Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan commended U.S. President Joe Biden Wednesday for pressing ahead with efforts aimed at finding a political settlement to almost two decades of war in Afghanistan.  
  
Khan told an officially sponsored conference in Islamabad, which is debating national security issues, that Pakistan has “done all that we could” to promote the U.S.-led Afghan peace process. 
  
“After a long time, there is a hope for peace in Afghanistan, and this opportunity has come after a very long time,” the prime minister said.  
  
“The Biden administration has also recognized that the [Afghan] conflict has continued for 20 years and it must not prolong further,” Khan said.    FILE – U.S. troops patrol at an Afghan National Army (ANA) Base in Logar province, Afghanistan, Aug. 7, 2018.The United States faces a May 1 deadline to withdraw its remaining troops from Afghanistan in line with a February 2020 deal with the Taliban insurgency reached under former President Donald Trump. 
  US peace plan 
 
Biden said Wednesday it will be “tough” for the U.S. to withdraw troops from Afghanistan by May 1, but if the deadline is extended, he said it would not be by “a lot longer.” 
  
“That was not a very solidly negotiated deal that the president, the former president worked out,” Biden told ABC in an interview that aired Wednesday. “We´re in consultation with our allies as well as the government, and that decision is in process now,” he added. 
  
The Biden administration this month shared a proposed peace plan with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s government and the Taliban to try to accelerate a political settlement between the Afghan warring parties.  
  
The proposal, if it wins approval of all sides, would replace the Ghani administration with a so-called transitional government, where the Taliban would also have representation.  
  
The interim setup would then oversee negotiations on a nationwide cease-fire and the future permanent system of governance in Afghanistan.  
  
The presidential and parliamentary elections would be held after the adoption of a new Afghan constitution, as stipulated in the proposed U.S. plan.  
  
Khan reiterated Wednesday that Pakistan’s security and economic progress were directly linked to peace in Afghanistan. He cautioned that Afghan peace and political reconciliation efforts, however, are fraught with “many challenges.” 
  
“No one should underestimate how difficult it is. In a country facing civil war-type situation for 20 years, rivalries and mistrust grow to an extent where it becomes difficult to overcome them,” Khan said.  
  
Washington credits Islamabad with bringing Afghan Taliban leaders to the table for talks with the U.S. that produced the historic February 2020 deal to set the stage for closing what has been the longest war in American history.  FILE – In this Feb. 29, 2020 photo, U.S. peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, left, and Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban group’s top political leader sign a peace agreement between Taliban and U.S. officials in Doha, Qatar.  
Pakistan has traditionally maintained close contacts with the Taliban since the late 1990s when the Islamist group was in control of most of Afghanistan.  
  
The U.S.-led foreign military coalition ousted the Taliban from power, days after the September 11, 2001, terror attacks on American cities plotted by al-Qaida leaders at their sanctuaries on Afghan soil.   
  
Pakistan rejects charges they have covertly provided support to the Taliban’s insurgent campaign in Afghanistan against the U.S. invasion. 
  Moscow meeting 
  
Meanwhile, representatives of the Afghan adversaries also are set to attend a multi-nation conference Thursday in Moscow about how to cooperate on finding a solution to the conflict. 
  
Russia has invited the U.S. special envoy for Afghan peace, Zalmay Khalilzad, and representatives from countries such as Pakistan and China to the Moscow meeting. 
  
The conference will “complement all other international efforts to support the Afghanistan peace process and also reflects the international community’s concerns about progress to date,” State Department deputy spokeswoman Jalina Porter told reporters Monday in Washington.  
   
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A global rights monitor is urging authorities in Afghanistan to launch investigations into recent targeted killings of civilians in prominent positions, and to prosecute those responsible.  
  
The latest incident of targeted attacks on civilians came Tuesday when gunmen ambushed a bus carrying university staff in northeastern Baghlan province, killing the driver and a student. Officials said the attack injured six university lecturers. The Taliban insurgent group denied involvement and instead condemned the bus attack.  In a statement issued Tuesday, New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) noted that attacks in recent weeks have killed at least five women, mostly journalists and media workers, and seven factory workers from the minority Shi’ite Hazara community. 
  
Patricia Gossman, associate Asia director at HRW, said the surge in targeted killings “appears intended to drive women from public life and spread terror among minority communities.” 
  
Gossman said unidentified attackers also have gone after journalists, civil society activists, and professionals, killing many, forcing some to flee the country and leaving the rest to live in fear. 
  
An increasing number of Afghan women in journalism have left the profession because of worsening security and threats, a trend that emerged after 2015 and has accelerated, according to the HRW statement. Afghan men transport the body of one of three female media workers who were shot and killed by an unknown gunmen, at a hospital in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, March 2, 2021.  In 2020, 18 women journalists and media workers were threatened or violently attacked. The Afghan affiliate of Islamic State, known as IS Khorasan Province (ISKP), has claimed responsibility for many recent attacks, particularly those in and around Jalalabad, the capital of eastern Nangarhar province.  
  
“In many cases, insurgents have accused the women of violating social norms by taking on a public role,” said HRW. 
  
“Because many attacks on journalists go unclaimed and the Afghan government rarely investigates threats or attacks on journalists, there has been a growing climate of fear among the Afghan media,” the group stressed.  
  
Afghan authorities blame the Taliban for orchestrating the targeted killings, charges the Islamist insurgent group rejects. 
  
Gossman said the Afghan government “finds it convenient” to blame every attack on the Taliban rather than actually investigating it.  
  
Afghan authorities are reluctant to conduct an investigation, she alleged, because “to do so would inevitably expose some cases where corruption, local power struggles over land and resources, and abusive officials played a part.” 
  
Targeted killings of high-profile Afghans have swept through the country over the past year. The United Nations, in a report published last month, said the violence killed more than 700 civilians and injured nearly 550 others in 2020. 
  
Human Rights Watch noted it often is not clear whether the ISKP, the Taliban, or other groups are responsible for the threats and attacks.  
  
Critics say the prolonged Afghan conflict and rampant corruption in the country’s judicial system, along with security institutions, also are encouraging influential people aligned with the government to settle traditional tribal rivalries over land or resources, leading to some targeted assassinations. 
  
The spike in violence comes as the United States has accelerated diplomatic efforts to push the Taliban and the Afghan government to urgently reach a political settlement to end the conflict and pave the way for all American troops to leave the country.  
  
