Officials in Afghanistan say about two dozen mortar shells hit downtown Kabul early Saturday, killing at least eight people and injuring 31 others.
 
Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Tariq Arian said the rockets that were fired from the back of two vehicles slammed into different parts of the capital.
 
The Islamic State terror group claimed responsibility for the attack, according to SITE Intelligence Group that tracks online activity of jihadist organizations. A spokesman for the Taliban insurgent group denied its involvement.
 
The Iranian embassy in Kabul said one of the rockets also landed at its compound.
 
“Fortunately, there were no casualties and all Embassy’s staff are in good health. #Afghanistan,” the diplomatic mission tweeted.One of the rockets fired this morning, landed at our Embassy compound. Fortunately, there were no casualties and all Embassy’s staff are in good health. #Afghanistanpic.twitter.com/V1knDZmIeG— Embassy of I.R. Iran in Kabul, Afghanistan (@IRANinKabul) November 21, 2020Earlier this month, three Islamic State gunmen wearing suicide vests stormed Kabul University and killed 22 people, mostly Afghan students. The Iranian ambassador was also present inside the campus at the time of the attack, but he escaped unhurt.
 
The Islamic State terror group had also taken responsibility for a similar rocket attack in March that targeted the presidential inauguration in Kabul.
 
The violence came just hours before U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met separately Saturday with negotiators from the Taliban and the Afghan government in Doha, the capital of Qatar.
 
The Afghan rivals have been engaged in a U.S.-brokered peace dialogue since early September, but the process is deadlocked over framework-related disputes.
 
Pompeo is on a seven-nation tour of Europe and the Middle East. The State Department said Friday the chief U.S. diplomat will also see Qatari leaders on his stop in Doha, where the Taliban maintains its political office.
 
The U.S. acting ambassador in Kabul, Ross Wilson, condemned the rocket attack.
 
“Afghans should not have to live in terror. My condolences to the victims and those families of those killed and wounded. … The United States will continue to work with our Afghan partners to prevent such attacks and hold their perpetrators to account,” Wilson tweeted.(1/2) I condemn this morning’s rocket and IED explosions in Kabul. Afghans should not have to live in terror. My condolences to the victims and those families of those killed and wounded.— Chargé d’Affaires Ross Wilson (@USAmbKabul) November 21, 2020Saturday’s barrage of rockets on Kabul comes amid a recent spike in battlefield violence between Afghan security forces and Taliban insurgents, which has killed countless combatants on both sides and civilians in November alone.
  
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U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Saturday the United States will “sit on the side and help where we can” as he met in Qatar with Afghan government negotiators amid signs of progress to reach a peace agreement with the Taliban.
 
“I would be most interested in getting your thoughts on how we can increase the probability of successful outcome that I know we share,” reporters heard Pompeo telling the Afghan negotiating team.
 
The outgoing top U.S. diplomat also meets with Taliban negotiators in the capital of Doha as the U.S. speeds up its withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan after invading the country in 2001.  
 
The Taliban and Afghanistan’s government began negotiating for the first time in September in Doha after the Taliban and the U.S. signed a deal in February. The U.S. agreed to withdraw all foreign troops in exchange for security guarantees and a Taliban commitment to begin negotiations.
 
Pompeo met earlier Saturday in Doha with United Arab Emirates Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and discussed the UAE’s normalization of ties with Israel, countering Iran’s influence in the Middle East, and the need to reach a political solution to achieve peace in Yemen, the State Department said.
 
The secretary of state also meets in Doha with Qatar’s ruler, Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, the deputy prime minister and the foreign minister. They will discuss defense and counterterrorism initiatives and economic opportunities, according to the State Department.
 
Pompeo’s visit to Qatar is the latest stop on a 10-day, seven nation tour of the Middle East and Europe as outgoing U.S. President Donald Trump shores up late-term priorities.U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is accompanied by Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi as they arrive for a security briefing on Mount Bental in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Nov. 19, 2020.Controversial West Bank visit
The tour has also taken Pompeo to Israel, where he visited an Israeli settlement Thursday in the occupied West Bank, a first by a high-ranking U.S. official after announcing a new initiative to halt a Palestinian-led movement to internationally boycott Israel.
 
A State Department official told reporters, who were not allowed to accompany Pompeo, that the top U.S. diplomat went to the Psagot Winery outside Jerusalem.
 
Pompeo also made a similar visit to the Golan Heights, an area Israel has occupied since capturing it from Syria in the 1967 war.  
 
Israel has built scores of settlements in the West Bank, territory the Palestinians want for their future state. Most of the international community views the settlements as a violation of international law and a barrier in reaching a peace agreement with the Palestinians. Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights has also not been recognized internationally. U.S. President Donald Trump signed a proclamation recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the territory last year.
 
Earlier, Pompeo said the United States will consider the movement advocating for boycotting and divesting from Israel to be anti-Semitic.  
 
Supporters of the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement say it is a form of protest against Israeli occupation and is modeled after the 1980s boycott that pressured South Africa to end apartheid.    
 
Human Rights Watch condemned Pompeo’s announcement, saying, “The Trump administration has no business trying to tar groups because they back boycotts.” The rights group noted that boycotts had been used throughout U.S. history to advance social justice.U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, left, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leave after making a joint statement in Jerusalem, Nov. 19, 2020.After meeting Thursday with Netanyahu, Pompeo said the U.S. will require imports from the West Bank settlements to be labeled “Made in Israel” or “Product of Israel.” The requirement eliminates the distinction between products made in Israel and those made in occupied territory.
 
Netanyahu and Pompeo congratulated each other for steps taken during President Donald Trump’s administration that went against prior U.S. policy, including recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, the movement of the U.S. embassy there, and no longer viewing Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank as unlawful.  
 
Netanyahu, who said Thursday the U.S.-Israel relationship reached “unprecedented heights” during the Trump administration, also highlighted Israel’s recent agreements normalizing relations with Bahrain, Sudan and the United Arab Emirates.
 
