,” an unnamed official of MCC told the Global Times, a Chinese state-run newspaper. 

Chinese officials have called on the international community to engage with the Taliban, but they have not yet recognized the Taliban as the government of Afghanistan. 

The Taliban said they welcome China’s participation in the rebuilding of the country. 

“China is a big country with a huge economy and capacity — I think they can play a very big role in the rebuilding, rehabilitation, reconstruction of Afghanistan,” Taliban spokesperson Suhail Shaheen told a Chinese state media outlet.

Security an issue 

Experts, however, do not expect China to invest in Afghan minerals immediately.

“I do think it is too soon to tell whether China will be able to truly exploit America’s withdrawal to gain access to all these minerals,” said Craig Singleton, a fellow at Foundation for Defense of Democracies. 

“The security situation remains dire” in Afghanistan, he said, adding that “even the best-laid investment plans can go awry when the host country cannot guarantee a safe and stable security environment.” 

China will be “pragmatic and hold off on making any major moves until they have a better sense about the Taliban’s plans and intentions,” Singleton said. 

Rod Schoonover, a scientist and security expert who founded the Ecological Futures Group, told VOA he did not think the Taliban would be able to guarantee China the security and stability it needs to extract minerals in Afghanistan. 

“China does not have a long history, as I understand it, of going to highly unstable countries and working there,” he said. 

Afghan mineral potential 

Estimating that the mineral wealth of Afghanistan could be worth from $1 trillion to $3 trillion, Afghan officials in 2010 had hoped the mining sector would not only help to eliminate poverty but also end the decadeslong conflict in Afghanistan. 

A New York Times article in June 2010 reported that a team of Pentagon officials and U.S. geologists discovered in Afghanistan $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits, which were considered much larger than any previously known and “enough to fundamentally alter the Afghan economy and perhaps the Afghan war itself.” 

A 2019 report by the former Afghan government’s Ministry of Mines and Petroleum said Afghanistan has “world-class deposits of iron ore, copper, gold, rare-earth minerals, and a host of other natural resources.” 

According to the report, “Afghanistan is expected to hold more than 2.2 billion metric tons (MTs) of iron ore, 1.3 billion MTs of marble, almost 30 million MTs of copper, 1.4 million MTs of rare-earth minerals, and 2,700kg of gold,” 

The reserves were not the largest in any category at the global level, but the country could become “a significant player across many markets,” the report said. 

Even with the potential financial gains from the reserves, Afghanistan’s lack of infrastructure is one more challenge to accessing the minerals in the country’s mountainous terrain. There is also the question of how efficiently mining can be conducted. 

“There is a big difference between what is under the ground and what is utilized,” said Schoonover. China’s engagement in the extraction of minerals could benefit both China and the Taliban, but he is “skeptical” that it will benefit the people of Afghanistan.

Schoonover said that in the absence of strong governance, he sees “the natural resources curse manifest itself,” meaning that ordinary people in many resource-rich countries do not necessarily benefit from the profits. 

 
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Tensions have flared in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh after eight people, including four farmers, were killed Sunday while demonstrating against controversial farm laws. 

The incident marks an escalation in India’s long-running farm protests that have festered for almost a year amid an impasse between the government and farm leaders.

The protestors alleged that two farmers were killed when a motorcade linked to India’s deputy home minister, Ajay Kumr Mishra, ran over them on Sunday in Lakhimpur Kheri district. They said the minister’s son was driving the car that plowed into the protestors.

The minister has denied the charge and said that farmers pelted stones at the vehicle, which resulted in the driver losing control and ramming into the protesters. 

The police said they are investigating whether the minister’s son, Ashish Mishra, was in the car that struck the protesters. 

In clashes that erupted, three members of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, and a driver, who were in the car were killed, according to officials. Videos on social media showed a car on fire. 

Uttar Pradesh is one of three northern states whose farmers are spearheading protests to demand the repeal of three laws that open sale of farm produce to private companies. The government says these market-friendly reforms will modernize the agriculture sector but farmers fear that corporations will depress crop prices and ultimately force them to sell their land.

Political analysts say the latest violence underlines the need for the government to reengage with the farmers. 

“It is a wake-up call to the government to take a new initiative to resolve the farmers’ issues,” political analyst Neerja Chowdhury told VOA. Chowdhury further pointed out that the government has made no effort to negotiate with the farmers since talks broke down earlier this year. “You cannot push it away and let it drift. After all, people don’t just sit on the streets in such large numbers like that.” 

While most of the farmers have been squatting on highways leading to New Delhi, protests have gained momentum in Uttar Pradesh ahead of elections due to be held in the state in February. 