However, Afghans and independent critics are skeptical about an early resolution to the conflict and fear the U.S.-led foreign troop drawdown will lead to more bloodshed and chaos in Afghanistan. 
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A Bangladesh court on Sunday ordered the opening of an investigation of accusations by a cartoonist of torture by police under the Digital Security Act, his lawyer said.Ahmed Kabir Kishore, 45, was arrested in May 2020 under a controversial charge of carrying out anti-state activities and spreading rumors. He was jailed for several months.The well-known cartoonist won bail from the High Court two weeks ago after an outcry surrounding the February prison death of Mushtaq Ahmed, a writer arrested under the same law.Kishore claimed that he and Ahmed were being held in the same prison and that the writer was also tortured by strangers, which the authorities categorically deny.Kishore filed a petition in a Dhaka court on Wednesday, claiming he was beaten and severely slapped by more than a dozen strangers who kidnapped him on May 2 and held him for nearly three days.He said the men questioned him about cartoons he drew mocking a powerful businessman close to the government, and a series of cartoons criticizing the government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. According to him, the strangers then handed him over to an elite police unit.The court also ordered a specialized investigative service of the police “to investigate the alleged torture and submit a report by April 15,” the cartoonist’s lawyer, Jyotirmoy Barua, told AFP.The lawyer also said the court ordered three doctors from a Dhaka hospital to examine Kishore and added that Kishore underwent surgery Saturday on his right ear for injuries he allegedly sustained when he was beaten.Ahmed’s death in prison sparked several days of protests against the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Protesters also called for the repeal of digital laws, which they say are used to quell dissent.  The United States, the European Union and the United Nations have all expressed concern over the harshness of these laws.
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Afghanistan’s Interior Minister Masoud Andarabi warned on Saturday against a hasty U.S. retreat from the war-ravaged country, saying that the Taliban’s ties to al-Qaida remain intact and that a swift pullout would worsen global counterterrorism efforts.In an interview with The Associated Press at the heavily fortified Interior Ministry, Andarabi said that Afghan National Security Forces backed by U.S. assistance have so far put a squeeze on terrorist groups operating in Afghanistan, including the local Islamic State affiliate.A hasty, “uncalculated withdrawal could certainly give an opportunity for those terrorists … to threaten the world,” he said from inside the compound, protected by concrete blast walls, barbed wire and a phalanx of security guards.The warning came as Washington is reviewing a deal the Trump administration struck with the Taliban more than a year ago that calls for the withdrawal of the remaining 2,500 U.S. troops by May 1.That deal also calls for the Taliban to break ties with terrorist groups, like al-Qaida. U.S. officials have previously said some progress has been seen but more was needed, without elaborating.No decisions have been made on the review but U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is trying to jump-start a stalled peace process between the government and Taliban armed opposition, has warned Afghan President Ashraf Ghani that all options are still on the table, and that he should step up peacemaking efforts.Andarabi challenged Blinken’s prediction last weekend that the withdrawal of U.S. troops would yield territorial gains to the Taliban, saying that Afghan troops could hold territory, but still needed aid and air support to maintain remote checkpoints.”The Afghan security forces are fully capable of defending the capital and the cities and the territories that we are present in right now,” he said. “We think that the Afghan security forces this year have proven to the Taliban that they will not be able to gain territory.”While the Taliban have not attacked U.S. or NATO forces as a condition of the agreement, the Afghan National Security Forces have faced some blistering assaults.FILE – Security forces take part in an operation against Taliban militants in Arghandad district of Kandahar province, Afghanistan, Nov. 2, 2020.Since the U.S. signed the deal with the Taliban, violence has spiked, with poverty and high unemployment boosting crime. Despite billions of dollars in international aid to Afghanistan since the collapse of the Taliban government in 2001, 72% of Afghanistan’s 37 million people live below the poverty line, surviving on $1.90 or less per day. Unemployment hovers around 30%.Residents of the Afghan capital of Kabul are terrorized by runaway crime, bombings and assassinations. Residents complain bitterly of security failures.Andarabi sympathized with citizens’ complaints, but he said nearly 70% of Afghanistan’s police force is battling the Taliban, eroding efforts to maintain law and order. Every day the police confront more than 100 Taliban attacks throughout the country, he added.Even the U.N. Security Council has expressed concern at the targeted killings, aimed at civil society activists, journalists, lawyers and judges. The Islamic State has taken responsibility for many, but the Taliban and the government blame each other for the spike in attacks.At a press briefing on Friday, the Security Council “called for an immediate end to these targeted attacks and stressed the urgent and imperative need to bring the perpetrators to justice.”Andarabi said some progress had been made to stem the violence in the past month, with more than 400 arrests.But he underlined that Afghanistan still very much needs continued support from the international community, including the United States and NATO, in both war and peacetime.It will take, for example, great effort to reintegrate into a peacetime society the tens of thousands of armed men roving the country — regardless from which faction they hail, he said.Police face a daunting anti-narcotics battle in a country that produces more than 4,000 tons of opium, the raw material used to make heroin, more than every other opium-producing country combined. Peace, said Andarabi, would free the police to fight the drug war that is also fueling Afghanistan’s soaring crime rate. 
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At least four people were killed Saturday in a military plane crash in Kazakhstan, the government said.
 
The An-26 military transport plane crashed as it was landing in foggy conditions at the airport in Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city, the country’s Emergencies Ministry said.
 
After departing the capital of Nur-Sultan, officials at the airport in Almaty said communication with the Soviet-made Antonov aircraft was lost “during the landing approach,” and they added that it crashed at the end of the runway.
 
The plane belonged to the Central Asian country’s border guard agency that is part of the National Security Committee, according to Russia’s Interfax news agency.
 
Six crew members were aboard the plane, with no passengers.  
 
There was no immediate comment on the possible cause of the crash.
 
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A car bombing, a roadside blast and insurgent raids killed at least 22 people, including security forces and civilians, officials in Afghanistan said Saturday. The violence injured nearly 70 people, most of them civilians.
 
Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Tariq Arian said Saturday the car bomb blast targeted a police base in the province of Herat, which borders Iran.
 
Arian said the explosion damaged at least 14 houses in a nearby residential area. Local officials said about 60 people, including 20 women and 12 children, were among the injured.  At least five of the wounded people were in critical condition, hospital sources in Herat said.  
 
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. A spokesman for the Taliban insurgency said it had nothing to do with the bombing.
 
But Afghan President Ashraf Ghani blamed the Taliban, saying the insurgents “continued their illegitimate war and violence against our people” and “demonstrated once again they have no intention” for a peaceful resolution to the conflict.  
 
Separately, a roadside bomb went off Saturday morning in Tarinkot, capital of the southern Uruzgan province, killing three civilians and injuring four others, local officials said.  
 
No group claimed responsibility for that attack.  
 
Meanwhile, Taliban insurgents carried out pre-dawn raids in northern Kunduz and Balkh provinces, killing 11 Afghan National Army soldiers and injuring six others.  
 
The assailants also captured five Afghan soldiers during Kunduz clashes, a local security official told VOA on condition of anonymity.  
 
The Taliban spokesman confirmed insurgents staged both the attacks.  
 
Violence has increased in Afghanistan in recent months, including a wave of targeted killings of civil society activists, journalists, and government officials.Locals inspect the site of a car bomb attack in Herat province, west of Kabul, Afghanistan, March 13, 2021.Stalled peace process
The United States has renewed diplomatic efforts to help find a negotiated settlement to nearly two decades of Afghan hostilities and close what has been the longest overseas military intervention in U.S. history.
 
President Joe Biden’s administration recently submitted a draft peace plan to leaders of the Afghan government and the Taliban in a bid to revive a troubled peace process initiated by former U.S. president Donald Trump.  
 
Biden’s proposed plan seeks formation of an “inclusive” interim government in Kabul to oversee talks between the Taliban and other Afghan groups. It suggests a United Nations-supervised effort to forge a regional consensus on Afghanistan to push Afghan rivals to stop fighting and agree on a power-sharing deal.  
 
Meanwhile, Russia is preparing to host delegates next week in Moscow from the United States, China and Pakistan, saying the meeting is being held to discuss “ways to promote” a peaceful settlement to the Afghan conflict.
 
International diplomatic efforts to promote peace apparently stem from concerns the warring sides in Afghanistan are preparing to intensify the conflict in the coming spring fighting season.
 
The United Nations estimates the war, now in its 20th year, has killed or injured more than 100,000 Afghan civilians since 2009.  
 
Russian officials say the Taliban and representatives of the Afghan government also have been invited to the March 18 meeting in Moscow.
 
On Saturday, Afghan national security adviser Hamdullah Mohib told reporters Kabul will send its delegation to the event in the Russian capital. The Taliban, which maintains close contacts with Russia, have not announced a decision about attending the Moscow meeting.
 
