Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) has reported that up to 3,000 civilians were killed in Afghanistan last year, despite the ongoing peace talks to end decades of war in the country. VOA’s Rahim Gul Sarwan reports from Kabul, Afghanistan.  
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Indian farmers protesting on New Delhi’s outskirts are vowing to continue their two-month struggle to scrap three new farm laws, despite recent violence that has cast a shadow on what is being called one of the world’s largest protests. Led by farmers from the agricultural state of Punjab, the protest includes many educated young people, highlighting India’s growing joblessness problem.  Anjana Pasricha in New Delhi spoke to some of the protesters.Videographer: Darshan Singh
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Hundreds of young, educated men like Manveer Singh who defy the typical image of the Indian farmer are among the sea of protesters camped along a highway at Delhi’s borders to demand the scrapping of three new farm laws.  The 27-year-old postgraduate in information technology turned to farming after struggling for five years to find a job that would pay a modest wage.Manveer Singh, a postgraduate, helps prepare a community meal for protesters in India. (A. Pasricha/VOA)“After my education, I was hoping to get a white-collar job, and I gave many interviews,” Singh says, as he sits outside his tractor trolley – one of scores that have turned into homes for farmers who have come from neighboring states like Punjab. “But I never got any offer that pays more than $ 140 a month.”Violence this week in which hundreds of farmers stormed into New Delhi and breached the historic Red Fort and more clashes Friday at one of the main protest sites have raised questions about the future course of what have been called the world’s largest protests.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
The tractors in which farmers have traveled are seen as the symbol of their protest, in India. (A. Pasricha/VOA)As they sit browsing their smartphones and help in cooking and serving community meals, they say tilling family farms is their only security in a state where unemployment among young people at 21.6 percent exceeds the national average of about 17.5 percent.The protest was triggered by three new laws that open up sale of farm produce to private players. The government says this will modernize a sector that desperately needs an overhaul and improve farm incomes by attracting private investment.But protesters fear the reforms will benefit private buyers at their expense, hurting agricultural incomes, eventually forcing them to sell their land by driving them into debt. The government currently buys crops like rice and wheat grown extensively in Punjab at a fixed price.   Losing their lifelineYoung people say being exposed to market forces is particularly worrisome for them. Punjab was one of India’s richest states until a few decades ago, but its failure to create an industrial or services sector has resulted in the paucity of jobs, making farming their lifeline.Kulwinder Singh, who has been at the protest site for two months, symbolizes the frustration of young people. His hopes of becoming a teacher never bore fruit. But the seven-acre family farm of the 32-year-old makes it possible for him to sustain his family.Kulwinder Singh has been at the protest site in India for two months. (A. Pasricha/VOA)“I have a bachelor’s degree in education, and after that I did another course, which I hoped would get me employment,” he says. “But there are no jobs.”It’s a story repeated by many young people here. Since the stir began two months ago, Hardev Singh has been crawling into his tractor truck every night to spend the cold Delhi winter with other family members. Although he has a job, the loss of livelihoods during the pandemic has made him insecure.“In case I lose my job, at least I can farm my land. If I don’t have that fallback, what will I do?” asks Singh. “I won’t even have food to eat.”Protesters huddle inside tractors during Delhi’s cold winter. (A. Pasricha/VOA)Old and young farmers on the borders say the recent violence will not deter them from making the highways their home until their demands are met. The protesters have rejected the government’s offer to put the laws on hold for up to a year and a half, and they remain adamant the laws must be repealed.Hardev Singh points to the example of some states, where allowing the sale of farm produce failed to draw investment or higher prices. “We will take the fight to the end,” says Singh. “Until the laws are scrapped, we will sit here peacefully.” Growing frustrationsBut tensions are rising at protest sites. At the Singhu border, police used tear gas and batons to break up clashes Friday between farmers and a group of people demanding the farmers vacate the highway.Although the government has assured them that no one can take their land, the protesters remain unconvinced.Farmers cook and serve community meals at the largest protest site outside Delhi, in India. (A. Pasricha/VOA)The anger at these protest sites, say economists, highlights India’s failure to create enough non-farming jobs for a country where two-thirds of the 1.3 billion population is under 35.Economist Santosh Mehrotra, author of the book “Reviving Jobs: An Agenda for Growth,” calls youth unemployment “the most serious issue that the country faces.” He says India has not done enough to move people out of agriculture into alternate livelihoods.Protesters sit on highways in India that have turned into their homes. (A. Pasricha/VOA)He points out that while a number of young people in Punjab have been able to migrate due to a huge Punjabi diaspora overseas, those left behind face the challenge of underemployment on farms that have become smaller in size as they pass down to subsequent generations.As they live out that crisis, Manveer Singh is disconsolate as he peels radishes for a community meal. “We have such a huge population that we and even our future generations have no hopes of finding a job.”The frustration among young people poses a huge challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who came to power six years ago promising development and jobs — a promise that the young people at the protest site say he has failed to meet. 
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The Taliban on Friday said its February 2020 agreement with the United States is meant to give American “invading” troops a “safe passage” out of Afghanistan, insisting the insurgent group expects President Joe Biden administration’s “review” of the document will not disrupt it.Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, the deputy Taliban peace negotiator, made the statement during an ongoing visit to Moscow, where his delegation is meeting with top Russian officials.Stanikzai told a news conference that the Taliban signed the pact with a “legal, elected government in America” and the new U.S. administration reviewing it “is their “internal decision.” But it does not mean Washington is abandoning the treaty, he added.“In the history of Afghanistan, no one ever gave a safe passage to foreign invading troops. So, this is a good chance for the Americans that we are giving them safe passage to go out according to this treaty. We hope that when they are reviewing it they will come to the same positive [conclusion],” Stanikzai stressed.He also rejected as “completely false” allegations that the Taliban had received bounties from Russia for killing U.S. troops in Afghanistan.“We do not need anyone to give us reward for the killing of Americans. Americans are the invaders and we are [have been] killing them since 2001,” Stanikzai said and stressed the need for Washington to stick to the mutually agreed troop withdrawal timeline.VOA has requested comment from U.S. military officials in the Afghan capital, Kabul. So far, there has been no response.The U.S.-Taliban agreement requires all American and NATO troops to leave the country by May in return for the insurgents’ counterterrorism guarantees and pledges they will negotiate with Afghan rivals a political deal to permanently end two decades of Afghan war.“If they remain in Afghanistan after this [the agreed deadline] we will also kill them even if somebody reward us or do not reward us. We take our reward from God. We fight the invaders without a reward, without any bounty,” Stanikzai warned.The U.S.-initiated Feb. 29 accord opened direct talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government in September but the process has progressed slowly with both Afghan foes blaming the other for not being serious in moving the dialogue further.Kabul has been demanding the Taliban declare a cease-fire for the talks to progress while the insurgents insist a political understanding must lead to its cessation of the conflict.“Without them [the Taliban] meeting their commitments to renounce terrorism and to stop the violent attacks on the Afghan National Security Forces … it’s very hard to see a specific way forward for the negotiated settlement, but we’re still committed to that,” Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby told reporters on Thursday.But Stanikza accused Washington of failing to meet their timelines outlined in the deal, such as removal of the names of Taliban leaders from a United Nations blacklist and release of all insurgent prisoners from Afghan jails.
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Authorities in Pakistan on Friday petitioned the Supreme Court to review its decision to free Omar Sheikh and his three accomplices convicted of kidnapping and beheading the American journalist Daniel Pearl, the Pearl family lawyer has confirmed to VOA.The Biden administration has expressed outrage by Thursday’s decision by Pakistan’s highest court to acquit the British national convicted in 2002 of plotting the kidnapping and beheading of Pearl.Hours after the ruling, White House press secretary Jen Psaki also underscored the administration’s commitment to secure justice for Pearl’s family.“This decision to exonerate and release Sheikh and the other suspects is an affront to terrorism victims everywhere, including in Pakistan,” she said, calling on the “Pakistani government to expeditiously review its legal options including allowing the United States to prosecute Sheikh for the brutal murder of an American citizen and journalist.”US “outraged” by the Pakistani supreme court decision to acquit those who murdered FILE – Undated file photo of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. (Photo by Wall Street Journal/AFP)In April 2020, however, an appeals court in Sindh overturned the verdict, reducing Sheikh’s sentence to seven years in prison for kidnapping only and allowing him to be freed for time served. The ruling ordered that Sheikh’s accomplices be freed.Pakistani authorities have since prevented the four men from walking free.The April judgment prompted the parents of the slain U.S. journalist and the provincial government to swiftly file appeals in the Supreme Court to seek restoration of the 2002 convictions, leading to Thursday’s outcome.”The judgment of the Supreme Court is that these four people who were accused of kidnapping Daniel Pearl and allegedly murdering him, that judgment which was given by the trial court in 2002 has been set aside finally and put to rest,” attorney Sheikh explained.The Pearl family’s lawyer, Faisal Siddiqi, noted the three-judge Supreme Court panel ruled 2-to-1 in favor of upholding Sheikh’s acquittal.“Thursday’s decision is a complete travesty of justice and the release of these killers puts in danger journalists everywhere and the people of Pakistan,” the Pearl family said in a statement released by Siddiqi.”We urge the U.S. government to take all necessary actions under the law to correct this injustice,” they added.The Committee to Protect Journalists also criticized the court ruling.“We are deeply disappointed that Pakistan’s Supreme Court has acquitted and ordered the release of Ahmad Saeed Omar Sheikh, despite overwhelming evidence of Sheikh’s involvement in the kidnapping of Daniel Pearl, which led directly to his murder,” said Steven Butler, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. “Daniel Pearl deserves justice and Sheikh deserves to pay for his crime. Journalists everywhere are less safe today due to this decision.”Pearl was visiting Pakistan to report on Islamist militant networks in the country following the Sept. 11, 2001 terror strikes on U.S. cities before being kidnapped in Karachi, the capital of Sindh, and beheaded days later.Washington said last month that it “stands ready to take custody of Omar Sheikh to stand trial insisting the U.S. “cannot allow him to evade justice for his role in Daniel Pearl’s abduction and murder.” But legal experts in Pakistan maintain that the country’s laws do not allow another country to undertake such an intervention.
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The Biden administration believes it is hard to see a way forward for a negotiated settlement with the Taliban unless the militant group meets its commitments under a 2020 deal, although Washington remains committed to the effort, the Pentagon said Thursday.Killings of civilians in Afghanistan’s conflict rose to more than 2,900 last year, the country’s human rights commission has said, despite stepped-up diplomacy to end the war, including peace talks taking place in Qatar.The deaths are part of a wider increase in violence that threatens a delicate peace process, undermining international calls for a cease-fire as the Afghan government takes part in peace negotiations with the Taliban.”Without them meeting their commitments to renounce terrorism and to stop the violent attacks on the Afghan National Security Forces … it’s very hard to see a specific way forward for the negotiated settlement, but we’re still committed to that,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters.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.The February 2020 agreement with the Taliban calls for a complete U.S. troop withdrawal by May 2021 in return for the insurgents fulfilling security guarantees.U.S. officials and diplomats have said that ties between the Taliban, especially its Haqqani Network branch, and al-Qaida remain close.”Thus far, the Taliban have been, to put it politely, reticent to meet their requirements,” Kirby added.US drawdownThe United States drew down to 2,500 troops in Afghanistan this month under the then-outgoing Trump administration, the lowest level of American forces there since 2001.Kirby said no decision had been made by President Joe Biden’s administration about future troop levels in Afghanistan.Diplomats have raised concerns that rising violence, particularly by the Taliban, is undermining trust needed for successful peace talks.White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told his Afghan counterpart last week that the United States would review the peace agreement reached with the Taliban. 
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As part of an ongoing project in Pakistan’s Sindh province, efforts are underway to integrate a uniquely nutritious and drought-resistant tree called Moringa, into the local diet to help alleviate malnutrition. Muhammad Saqib has details from Matiari in Sindh province in this report narrated by Bezhan Hamdard.
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Pakistan’s highest court Thursday acquitted the British national convicted in 2002 of plotting the kidnapping and beheading of American journalist Daniel Pearl.  
  