The latest incident will deepen anger among farmers say analysts and pose another challenge for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party as it prepares for polls in the key battleground state, where victory for his party is considered crucial. 

Opposition leaders said they were stopped from visiting the scene of the protest. Priyanka Gandhi, Congress Party leader was detained while on her way to visit the families of farmers who were killed.

“The prime minister says ours is a vibrant democracy. But stopping opposition leaders from going to Lakhimpur doesn’t really strengthen our democracy,” Akhilesh Yadav, the head of the main opposition Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh, told reporters, “Farmers, who are the backbone of our economy, cannot be treated like this.”

Violence had also marred the farmers protest when a group broke through barricades during a rally in January to storm the historic Red Fort in the Indian capital.
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Taliban government forces destroyed an Islamic State cell in the north of Kabul late on Sunday, a spokesperson for the movement said, after a blast outside a mosque in the Afghan capital killed and wounded several civilians. 

There was no confirmation that the operation was directly connected with Sunday’s blast, which appeared to be the most serious attack in the Afghan capital since the withdrawal of U.S. forces at the end of August. 

The local affiliate of Islamic State, known as ISIS-Khorasan, has already claimed to have carried out attacks on Taliban targets and remains unreconciled to the movement which swept to victory over the Western-backed government in Kabul in August. 

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said a special Taliban unit carried out an operation against ISIS elements in Kabul’s 17th district, in the city’s north late on Sunday.  

“The ISIS base was entirely destroyed and all of the ISIS members inside were killed as a result of this decisive and successful attack,” he said in a statement on Twitter early on Monday. 

Earlier, local media had reported heavy clashes in the area and residents contacted confirmed they had heard explosions and gunfire during the night. 

The Taliban, who are also fighting the remnants of forces loyal to Ahmad Massoud, an opposition leader from the Panjshir region north of Kabul, have said they have almost complete control of the country. 

But Sunday’s violence, and a string of smaller incidents in recent days in areas including Nangarhar on the border with Pakistan and Parwan north of Kabul, have shown that security threats have not disappeared. 

Islamic State has claimed responsibility for bomb attacks in the eastern city of Jalalabad as well for a suicide attack that killed 13 U.S. troops and scores of Afghan civilians who had crowded outside the Kabul airport gates, desperate to secure seats on evacuation flights. 
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Current and former leaders from throughout the world have amassed vast wealth and secret real estate holdings across the globe, hundreds of investigative journalists reported on Sunday after months of combing through millions of previously undisclosed documents.

The documents, dubbed the Pandora Papers, exposed the offshore holdings of 35 current and former country leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis and Jordan’s King Abdullah.

The investigation of nearly 12 million documents from 14 sources was led by the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, with 650 journalists from around the world working on the project. The Washington Post, one of the news outlets that helped conduct the investigation, said the files included private emails, secret spreadsheets, clandestine contracts and other records that revealed financial schemes and who was behind them.

The documents showed that national leaders on five continents hid assets, often in other countries, with the investigation exposing more than twice as many offshore account holders as the Panama Papers, an examination five years ago by the investigative journalists of hidden financial assets at offshore entities across the world.

The new material comes from 29,000 offshore accounts at 14 separate financial-services companies operating in countries that include Switzerland, Singapore, Cyprus, Belize, the British Virgin Islands and elsewhere. Among the account owners, the Post said, are more than 130 people Forbes magazine lists as billionaires and more than 330 public officials in more than 90 countries and territories.

“Off-shore” refers to a time when remote island nations were the primary locales where people put money to shield it from government regulators, tax authorities, creditors, investigators and others. 

“The offshore financial system is a problem that should concern every law-abiding person around the world,” Sherine Ebadi, a former FBI officer worked on dozens of financial-crimes cases, told the Post. 

The records showed that the Jordanian ruler spent $106 million on luxury homes along the Pacific Ocean in Malibu, California, Washington and other locations, while millions of dollars in property and cash were secretly held by the leaders of Kenya and the Czech Republic.

Czech leader Babis, facing an election later this week, used an offshore investment company to buy two villas in the south of France for more than $16 million, according to the records.

The records showed that a luxury waterfront apartment in Monaco is the residence of a Russian woman who reportedly had a child with Putin. The Post said representatives of Abdullah denied any impropriety or use of public funds, while none of the Kenyan, Czech or Russian leaders commented on the reports, nor did the Russian woman.