Neither Netanyahu nor Pompeo mentioned the U.S. election. Like Trump, Pompeo has not acknowledged former Vice President Joe Biden’s Nov. 3 presidential victory. Earlier this week, Netanyahu congratulated Biden and referred to him as the president-elect in an official statement. 
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Officials in Afghanistan say about two dozen mortar shells hit downtown Kabul on Saturday morning, killing at least eight people and injuring 31 more.Interior Ministry spokesman Tariq Arian said the rockets were fired from the back of two vehicles and slammed into different parts of the capital.The Iranian embassy in Kabul said one of the rockets also landed at its compound. “Fortunately, there were no casualties and all Embassy’s staff are in good health. #Afghanistan,” the diplomatic mission tweeted.One of the rockets fired this morning, landed at our Embassy compound. Fortunately, there were no casualties and all Embassy’s staff are in good health. #Afghanistanpic.twitter.com/V1knDZmIeG— Embassy of I.R. Iran in Kabul, Afghanistan (@IRANinKabul) November 21, 2020Earlier this month, three Islamic State gunmen wearing suicide vests stormed Kabul University and killed 22 people, mostly Afghan students. The Iranian ambassador was also present inside the campus at the time of the attack, but he escaped unhurt.A spokesman for the Taliban insurgent group quickly denied its involvement in Saturday’s deadly attack, raising suspicions the Islamic State could be behind it.The terrorist outfit had taken responsibility for a similar rocket attack in March that targeted the presidential inauguration in Kabul.The violence came just hours before U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was due to meet separately with negotiators from the Taliban and the Afghan government in Doha, the capital of Qatar.The Afghan rivals have been engaged in a U.S.-brokered peace dialogue since early September, but the process is deadlocked over framework-related disputes.Pompeo is on a seven-nation tour of Europe and the Middle East. The State Department said Friday the chief U.S. diplomat will also see Qatari leaders on his stop in Doha, where the Taliban maintains its politic office.The U.S. acting ambassador in Kabul, Ross Wilson, condemned the rocket attack.“Afghans should not have to live in terror.  My condolences to the victims and those families of those killed and wounded. … The United States will continue to work with our Afghan partners to prevent such attacks and hold their perpetrators to account,” Wilson tweeted.(1/2) I condemn this morning’s rocket and IED explosions in Kabul. Afghans should not have to live in terror. My condolences to the victims and those families of those killed and wounded.— Chargé d’Affaires Ross Wilson (@USAmbKabul) November 21, 2020Saturday’s barrage of rockets on Kabul comes amid recent spike in battlefield between Afghan security forces and Taliban insurgents, killing scores of combatants on both sides and civilians in November alone. 
  
 
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Experts testified on Capitol Hill that drawing down U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan from 4,500 to roughly 2,500 is a “mistake.” VOA Pentagon Correspondent Carla Babb has reaction to the U.S. acting defense secretary’s withdrawal announcement this week.
Producer: Kim Weeks
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Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry announced on Friday that its army units entered the Aghdam region as agreed upon in a cease-fire deal brokered by Russia last week to end the fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh.Aghdam is the first of three territories outside the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave ceded by Armenian forces.Armenian forces will roll out of the Kalbajar district on November 25 and from the Lachin district by December 1.Nagorno-KarabakhThe three territories have been held by Armenia for about 30 years.Armenian separatists also agreed to relinquish control over some parts of the Nagorno-Karabakh territory captured by Azerbaijan in the six-week fighting, including the historic town of Shusha.The deal’s key provisions call for the complete withdrawal of Armenian forces and the immediate deployment of Russian peacekeepers to the area.     The truce that ended six-weeks of fighting that killed hundreds of people was celebrated as a victory in Baku but was received with protests in Armenia, where thousands of people took on the streets to demand the resignation of country’s prime minister. However, the status of Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnically Armenian enclave inside Azerbaijan, remains unresolved.    
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India’s capital, New Delhi, is battling twin health emergencies, as it copes with deadly air pollution that spikes in winter months and a record surge in coronavirus cases. Doctors say the city’s fight against the pandemic has become harder as the toxic air makes the city more vulnerable to the virus. Anjana Pasricha reports.Videographer:  P Pallavi, Producer: Henry Hernandez
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Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan assured leaders of war-torn neighboring Afghanistan Thursday his government will do its utmost to help them in their bid to seek a reduction in Taliban-led violence.
 
Khan made the remarks at the conclusion of his day-long maiden visit to Kabul where he held extensive talks with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on bilateral security and economic ties, as well as matters related to regional peace.  
 
Both the leaders later spoke at a joint news conference and vowed to enhance cooperation between their security institutions to further the Afghan peace process.  
 
“Pakistan played its role in getting first the Taliban to talk to the Americans and then [participate in] the intra-Afghan dialogue,” Khan said.
 
“We notice with concern that despite the [intra-Afghan] talks in Qatar. the level of violence is rising. So, my idea of choosing this time to come was to assure you that Pakistan will do everything, whatever is possible we will do to help reduce this violence and in fact move toward a cease-fire,” Khan vowed.  
 
The months-long U.S.-Taliban negotiations produced a landmark deal this past February aimed at closing the 19-year-old war, initiating a “conditions-based” withdrawal of American and NATO troops from Afghanistan by May 2021.  
 
The pact also opened the first-ever direct talks between the Taliban and representatives of the Ghani government in September, being hosted by the Gulf state of Qatar.
 
The so-called intra-Afghan dialogue, however, has stalled for most part, and battlefield hostilities between Afghan security forces and the Taliban also have spiked to unusually high levels.  
 
Pakistan’s links with the Taliban have been the primary source of political tensions with Afghanistan. Kabul has long alleged insurgent leaders direct their violent campaign from Pakistani soil. Islamabad denies the charges, although officials say the approximately 3 million Afghan refugees Pakistan still hosts serve as a hiding place for insurgents,
 
“Our common objective is to take a leap of faith to overcome the distrust that has haunted our relationship,” Ghani told the news conference.Afghan President Ashraf Ghani (R) and Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan meet at the presidential palace in Kabul, Afghanistan, Nov. 19, 2020. (Afghan Presidential Palace/Handout)“Practically, we have agreed to form committees to deal with key topics to make sure that the foundation for trust that has been established with your trip today becomes an enduring process,” the Afghan president stressed.
Khan noted that border regions between Pakistan and Afghanistan were devastated by the U.S.-led war on terrorism, millions of people were internally displaced, and their livelihoods were badly affected.
 