The court cleared Ahmed Omar Sheikh and his three Pakistani accomplices in the case of all the charges, ordering that Sheikh and others be immediately freed from jail, if not wanted in any other case. 
  A police vehicle moves through the entrance of the Central Prison in Karachi, Pakistan, Jan. 28, 2021.The four men have spent 18 years in prison in Pakistan for the gruesome murder of the Wall Street Journal reporter.   
  
“The judgment says that they should not have been in prison even for one day,” the men’s attorney, Mehmood Sheikh, no relation with Omar Sheikh, told reporters outside the Supreme Court.  
  
An anti-terrorism tribunal in the Pakistani province of Sindh, where the crime occurred 18 years ago, had sentenced  the British-born Sheikh to death for masterminding  Pearl’s killing. His three accomplices were given life sentences. 
  FILE – Pakistani police escort Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, who was convicted in the 2002 killing of American journalist Daniel Pearl, as he exits a court in Karachi, Pakistan, March 29, 2002.In April 2020, however, an appeals court in Sindh overturned the verdict, reducing Sheikh’s sentence to seven years in prison for kidnapping only and allowing him to be freed for time served. The ruling ordered that Sheikh’s accomplices be freed.  
  
Pakistani authorities have since prevented the four men from walking free. 
  
The April judgement prompted the parents of the slain U.S. journalist and the provincial government to swiftly file appeals in the Supreme Court to seek restoration of the 2002 convictions, leading to Thursday’s outcome.  
  