In recent years, U.S. presidents have imposed financial sanctions on oligarchs in Russia for what the U.S. Treasury has called malign activity. The Pandora Papers showed that those targeted have often made substantial efforts to evade the effects of the sanctions by shifting ownership of their assets. Nonetheless, the documents showed that the sanctions caused financial losses, including for Kremlin officials. 

The documents, according to the BBC in Britain, said that Blair and his wife, Cherie, saved $421,000 in stamp duty when they bought a London office from an offshore company that owned the building. 

The BBC said Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, his family and close associates have secretly bought more than $540 million worth of property in Britain.

For years, international tax havens have been a favorite of the wealthy looking to hide assets. But the Post said the Pandora Papers showed that in recent years foreign, political and corporate officials have moved some holdings to even more secret American trust companies, including in the Midwestern state of South Dakota.
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A bomb blast outside Kabul’s main mosque Sunday afternoon killed and injured several Afghan civilians, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said.

It was the first such assault in the capital since late August, when an Islamic State-Khorasan Province suicide bomber killed around 200 people, including 13 U.S. soldiers, near the Kabul airport.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Sunday’s assault on the Eid Gah mosque in the center of the city and it was apparently targeted at a gathering offering special prayers for Mujahid’s mother, who recently passed away.

Qatar-based Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen said Mujahid was “safe” along with other colleagues because the blast happened away from the place where they were located.

The Afghan Islamic State affiliate, also known as ISIS-K, has claimed a series of attacks in the country’s eastern provinces of Nangarhar and Kunar in the last week, killing dozens of civilians and Taliban fighters.

(Ayaz Gul contributed to this repport and some information comes from AP.)
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Authorities in Pakistan confirmed Saturday that an overnight ambush of a security convoy in the country’s northwest had killed five paramilitary forces. 

A military statement said a “clearance operation is in progress to eliminate any terrorist found in the area” in North Waziristan, a volatile district next to the country’s border with Afghanistan. 

The outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), commonly known as the Pakistani Taliban, is reported to have claimed responsibility for the deadly ambush.

TTP, an alliance of extremist groups, has waged terrorist attacks in Pakistan for many years, killing thousands of civilians and security forces.

Pakistan has conducted sustained military operations against the group’s bases near the Afghan border, killing thousands of militants and forcing others to flee to Afghanistan. The security action, officials say, has significantly degraded the militant threat and led to a marked reduction in violence.

But TTP attacks have spiked in recent weeks, particularly in northwestern and southwestern parts of the country, killing dozens of security personnel.

Peace talks 

Friday’s ambush came on the same day Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan said in an interview that his government was engaged in talks with “some groups” of the TTP to try to persuade them to lay down arms in return for an amnesty.

Khan said the negotiations were taking place in Afghanistan, where TTP leaders have taken shelter, and the new Taliban rulers of the neighboring country are acting as intermediaries.

“There are different groups which form the Pakistani Taliban or TTP, yes, so we are in talks with some of them on a reconciliation process,” Khan told the Turkish state-owned broadcaster TRT World. “We might not reach some sort of conclusion or settlement in the end, but we are talking.” he said.

A spokesperson for the TTP has reportedly denied divisions in its ranks but did not question Khan’s assertions the two sides are engaged in peace talks. 

The Afghan Taliban, who regained power in Kabul in August after ousting the Western-backed government, are under international pressure to disallow transnational militants from using Afghanistan for launching terrorist attacks against other countries.

The United States and the United Nations have both designated TTP as a global terrorist organization.

TTP leaders denounce the Pakistani constitution as un-Islamic and demand that Islamic law, or Shariah, be enforced in Pakistan. It also wants release of its members captured by security forces during counterterrorism operations.

But senior Pakistani security officials rule out accepting any TTP demands, insisting the amnesty would be offered within the framework of the country’s constitution and law that require the militants to surrender their firearms.
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U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michele Bachelet is calling on Bangladeshi authorities to conduct a prompt and thorough investigation into the murder of Rohingya activist Mohib Ullah while he was visiting a Cox’s Bazaar refugee camp in Bangladesh earlier this week.  

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michele Bachelet paid tribute to the prominent human rights defender, who she said spent his life fighting to end decades of discrimination against the Rohingya people. She said Ullah lost his life while seeking to restore his people’s basic rights in Myanmar, including their rights to nationality, land, health, and education.

Ullah was shot and killed by unknown assailants Wednesday in Kutupalong, the world’s largest refugee camp, housing more than 800,000 Rohingya. The refugees fled there in August of 2017 to escape persecution and violence in Myanmar.