The Pakistani prime minister said an increased trade connectivity between the two countries can only help the affected population and his delegation has had “fruitful” discussions with Afghan counterparts to strengthen economic cooperation.   
 
“We hope that this trade and connectivity will increase between the two countries and for that it is imperative that the level of violence goes down,” Khan stressed again.
   
“So, I repeat again Mr. President, that the whole objective of this visit is to build trust to communicate more to assure you that wherever you need our help more than your expectations we will be helping you,” the Pakistani leader said.  
 
The U.S.-initiated Afghan peace process has allowed President Donald Trump to reduce the number of American soldiers to 4,500 from about 13,000 since singing the deal with the Taliban on February 29. This week, the Trump administration announced it plans to bring home another 2,000 troops from Afghanistan by mid-January.  
 
U.S. officials, however, have linked a complete troop withdrawal to the Taliban living up to its pledges outlined in the agreement.  
 
The insurgents are bound to prevent transnational terrorist groups from using Afghan soil for international attacks and negotiate a permanent cease-fire, as well as a political power-sharing deal through the ongoing talks with Afghan rivals.  
 
International donors of Afghanistan have linked future financial commitments to an accelerated productive dialogue between Kabul and the Taliban that would significantly reduce violence or move the country toward a cease-fire.  
 
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An internal inquiry is alleging that Australian special forces unlawfully killed more than three dozen unarmed civilians and prisoners in Afghanistan over an 11-year period.General Angus Campbell, chief of the Australian Defense Force, revealed the results of a four-year special investigation during a press conference in Canberra on Thursday.Campbell said there was credible evidence that 25 special forces personnel took part in the deaths of 39 Afghans between 2005 and 2016, all of which happened outside “the heat of battle.”The report included allegations that forces engaged in a practice called “blooding,” in which senior officers would coerce rookie members to shoot a prisoner in order to achieve the soldier’s first kill. The junior soldiers would then stage a firefight to justify their actions.Campbell said the crimes evolved out of a “self-centered warrior culture” that resulted in rules being broken, “stories concocted, lies told and prisoners killed.”The report recommended that 19 current and former soldiers be referred to Australian Federal Police for criminal investigation, and that the government offer compensation to the families of the victims. Campbell also said those accused in the killings would be referred to a special investigator for war crimes.The inquiry was prompted by a 2017 report aired by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that Australian troops had committed war crimes in Afghanistan, where they were deployed to support the 2001 U.S.-led invasion in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison warned the nation last week to prepare for some difficult revelations to come out of the investigation.
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The U.N. refugee agency reports the COVID-19 pandemic, violence and insecurity in Afghanistan have discouraged Afghan refugees in Pakistan and Iran from returning to the homes they fled many years ago.After the fall of the Taliban in 2002, Afghan refugees in Pakistan and Iran began going home in droves.  U.N. refugee spokesman, Babar Baloch, tells VOA he witnessed huge numbers of people who had been living in exile, many for more than two decades returning.“I was present at the border point in Pakistan where Afghans were going in thousands,” Baloch said. “So, we saw at least more than a million initially during 2002 and the coming years.  And since then, we have at least helped through UNHCR’s voluntary return program at least nearly five million Afghan refugees that have gone home, mostly from Pakistan and Iran.”  Afghan returns now have slowed down to a trickle.  This year, the UNHCR reports upwards of 2,000 refugees have returned to Afghanistan from Pakistan and Iran.  It says all returns were suspended in March because of COVID-19.However, Baloch says an upsurge in deadly attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure, including hospitals and the recent attack against Kabul University, also have acted as a disincentive for people to go home.He says Afghans hope the U.S. mediated Afghan-Taliban peace negotiations will succeed and end the conflict in their country.“With that, it is also important that the international community that has remained engaged inside Afghanistan for the last at least two decades and all the gains that Afghans have been able to make because of that—So, that attention is still required,” Baloch said.Baloch says international solidarity and the peace process are interlinked.The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, who has just completed a four-day visit to Afghanistan has warned of a big humanitarian disaster in the country if the peace effort collapses.  He urged the international community to remain committed to Afghanistan and for their continued support for internally displaced and returning Afghans.Unlike the significant drop in Afghan refugee returns, the International Organization for Migration reports more than 742,000 undocumented Afghan migrants, mostly in Iran, have returned home this year. Currently, the UNHCR reports 2.4 million Afghan refugees remain in Pakistan and Iran because they fear for their lives if they return home.  On the other hand, Afghan undocumented migrant workers, who went to Iran and Pakistan in search of work to support their families, have returned home in great numbers because there are no jobs available in the informal sector.IOM explains that a slowdown in Iran’s economy and COVID-19 have dried up job opportunities for Afghan migrant labor.
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Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan will travel Thursday to neighboring Afghanistan for meetings that officials say will focus on strengthening economic cooperation and matters related to U.S.-backed peace efforts aimed at ending the Afghan conflict.Khan, who assumed power two years ago, is undertaking his first official visit to Kabul at the invitation of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani amid relatively improved relations that have long suffered from mutual mistrust and suspicions.Officials say a flurry of high-level visits of top government officials and lawmakers in the run-up to Khan’s maiden trip have helped ease tensions and improve economic coordination.FILE – Afghan President Ashraf Ghani speaks at the Loya Jirga Hall in Kabul, in this handout photograph taken Aug. 7, 2020, and released by the Press Office of President of Afghanistan.”The prime minister’s visit builds on the sustained engagement between the two countries in recent months for enhancing bilateral cooperation in diverse fields,” said Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri on Wednesday.Chaudhri said Khan and Ghani will hold a one-on-one meeting before leading their respective delegations in formal talks. The visit will help “foster a stronger and multi-faceted relationship between the two brotherly countries,” the spokesman added.Pakistan’s links with the Afghan Taliban insurgent group have been the primary source of political tensions with Afghanistan. The two countries share a nearly 2,600-kilometer-long border, and Islamabad also accuses Kabul of allowing fugitive Pakistani militants to use Afghan border areas to plot cross-border subversive acts.Khan’s government insists it does not support any faction in the Afghan war and is working to promote a peaceful Afghanistan to ensure regional connectivity and economic prosperity.Landlocked Afghanistan has for decades relied mostly on Pakistani overland routes and seaports for bilateral and international trade. Mutual tensions, however, have significantly undermined bilateral trade activities in recent years.FILE – Afghan men wait to collect tokens needed to apply for the Pakistan visa, in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, Oct. 21, 2020.Last September, Islamabad unveiled a string of what officials described as “confidence- building measures” to facilitate Afghans visiting Pakistan for medical treatment, education and business dealings. The steps include long-term business, investment and student visas for Afghan visitors as opposed to traditional one-time entry visas for a limited number of days.Officials say Pakistan also has operationalized all border terminals in recent weeks to facilitate bilateral and transit trade activities to help Kabul overcome increased economic troubles in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.FILE – Afghan traders and citizens gather near the Pakistan’s newly inaugurated Badini Trade Terminal Gateway, a border crossing point between Pakistan and Afghanistan at the country’s border town of Qila Saifullah, Sept. 16, 2020.Khan’s government takes credit for arranging months-long historic negotiations between the Taliban and the United States that produced a peacebuilding deal this past February, initiating a “conditions-based” withdrawal of all American and NATO troops from Afghanistan by May 2021. The insurgents in return pledged to stop attacks on international forces and promised to sever links to terror groups, including the al-Qaida network.The U.S.-Taliban pact also opened in September the first-ever direct peace talks between the insurgent group and representatives of the Afghan government to negotiate a permanent cease-fire. But the so-called intra-Afghan dialogue under way in Qatar has mostly stalled, with each side blaming the other for the delay.FILE – Abdullah Abdullah, center, chairman of Afghanistan’s High Council for National Reconciliation, attends the opening session of the peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban in Doha, Qatar, Sept. 12, 2020.President Donald Trump’s administration has also acknowledged Islamabad’s role in facilitating the Afghan peace process and setting the stage for extracting American troops from the longest U.S. war in the history.Afghan Presidential spokesman Sediq Sediqqi reiterated Wednesday the “presence of terrorists hideouts” in Pakistan is a matter of concern for the Afghan government, alleging that Islamabad “has not changed its policy on this issue.”Kabul has long alleged that Taliban leaders and fighters have used sanctuaries on Pakistani soil to sustain and expand insurgent actives on the other side of the border.Pakistan hosts about 3 million Afghan refugees and economic migrants, who have fled 40 years of violence, religious persecution and poverty in their conflict-torn country. Islamabad says the refugee community serves as a hiding place for the Taliban and has been urging the international community to arrange for an early repatriation of Afghan refugees from Pakistan.Last Saturday, the Pakistani government revealed at a news conference what it said was “irrefutable evidence” about Indian-sponsored terrorism in Pakistan from Afghanistan.A military spokesman said Indian intelligence operatives were running 66 camps on Afghan soil to train fugitive Pakistani militants with the help of Afghan collaborators. Both Kabul and New Delhi rejected the allegations as “fabricated.”  
 