“The judgement of the Supreme Court is that these four people who were accused of kidnapping Daniel Pearl and allegedly murdering him, that judgement which was given by the trial court in 2002 has been set aside finally and put to rest,” attorney Sheikh explained.    FILE – Undated file photo of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. (Photo by Wall Street Journal/AFP)The Pearl family’s lawyer, Faisal Siddiqi, noted the three-judge Supreme Court panel ruled 2-to-1 in favor of upholding Sheikh’s acquittal.  
“Thursday’s decision is a complete travesty of justice and the release of these killers puts in danger journalists everywhere and the people of Pakistan,” the Pearl family said in a statement released by Siddiqi.  
  
“We urge the US government to take all necessary actions under the law to correct this injustice,” they added.  
  
Pearl was visiting Pakistan to report on Islamist militant networks in the country following the September 11, 2001 terror strikes on U.S. cities before being kidnapped in Karachi, the capital of Sindh, and beheaded days later.  
  
Washington said last month that it “stands ready to take custody of Omar Sheikh to stand trial insisting the U.S. “cannot allow him to evade justice for his role in Daniel Pearl’s abduction and murder.” But legal experts in Pakistan maintain that the country’s laws do not allow another country to undertake such an intervention.  
  
 
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Some Afghans say they are hoping the new U.S. administration will push the Taliban to agree to a cease-fire. Meanwhile, the Afghan government has welcomed the new U.S. administration’s announcement that it is reviewing the U.S.-Taliban peace agreement. VOA’s Gul Rahim Niazman reports from Mazar Sharif, Afghanistan.   
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Hundreds of police closed several main roads around New Delhi Wednesday and fortified the capital’s Red Fort after thousands of farmers stormed the historic area of the capital, leading to clashes with authorities that left one person dead and dozens injured.
 
The violence marked the most intense development in two months of protests by tens of thousands of farmers demanding the full repeal of new laws they contend will favor large corporate farmers over their smaller counterparts.
 
The protests by the farmers, many of whom are Sikhs from the key agricultural states of Punjab and Haryana, have grown into one of the most significant challenges for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government since it came to power in 2014. The country’s estimated 150 million landowning farmers are the most dominant voting bloc in the South Asian country and key contributors to its economy.  
 
The government says the laws will benefit all farmers and increase production through private investment. But as the protests have gained strength, the government has offered to suspend the laws for 18 months.
 
After being camped out on the outskirts of New Delhi for two months, more than 10,000 tractors and thousands of people on foot or horseback paraded around the capital to coincide with Tuesday’s Republic Day festivities, clashing with police who tried to restrain them with water cannons, batons and tear gas after breaching barricades.
 
The protests have gained momentum, unsettling the government. But there are concerns the violence could weaken the protest movement that has been mostly peaceful.
 
Police had removed protesters from the 17th-century fort by late Tuesday, but police maintained a heavy presence Wednesday.
 
The protests have begun to weaken support for Modi in the countryside, but he maintains a comfortable majority in parliament.  
 
While the Modi government has shown no sign of complying with farmers’ demand to fully repeal the new laws, it has said it will provide new opportunities for farmers.
 
About half of India’s population of 1.3 billion work in the country’s agriculture industry. 
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In a dramatic turn of events, a man convicted and later acquitted in the 2002 killing of American journalist Daniel Pearl admitted a “minor” role in his death, upending 18 years of denials, the Pearl family lawyer said Wednesday.
 
A letter handwritten by Ahmad Saeed Omar Sheikh in 2019, in which he admits limited involvement in the death of the Wall Street Journal reporter, was submitted to Pakistan’s Supreme Court nearly two weeks ago. It wasn’t until Wednesday that Sheikh’s lawyers confirmed their client wrote it.
 
The high court is hearing an appeal of a lower court’s acquittal of Sheikh, charged with murder in the death of Pearl. The appeal was filed by Pearl’s family and the Pakistan government.
 
The 38-year-old reporter from Encino, California, was abducted January 23, 2002. His body was later found in a shallow grave in a southern Karachi neighborhood.
 FILE – Judea Pearl, father of slain American journalist Daniel Pearl, speaks at an event honoring the memory of his son, in Miami Beach, Florida, April 15, 2007.Pearl family attorney Faisal Siddiqi called Sheikh’s confirmation that he authored the letter a “dramatic development,” demanding the conviction and death penalty be reinstated.
 
“This is very, very important because for the last 18 years the position of Omar Saeed Sheikh is that he did not know Danny Pearl, he never met Danny Pearl,” he said in an interview with The Associated Press. “He has taken a position of complete ignorance regarding this case, but now in a hand-written letter he has admitted to at least a limited role.”
 
“He has not asked that he be acquitted. He accepts his guilt but asks that his sentence may be reduced,” Siddiqi added.  
 
In the hand-written letter, a copy of which The AP has received, Sheikh writes “my role in this matter was a relatively minor one, which does not warrant the death sentence.”  
 
He also admits to knowing who killed Pearl, naming Pakistani militant Atta-ur-Rahman, alias Naeem Bokhari, who has since been executed in connection with an attack on a paramilitary base in southern Karachi.  
 
In the letter dated July 25, 2019, and stamped with the seal of the High Court of Sindh, Sheikh asks that he be given an opportunity to “clarify my actual role in this matter so that my sentence may be reduced accordingly to one which is consistent with the requirement of justice.”
 
Sheikh’s lawyer, Mehmood A. Sheikh, who is no relation, said his client wrote the letter under duress and denies he knew Pearl or had any connection with Pearl. He said his client described his condition in prison as “worse than the life of an animal.”
 
Sheikh, the lawyer, said his client wrote the letter in an attempt to get a hearing, not make an admission of guilt. Rather, “he wanted to be able to be heard.”
 
The appeal is expected to wrap up this week, said Siddiqi. He said he expects a quick decision after Sheikh’s admission of involvement, even in a minor capacity, in Pearl’s death. “This [letter] changes everything,” he said.
 
Sheikh was convicted of helping lure Pearl to a meeting in Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi, during which he was kidnapped. Pearl was investigating the link between Pakistani militants and Richard C. Reid, dubbed the “Shoe Bomber” after trying to blow up a flight from Paris to Miami with explosives hidden in his shoes.
 
Sheikh was sentenced to death and three others to life in prison for their roles in the plot. The acquittal last April stunned the U.S. government, Pearl’s family and journalism advocacy groups.
 