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Police in New Delhi detained dozens of Rohingya refugees when they came to the office of the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) seeking protection from what they described as harassment by police.More than 200 Rohingya refugees in the northern city of Jammu were detained last week and the police identified the refugees as “illegal immigrants,” according to a statement issued by authorities. The police said the refugees will face deportation to Myanmar, where they had previously fled what has been described by advocates as genocidal violence.After the refugees in Jammu were told that more Rohingya would be detained from the area and that those who hold the UNHCR-issued ID cards would not be spared, some Rohingya families, afraid of being arrested and deported, went to the UNHCR office in Delhi seeking protection.“We have detained 88 Rohingya, including some women and children,” a police officer from the Vikaspuri police station in Delhi told VOA. “Police will act against these illegal immigrants from Myanmar. They could not show their passport and Indian visas. So, we have detained them,” said the officer who refusing to give his name, “they are in police custody now.”The government of Myanmar revoked the citizenship rights of the Rohingya in 1982.Since then, the minority Rohingya Muslims have fled to neighboring Bangladesh and other countries, including India, largely to escape discrimination, violence and poverty. Last year an estimated 40,000 Rohingya refugees lived in India, scattered across several states.However, an anti-Rohingya sentiment has been increasing in predominantly Hindu India after the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swept to power in 2014. Leaders from BJP and other Hindu nationalist parties have since been demanding that the Rohingya refugees be expelled from the country.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 7 MB480p | 9 MB540p | 13 MB720p | 34 MB1080p | 56 MBOriginal | 151 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioStateless Rohingyas from Myanmar have no way to travel to any country legally, and their status as refugees is not always recognized, as is the case in India. India did not sign the 1951 U.N. Refugee Convention and thus treats all Rohingya entering the country as illegal immigrants. There are a few hundred Rohingya currently jailed in India. In the past three years, India deported about 100 Rohingya refugees to Myanmar.The UNHCR issues identity cards to registered refugees to help prevent their arbitrary arrest, detention and deportation. However in India hundreds of Rohingya refugees have been arrested and jailed, despite holding valid UNHCR cards. Almost all of the estimated 220 Rohingya refugees who were detained in Jammu last week carried the UNHCR refugee ID cards.A Rohingya community leader in Jammu said the refugees who have been detained in Delhi are afraid of deportation to Myanmar.“One of the arrested Rohingya said to me over the phone that they are being held in a jail-like detention center. ‘To avoid detention in Jammu we came to Delhi seeking protection from the UNHCR,’” the refugee told a community leader who spoke to VOA. The leader who did not want to be identified for fear of reprisal by the police said the refugee told him they are in a state of limbo “‘Now we have been detained in Delhi. We are very anxious, shall we be deported to Myanmar.’”UNHCR has voiced concern over Thursday’s detention of 88 Rohingya refugees who traveled to its office in New Delhi to seek assistance, Indrika Ratwatte, director of the UNHCR regional bureau for Asia and the Pacific, said in a statement.“UNHCR is seeking immediate access to those who have been transferred to a government facility at this stage. We urge the Indian authorities to ensure appropriate care and support to these refugees, among whom are a number of women and children.”Abul Hashim, a Rohingya refugee in Jammu said that everyone in his five-member family had UNHCR ID card but still he was afraid they would all be arrested and deported.“People holding UNHCR cards are also being arrested. We are extremely scared of being arrested and deported to Myanmar. Myanmar is still very unsafe for Rohingya. We cannot return home yet,” Hashim told VOA.“The UNHCR has failed to protect us from being identified as illegal immigrants and arrested in India. This is very disappointing for all Rohingya refugees in India,” he added.
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Armenian President Armen Sarkissian returned to work after undergoing a medical exam, his press office said Friday, following reports that was admitted to a hospital because of COVID-19 complications.Sarkissian was diagnosed with coronavirus in January and was briefly hospitalized in London.Russian news agencies cited local media reports Friday, saying Sarkissian was undergoing treatment for heart problems as well as COVID-19. However, the president’s press office said Sarkissian underwent an examination at Astghik Medical Center, then went back to his usual work. It was reported on Jan. 5 that Sarkissian showed symptoms of coronavirus when he underwent leg surgery. The reported symptoms included high fever and double pneumonia.
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Officials in southwestern Pakistan said Friday an explosion at a coal mine in Balochistan province has killed six miners.Reuters reports the blast was triggered by “accumulating methane gas.”Two miners were rescued from the mine before the blast, according to the Chinese news service Xinhua.Many of the mines in Balochistan are Chinese supported.
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U.S. President Joe Biden and the prime ministers of Japan, India, and Australia are meeting virtually Friday for a summit of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, where they will discuss strategies to counter China’s rising influence in the Indo-Pacific region, including an offer to match Beijing’s ambitious vaccine diplomacy.The Quad is launching a financing mechanism to ramp up production of up to a billion doses of vaccines by 2022 to address a shortage in the Indo-Pacific region, mainly in Southeast Asian countries, a Biden administration official said in a briefing call to reporters Thursday.The group has put together “complex financing vehicles” to dramatically increase vaccine production capacity the official said. A second administration official said the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation is working with companies in India and the governments of Japan and Australia to increase production of vaccines already authorized by the World Health Organization.The administration did not say whether this Quad vaccine mechanism would be separate from, or part of, COVAX, the global mechanism to distribute 2 billion doses of vaccines to 94 lower- and middle-income countries by the end of the year, partly by using AstraZeneca/Oxford University-developed vaccines manufactured by the Serum Institute of India.Biden has been under pressure to respond to Beijing’s vaccine diplomacy as he seeks to vaccinate all Americans first by ensuring that the U.S. vaccine stockpile is “over supplied,” to prepare to vaccinate against new variants, and to vaccinate children. There is currently not enough data to determine which of the three vaccines authorized for emergency use in the U.S. is safe and effective for children.Chinese President Xi Jinping proclaimed in May that Chinese-made vaccines would become a “global public good”. Since then, Beijing has pledged roughly half a billion doses of its vaccine to more than 45 countries, according to a country-by-country Associated Press tally. After China’s initial failures in handling the outbreak, some see Beijing’s vaccine diplomacy as a face-saving tactic and a means to expand its influence.Countering ChinaThe Quad is not a formal military alliance but often seen as a counterweight to growing Chinese military and economic influence in Asia. The 90-minute Friday meeting would be the first leaders’ summit since the Quad’s first meeting in 2004 following the tsunami in Aceh, Indonesia.“President Biden has worked hard to bring these leaders together to make a clear statement of the importance of the Indo-Pacific region,” the administration official said. The official added that during the leaders’ meeting, there will be an “honest, open discussion about China’s role on the global stage.”Analysts say there is wide expectation that the summit will elevate the Biden administration’s agenda in the Indo-Pacific.“This is a pretty big signal that this is a high priority for the new administration,” Sheila A. Smith a senior fellow for Japan studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, said.Following the Quad summit, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will travel together to Japan and South Korea next week, followed by a solo trip by Austin to India.Without providing details on the timing, the administration also announced that Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga will be the first leader to visit Biden at the White House in person.The U.S. wants to return to strong U.S. alliances in the region to project strength to China, according to Bonnie Glaser, director of China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.“The Biden administration has crafted this arrangement to signal that it is engaging from a position of strength,” she said.State Department spokesperson Ned Price acknowledged Thursday that over the course of recent years these alliances “in some cases have atrophied, in some cases, they have frayed.”In November 2017, former President Donald Trump in Vietnam outlined the U.S. vision for a “free and open Indo-Pacific.”While the Trump administration’s strategy in the region focused largely on maritime security and trade, the Biden administration is seeking a more comprehensive approach, including cooperation to defeat COVID-19, combat climate change, ensure a resilient supply chain and post-pandemic economic recovery.“It’s a whole – how does the region look going forward, and how do we maintain the prosperity that has long been part of the Indo-Pacific?” Smith said.After the series of meetings with regional allies, Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan will meet their Chinese counterparts in Anchorage, Alaska, on Thursday.
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Afghanistan’s Education Ministry is facing fierce criticism for banning girls over 12 years of age from singing the national anthem in mixed gender gatherings.
 
The order, dated March 6, came to light Wednesday when someone took a picture of the notice circulated to educational institutions and posted it on social media.
 
The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), the nations official human rights body, called it a violation of children’s rights, the constitution, and international conventions.
 
“The right to education, freedom of expression and access to artistic skills is a fundamental right of all children, without discrimination based on age or sex. All boys and girls can enjoy their rights equally and freely within the law,” AIHRC said on its official Twitter account.
 
Roya Ahmedi, a 17-year-old high school student in Kabul, is a member of her high school’s band.
 
“When I heard this news from social media, it was very disappointing for me because this decision was taken by an organization where a woman is the determiner (decision maker),” she said.
 
She was referring to Afghanistan’s Acting Education Minister Rangina Hamidi.
 
Ahmedi added that one’s “vision and whatever we love” was far more important than one’s gender.
 