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Pioneering journalist Spozhmai Maiwandi, who fled her home in Kabul, Afghanistan, in the 1980s and spent the next 30 years as a broadcaster and editor for Voice of America reporting on her home country from Washington, has died at the age of 68 in Bowie, Maryland.Her family announced her passing over the weekend. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Tuesday released a statement celebrating Maiwandi’s contributions to journalism and Afghanistan.FILE — The logo for Spzhmai Maiwandi’s program. On Nov. 17, 2020, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani released a statement celebrating Maiwandi’s contributions to journalism and Afghanistan.Maiwandi and her two young children escaped Soviet-occupied Kabul, fleeing on foot over the border with Pakistan and joined VOA in 1982 as a founding member of VOA’s Pashto language news service. She later became the Pashto service chief and director of VOA’s South Asia division, before retiring in 2014.Throughout her VOA career, Maiwandi championed bringing news to the people of Afghanistan and standing up for Afghan women’s rights.In an essay for VOA about her path as a journalist, she recalled the conversation she had with her father as she weighed leaving him and her mother in Kabul to pursue her career.“He told me, ‘Spozhmai, if you were going to America in search of economic prosperity, I would have told you not to go. But you’re going there for a very sacred mission, that is to let the people of Afghanistan know, in their own language, that other than communism, another system, another way of life exists, and that is democracy.’”VOA news broadcasts were among the few sources of outside news available in Afghanistan during Taliban rule in the 1990s.As the United States prepared to go to war in Afghanistan following the 2001 terrorist attacks, Maiwandi interviewed Taliban leader Mullah Omar in what became his final interview with a Western news organization.Controversy erupted over the U.S.-funded broadcaster airing excerpts of the interview on the eve of war, in what became a defining moment for VOA’s editorial independence.Maiwandi’s years broadcasting to Afghanistan also shaped the next generation of Afghan reporters, said VOA Afghan service reporter Matiullah Abid Noor.”Spozhmai Maiwandi was famous among Afghan listeners as ‘Spozhmai jan.’ Journalists of our age learned reporting by following her style of coverage. She was really a torchbearer for a whole generation of journalists who run Afghan media nowadays,” said Noor.Other colleagues remember how she remained focused on the most vulnerable in Afghanistan and encouraged women, in particular, to set big goals in life and to envision a larger role for themselves in society.In her final VOA byline in 2014, she wrote an essay about the historical struggle for Afghan women to gain ground, despite the country’s conservative beliefs and customs.“In order for Afghan women to create a future where they are free to learn, to work, and to participate in all facets of daily life, Afghan women themselves, in the cities and also in the villages, need to collectively and actively participate in the evolution of their culture and traditions,” she said.VOA Afghan Service contributed to this report.
   