Last month, acting U.S. Attorney General Jeffery Rosen warned the U.S. would not let Sheikh go free, saying if “those efforts do not succeed, the United States stands ready to take custody of Omar Sheikh to stand trial” in America.
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A two-month long protest by Indian farmers erupted into chaos as thousands of demonstrators breached the iconic Red Fort complex after breaking police barricades and swarming into the heart of the Indian capital on a convoy of tractors. Police fired tear gas shells, water cannons and used batons to disperse groups of protesters who diverted from the routes along which they had been allowed to hold a unique rally, riding on thousands of tractors to mark their opposition to three contentious farm laws. One group of farmers clambered onto the ramparts of the Red Fort from where the prime minister traditionally delivers his annual Independence Day address. They waved flags of farm unions and religious flags, even hoisting a farm union flag alongside the national flag on one the historic buildings.Others marched into central New Delhi where many government buildings are housed, tearing through police barricades, waving sticks and shouting slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Farmers gather in front of the historic Red Fort during a protest against farm laws introduced by the government, in Delhi, India, Jan. 26, 2021.At least one protester died and several police personnel were injured in the mayhem that unfolded in New Delhi on Republic Day, which features a military parade to mark the anniversary of India adopting its constitution. The mayhem unfolded after the parade. Police said the protester died when the tractor in which he was riding overturned. Buses and police vehicles were damaged by protesters hurling stones.Tens of thousands of angry farmers have been camped on Delhi’s borders since late November, demanding the rollback of the three laws the government says will bring much-needed reform into the agricultural sector, but which farmers fear actually will hurt their livelihoods. Sleeping in tractors, trucks and makeshift tents, and cooking on the roadside, they have turned highways leading into the city into gigantic protest sites and vowed not to return until their demands are met for scrapping the laws.The farmers have not been allowed to enter New Delhi so far, but police permitted them to drive thousands of tractors along the city’s outskirts after union leaders gave assurances the rally would be peaceful. Farmers participate in a protest march towards the capital during India’s Republic Day celebrations in New Delhi, India, Jan. 26, 2021.The head of the Bharatiya Kisan Union, Bhanu Pratap Singh, which is spearheading the protest, told reporters that “anti-social” elements had infiltrated the protests. Several rounds of negotiations between the government and the farmers have failed to resolve the deadlock. Last week, union leaders turned down the government’s latest offer to put the laws on hold for up to 18 months. The farmers say laws aimed at opening up the sale of agriculture produce to private companies actually will hurt their incomes and strip away the safeguard provided by the government, which buys food grains such as rice and wheat at what is called a “minimum support price.” In Outreach to Protesting Farmers, Modi Defends Controversial Farm LawsPrime minister says farmers should return to negotiating tableThe government says the new laws will bring private investment into the farm sector and help to modernize it.Opposition leaders have blamed the government for passing the laws hastily without adequate consultation, either with political parties or farmers representatives. Analysts say the protest highlights the growing frustration among farmers. Nearly half the country’s 1.3 billion people depend on farming, but agriculture accounts for just 15 percent of India’s gross domestic product. “Today’s happenings are a very unfortunate development, but it also shows a lack of sensitivity on the side of the government in handling an issue on which a very large section of India is feeling very aggrieved,” says political analyst Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay. 
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Senior leaders of Afghanistan’s Taliban insurgency traveled to Iran Tuesday to “exchange views” on U.S.-brokered peace negotiations between warring Afghan parties.
 
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said the insurgent team had been formally invited to Tehran for bilateral meetings “to review (the) Afghan peace process.”
 
Iran’s official media quoted Khatibzadeh as saying that the Taliban’s visit was “part of Tehran’s policy to reach out to key Afghan parties in the Afghan peace process.”  
 
He said Taliban visitors held talks with senior government officials and they were also scheduled to meet Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif.
 FILE – Taliban co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar speaks, bottom right, talks at the opening session of the peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban in Doha, Qatar, Sept. 12, 2020.Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban’s deputy chief and head of the group’s political office in Doha, Qatar, was leading the delegation.  
 
An official Taliban statement said its delegation in meetings with Iranian officials would discuss relations between the two neighboring countries and “the current political and security situation of Afghanistan and region.” It did not elaborate further.
 
Analysts say Iran’s move to host the Taliban could be an attempt to demonstrate to U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration that Tehran is keen to play its part in promoting Afghan peace to improve ties with Washington.
 
“(The) Taliban’s trip to Iran is more for Iran’s diplomatic benefits vis-a-vis the new U.S. administration,” said Torek Farhadi, a former Afghan advisor and political commentator.
 
“Iran shows it can also be helpful in the Afghan peace process…and show positive cooperation in the region. Iran wants to impress Washington,” Farhadi wrote on Twitter.  
 Intra-Afghan Talks
 
The Taliban is currently engaged in negotiations in Doha, Qatar, with a team of negotiators representing the Afghan government, where the two sides are tasked to agree on a political power-sharing deal that would permanently end deadly hostilities in Afghanistan.
 Afghan Official: 600 Freed Taliban Prisoners Rearrested  The development could pose a fresh challenge to US-backed Afghan peace efforts The so-called intra-Afghan dialogue has stemmed from a February 2020 peace-building agreement former U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration struck with the Taliban to wind down nearly two decades of Afghan war.
 
The pact, which requires all U.S. and NATO troops to leave Afghanistan by May 2021, has reduced the number of U.S. soldiers to 2,500 from nearly 13,000 a year ago.
 
However, President Joe Biden’s new administration has said it intends to “review” the U.S.-Taliban deal.  
 
U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan conveyed the decision to his Afghan counterpart on Friday.  
 
A White House statement quoted Sullivan as saying his team wants to assess whether the Taliban was living up to its commitments to cut ties with terrorist groups, to reduce Afghan violence and to engage in “meaningful negotiations” with the government and other stakeholders” in the country.
 Taliban See Ghani as ‘Obstacle’ to Afghan PeaceIn apparent rebuttal, Afghan president refuses to relinquish power, again vowing to transfer power to his ‘elected successor’ Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s government, which was kept out of the U.S.-Taliban accord, has been critical of the document, saying it gave “too much” concessions to the insurgents and emboldened them to intensify battlefield violence instead of reducing it.  
 
Ghani’s national security advisor, Hamadullah Mohib, on Sunday denounced the Taliban as a “terrorist group,” alleging the insurgents “do not want peace through talks and instead they are preparing to intensify battlefield attacks” in the upcoming summer fighting season.  
 
Sullivan’s opening contact on Friday with Mohib by phone, however, is being hailed by leaders in Kabul and raising hopes Washington will press the Taliban to cease hostilities in favor of peace talks.  
 
“A new chapter in our relationship with America has opened and it will continue…a quick review of the (U.S.) deal with the Taliban will be done… and then a fundamental consultation will be done with us,” Ghani told a cabinet meeting on Monday.  
 
The Taliban has denied allegations it is behind the increase in violence and instead blames Kabul for lunching new operations against insurgent-held Afghan areas to try to subvert the U.S.-backed peace process.  
 
Mohammad Naeem, the Doha-based spokesman for the Taliban, while speaking to VOA this week stressed the need for the Biden team to stick to the February 29 agreement. He said the document is kept to ending Afghanistan’s “foreign occupation” and years of bloodshed.
 
“It is in everyone’s interest for the agreement to be implemented as it is. We reiterate to fulfil our commitments outlined in the pact and demand the same from the other side,” Naeem said.  
 Al-Qaida Gaining Strength  
 
But a new U.S. report says the al-Qaida terror network is “gaining strength” in Afghanistan while continuing to operate with the Taliban under the protection of the Afghan insurgent group.
 