“I love to be the women’s sound,” she said.
 
Social media in Afghanistan was full of criticism over the decision. One Twitter user, Marjan Mateen, uploaded a 2019 clip of schoolgirls singing the national anthem in a grand ceremony. Joining them on stage were several rows of men in uniform.
 
“We failed you! I am sorry,” Mateen’s tweet said.We failed you! I am sorry. https://t.co/FHio9VJhAs— Marjan Mateen (@MarjanMateen) March 10, 2021Dr. Ahmad Sarmast, founder of Afghanistan National Institute of Music, said the announcement “shocked the nation.”Afghanistan’s Ministry of Education, shocked the nation by making an announcement banning girls over the age of 12 from singing in school and performing songs or anthems in public. @IMC_Network@EMC_IMC@official_isme@MonashAlumni@Freemuse98@AmrullahSaleh2@AfghanistanIHRCpic.twitter.com/GdaOss2XIP— Dr Ahmad Sarmast (@DSarmast) March 10, 2021Najiba Arian, a spokesperson for the Education Ministry, confirmed the ban and said the decision was a result of requests from parents.
 
She said after a year of COVID-related school closures, parents wanted their children to focus on education rather than singing.    
 
Acting Minister Hamidi, who took over in June of last year, holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia in the United States and sits on the advisory boards of such organizations as Open Society Afghanistan, Afghan Women Chamber of Commerce and Industries, and the Afghan Institute for Civil Society.
 
After taking over, she moved to merge the Islamic studies department of the ministry with several others, causing a severe backlash from religious circles. Eventually, she was forced to reverse the decision but some in Afghanistan think her move may be an effort to appease the religious crowd.
 
She is also under pressure politically to resign, after she failed to get a vote of confidence from the Afghan parliament in December. The vote was needed to move her from an acting minister to a full minister status.
 
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The war in Nagorno-Karabakh between Armenia and Azerbaijan in 2020 is still very present in the daily lives of its people as they work to rebuild – and heal – amid a peace that many see as fragile.  Jonathan Spier narrates this report by Pablo Gonzalez in Stepanakert.Cambera:  Pablo Gonzalez, Courtesy Produced by: Rod James  
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Any hope for a political settlement and peaceful end to two decades of war in Afghanistan remains under significant threat from rising violence, both at the hands of the Taliban and from multiple terrorist and extremist organizations, as well as from the Afghan government’s inability to sustain itself, according to a new U.S. watchdog report.The assessment is part of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction’s (SIGAR) 2021 High Risk List. It comes as the United States has ramped up pressure on the Afghan government to make a deal with the Taliban, and as the U.S. stares down a May 1 deadline to withdraw its remaining 2,500 troops from the country as part of its own deal with the Taliban.FILE – John F. Sopko, Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, June 10, 2014.”If the goal of our reconstruction effort was to build a strong, stable, self-reliant Afghan state that could protect our national security interests as well as Afghanistan’s, it is a mission yet to be accomplished and may turn out to be a bridge too far,” Special Inspector General John Sopko said Wednesday during the virtual rollout of the report.”We’ve got a lot of questions we’ve got to answer and decisions to make in 52 days,” Sopko added, referring to the troop withdrawal deadline.NEW: “The clock is truly ticking on America’s longest war” @SIGARHQ’s John Sopko tells @CSIS as he releases a new ‘High Risk’ report on #AfghanistanThe report warns the path forward in Afghanistan “has never been more fraught with risk.— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) March 10, 2021The overriding obstacle to a peaceful resolution in Afghanistan, according to the SIGAR report, remains the unabated violence. It notes that since signing the deal, the Taliban “have not significantly changed their tactics.”“Each quarter since the agreement was signed (April–June, July–September and October–December 2020) has seen a higher average number of enemy-initiated attacks compared to the same quarters in 2019,” the report found.The concern echoes warnings from U.S. and international counterterrorism officials that despite talking about peace and talking about cutting ties with terror groups like al-Qaida, the Taliban have shown few signs they are ready to make good on such commitments.”I think we’ll know if there are signs of the #Taliban being serious about suppressing any potential future threats to the int’l community from #alQaida or not” per @EFittonBrown”As yet, we haven’t seen any evidence that they are”— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) February 25, 2021So, too, the report warns the threats from al-Qaida, Islamic State’s Afghan branch and other terror groups and even criminal networks have not lessened. Instead, SIGAR cautions the danger may increase if groups or factions currently following the Taliban’s lead decide to go rogue if they do not like how current diplomatic efforts are progressing.Underlying all of this, according to Sopko, is the fact that the Afghan government still cannot sustain itself despite $143 billion in U.S. assistance to help rebuild the country and considerable aid from other donors.”This has been a horrible waste of [U.S.] taxpayer money, in many regards,” Sopko said. “It may not be an overstatement that if foreign assistance is withdrawn and peace negotiations fail, Taliban forces could be at the gates of Kabul in short order.”Foreign donors’ contributionsAccording to SIGAR data, 80% of the Afghan government’s $80 billion in public expenditures in 2018, the last year for which information is available, was covered by money from foreign donors.The problems appear to be even more dire when it comes to the Afghan government’s security forces. The U.S. believes the government in Kabul is still years away from being able to oversee the $50 million payroll system that has been in development since 2016.There are also reasons to believe that without sustained support, Afghan security forces will fall apart because of a lack of personnel.Sopko said as recently as the first quarter of fiscal 2021, 40% of the Afghan military’s logistics, maintenance and training depended upon 18,000 contractors and trainers who supplement the almost 10,000 U.S. and NATO forces in the country.Under the terms of the U.S. deal with the Taliban, those key personnel are required to either stop work or withdraw along with U.S. forces.”The Afghan government relies heavily on these foreign contractors and trainers to function,” Sopko said.“This may be more devastating to the effectiveness of the Afghan security forces than a withdrawal of our remaining troops,” he added, noting that “no Afghan airframe can be sustained as combat effective for more than a few months in the absence of contractor support.”  
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will visit Asia in the coming days, according to the State Department and the Pentagon, their first trip abroad since the Senate confirmed them in January to their positions in the Biden administration.
 
State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement Wednesday their March 14-18 trip to Japan and South Korea will “reaffirm the United States’ commitment to strengthening our alliances and to highlight cooperation that promotes peace, security and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region around the world.”
 
Austin’s objective, according to a Pentagon statement, is to discuss with senior officials “the importance of international defense relationships, and reinforce the United States’ commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific region — founded on respect for international rules, laws, and norms.”   FILE – U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin speaks to Defense Department personnel at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, Feb. 10, 2021..Blinken and Austin will attend a security meeting in Tokyo hosted by their Japanese counterparts, Foreign Affairs Minister Toshimitsu Motegi and Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi, and meet with other top officials to discuss a “range of bilateral and global issues.”  
 
Blinken also meets virtually with Japanese business leaders to discuss economic relations between the two countries and the “economic impact of COVID-19.”
 
After two days in Japan, Blinken and Austin travel to Seoul, South Korea where they will discuss “issues of bilateral and global importance” with Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong and Defense Minister Suh Wook and other senior officials.
 
Austin begins his trip on March 13 with a visit to U.S. Indo-Pacific Command Headquarters in Hawaii. He later visits India for a meeting with Defense Minister Rajnath Singh and other top national security officials to discuss “deepening the U.S.-India Major Defense Partnership” and ways to achieve a “prosperous and open Indo-Pacific and Western Indian Ocean Region.” 
 
Blinken will also emphasize the importance of a free press during the trip, signaling a reversal from former President Donald Trump’s frequent outbursts against journalists and press freedoms.  
 
Blinken will host a virtual roundtable with “emerging Japanese journalists” to discuss “the role of a free press in promoting good governance and defending democracy.” Blinken also meets virtually with Korean journalists to discuss the importance of the U.S.-South Korea alliance in promoting peace worldwide.
 