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Germany accused Russia and China on Tuesday of preventing a United Nations Security Council committee from determining whether North Korea has breached a U.N. cap on refined petroleum imports by the isolated Asian state. The Security Council has ratcheted up sanctions on North Korea since 2006 in a bid to choke funding for Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs. In 2017, it imposed an annual cap of 500,000 barrels on refined petroleum imports. China and Russia are the only countries to have notified the Security Council’s North Korea sanctions committee of refined petroleum exports to Pyongyang, but they did so in tonnes instead of barrels, and the committee has been unable to agree on a conversion rate so it can determine when the cap was reached. “Despite numerous attempts — the issue has been on the agenda for no less than three years — to find an agreement on a conversion rate, Russia and China have been stalling the process,” German U.N. Ambassador Christoph Heusgen, chairman of the sanctions committee, told reporters. “While this shouldn’t be a complicated matter to solve, it has become clear that the two delegations are politicizing this topic,” Heusgen said after raising the issue behind closed doors in a formal Security Council meeting. The Russian and Chinese missions to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment. For the past three years, the United States and dozens of allies have accused North Korea of breaching the fuel cap through illicit imports and called for an immediate halt to all deliveries. However, Russia and China repeatedly prevented the sanctions committee from issuing such a statement. 
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Azerbaijan’s Turkish-supported victory over Armenian forces in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh enclave has provided Ankara an opportunity to expand its influence in the Caucuses at the expense of Russia.  That’s the conclusion of some observers – as Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.Camera: VOA
Producer: Rod James
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An Afghan man pleaded not guilty on Monday in Manhattan federal court to six counts related to the 2008 kidnapping of a U.S. journalist and two Afghan nationals in Afghanistan.Haji Najibullah faces charges including kidnapping, hostage taking, conspiracy, and using a machine gun to further violent crimes. Each count carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.The indictment did not name the journalist, but a law enforcement official familiar with the matter told Reuters the case involved David Rohde, a former New York Times and Reuters correspondent who was kidnapped by the Taliban in 2008.”Not guilty. I am not involved in any of this,” Najibullah said through an interpreter at a hearing before U.S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla.The U.S. Department of Justice said that on Nov. 10, 2008, Najibullah and other co-conspirators carrying machine guns abducted Rohde and the two Afghans who were assisting him, and soon forced them to hike from Afghanistan to Pakistan.Prosecutors said the victims were held captive for seven months, and Najibullah recorded a video of Rohde begging for help while the barrel of a machine gun was pointed at his face.Rhode, a Pulitzer Prize winner who is now with the New Yorker, escaped in June 2009.He has said the kidnapping came on a trip where he was to interview a Taliban commander, Abu Tayeb. Prosecutors said that name was one of Najibullah’s aliases.The indictment is dated June 2014, but was not unsealed until Oct. 28, after Najibullah had been arrested and moved to the United States from Ukraine to face the charges.The case is U.S. v. Najibullah et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 14-cr-00401. 
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Top government officials in Afghanistan are downplaying reports the United States may be planning to withdraw U.S. troops, saying local forces are independently conducting almost all security operations across the country and rely only on a small aerial support from foreign partners.U.S. media reports say President Donald Trump intends to reduce the number of American troops in Afghanistan to 2,500 from the existing 4,500.  VOA has been unable to confirm the reports and there has been, so far, no official announcement of a U.S. troop drawdown.On Tuesday, Afghan Defense Minister Asadullah Khalid, while addressing the parliament, attempted to ease growing domestic concerns that an abrupt foreign troop withdrawal from the country would undermine his government’s ability to battle Taliban insurgents.Khalid noted that currently Afghan security forces carry out 96% of operations against the Taliban on their own and receive four percent aerial support from foreign partners.The defense minister, however, insisted he did not foresee a complete departure of international forces from Afghanistan.Speculation about a possible U.S. troop cutback comes as peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban have stalled and battlefield violence across the turmoil-hit country have intensified, killing dozens of combatants and non-combatants every day.Violence Spikes in Afghanistan Despite Peace Efforts New SIGAR report says daily enemy-initiated attacks were up 50% between July and September, compared to the previous quarter U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has cautioned Trump against abruptly pulling out of Afghanistan.”A rapid withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan now would hurt our allies and delight the people who wish us harm. Violence affecting Afghans is still rampant. The Taliban is not abiding by the conditions of the so-called peace deal,” McConnell said in a statement.He was referring to a peace-building agreement the Trump administration signed with the Taliban in February that requires all U.S. and NATO troops to leave Afghanistan by May 2021. In return, the insurgents are bound to fight terrorism on Afghan soil and negotiate a permanent cease-fire as well as political reconciliation with rival Afghan factions.”We’d be abandoning our partners in Afghanistan, the brave Afghans who are fighting the terrorists and destroying the government’s leverage in their talks with the Taliban to end the fighting,” McConnell warned.”Our retreat would embolden the Taliban, especially the deadly Haqqani wing, and risk plunging Afghan women and girls back into what they experienced in the 1990s,” said the U.S. senator while referring to the former Taliban regime in Kabul when women were barred from outdoor activities and girls were not allowed to receive education.
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 Security forces in Pakistan sealed off a main highway into the capital, Islamabad, for a second day Monday to contain thousands of Islamists gathered outside the city to protest the reprinting of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in France. 
 
Witnesses and organizers said around 5,000 followers of the far-right Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan, or TLP, began rallying on Sunday in neighboring Rawalpindi city and vowed to march toward the French Embassy in Islamabad.   Supporters of Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan, a religious political party, chant slogans while they block a main highway during an anti-France rally over the remarks of French President Emmanuel Macron, in Islamabad, Pakistan, Nov. 16, 2020.Rally participants were chanting anti-France slogans and demanding the expulsion of the French ambassador. 
 
Pakistani authorities, however, deployed thousands of riot police and paramilitary forces, and placed shipping containers at key entry points to block participants from entering the capital. Cell phone service in and around Islamabad was also switched off to prevent rally organizers from coordinating with each other.  
 
Protesters attempted to remove roadblocks Sunday night in their bid to enter the city, prompting police to respond with tear gas. The ensuing clashes spilled into Monday morning, injuring more than a dozen police officers.  Activists and supporters of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) gather beside empty tear gas shells fired by police during an anti-France demonstration in Islamabad, Nov. 16, 2020. An officer told VOA one of their personnel suffered “critical” injures, saying some of the demonstrators were “armed with long sticks that had daggers tied to them.” The clashes also left several protesters injured, according to hospital sources in Rawalpindi. 
 