The findings are part of a January 4 summary by the U.S. Department of Treasury about its programs to combat terrorist financing and activities.  
 
It says al-Qaida “capitalizes on its relationship with the Taliban through its network of mentors and advisers who are embedded with the Taliban, providing advice, guidance, and financial support.”  
 
The Treasury’s report notes “as of May 2020, the Taliban and al-Qaeda [sic] maintained a strong relationship and continued to meet regularly.”
 
The insurgent group has not immediately commented on the Treasury Department’s findings but it has rejected previous such allegations. 
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News outlets in the Indian-controlled region of Kashmir are under rising financial pressure, as authorities bar more than 30 media houses from state advertising.    The region’s Department of Information and Public Relations this month removed 10 newspapers in Kashmir and 24 publications in the Jammu region from a list of outlets approved for state ad revenue — known as being empaneled — following a meeting late last year. Although some were removed for not meeting requirements on areas such as circulation, several were told they had allegedly violated a media policy implemented in May.  Under the new media policy, the region’s director of information has power to immediately suspend advertisements if a publication is deemed to have misrepresented information, violated a guideline or failed to meet standards, including minimum circulation figures.  The policy states it was introduced to build public trust, raise awareness of government initiatives and combat fake news or attempts to use media to incite or “propagate any information prejudicial to the sovereignty and integrity of India.” The media policy and allocation of government advertising raises two key issues, media analysts and press groups say. First, the loss of an important source of income for many of the region’s papers could lead to journalists being laid off. Secondly, publishing houses could make cuts to the number or size of editions printed, or even be forced to close news outlets. It could also encourage self-censorship.   The move is seen as yet another means for India to put pressure on news outlets in Kashmir. Journalists in the region have faced increased attacks, detentions and pressure, as well as an ongoing ban on high-speed internet since India’s prime minister revoked Kashmir’s special status in August 2019.  FILE – Journalists use the internet as they work inside a government-run media center in Srinagar, Jan. 10, 2020.By repealing the status, India stripped the Muslim majority state of autonomy, including the right to its own constitution and independence to set its own laws and policies.   The media watchdog Reporters Without Borders said the clampdown on access to information in the region “heavily affected” India’s ranking on its World Press Freedom Index last year. The country fell to 142 out of 180 countries, where one is the “most free.” India claims the measures are needed to stop the spread of false information and to bring stability to the region, which is claimed by both India and Pakistan and has been affected by turmoil and separatist fighting.   India’s directorate of information and public relations did not respond to VOA’s emails requesting comment.  Shuja ul Haq, president of the Kashmir Press Club, told VOA his association believes the media policy is problematic for journalism in Jammu and Kashmir.  “If some publications violated norms of circulation like not publishing or not being available in the market as government claims, then action against them could have been taken. However, the fact that notices have been issued to newspapers on their content is unprecedented,” Haq said.  The press club has been flagging potential issues with the policy from the start, Haq said.  “[If] the government starts deciding what is right and what is not worth publication, then the whole idea of freedom of press and expression is violated,” Haq said. The withdrawal of official advertising such as planning notices is a tactic used by governments around the world to apply financial pressure on news outlets, often when their coverage is critical of governmental positions, said Rachael Jolley, a research fellow at the Center for Freedom of the Media at Sheffield University and former editor in chief of the Index on Censorship magazine.  “It is deeply worrying that the Jammu and Kashmir government is withdrawing advertising from newspapers at this critical time, when the public needs independent news to tell them what is going on with COVID in their communities. A lack of access to news could leave people’s lives threatened,” Jolley said. Anuradha Bhasin, a vocal journalist and editor of the daily Kashmir Times, said she has been facing the brunt of financial pressure from the government since she challenged the communication ban at the Supreme Court of India.  “The government of India has stopped advertisement for my publication since August 10 and is pushing us to the wall, thereby making it financially difficult for us to continue [publishing],” Bhasin said. The tactic of denying government advertising is not new for the group — one of its regional newspapers was forced to close in 2018 because of a cut in funds. But the media policy gives a wider scope for officials to cut papers off from ad revenue, Bhasin said. “The de-empanelment of Dainik Kashmir Times puts an official stamp on the denial of advertisements,” Bhasin said, referring to a notice served to the paper’s daily Hindi-language publication. The paper was removed for not meeting minimum circulation requirements. The objective of these regulations is to control the narrative and have a complete surveillance of news organization, she said.  Fahad Shah, founder and editor of The Kashmir Walla magazine, told VOA that media cannot be independent and receive ad revenue from the Indian government. “I think these newspapers were empaneled by the government as per the requirement of the government, and when they didn’t even fulfill those requirements, they were discontinued from taking ads,” Shah said. “It won’t affect independent reporting, as we don’t have any concern with government advertisement. Free media is possible only by a public-funded model.” While The Kashmir Walla is not affected by the de-empanelment, it has faced pushback in other forms.  The magazine’s Twitter account was suspended on December 31 after it retweeted one of its articles alleging that Indian security forces used excessive force against a religious procession in Kashmir. Daniel Bastard, Asia-Pacific director of Reporters Without Borders, said the withholding of state advertising revenue in India appeared to be “very specific” to Kashmir. Bastard cited previous instances where the Jammu and Kashmir government withdrew advertising on spurious grounds. In March 2019, both Greater Kashmir and Kashmir Reader were suddenly and arbitrarily deprived from any public advertising income, Bastard said. Bastard said pressure through advertising is an old practice in the region. “It is a very shabby way to put pressure on newspapers who don’t toe the line of the government. It gravely endangers the economic viability of the targeted media outlets, and as such, it is a major violation of press freedom,” he said. Aliya Iftikhar, senior Asia researcher at the Committee to Protect Journalists, told VOA the use of vague reasons to block dozens of news outlets to state advertising was alarming. She said the administration is moving ahead with a new media policy without soliciting input from stakeholders or taking on board criticisms and feedback from civil society.  “Actions like this decrease the space for a free and independent press in the region, which is more critical than ever,” Iftikhar said.  
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Indian and Chinese soldiers were involved in a fresh clash last week along their disputed border in the eastern Himalayas according to the Indian army. China has not confirmed the incident.The latest scuffle took place amid a tense eight-month long standoff between their militaries and indicates that the border between the Asian giants will continue to be volatile, say analysts.In a statement, the Indian army called the incident that took place on Wednesday at Naku La in North Sikkim a “minor face-off” and said that it “was resolved by local commanders as per established protocols.”Media reports in India said that soldiers from both sides sustained injuries in the brawl which took place when Indian troops blocked a Chinese patrol from intruding into Indian territory. The army said that the media should “refrain from overplaying or exaggerating reports.”  In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Zhao Lijian, said he had “no information to offer” on the incident. But he urged India to exercise restraint and take proper actions to manage their differences.”I would like to stress though that China’s border troops are committed to upholding peace and tranquility along the border with India. We urge the Indian side to work in the same direction as us and refrain from actions that might escalate or complicate the situation along the border,” Zhao told a regular news briefing.This handout satellite photo taken Nov. 1, 2020, and obtained from Planet Labs, Inc. Jan. 20, 2021, shows a newly-constructed Chinese village in an area along the disputed India-China border.The editor-in-chief of China’s state-affiliated Global Times, Hu Xijin, tweeted there was “no record of this clash in the patrol log of the Chinese side”.The latest incident comes amid worsening ties between India and China as their border disputes intensify. Both countries have deployed tens of thousands of soldiers along with heavy artillery and fighter aircraft on icy, Himalayan slopes in Ladakh since a deadly clash last June killed 20 Indian soldiers. India has accused China of intruding into its territory – Beijing denies it.Nine rounds of talks between the two militaries have failed to defuse the standoff – the latest talks were held on Sunday. There has been no statement from either side on the outcome of the dialogue but New Delhi wants troops from both countries to return to positions that they held before the tensions erupted last summer.  The huge mobilization of troops by both countries following that deadly clash along their frontier points to the border becoming more “tense and volatile,” according to Jayadeva Ranade at the Center for China Analysis and Strategy in New Delhi. “This year could be difficult, we could see more incidents of the kind that took place in Sikkim along the border.”The roughly 3,800-long kilometer long India-China border in the Himalayan mountains is disputed along large stretches, with both sides claiming large swathes of each other’s territory.
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Winter in central Afghanistan can be a struggle for hundreds of cave dwelling families. VOA’s Zafar Bamiyani brings us this report from Bamyan province, narrated by Bezhan Hamdard.
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India has begun sending COVID-19 vaccines to neighboring countries, as its level of vaccine production has put it at the forefront suppliers of affordable vaccines to low- and middle-income nations urgently seeking supplies. As Anjana Pasricha reports from New Delhi, India hopes to both raise its global profile with “vaccine diplomacy” and win back influence in South Asia, where China has been making inroads.
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Authorities in Afghanistan say they have rearrested 600 members of the Taliban who were freed from imprisonment as part of a peace-building agreement between the United States and the insurgent group.  
 