Blinken and Austin’s visit to Asia comes as the Biden administration has indicated the need to counter China’s aggressive actions in the East China Sea and after Blinken said on March 3 that the relationship between the United States and China is the world’s “biggest geopolitical test” of the century.  
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A Bangladeshi satellite television station has hired the country’s first transgender news anchor, saying it hopes the appointment will help change society.  
Tashnuva Anan Shishir, who previously worked as a rights activist and actress, debuted on Dhaka-based Boishakhi TV on Monday, International Women’s Day. She read a three-minute news bulletin, and after finishing cried as her colleagues applauded and cheered.
“I was very nervous, I was feeling so much emotional, but I had in my mind that I must overcome this ordeal, this final test,” Shishir, 29, said in an interview Tuesday.  
Born Kamal Hossain Shishir, she said she found in her early teens that she was stuck in a man’s body and behaved like a woman. She said family members, relatives and neighbors started teasing her and she was bullied and sexually exploited.  
She started feeling that it was impossible to continue living and attempted suicide, she said.  
The worst thing that happened was that her father stopped talking to her, saying she was the reason that her family was losing face, Shishir said.  
“I left home,” she said.  
She moved from her family’s house in a southern coastal district to live a solitary life in the capital, where she underwent hormone therapy, worked for charities and acted with a local theater group. In January, she began studying public health at a Dhaka university, which she is continuing alongside her job at the TV station.  
Bangladesh officially has more than 10,000 transgender people, but activists say the actual number is much higher in the nation of more than 160 million people. The LGBT community faces social isolation, sexual abuse and other forms of harassment. Finding employment is very difficult, and many live by begging or selling sex.  
Since 2013, the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has allowed transgender people to identify themselves as a separate gender. They were given voting rights in 2018.Some changes are already visible  
In November, a charity group opened Bangladesh’s first Islamic school for the transgender community.
Boishakhi TV said it wanted to be part of the changes and has hired a second transgender person in its drama department.  
“Our prime minister has taken many steps for the transgender people. Encouraged by such steps, we have appointed two transgender people, We want the attitude of society to change through these appointments,” said Tipu Alam Milon, the station’s deputy managing director.
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Russia has sent invitations to leading Afghan politicians, the Taliban, and envoys of the United States, China, and Pakistan to participate in a three day conference starting March 18 on how to facilitate the peace process in Afghanistan.The proposal was first floated by the Russian Special Envoy on Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov in an interview with the Russian Sputnik news agency last month.Saying that the Doha peace negotiations seemed to have come to a standstill, Kabulov told the agency that his government had taken the Americans on board for a Moscow meeting.“[W]e have another mechanism, which has emerged over the past 2 years, by the way, at the initiative of the Americans, and which we have supported – to form a small group of the states most influential on the Afghan processes, which, besides Russia, the USA and China, include, naturally Pakistan and Iran,” he told Sputnik.Kabulov said Iran was hesitant to sit at the table with the Americans due to diplomatic differences but he was hopeful its position would change.Afghan Foreign Minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar said his government was deliberating whether to attend the conference in Moscow.Faraidoon Khwazoon, the spokesman of Afghanistan’s High Council for National Reconciliation (HCNR) also said the invitation was under consideration.Dmitriy A. Zhirnov, the Russian ambassador in Kabul, has met several Afghan leaders, including Abdullah Abdullah and Hamed Karzai in past weeks.Meanwhile, United Nations spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said the international agency had not yet received a formal request from the U.S. to convene a foreign minister level conference on Afghanistan.“We’ve seen it because it was in the media, but we have… as far as I’ve checked, we have not received the letter officially,” he said.However, he added that the U.N. was ready to “support any effort to reach a peaceful resolution to the conflict, and we stand ready to assist, if so requested by the parties.”U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivers remarks at the State Department in Washington, March 3, 2021.In a letter to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, obtained by VOA last Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. would ask the United Nations to “convene foreign ministers and envoys from Russia, China, Pakistan, Iran, India, and the United States to discuss a unified approach to supporting peace in Afghanistan.”Those were the countries, according to the U.S. secretary of state, that had to work together for a chance at successfully resolving Afghanistan’s conflict.The multiple simultaneous efforts to jumpstart a stalled peace process come under the shadow of a looming deadline of May 1, when, under a deal the U.S. signed with the Taliban in February 2020, the U.S. is supposed to withdraw all foreign forces from Afghanistan.Many, including Secretary Blinken as per his letter, fear such a move, under the current security situation in Afghanistan, would mean the Taliban might make swift territorial gains.Many in Afghanistan fear a repeat of the 1990s when, after the Soviet withdrawal and a collapse of the government, civil war engulfed the country, killing thousands and damaging the capital, Kabul, with repeated attacks.The administration of President Joe Biden is reviewing the deal signed by the former administration of President Donald Trump, but has said that all options, including the complete withdrawal of its forces from Afghanistan, are still on the table.Many Afghanistan experts say that if the U.S. unilaterally decides to stay in Afghanistan after May 1st, the Taliban would consider it a breach and may start the war against the U.S. again. After last year’s deal, the Taliban stopped attacking U.S. and NATO forces in the country.U.S. peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad was in Qatar last weekend to meet the Taliban and the group’s spokesman said he shared with them a proposal to take the peace process forward that includes setting up a transitional government in Afghanistan that includes the Taliban.President Ghani and his senior officials have rejected the idea of a transitional government, saying the only way to change a government in Afghanistan is through elections. 
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The coronavirus pandemic affected millions of people in South and Central Asia. VOA’s Bezhan Hamdard shines a light on the ups and downs of life under COVID-19 in this region.Produced by: Bezhan Hamdard 
 
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In India, International Women’s Day has been marked by sit-ins and hunger strikes led by female farmers against the country’s new agricultural laws.Nearly three-fourths of rural women in India who work full time work in farming, according to Oxfam India, making up a substantial share of India’s workforce. Local media reported that at least 40,000 women traveled to New Delhi this International Women’s Day to take part in the protests.Throughout the country, women have played a leading role in the months-long protests. In Ghazipur, around 100 women wearing yellow scarves representing the colors of mustard fields participated in a sit-in, according to Reuters. At least 17 of them engaged in a hunger strike.While Prime Minister Narendra Modi says the laws are an effort to modernize agriculture, for months now, they have been met with protests that gathered hundreds of thousands of farmers throughout the country. Farmers allege that the three new laws passed by the Indian Parliament in September would allow big companies to drive down crop prices.In response to backlash, the Modi administration proposed an 18-month hold on the laws. Farmers, however, said they will not settle for anything less than a full repeal of such laws.Indian farmers have been protesting at least since November. Agriculture makes up about 15% of the world’s fifth largest economy. It is also the primary source of livelihood for nearly 60% of the country’s population. 
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The United States says no decision has been made about its military commitment to Afghanistan after May 1, a deadline for the remaining 2,500 U.S. troops to withdraw from the country in line with a year-old peace pact with the Taliban insurgency.The comments came in response to reports that Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in a letter to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, warned that Ghani’s government may have to deal with a Taliban onslaught on its own if the Afghan leader fails to urgently consider proposals on accelerating U.S.-initiated peace efforts. Proposals reportedly include an international conference under the auspicious of the United Nations to push forward the Afghan peace process. When contacted by VOA, a State Department spokesperson said, “As a general matter, we do not comment on alleged correspondence with foreign leaders.”The spokesperson also said, “We have not made any decisions about our force posture in Afghanistan after May 1. All options remain on the table.”Senior Afghan officials and opposition politicians confirmed that Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah, chairman of the country’s peace council, had received the letter. They said the U.S. peace envoy to the country, Zalmay Khalilzad, discussed and explained the proposed peace plan outlined in the correspondence Khalilzad reportedly also shared proposals for installing an interim government in Kabul to oversee the peace process.“The letter was handed over to President Ghani and myself two days before the visit of Khalilzad,” Abdullah said Monday in a nationally televised speech to a ceremony in the Afghan capital.Speaking to the same event, Afghan Vice President Amrullah Saleh brushed aside Blinken’s letter, saying his government was not worried about the contents of the document nor would he ever agree to such a peace plan.“America and NATO have the right to arrange conferences and talk to the Taliban about their troops in Afghanistan, but it is our right too not to make a deal based on others’ timetable and compromise on the destiny of 35 million Afghans,” Saleh said.FILE – British soldiers with the NATO-led Resolute Support Mission arrive at the site of an attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, March 6, 2020.During his meetings with Afghan government officials, politicians and civil society leaders in Kabul, Khalilzad also discussed the formation of an interim government for overseeing the peace process.Ghani strongly opposed the idea while addressing the Afghan parliament on Saturday, saying any transfer of power must come through elections and he was ready to discuss hold fresh elections under the country’s constitution.Blinken wrote to Ghani that the U.S. would ask the U.N. to “convene foreign ministers and envoys from Russia, China, Pakistan, Iran, India, and the United States to discuss a unified approach to supporting peace in Afghanistan.”He also said Washington would ask Turkey to host a high-level meeting of Afghan stakeholders and the Taliban in the coming weeks to “finalize a peace agreement,” and urged Ghani to send his representatives.The U.S. is pursuing high-level diplomatic efforts “to move matters more fundamentally and quickly toward a settlement and a permanent and comprehensive cease-fired” in Afghanistan, the letter said.Blinken concluded his letter by warning that in the event of a U.S. troop drawdown he was concerned “the security situation will worsen and that the Taliban could make rapid territorial gains.”Peace negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban insurgents in Qatari capital, Doha, have largely stalled as U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration reviews how to handle the process, including troop withdrawal.FILE – Members of the Taliban delegation attend the opening session of the peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban in the Qatari capital Doha, Sept. 12, 2020.After his meetings in Kabul, Khalilzad traveled to Doha where he shared with Taliban leaders his proposal for an interim Afghan government, a spokesman for the insurgent group told VOA. Mohammad Naeem said the Taliban was studying the proposal and will issue a formal response later.The U.S. has renewed diplomatic efforts for arranging a peace deal amid concerns the Afghan government and the Taliban are preparing to intensify fighting in the coming spring fighting season.The U.S.-Taliban deal signed in February 2020 requires all American and roughly 10,000 NATO troops to withdraw from Afghanistan. In return, the Taliban has pledged to cut ties with terrorist groups and find a negotiated settlement the country’s long conflict with Afghan rivals. The insurgents, however, are under fire for allegedly not abandoning terror links or not reducing violence.VOA’s Cindy Saine contributed to this report. 
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Malala Yousafzai is a Nobel laureate known around the world for her activism, but she’s also a cartoon fan, and is taking her love of television and film to Apple TV+.
 