The high commissioner’s spokesman, Rupert Colville, says the Rohingya are still waiting for justice and still waiting to return home. He says there has been an alarming increase in violence, criminality, and rising tensions among groups in the Kutupalong camp. He adds anti-Rohingya sentiment also has been rising within Bangladeshi communities.

“Whoever was responsible for his murder, Mohib Ullah’s death is a clear example of the insecurity in the camp, and the apparent attempts to silence moderate civil society voices. The high commissioner is calling for a prompt, thorough, and independent investigation, which should be conducted not only to identify and apprehend his killers, and expose their motives, but also to define what measures are needed to better protect vulnerable civil society leaders, while avoiding further securitization in the camps,” he said.

Colville said the high commissioner understands the huge challenges Bangladesh faces in hosting Rohingya refugees. Nonetheless, Bachelet asserts Bangladesh must ensure the safety, protection, and basic rights of the refugees in Cox’s Bazar. She said that also applies to Bhasan Char, a remote island where thousands of Rohingya have been relocated.

“Meanwhile, in Myanmar itself, the situation of approximately 600,000 Rohingya who remain in Rakhine State remains dire, with many still confined in camps,” said Coleville. “Alleged violations include unlawful killings, arbitrary arrest and detention, and high levels of extortion.”

Colville said it is regrettable the global spotlight has moved away from the plight of the Rohingya people. He added that the high commissioner is calling on the international community to do more to help the persecuted community, both in Bangladesh and in Myanmar.

 
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One month into Taliban rule in Afghanistan, fears are increasing that women will again be excluded from higher education and public life. U.S. lawmakers are calling on the Biden administration to keep pressure on Taliban leaders to respect women’s rights. VOA Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports.
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Pakistan’s prime minister, Imran Khan, has said his government is engaged in peace talks with “some groups” of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, an alliance of outlawed militant groups waging terrorist attacks in the country. 

Khan told TRT World, a Turkish state-owned broadcaster, the talks with the militants are taking place in Afghanistan and the new Taliban rulers of the neighboring country are helping in the process.

“There are different groups which form the Pakistani Taliban or TTP, yes, so we are in talks with some of them on a reconciliation process,” Khan said in a portion of the interview the Turkish network released Friday. The full interview will be aired Saturday.

The Pakistani prime minister said the aim of the discussions with TTP groups is to convince the militants to lay down their arms “and then we forgive them and they can become normal citizens.” 

“The talks are taking place in Afghanistan, so in that sense yes,” Khan noted when asked if the Afghan Taliban were helping in the process.

A spokesman for the ruling Taliban in Kabul, when contacted by VOA for a reaction to Khan’s assertions, said he would try to get one but sent no further response.

Prime Minister Khan said he is expecting the talks will produce the desired outcome, insisting he believes there is no military solution to tackle the militancy challenge and “the political dialogue is the way ahead.” 

“We might not reach some sort of a conclusion in the end, a settlement, but we are talking,” he said.

Khan’s disclosure comes as the TTP has intensified attacks against Pakistani security forces and other targets in recent weeks. Islamabad says leaders and commanders of the banned group use sanctuaries in Afghanistan to orchestrate cross-border attacks. 

The United States and the United Nations have both designated the TTP as a terrorist organization.

The Afghan Taliban is under pressure from the U.S. and other countries to prevent transnational terrorist groups from using Afghan soil for external attacks.

Pakistan’s traditionally close ties with the Afghan Taliban might have generated hopes the Islamist group would help rein in TTP cross-border violent activities from their Afghan hideouts. But critics say those expectations could be misplaced, citing the ideological closeness between the Afghan and the Pakistani Taliban. 

Just before the Taliban returned to power in Kabul in August, their chief, Hibatullah Akhundzada, set up a three-member high-powered commission to persuade TTP members to stop violence against Pakistan and return to their homes across the border to live peacefully, VOA had learned from highly placed official sources in Islamabad. 

However, the Taliban have not confirmed the commission’s formation and TTP attacks have continued against Pakistani forces. 

 
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The brother of slain Rohingya community leader Mohib Ullah on Thursday blamed militants for murdering him in a Bangladesh refugee camp because of his popularity and rights work.

Mohib Ullah had emerged in recent years as one of the most prominent representatives of around 850,000 Rohingya stuck in camps in Bangladesh since fleeing violence in Myanmar in 2017.

Unidentified assailants gunned him down late Wednesday, prompting Bangladeshi authorities to deploy hundreds of extra armed police in the camps on Thursday.

Up to 25,000 people attended funeral prayers at the main Kutpalong camp on Thursday, police said. Nazir Hossain, a Rohingya leader, said there were 200,000.