Afghanistan’s national security adviser, Hamdullah Mohib, made the announcement Sunday, alleging the men in question had returned to the battlefield to plot deadly attacks against government forces and civilians.  
 
Under the February 2020 U.S.-Taliban deal, the government had released more than 5,000 insurgent prisoners in exchange for 1,000 security personnel.  
 
The swap led to the opening of much-sought peace negotiations between the Taliban and representatives of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s government.   FILE – Afghanistan’s National Security Advisor Hamdullah Mohib speaks during a news conference in Kabul, Afghanistan, Oct. 29, 2019.Mohib told reporters in Kabul that the prisoners’ release did not contribute to peace efforts, reiterating that his government would not free more Taliban. 
 
“We have rearrested 600 of the freed individuals because they were fighting alongside the Taliban despite pledges that they would not rejoin the battlefield,” the Afghan adviser said.  
 
Mohib added that intelligence information suggested other freed Taliban prisoners were also involved in making car bombs and directing deadly attacks at Afghan security forces as well as civilians.  
 
He accused the Taliban of failing to live up to its commitments to reduce violence and work toward a nationwide cease-fire. Instead, Mohib said, the insurgents have escalated the violence and staged targeted killings of Afghan officials, journalists and activists.  
 
“We see that none of the conditions that the Taliban agreed to in the U.S.-Taliban agreement have been fulfilled. We want those conditions to be implemented,” he said. 
 
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid rejected allegations that freed insurgent fighters had returned to the battlefield or 600 of them have been rearrested by Afghan authorities.Mujahid told VOA, however, that Kabul has allegedly “killed or rearrested up to 40” freed Taliban during raids on their homes or on hospitals where they were undergoing medical treatment after being released from jails.
 
The Taliban has also repeatedly accused Afghan forces of storming homes of the freed prisoners and killing or rearresting them to spoil the U.S.-initiated peace process. 
 
The agreement requires all remaining U.S. and NATO troops to stage a “conditions-based” complete withdrawal from Afghanistan by May 2021. Former President Donald Trump defended the pact saying it would help end what he often referred to as America’s “endless war.” 
 
The Taliban in return pledged to negotiate a political power-sharing deal with Afghan rivals that would end years of hostilities in the country. The group has also given assurances it will stop al-Qaida and other international terrorist groups from using Afghan soil for attacks against the United States and its allies.  Soldiers attached to the 101st Resolute Support Sustainment Brigade load onto a Chinook helicopter to head out on a mission in Afghanistan, Jan.15, 2019. (1st Lt. Verniccia Ford/U.S. Army/Handout via Reuters) 
The agreement has reduced the number of American troops in the country from more than 12,000 a year ago to about 2,500, but, it has not eased Afghan bloodshed.  
Biden to review deal 
 
President Joe Biden’s administration, however, has vowed to review the deal. During his election campaign last year, Biden largely supported the accord but argued in favor of maintaining a small U.S. counterterrorism force in the South Asian nation. 
  
U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan called Mohib on Friday and reaffirmed the support for ongoing peace efforts, according to a White House statement.  FILE – In this Feb. 29, 2020 file 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.The statement said that Sullivan “made clear the United States’ intention to review the February 2020 U.S.-Taliban agreement, including to assess whether the Taliban was living up to its commitments to cut ties with terrorist groups, to reduce violence in Afghanistan, and to engage in meaningful negotiations with the Afghan government and other stakeholders.”  
 
The Taliban has stressed the need for Washington to stick to the agreement, citing it is crucial for putting an end to Afghanistan’s “foreign occupation” and two decades of war.  
“It is in everyone’s interest for the agreement to be implemented as it is. We reiterate our commitments outlined in the pact and demand the same from the other side,” Taliban spokesman Mohammad Naeem told VOA.  
 