Yousafzai, 23, who graduated from Oxford last June, announced Monday that she has partnered with Apple in a multi-year deal to develop dramas, documentaries, comedies, animation and series for kids.
 
Yousafzai was the youngest winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, in 2014, for working to protect children from slavery, extremism and child labor. In her home country, Pakistan, she was outspoken in insisting that girls have a right to an education. She was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman while riding a school bus at age 15. She recovered and went on to fight against girls’ oppression worldwide.
 
In an interview with The Associated Press, Yousafzai talked about her love of cartoons as an escape, how she stays hopeful in a sometimes bleak world, and how she will mark Monday’s International Women’s Day.
 
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
 AP: Your new deal with Apple includes comedy and animated shows. Are you a comedy fan?
 Yousafzai: In my childhood, it was Cartoon Network and, you know, seeing “Tom and Jerry,” “Courage,” “Scooby Doo” and all of those TV cartoon shows. When you are a child — and especially when terrorism started — to know that there is sort of this world in cartoons where you can escape from the reality around you and just giggle and laugh and just entertain yourself. You know, I have been watching comedy movies from Bollywood to Hollywood, and I am a big fan of animation as well. I have not missed a single animation movie. It just keeps you engaged and entertained and also gives you very beautiful messages.
 AP: You’ll also be developing documentaries and maybe covering your world travels to help girls?
 Yousafzai: I definitely want to do documentaries and non-scripted shows, and it will cover a lot — hopefully my own journey as well — and the incredible girls that I meet…. But there’s so much more to explore and to learn. I’m excited. You know, I’m still at the stage where I’m exploring ideas. I can tell you that there are so many incredible ideas and it’s so difficult to pick and choose one.
 AP: A stat on your website suggests it will take 100 years until all girls have access to education. Sometimes the news is so dark, how do you maintain hope?
 Yousafzai: I think when you raise your voice, it can have an impact and it can bring change. What will make me pessimistic is if we don’t do anything. So as long as we keep doing our part, there is optimism, there is hope. I think it’s just the silence that keeps things going as they are.
 AP: How are you going to mark International Women’s Day?
 YousafzaI: We need to just take a bit of a break and celebrate the accomplishments that women have made. And I’m not just talking about historical figures and activist women — we need to applaud them and appreciate them. But us as individuals, who are in school, in colleges studying, or parents who are coping with COVID and being at home and managing their kids and also doing work and managing these Zoom calls and everything. So to all the women who just coped — especially last year, you know — take a break and be proud of yourself. You have done an incredible job.
 AP: Many girls look up to you as a hero. Who are your heroes?
 YousafzaI: I have many, many heroes, from my parents to historical figures like Benazir Bhutto, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela. But the people who have actually and truly inspired me are the young girls that I have met in my journey. Girls from Iraq to Brazil, Nigeria, Kenya. So many of these girls have incredible stories that they have seen — wars, conflicts. They have become displaced. They have been forced into marriages at early ages. But they do not give up on their dreams and they are still fighting for the right to education, for their right to a safe future. If they are not giving up on their fight for education, then why should we?
 AP: How has it been in quarantine at home?
 Yousafzai: I spent the last two months of college at home because of COVID. And I was taking my exams at home and I graduated at home and it’s all just been home, home, home. I have two younger brothers and it’s quite difficult to manage your work while they’re in the house. They have their own sort of schedule and timetable. And I would have an important call and they would just come to my room and not appreciate that. But still, you know, they are my brothers and I love them. So we’re just coping with it and trying our best not to argue too much.
 AP: What is your message for young girls who want to be activists?
 Yousafzai: My message to young girls is always, never underestimate yourself. We are often told that you have to grow older and get a PhD or something, and then once you are 50 or 40, then you can change things. Follow that path if you want, but you can change things now as well. Do not underestimate the power you have, even in the small actions that you take, whether that is raising awareness, doing fundraising for a cause you believe in, talking to somebody that doesn’t agree with you…. Talk about why women’s rights and girls’ rights are important, why climate change is important. All of these things matter.
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has warned Afghanistan that it may have to face a Taliban onslaught on its own if President Ashraf Ghani fails to urgently consider proposals on accelerating the peace process.   “I must also make clear to you, Mr. President, that as our policy process continues in Washington, the United States has not ruled out any option. We are considering the full withdrawal of our forces by May 1st, as we consider other options,” the letter said.Fearing that might lead to a worsening of the security situation and the Taliban making swift territorial gains, Blinken added, “I am making this clear to you so that you understand the urgency of my tone regarding the collective work outlined in this letter.”  A source in Ghani’s office confirmed that the Afghan president had received a letter from Blinken.  The letter, a copy of which VOA has obtained, outlines the intense diplomatic efforts under way over Afghanistan and the expectations from Ghani.Blinken said the U.S. would ask the United Nations to “convene foreign ministers and envoys from Russia, China, Pakistan, Iran, India, and the United States to discuss a unified approach to supporting peace in Afghanistan.” These were the countries, according to the secretary of state, that had to work together for a chance at successfully resolving Afghanistan’s conflict.He also said the U.S. would ask Turkey to host a high-level meeting of Afghan stakeholders and the Taliban in the coming weeks to “finalize a peace agreement,” and urged Ghani to send his representatives.   The U.S., Blinken said, had prepared a revised proposal for a “90-day Reduction-in-Violence, which is intended to prevent a spring offensive by the Taliban.”  A spring offensive is when the Taliban start their attacks with renewed energy after a lull or a reduction forced by the harsh winter months in Afghanistan’s mostly rugged terrain.The reduction in violence is a top demand of the Afghan government and the international community, which says the Taliban kept the levels unacceptably high despite a February 2020 deal with the U.S.  In return, Blinken asked Ghani to show “the urgent leadership that President Biden and I ask of you in the coming weeks” by working with political rivals and others to create a united front that Afghans regard as “inclusive and credible.  “[D]isunity on the part of Afghan leaders proved disastrous in the early 1990s,” Blinken told Ghani.US Envoy in Afghanistan on Resumption of Peace TalksKhalilzad is expected to discuss the looming May 1st deadline for troop withdrawal from Afghanistan and how to take the peace process forwardThe letter asked Ghani to “develop constructive positions” on proposals the U.S. envoy on Afghanistan peace, Zalmay Khalilzad, brought with him to the region last week in an effort to jumpstart the flailing peace processThe proposals included the formation of a “’transitional Peace Government of Afghanistan” that would eventually transfer power to a permanent government “following the adoption of a new constitution and national elections.” Taliban spokesman Mohammad Naeem told VOA that Khalilzad shared with them the proposal and said Taliban leaders will study it before a formal response is issued.“I suspect this letter could worsen relations between Ghani and the Biden administration, given that the letter makes clear that the U.S. is prepared to take steps to help put together a new Afghan government, something that Ghani has rejected because it likely wouldn’t include him,” said Michael Kugelman, the deputy director for the Asia program at the Washington-based Wilson Center, a policy forum group.The idea of a transitional setup has been floating around in various forms since before the Afghan presidential elections of 2019, but Ghani has always bristled at the suggestion.  Soon after Khalilzad left Kabul for Doha, Qatar, to meet the Taliban, Ghani seemed to publicly reject the proposal.“[F]ree, fair, and inclusive elections under the auspices of the international community” should be the only way to form a new government, Ghani said Saturday while inaugurating the third year of the 17th legislative term of the Afghan National Assembly.Without naming Khalilzad, Ghani also dismissed what he said was a dream written on sheets of paper.“These papers were written in the past, are written now, and will be written in the future,” he said. “Our constitution is our national document. We do not need other documents.”The Taliban reject the Afghan constitution. Changes to it are expected to be on the agenda during negotiations between the insurgents and government.Ghani’s political rival, Abdullah Abdullah, who chairs the High Council for National Reconciliation (HCNR), said all proposals should be discussed.The proposals are in a document titled “Afghanistan Peace Agreement,” a copy of which VOA has obtained. It suggests a three-part approach including agreement on the guiding principles for a future constitution, terms for governing the country during the transition period, and terms for a comprehensive cease-fire between the warring factions.The document suggests setting up a new High Council for Islamic Jurisprudence to advise and provide religious guidance to local and national governments and the judiciary.It also tries to ensure protection of women’s rights and freedom of speech along with other civil liberties, suggests a nonaligned foreign policy for Afghanistan, and recommends setting up a 21-member commission, including 10 representatives of the Taliban, to work on the new constitution.   The proposed agreement demands both sides “immediately announce and implement an end to all military and offensive operations and hostile activities against the other.”A cease-fire has been a longstanding demand of the Afghan government, but the Taliban have always resisted.People like former U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, (SRAP) Richard Olson, say that is because “the only leverage they have is the use of violence,” referring to the Taliban. “They are dreadfully unpopular politically,” he said.The cease-fire terms also demand that the Taliban “remove their military structures and offices from neighboring countries, and they agree to end military relations with foreign countries.”Top U.S. and Afghan officials have repeatedly alleged that top Taliban leadership lives in Pakistan. U.S. officials have occasionally also accused Iran and Russia of helping the Taliban. The three countries deny the allegations. 
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Pakistani officials said Sunday that gunmen ambushed a vehicle transporting navy personnel in the southwestern Gwadar district, killing at least one sailor and seriously wounding two others.  
   