The Pakistani capital remained under virtual lockdown even on Monday evening, with telecommunication services suspended for a second day in a row and security forces struggling to disperse the rally.  
 
Commuters between Islamabad and Rawalpindi and those traveling to the capital from other parts of Pakistan faced lengthy delays on alternate routes into the capital.  
Islamic parties in Pakistan have routinely organized scattered protests since early September against French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo for republishing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that Muslims deem as blasphemous.  
 
Last month, a history teacher was decapitated outside a school near Paris after he had shown his students caricatures of the Prophet when the class discussed free speech.FILE – Floral tributes to Samuel Paty, the French teacher who was beheaded on the streets of the Paris suburb of Conflans St Honorine, are seen at the Place de la Republique, in Lille, France, Oct. 18, 2020.While French authorities were investigating the slaying of Samuel Paty and cracking down on suspected Islamist militants, a Tunisian man fatally stabbed three people in a cathedral in Nice. 
 
French President Emmanuel Macron has defended the right of publishers in his country to depict cartoons of the Prophet, drawing strong condemnation and triggering anti-France protests in Muslim countries.  
 
Islamabad has formally lodged a complaint with France over what it called a “systematic Islamophobic campaign” in the European nation. 
 
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has accused Macron of attacking the Muslim faith and urged Islamic countries to work together to counter what he called growing repression in Europe. 
 
“European powers, Western countries must understand that you cannot use freedom of speech as a weapon to cause Muslims pain by insulting our Prophet. Unless this is understood, the cycle of violence will keep happening,” Khan cautioned in a statement earlier this month.  
 
The ongoing violent protest outside Islamabad is not the first time the hardline cleric and TLP chief, Khadim Hussain Rizvi, has organized demonstrations over blasphemy-related issues in Pakistan.  
 
Rizvi’s followers, at his call, almost paralyzed parts of Pakistan in 2018 following the acquittal by the Supreme Court of a Christian woman, Asia Bibi, who had been wrongly accused of disrespecting the Prophet Muhammad.  
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A massive oil well fire that raged for more than five months in northeast India has finally been extinguished, officials said Sunday.Oil India engineers had battled the blaze in Assam state since an explosion in June, weeks after the well blew out and began discharging huge quantities of natural gas.Two employees of the state-owned company died in the blast, which sent a wall of flames and massive plumes of smoke into the sky. A third worker died in September after an accident at the site.Experts from Singapore, the United States and Canada joined efforts to contain the inferno, and Oil India spokesman Tridiv Hazarika said Sunday the fire has been “doused completely.”  “The well has been killed with brine solution and is under control now,” he told AFP, adding that the well had yet to be capped.  “There is no pressure in the well now and it will be observed for 24 hours to check if there is any amount of gas migration and pressure buildup,” Hazarika said.Thousands of villagers in Tinsukia district had been relocated to relief camps after the blaze ignited.A farmer who lived beside the site said his home was damaged by the fire and hoped his losses would be compensated fully.”Even if the fire is doused, we cannot possibly go and live in that house anymore — we lost not just our cows, goats, fields, crops, but our mental and physical peace too,” Akheshwar Chetia told The Indian Express newspaper.The Baghjan oil field is next to the Dibru-Saikhowa National Park and the wetland habitat of several endangered species, including tigers and elephants.The region is also home to several bird sanctuaries.The Wildlife Institute of India said in a July report that the oil spill had brought a “large-scale impact” on local plant and animal life.”The toxins released are known to have long-term persistence in soils and sediments, which will not only affect current life conditions, but due to sustained release over a long period, pose a serious health risk for a longer term,” the institute added.The disaster has cost Oil India more than $30.5 million as of late September, according to the firm’s quarterly financial results released last week.
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Afghanistan and India Sunday refuted allegations they are the source of terrorist attacks in Pakistan and instead questioned counterterrorism credentials of their South Asian neighbor.
 
The strong rebuttal comes a day after Islamabad accused New Delhi of running some 66 militant training camps on Afghan soil to plot “terrorism” to destabilize Pakistan and hurt its economic partnership with China.
 Pakistan Claims ‘Irrefutable Evidence’ of Indian Links to Terrorism on Pakistani SoilIslamabad accuses New Delhi of running dozens of training camps in Afghanistan for multiple globally outlawed militant groups to plot terrorism on Pakistani soil to destabilize the countryThe Pakistani government, in a nationally televised news conference, presented what it said was “irrefutable evidence” to substantiate the charges.
 
“The so-called claims of ‘proof’ against India enjoy no credibility, are fabricated and represent figments of imagination,” Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman Anurag Srivastava said in a statement issued Sunday.
 
“We call upon Pakistan to end its support to cross-border terrorism…. Concocting documents and peddling false narratives will not absolve Pakistan of such actions,” Srivastava said.
 
He reiterated long-running Indian allegations that Pakistan trains Islamist militants and helps them infiltrate into Indian-administered Kashmir to foment separatist violence in the Muslim-majority region.
 
“The incessant infiltration of terrorists and induction of weapons to fuel terror activities continues unabated,” alleged Srivastava.Pakistani-Indian Military Clashes Kill 13 in Kashmir At least 13 people, including soldiers and civilians, are killed on both sides Pakistan, which administers one-third of Kashmir, denies the accusations, saying they are an attempt by the neighboring country to cover up alleged human rights abuses being inflicted on Kashmiris.
 
The two nuclear-armed rival nations have fought several wars and low-intensity conflicts over Kashmir since gaining independence from Britain in 1947. India and Pakistan claim the region in its entirety and it remains the primary source of bilateral military tension and acrimony.
 Afghan denial
 
Officials in Afghanistan also rejected allegations that its territory or citizens were being used for carrying out subversive activities against Pakistan.
 
In a statement Sunday, the foreign ministry said that Afghanistan itself is a major victim of terrorism. Kabul, it said, is “committed to a policy of combating all forms of terrorism…and will never allow Afghan territory to be used for destructive activities against other countries.”
 
The statement noted that as the Afghan government is preparing for this week’s maiden visit to Kabul by Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, it is expected Islamabad will raise “issues of bilateral interest and debate” through existing cooperation mechanisms between the two countries.
 