Naeem spoke from Doha, Qatar, where the Taliban maintains its political office and which is hosting the ongoing peace talks between insurgent leaders and Kabul’s peace negotiators, dubbed the intra-Afghan negotiations. 
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In an unusual diplomatic initiative, India has donated millions of doses of the British-developed AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine being produced in the country to neighboring South Asian nations.The “vaccine diplomacy” aims to raise New Delhi’s global profile and push back against China, which has been expanding its influence in South Asia, analysts say.“It’s about image and soft power. India wants to be recognized as a global leader,” Sreeram Chaulia, dean at the Jindal School of International Affairs, said.As the world’s largest vaccine producer, India is set to be at the forefront of supplying affordable shots against COVID-19 to low- and middle-income countries. An Indian company, the Serum Institute of India, has joined with AstraZeneca to make the vaccine.Shipments of the vaccine landed in recent days in Bhutan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Maldives, Myanmar, Mauritius and Seychelles, just days after India launched its own nationwide inoculation program. The vaccine will be sent to Sri Lanka and Afghanistan after it gets approval in those countries.However, India’s rival Pakistan, which has approved the AstraZeneca vaccine, is conspicuously absent from the list of recipients.“As far as Pakistan [is concerned], I am not aware of any request for India-made vaccines,” Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said in response to a query at a regular press briefing.The low-cost and easily storable AstraZeneca vaccine is in huge demand in developing countries struggling to vaccinate their populations.New Delhi has given its diplomatic initiative its own hashtag, “VaccineMaitri#” or “Vaccine friendship.” The goodwill gesture comes amid growing criticism of “vaccine inequality” or unequal access to vaccines between rich and developing countries and has won praise from India’s smaller neighbors.”Friendly nations help each other. India has helped us today with vaccine; just like they forwarded their helping hand in our Liberation War,” said Zahid Maleque, Bangladesh’s health minister.“A friend in need is a friend indeed,” he said.As the pandemic puts the spotlight on India as a “vaccine powerhouse,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi has emphasized that it will prioritize South Asian countries in access to vaccine supplies.“We will continue to give due importance to our Neighborhood First policy while collectively fighting the pandemic,” he said in a recent tweet.Students wearing face masks to prevent the spread of the coronavirus as they pray upon their arrival at their school, in Karachi, Pakistan, Jan. 18, 2021.China, too, has given its locally developed vaccines to countries such as Indonesia and Turkey, and promised it to many others across Africa, Asia and South America.However, South Asian countries such as Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka had asked India for supplies of the AstraZeneca vaccine, developed in Britain.“India would like to make a point that in this area, unlike in some others where China usually overshadows India in terms of military and economic might, in this field, in pharmaceuticals, in affordable health care, India has actually a comparative edge and advantage over China,” Chaulia said.“That will be a subtle message going around that you can depend on us, that we did not create the problem but we will be part of the solution,” he said.New Delhi has also started commercial shipments of vaccines — the first consignments have landed in Brazil and Morocco and are also set to go to South Africa and Saudi Arabia.“Keeping in view the domestic requirements of the phased rollout, India will continue to supply vaccines to partner countries in the coming weeks and months in a phased manner,” Srivastava said.Modi has said that India will play a frontline role in providing vaccines – both AstraZeneca’s and another one developed by an Indian company that also has been approved for emergency use.”Today India, with not one but two made in India vaccines, is ready to protect humanity,” Modi told a virtual convention of nonresident Indians earlier this month.“Being pharmacy of the world, India has supplied essential medicines to the needy across the globe in the past and is doing it today as well,” he said.In recent months, Indian companies have been ramping up production to meet the unprecedented demand for COVID-19 vaccines. The Serum Institute of India has already stockpiled 80 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine and is churning out 50 million doses a month. Some of those vaccines will also be provided to the World Health Organization-backed COVAX initiative to give vaccines to poor countries.While inoculation programs are underway in rich countries, developing countries are struggling to secure supplies and begin vaccinating their people. WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus recently said that the world is “on the brink of a moral catastrophic failure” for its unequal sharing of COVID-19 vaccinations and warned that a “me-first approach” in distributing vaccines “will only prolong the pandemic.”
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Four people-smugglers convicted of killing 39 people from Vietnam who died in the back of a container truck as it was shipped to England were sentenced Friday to between 13 and 27 years in prison.The victims, between the ages of 15 and 44, were found in October 2019 inside a refrigerated container that had traveled by ferry from Belgium to the eastern England port of Purfleet. The migrants had paid people-smugglers thousands of dollars to take them on risky journeys to what they hoped would be better lives abroad.Instead, Judge Nigel Sweeney said, “all died in what must have been an excruciatingly painful death” by suffocation in the airtight container.These photos released Jan. 22, 2021, by Essex police show, from left, Ronan Hughes, Gheorghe Nica, Maurice Robinson and Eamonn Harrison, all sentenced to prison in the deaths in England of 39 Vietnamese migrants in 2019.The judge sentenced Romanian mechanic Gheorghe Nica, 43, described by prosecutors as the smuggling ringleader, to 27 years. Northern Irish truck driver Eamonn Harrison, 24, who drove the container to the Belgian port of Zeebrugge, received an 18-year sentence.Trucker Maurice Robinson, 26, who picked the container up in England, was sentenced to 13 years and 4 months in prison, while haulage company boss Ronan Hughes, 41, was jailed for 20 years.Nica and Harrison were convicted last month after a 10-week trial. Hughes and Robinson had pleaded guilty of people-smuggling and manslaughter.Three other members of the gang received shorter sentences.Prosecutors said all the suspects were part of a gang that charged about 13,000 pounds ($17,000) per person to transport migrants in trailers through the Channel Tunnel or by boat.Sweeney said it was “a sophisticated, long-running and profitable” criminal conspiracy.Migrants’ last momentsJurors heard harrowing evidence about the final hours of the victims, who tried to call Vietnam’s emergency number to summon help as air in the container ran out. When they couldn’t get a mobile phone signal, some recorded goodbye messages to their families.The trapped migrants — who included a bricklayer, a restaurant worker, a nail bar technician, a budding beautician and a university graduate — used a metal pole to try to punch through the roof of the refrigerated container, but only dented it.Detective Chief Inspector Daniel Stoten, the senior investigating officer on the case, said the victims “left behind families, memories and homes, in the pursuit of a false promise of something better.””Instead, they died, in an unimaginable way, because of the utter greed of these criminals,” he said. 
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Officials in India’s southern Karnataka state say at least five people were killed late Thursday when a truck carrying explosives detonated at a stone mine near Shivamogga.
 
District police say the explosives were to be used in mining stone at the facility. Karnataka state is known for its rich mineral deposits and stone quarries.
 
The blast occurred after dark, and witnesses said it shattered windowpanes and left cracks in homes. They say some people fled in panic, thinking there might have been an earthquake.  
 
Karnataka state Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa told reporters Friday a bomb disposal squad and mine detective teams have been sent to the site to investigate the incident. He said at least two people, including the mining contractor, have been detained for questioning.
 