The assailants targeted the Pakistani navy vehicle with automatic weapons Saturday evening near the coastal town of Jiwani, Zahoor Buledi, a minister for the province of Baluchistan, where Gwadar is located, told VOA.  
   
The district is home to a Chinese-built and run deepwater port, a centerpiece of the multibillion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.  
   
Buledi condemned the incident as a terrorist act, saying personnel from the navy’s Quick Response Force were on board the vehicle.  
   
The Baluchistan Liberation Army, which the United States has declared a global terrorist group, took responsibility for the attack. It claimed the shooting killed four navy officers and wounded two others, although the group’s claims are often inflated.  
   
The provincial minister blamed “enemies of the state” for being behind the attack, saying it was carried out in response to current security operations against terrorist hideouts in Baluchistan.     On Friday, a roadside bomb explosion elsewhere in the Pakistani province killed five laborers and wounded five other men, including two security personnel.   
   
There was no claim of responsibility for that attack, though authorities blame the BLA and its allied separatist groups for plotting such attacks against workers from other ethnicities who come from other parts of Pakistan to work in the natural resource-rich province.  
   
The BLA claimed responsibility for an attack on a five-star hotel in the vicinity of the Gwadar port two years ago that killed five people.   
   
The CPEC trade corridor, the fast-growing extension of Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative is meant to give the shortest possible access from southwestern China to the Arabian Sea through Pakistan.   
   FILE – A loaded Chinese ship is readied for departure during a ceremony at Gwadar port, about 700 km west of Karachi, Pakistan, Nov. 13, 2016.China has spent nearly $30 billion, mostly in direct investments, installing power plants building the Gwadar port, and upgrading and constructing road networks in Pakistan, including in largely underdeveloped Baluchistan.  
   
Pakistani officials accused rival India of supporting and funding Baluch militants in its bid to subvert the CPEC, charges New Delhi denies.   
   