Habib Ullah told AFP that his brother had received death threats from the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army in recent months, and that at least eight men from the group took part in the attack.

“ARSA forces have committed this murder. They often threatened to kill my brother,” he said. “ARSA did not just kill our brother — they killed our great leader.”

Police have said at least four unidentified assailants were involved in the shooting, which happened as Mohib Ullah chatted with other community leaders outside his office.

Mohib Ullah, 48, had set up the Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights (ARSPH), a community-based rights group that documented atrocities allegedly committed against the group by the Myanmar military during a 2017 offensive.

That campaign prompted hundreds of thousands of the long-oppressed mostly Muslim minority to flee into Bangladesh where they remain four years later in squalid refugee camps.

The former schoolteacher rose to prominence after his group held a grand rally on the second anniversary of the crackdown in 2019, which an estimated 200,000 Rohingya attended.

That year, Mohib Ullah also met then-US president Donald Trump at the White House during a meeting on religious freedom, and spoke at a UN Human Rights meeting in Geneva.

The current US administration said Thursday it was “deeply saddened and disturbed” by Mohib Ullah’s killing.

“We urge a full and transparent investigation into his death with the goal of holding the perpetrators of this heinous crime accountable,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.

“We will honor his work by continuing to advocate for Rohingya and lift up the voices of members of the community in decisions about their future.”

No arrests

There was no immediate comment from ARSA, which was behind a spate of attacks on Myanmar security posts in 2017 and is also blamed for attacks on Hindus living in Rohingya villages in the country’s western Rakhine province.

A senior member of Mohib Ullah’s group also blamed ARSA, saying the group was enraged by his growing popularity in the refugee camps and his work, which gave the “Rohingya a non-violent, progressive and liberal voice of reason.”

Rights activist Nur Khan Liton said Mohib Ullah told him earlier this month that he had received death threats from ARSA after his rights group expanded to all the Rohingya refugee camps.

“His peaceful activism angered ARSA,” Liton told AFP.

Saad Hammadi from Amnesty International said the killing “sends a chilling effect across the entire community”, calling on Dhaka to speed up the investigation.

The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) condemned the murder “in the strongest possible terms” and said it was “deeply shocked and saddened.”

The agency enhanced its presence “to ensure that the Rohingya refugees have direct access to support services and can report their concerns,” the UNHCR said in a statement.

Police spokesperson Rafiqul Islam said the probe was still at a preliminary stage.

“No one has been arrested yet,” Islam told AFP. 

 
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Many who fled Afghanistan during the U.S. troop withdrawal are now located at U.S. military installations across the country as they wait for resettlement to host communities. As VOA’s Kane Farabaugh reports, donations and support for Afghans continue to pour in while aid organizations prepare to help them find housing and jobs. 
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The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies is appealing for $24 million to prepare for the potential outflow of tens of thousands of Afghan refugees into neighboring countries in the coming months.

The anticipated exodus of refugees following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in mid-August has not happened. Although internal displacement is rife, the U.N. refugee agency reports just over 30,000 people have fled across borders in search of international protection since January.

However, the International Red Cross Federation say it expects refugee numbers to surge as humanitarian and economic conditions in Afghanistan worsen.

Red Cross spokeswoman Nathalie Perroud told VOA Afghanistan is in the grips of multiple complex emergencies. She said millions of people are suffering from severe drought, food and water shortages, internal displacement, the COVID-19 pandemic, and a shattered economy. A major problem, she said is access to banking services.

“We have reports of people really queuing very, very long hours to just access cash flow. And the maximum that they can withdraw is $200 per week. So that means that people are really out of cash and that their basic needs may not be met in the immediate future,” said Perroud.

The Red Cross reports 18 million people lack basic services and urgently need humanitarian aid to survive. It warns Afghanistan’s looming harsh winter threatens greater misery and hardship.

Perroud said this grim situation is likely to send tens of thousands of Afghans fleeing into neighboring countries in the coming months. She said the Red Cross is making preparations to provide them with the protection and humanitarian assistance they need.

“So, the current situation in Afghanistan is quite alarming and that is why we are getting ready for even the worst scenario. The displacement or refugee situation may not happen, but we would rather be prepared now rather than wait for this massive population of movement to happen and not know how to deal with it,” said Perroud.

The Red Cross says it requires $24 million to provide aid and protection to about 160,000 Afghan refugees for an initial 12-month period. It says it will focus most of its efforts on Iran, Pakistan, and Tajikistan, but adds preparations could be extended to other countries of asylum in Central Asia.
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