On his Twitter account, India Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was pained by the loss of life in Shivamogga, and the state government is providing all possible assistance to those affected.
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A recent string of targeted killings in Afghanistan has created an atmosphere of fear among Afghan journalists who say they cannot carry out their duties under growing threats.The Afghan Journalists Safety Committee, a local media advocacy group, has warned that the country might lose one of its main achievements in the past two decades, freedom of expression and press, if the attacks on journalists continue.At least five journalists have been killed in Afghanistan in the past two months as part of a wave of targeted attacks against women working outside their homes, rights activists, tribal and community leaders, religious figures and journalists.“If this trend continues, we will lose one of the most noteworthy achievements of this country, which is press freedom and freedom of expression,” Najib Sharifi, president of the Afghan Journalists Safety Committee, told VOA.Journalists in many parts of Afghanistan say they no longer feel safe amid the increased killings of fellow journalists.“We are in constant fear of being targeted,” said Sami Serat, a journalist working with a local radio station in Helmand province. “We do not feel safe in the city, in our offices or even at home.”Serat added that the recent targeted killings of journalists in the country have “negatively affected” news coverage of his home province of Helmand, which has seen intensified clashes between government forces and Taliban militants in recent months.“We rarely go to the scenes for news coverage. It has become nearly impossible for us to go there because of the fear of being targeted and the ongoing fighting in the city [Lashkargah] and provincial districts,” he told VOA.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 7 MB480p | 10 MB540p | 13 MB720p | 27 MB1080p | 52 MBOriginal | 375 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioSerat said that some of his fellow journalists have left Helmand for Kabul because “it has become difficult to work in the province, and some of our own journalists, fearing their lives, are now in Kabul.”Walwala, 23, who worked as a journalist in the northern province of Baghlan, said that she left her job because of security concerns.“I love my profession, but I had to stop all my social and journalistic activities,” she said.Walwala said the killing of Malalai Maiwandi, a female journalist killed by unknown gunmen on December 10 in the eastern Nangarhar province, “has shocked all the female journalists across Afghanistan,” adding that many female journalists “are looking for jobs in other areas.”She added that she would “only start working as a journalist again when the security situation gets better in the country.”Nai, a local media organization in Afghanistan, reported that 11 Afghan journalists and media workers were killed in 2020.Demand for investigationThe Afghan government says several suspected attackers in some targeted killings have been arrested, including those suspected of killing Mohammad Ilyas Dayee, a journalist with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, who was killed December 12.However, Mudasar Dawat, Dayee’s younger brother, told VOA that the security officials have not informed his family about the arrests.“The government has not given us any information [about the progress made in the investigation],” he told VOA. “We have seen videos on Twitter and Facebook of someone confessing [to the killing], but that is not enough nor acceptable. We have the right to know about the investigation and who was behind the attack.”Tariq Aryan, a spokesperson for the Afghan Interior Ministry, said the government is investigating into the targeted killings of journalists “in collaboration with media organizations.”He blamed the Taliban for the attacks, claiming that the government has “arrested the killers of Dayee and Malalai Maiwand, and [those killers] were members of the Taliban.”The Taliban have denied any involvement in the recent killings of human rights activists and journalists though they have targeted journalists and media workers in the past.In 2016, the militant group claimed responsibility for an attack on a bus, killing seven Tolo TV staffers and injuring 25 others. The Taliban at the time described the journalists as “enemy personnel.”Call for protectionIn a letter released December 12, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and a number of other media organizations called on the U.N. to take “concrete measures” for the protection of journalists in Afghanistan.The letter urged the U.N. Security Council to “take serious actions to reduce violence and pressure the perpetrators to cease targeting journalists.”Danish Karokhel, the head of Pajhwok Afghan News Agency, also believes the international community should pressure the Taliban to stop targeting journalists.“It is not enough that they send press releases rejecting involvement in these killings. The Taliban should be accountable for the actions of their fighters in the provinces,” he told VOA.The United States signed a peace agreement with the Taliban in February 2020, which paved the way for the start of intra-Afghan negotiations in September 2020.However, violence in Afghanistan, particularly targeted killings, has surged in Afghanistan as negotiations continue in the Qatari capital, Doha.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 | 12 MB720p | 23 MB1080p | 46 MBOriginal | 357 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioKarokhel said that in some instances Taliban commanders and fighters have “created problems” for journalists, though the Taliban political leaders insist that they have changed and do not oppose free media anymore.In a report released last year, Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused Taliban militants of imposing restrictions on media groups in the areas they control.John Sifton, the Asia Advocacy director at HRW, told VOA in a recent interview that “what the Taliban say at the leadership level … does not mean that is what happens on the ground,” adding that the Taliban commanders in provinces “interpret things their own way.”Afghanistan ranks 122nd out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2020 press freedom index.The establishment of independent media has been considered as one of the main achievements of the post-Taliban Afghanistan, said RSF, adding that “given the country’s political and security challenges, this achievement is extremely vulnerable.”VOA’s Afghan Service contributed to this report.
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A recent wave of targeted killings of journalists in Afghanistan has raised concerns among journalists about their safety. VOA’s Rahim Gul Sarwan reports from Kabul. 
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Pakistan said Thursday it will receive half-a-million free doses of China’s Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine by January 31.    Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi made the announcement at a news conference, saying his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, shared the “good news” in a phone call between the two officials.   
 
“He told me, ‘Send your aircraft and immediately airlift this drug.’ So, this is a welcome news for us. And we will, God willing, succeed in saving many lives,” Qureshi said.   
 
He stressed that the Chinese vaccine is being gifted to Islamabad as a “goodwill gesture” from Beijing “in view of the all-weather strategic relationship” between the two countries.   
 
Pakistan’s drug regulator approved the Sinopharm vaccine for emergency use on Monday. China approved the drug earlier this month, which is also in use in several countries, including Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.  
 
The Pakistani regulator last week also authorized the use of AstraZeneca’s vaccine developed with Oxford University.  
 FILE – Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi speaks during an interview with Reuters at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Islamabad, Pakistan, March 1, 2020.Qureshi said that Wang also promised to make another 1.1 million doses of the Sinopharm vaccine available for Pakistan by the end of February to meet the country’s additional urgent requirements.  
 
The foreign minister noted that China’s technical and medical expertise had played an “instrumental role” in Islamabad’s fight against the pandemic.   
 
Pakistan is also conducting a Phase 3 trial of another Chinese anti-coronavirus vaccine from Cansino Biologics, Inc.   
 
Dr. Faisal Sultan, special health assistant to the prime minister, said Wednesday at a news conference that the trial was near completion and that 17,500 people participated in it.    
 
He noted that the Cansino vaccine’s “interim analysis” was currently underway, and the initial results will hopefully be available by early February.   
 
“We are entitled to receive 20 million doses, provided the results are positive and the vaccine proves to be effective,” Sultan said.   FILE – Students wear protective masks as they have their temperature checked before entering classrooms as secondary schools reopen amid the second wave of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Peshawar, Pakistan, Jan. 18, 2021.Pakistan, a country of about 220 million people, has documented at least 527,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 infections, with more than 11,000 deaths since the outbreak was detected late last February.   
 
Sultan said the government plans to vaccinate at least 70% of its adult population to achieve herd immunity. He explained that the existing national Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) is being strengthened to distribute and inject the coronavirus vaccine.  The Pakistani government has said it will provide the COVID-19 vaccine to the public free of cost. The first batch of the doses, however, will be given to frontline health care workers in the first quarter of 2021. FILE – A health worker gives a polio vaccine to a child at a school in Lahore, Pakistan, Feb. 17, 2020. 
The program is handling several vaccines, including polio. Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan are the only two countries in the world where the polio virus remains endemic. 
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