  
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Afghanistan’s Taliban said Saturday that their leaders had restarted peace talks with the United States, as a May 1 deadline for all U.S.-led foreign troops to withdraw from the war-shattered country fast approaches.A spokesman for the Islamist insurgent group said the meeting took place Friday night in Doha, the capital of Qatar, where Taliban political deputy chief Abdul Ghani Baradar and U.S. special Afghan peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad led their respective teams.The Taliban reject Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s government as an illegal entity and product of the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan, insisting intra-Afghan peace talks should lead to the formation of an “Islamic” government in Kabul.Ghani said Saturday that the only way to form a government should be through “fair, free and inclusive elections under the auspices of the international community,” insisting he would not compromise on the country’s constitution.“We can also talk about the date of the elections and reach a conclusion,” Ghani told lawmakers in a speech to open the third term of the legislative National Assembly in Kabul.“The transfer of power through elections is a non-negotiable principle for us,” he said, stopping short of outrightly rejecting the proposal for an interim government.Ghani won a second five-year term in the controversy-marred Afghan presidential election two years ago.“I advise those who go to this or that gate to gain power that political power in Afghanistan has a gate, and the key is the vote of the Afghan people,” he said, without directly referring to the proposed international conference.Khalilzad in DohaKhalilzad had traveled to Doha from Afghanistan, where he held three days of consultations with Kabul government officials, civil society leaders and other political figures on how to move the peace process forward.FILE – U.S. envoy for peace in Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad, center, and U.S. Army General Scott Miller, commander of NATO’s Resolute Support Mission, attend President Ashraf Ghani’s inauguration, in Kabul, March 9, 2020.A U.S. State Department official confirmed Friday to VOA the first formal contact between President Joe Biden’s administration and the Taliban. Biden has inherited a U.S.-Taliban peace agreement sealed by his predecessor, Donald Trump, one year ago.Taliban spokesman Mohammad Naeem, who speaks for the group’s political office in Doha, said the commander of foreign forces in Afghanistan, U.S. General Scott Miller, also accompanied Khalilzad at the meeting.”Both sides expressed their commitment to the Doha agreement and discussed its full implementation. Likewise, the current situation of Afghanistan and the speed and effectiveness of the intra-Afghan negotiations were discussed,” Naeem said.The February 2020 U.S.-Taliban accord signed in the Qatari capital aims to end America’s longest-running war by requiring the U.S. military and the Taliban not to attack each other.It binds the insurgents to cut ties with terrorist groups that threaten America and its allies, and instead to negotiate a political power-sharing deal with the Afghan government that brings lasting peace to the South Asian nation.In return, Washington has pledged to withdraw the remaining 2,500 troops from Afghanistan by May, along with all NATO-led partner forces.Surge in violenceEnsuing peace talks between Taliban and Kabul teams, however, which started in Doha last September, have made little progress.FILE – Afghans carry the coffin of a victim of a bombing and shooting attack, during his funeral, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Dec. 23, 2020.Rather than encouraging the warring parties to reduce violence, the intra-Afghan negotiations led to a spike in deadly attacks across the country, with civilians bearing the brunt of them.The developments prompted Biden’s national security team to review the deal to examine whether the Taliban have held up their end of the commitments and whether to extend the May deadline.While Washington has since been tight-lipped about the review, Khalilzad arrived in Kabul earlier this week, where he is said to have proposed, among other options, a U.N.-sponsored international conference involving warring Afghans to hammer out a “participatory government” to accelerate the peace process.FILE – Afghan President Ashraf Ghani speaks at the Loya Jirga Hall in Kabul, in this handout photograph taken Aug. 7, 2020, and released by his office.U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price attempted Friday to downplay the proposal for a global conference, saying the outcome of the Afghan peace negotiations was up to Afghans.“We believe those outcomes should reflect the wishes and the aspirations of the Afghan people. We continue to consult closely with our allies, our partners, countries in the region, regarding how we can collectively support this peace process, and we’re considering a number of different ideas that might accelerate the process forward,” Price said.“That’s precisely what the special representative and his team have been doing, first on the ground in Kabul and now on the ground in Doha, and what they will continue doing in an effort to achieve progress on this very important and necessary goal,” he concluded.Taliban skepticsU.S. House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith, a Washington state Democrat, said Friday that a troop withdrawal by May was “highly unlikely.”“Is there a scenario that I could see this year with us getting to the point where getting out of Afghanistan makes sense? Yes,” Smith said during a discussion at the Brookings Institution think tank in Washington.“We need to find a way to have our presence be more strategic and less large,” he emphasized.Skeptics say the Taliban are unlikely to agree to an extension in the foreign troop drawdown unless they can extract more concessions, including release of their remaining 7,500 prisoners and the delisting of their leaders from a U.N. sanctions list.“If the U.S. unilaterally extends the deadline, then we are in a sort of unknown area because I think the Taliban’s view is that it’s the U.S. that wants the war to end, not them. They are willing to fight for another 20 years,” said Vali Nasr, a professor of international affairs and Middle East studies at Johns Hopkins University.He explained why an intra-Afghan peace deal would be difficult to reach.”The way this Doha process was created, it was essentially a military disengagement deal between the two fighting forces in the ground,” Nasr told an online debate organized by the Pakistan-based Center for Security Strategy and Policy Research.  
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Afghanistan’s Taliban said Saturday that their leaders had restarted peace talks with the United States, as a May 1 deadline for all U.S.-led foreign troops to withdraw from the war-shattered country fast approaches.A spokesman for the Islamist insurgent group said the meeting took place Friday night in Doha, the capital of Qatar, where Taliban political deputy chief Abdul Ghani Baradar and U.S. special Afghan peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad led their respective teams.The Taliban reject Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s government as an illegal entity and product of the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan, insisting intra-Afghan peace talks should lead to the formation of an “Islamic” government in Kabul.Ghani said Saturday that the only way to form a government should be through “fair, free and inclusive elections under the auspices of the international community,” insisting he would not compromise on the country’s constitution.“We can also talk about the date of the elections and reach a conclusion,” Ghani told lawmakers in a speech to open the third term of the legislative National Assembly in Kabul.“The transfer of power through elections is a non-negotiable principle for us,” he said, stopping short of outrightly rejecting the proposal for an interim government.Ghani won a second five-year term in the controversy-marred Afghan presidential election two years ago.“I advise those who go to this or that gate to gain power that political power in Afghanistan has a gate, and the key is the vote of the Afghan people,” he said, without directly referring to the proposed international conference.Khalilzad in DohaKhalilzad had traveled to Doha from Afghanistan, where he held three days of consultations with Kabul government officials, civil society leaders and other political figures on how to move the peace process forward.FILE – U.S. envoy for peace in Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad, center, and U.S. Army General Scott Miller, commander of NATO’s Resolute Support Mission, attend President Ashraf Ghani’s inauguration, in Kabul, March 9, 2020.A U.S. State Department official confirmed Friday to VOA the first formal contact between President Joe Biden’s administration and the Taliban. Biden has inherited a U.S.-Taliban peace agreement sealed by his predecessor, Donald Trump, one year ago.Taliban spokesman Mohammad Naeem, who speaks for the group’s political office in Doha, said the commander of foreign forces in Afghanistan, U.S. General Scott Miller, also accompanied Khalilzad at the meeting.”Both sides expressed their commitment to the Doha agreement and discussed its full implementation. Likewise, the current situation of Afghanistan and the speed and effectiveness of the intra-Afghan negotiations were discussed,” Naeem said.The February 2020 U.S.-Taliban accord signed in the Qatari capital aims to end America’s longest-running war by requiring the U.S. military and the Taliban not to attack each other.It binds the insurgents to cut ties with terrorist groups that threaten America and its allies, and instead to negotiate a political power-sharing deal with the Afghan government that brings lasting peace to the South Asian nation.In return, Washington has pledged to withdraw the remaining 2,500 troops from Afghanistan by May, along with all NATO-led partner forces.Surge in violenceEnsuing peace talks between Taliban and Kabul teams, however, which started in Doha last September, have made little progress.FILE – Afghans carry the coffin of a victim of a bombing and shooting attack, during his funeral, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Dec. 23, 2020.Rather than encouraging the warring parties to reduce violence, the intra-Afghan negotiations led to a spike in deadly attacks across the country, with civilians bearing the brunt of them.The developments prompted Biden’s national security team to review the deal to examine whether the Taliban have held up their end of the commitments and whether to extend the May deadline.While Washington has since been tight-lipped about the review, Khalilzad arrived in Kabul earlier this week, where he is said to have proposed, among other options, a U.N.-sponsored international conference involving warring Afghans to hammer out a “participatory government” to accelerate the peace process.FILE – Afghan President Ashraf Ghani speaks at the Loya Jirga Hall in Kabul, in this handout photograph taken Aug. 7, 2020, and released by his office.U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price attempted Friday to downplay the proposal for a global conference, saying the outcome of the Afghan peace negotiations was up to Afghans.“We believe those outcomes should reflect the wishes and the aspirations of the Afghan people. We continue to consult closely with our allies, our partners, countries in the region, regarding how we can collectively support this peace process, and we’re considering a number of different ideas that might accelerate the process forward,” Price said.“That’s precisely what the special representative and his team have been doing, first on the ground in Kabul and now on the ground in Doha, and what they will continue doing in an effort to achieve progress on this very important and necessary goal,” he concluded.Taliban skepticsU.S. House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith, a Washington state Democrat, said Friday that a troop withdrawal by May was “highly unlikely.”“Is there a scenario that I could see this year with us getting to the point where getting out of Afghanistan makes sense? Yes,” Smith said during a discussion at the Brookings Institution think tank in Washington.“We need to find a way to have our presence be more strategic and less large,” he emphasized.Skeptics say the Taliban are unlikely to agree to an extension in the foreign troop drawdown unless they can extract more concessions, including release of their remaining 7,500 prisoners and the delisting of their leaders from a U.N. sanctions list.“If the U.S. unilaterally extends the deadline, then we are in a sort of unknown area because I think the Taliban’s view is that it’s the U.S. that wants the war to end, not them. They are willing to fight for another 20 years,” said Vali Nasr, a professor of international affairs and Middle East studies at Johns Hopkins University.He explained why an intra-Afghan peace deal would be difficult to reach.”The way this Doha process was created, it was essentially a military disengagement deal between the two fighting forces in the ground,” Nasr told an online debate organized by the Pakistan-based Center for Security Strategy and Policy Research.  
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