Pakistan and Afghanistan share a nearly 2,600-kilometer border but mutual ties are marred by mistrust and suspicion. Kabul accuses Islamabad of supporting the Afghan Taliban’s violent campaign aimed at dislodging the Afghan government.
 
For its part, Pakistan maintains that militant groups fleeing years of counterterrorism security operations have taken shelter in Afghan border areas and orchestrating cross-border attacks.
 
Pakistani army spokesman Major-General Iftikhar Babar on Saturday displayed what he said were documents, banking transactions worth millions of dollars, audio clips and details of contacts between Indian intelligence operatives and diplomats with fugitive Pakistani militants operating out of Afghanistan.
 
“Uncontrivable evidence reveals that Indian embassies and consulates operating along Pakistan’s borders have become hub of terror sponsorship against Pakistan…We have verifiable evidence of terrorists funding by India. Indian ambassadors in Afghanistan have been regularly supervising various terrorist activities,” Babar said.
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Azerbaijan has agreed to extend a deadline for Armenia to withdrawal from a district as part of a peace agreement that ended a six-week war over the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region. “Azerbaijan agreed to prolong the deadline for the withdrawal from Kalbacar of Armenian armed forces and of illegal Armenian settlers until November 25,” Hikmat Hajiyev, an aide to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, told a news conference in Baku on Sunday. He said Aliyev had agreed on “humanitarian grounds” to grant an Armenian request for the delay following mediation by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Armenia was due to complete its withdrawal from Kalbacar (known as Karvachar in Armenian) on November 15. Hajiyev said the timetable for the Armenian withdrawal from the Aghdam region on November 20 and the Lachin district by December 1 remains unchanged. Residents of Kalbacar, a district in Azerbaijan that was controlled for decades by ethnic Armenians, have been leaving their homes since the peace deal was signed on November 10. Some residents set their homes on fire before leaving, RFE/RL’s Armenian Service reported. A man is seen inside a destroyed house in the village of Knaravan located in a territory which is soon to be turned over to Azerbaijan, Nov. 15, 2020.Kalbacar was populated mostly by ethnic Azeris before they were expelled by Armenians in the 1990s war following the breakup of the Soviet Union, and a majority of the homes being abandoned previously belonged to Azeris. Before it was ceded to Azerbaijan, Armenians flocked to the Dadivank monastery for a final visit. Russian peacekeepers were positioned near the monastery on November 14. People look at bells, removed from the Dadivank, an Armenian Apostolic Church monastery dating to the ninth century, as ethnic Armenians leave the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh for Armenia, Nov. 14, 2020.The Kremlin said that Putin told Aliyev on November 14 to protect Christian shrines in the parts of Nagorno-Karabakh that will be under the control of Azerbaijan, a majority Muslim nation. Aliyev vowed to safeguard the Christian shrines, a statement released by his press service said. A key part of the Russia-brokered peace deal includes Armenia’s return of Kalbacar and two other districts over the next 2 1/2 weeks. Like Kalbacar, those districts have been held by Armenian separatists since a war that ended in 1994. While ending fighting that killed up to 5,000 soldiers and civilians on both sides, the deal announced on November 10 was rejected by many Armenians because it allows Azerbaijan to keep a sizable chunk of Nagorno-Karabakh, along with surrounding areas captured during the fighting. The deal includes the deployment of 2,000 Russian peacekeepers in the region. Several hundred have already arrived since the announcement of the truce. The two sides exchanged the bodies of an unspecified number of dead soldiers on November 14 following the arrival of the Russian troops. Nagorno-Karabakh is recognized as part of Azerbaijan, but its majority Armenian population has governed its own affairs since Azerbaijani troops and Azeri civilians were pushed out of the region in the war in the 1990s. Armenia’s Health Ministry said on November 14 that at least 2,300 Armenian and Nagorno-Karabakh Armenian combatants have died during the most recent fighting, which broke out in late September. A ministry spokeswoman, Alina Nikoghosian, said the figure does not include dead soldiers whose bodies remain in Azerbaijani-controlled territory. Their total number is not yet known, she said. Azerbaijani authorities have not released their military casualty figures. The announcement of the peace deal triggered celebrations in Azerbaijan and a political crisis in Armenia, where angry protesters stormed government buildings and parliament. On November 11, 10 prominent opposition figures were arrested and accused of “organizing illegal violent mass disorder.” The detentions were denounced by the opposition as illegal, and the opposition figures were released two days later. The leader of Armenia’s opposition Homeland party, Arthur Vanetsian, was arrested on November 14 and accused of plotting to overthrow the government and of an assassination plot against Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian. Vanetsian, who formerly headed Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS), was arrested after his arrival at the service’s Investigative Department on November 14, according to his lawyer. “Vanetsian was arrested on suspicion of usurping power and preparing the assassination of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian,” attorney Lusine Sahakian wrote on Facebook. In addition, Sahakian wrote, “illegal searches” were carried out in Vanetsian’s parents’ apartment and an office affiliated with the Homeland party. Both Sahakian and Vanetsian’s Homeland party condemned the move as politically motivated. The NSS has not confirmed Vanetsian’s arrest, but in a November 14 statement it said that it had thwarted an assassination attempt against Pashinian. Homeland is one of 17 Armenian opposition groups that launched the protests and demanded Pashinian’s resignation. They accuse Pashinian of capitulating to Azerbaijan and committing high treason.  
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The leader of Armenia’s opposition Homeland party, Artur Vanetsyan, has been arrested and accused of plotting to overthrow the government and kill the country’s embattled prime minister, as the country’s main security body said it had thwarted an assassination attempt.Vanetsyan, who formerly headed Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS), was detained after his arrival for a meeting with the service’s Investigative Department on Saturday, according to his lawyer.”Vanetsyan was detained on suspicion of usurping power and preparing the assassination of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan,” attorney Lusine Sahakian wrote on Facebook.In addition, Sahakian wrote, “illegal searches” were carried out in the apartment of Vanetsyan’s parents and an office affiliated with the Homeland party.Both Sahakian and Vanetsyan’s Homeland party condemned the moves as politically motivated.NSS statementThe NSS has not confirmed Vanetsyan’s arrest, but in a statement Saturday it said that it had thwarted an assassination attempt against Pashinyan.”The National Security Service of the Republic of Armenia has revealed cases of illegal acquisition and storage of weapons, ammunition and explosives by a group of people with the aim of seizing power in the Republic of Armenia,” the statement said. “It is clarified that the attackers, who did not agree with the domestic and foreign policy of the state, intended to seize power by killing the head of government.”The Homeland party said in a statement that Vanetsyan’s arrest was part of the Armenian authorities’ efforts to quell opposition protests against a Russia-mediated cease-fire agreement that stopped fighting between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces in Nagorno-Karabakh.Pashinyan’s agreement to the truce with Azerbaijan on Tuesday prompted a furious reaction in the Armenian capital, with protesters storming government buildings and parliament.Homeland is one of 17 Armenian opposition groups that launched the protests and demanded Pashinyan’s resignation. They accuse Pashinyan of capitulating to Azerbaijan and committing high treason.10 arrestsOn Wednesday, 10 prominent opposition figures, including Vanetsyan, were arrested and accused of “organizing illegal violent mass disorder.” The detentions were denounced by the opposition as illegal, and the opposition figures were released two days later.Vanetsyan, 40, was appointed as head of the NSS immediately after the 2018 revolution that brought Pashinyan to power. He quickly became an influential member of Pashinyan’s entourage, overseeing high-profile corruption investigations initiated by Armenia’s new leadership.Vanetsyan resigned in September 2019 after a falling out with the prime minister. He has since repeatedly accused Pashinyan of incompetence and misrule, prompting angry responses from the premier and his political allies.While the Moscow-brokered truce ended fighting that has killed more than 2,000 soldiers and civilians on each side, it has been rejected by Armenians because it allows Azerbaijan to keep large swaths of Nagorno-Karabakh.Nagorno-Karabakh is recognized as part of Azerbaijan, but its majority Armenian population has governed its own affairs since Azerbaijani troops and Azeri civilians were pushed out of the region in a war that ended in a cease-fire in 1994.The most recent fighting broke out in late September.
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More than a billion Indians celebrated Diwali on Saturday amid twin concerns of a resurgence in coronavirus infections and rising air pollution that is enveloping the country’s north in a cloud of thick toxic smog.Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, is typically celebrated by socializing and exchanging gifts with friends and family, and lighting oil lamps or candles to symbolize a victory of light over darkness. Fireworks are also a major part of the celebrations.But this year, the pandemic is upending some of the celebrations in India, particularly in New Delhi, the capital, which has seen a renewed spike in coronavirus infections in recent weeks, recording more new cases than any other Indian state.On Saturday, many temples across the country streamed prayer sessions online to avoid large gatherings. In New Delhi, worried residents opted for low-key celebrations. Some even stayed home and didn’t visit friends or relatives.”It’s not the usual Diwali,” said Vishwas Malik, 47, a professor in New Delhi. “The exchange of gifts is less, and we have not interacted with people. We have not visited people’s homes because of the fear of the coronavirus.”In a bid to encourage people to stay home, New Delhi’s chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, and some of his ministers held a prayer ceremony at a grand temple. The prayers were broadcast on television and social media.People watch fireworks during Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, in Jammu, India, Nov. 14, 2020.Kejriwal said last week that the pandemic was spreading fast in the capital because of the rising air pollution. He appealed to people to not set off firecrackers, in hopes of mitigating the harmful effect of toxic air on those who are more vulnerable during the pandemic. Firecrackers often cause spikes in New Delhi’s notoriously bad pollution.The link between air pollution and worsening COVID-19 cases remains mostly theoretical at the moment. But several researchers have said that in addition to factors such as mask wearing, social distancing, population density and temperature, dirty air should also be considered a key element in coronavirus outbreaks.India has confirmed 8.7 million cases of the coronavirus, including 129,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. While it is second in the world in total cases behind the U.S., daily infections have been on the decline since the middle of September.Shoppers had been packing markets across the country, prompting concerns among health experts who warned that crowded celebrations could cause a virus resurgence that could batter India’s health care system. But ahead of Diwali, messages encouraging people to stay home during the festival whizzed around New Delhi via WhatsApp.”This Diwali is more about survival. It is about being grateful that we are still able to breathe and be alive for this day. Please stay home,” read one such message.Prime Minister Narendra Modi continued with his custom of celebrating Diwali with Indian soldiers, flying to a military post in western Rajasthan state where he distributed sweets among troops and took a tank ride.”You may be on snow-capped mountains or in deserts, but my Diwali is complete only when I celebrate with you,” Modi said in his address to the troops.
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Pakistan has accused rival India of running dozens of training camps in Afghanistan for multiple globally outlawed militant groups to plot terrorism on Pakistani soil to destabilize the country.
 
Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and army spokesman Major-General Babar Iftikhar, at a joint news conference Saturday, presented what they said was “irrefutable evidence” linking India directly to almost all recent terrorist attacks across Pakistan.
 
Babar displayed for the first time what he said were documents, banking transactions worth millions of dollars, audio clips and details of contacts between Indian intelligence operatives and diplomats with fugitive Pakistani militants operating out of Afghanistan.
 
“Uncontrivable evidence reveals that Indian embassies and consulates operating along Pakistan’s borders have become hub of terror sponsorship against Pakistan,” the general said.  
 
“We have verifiable evidence of terrorists funding by India. Indian ambassadors in Afghanistan have been regularly supervising various terrorist activities,” Babar added.  
 
Neither Indian officials nor the Afghan government have immediately commented on the Pakistani allegations, though both New Delhi and Kabul have in the past rejected similar allegations levelled by Islamabad.  
 
“The evidence provided by Pakistan provides concrete proof of Indian financial and material sponsorship of multiple terrorist organizations, including U.N.-designated terrorist organizations Jamaat ul Ahrar, Bloch Liberation Army and Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan,” Qureshi said.  
 
The groups Qureshi named are believed to have taken shelter in Afghanistan after fleeing years of sustained Pakistani counterterrorism operations. U.S. drone strikes against suspected militant hideouts in the neighboring country have also killed top fugitive leaders of these groups.
 
The foreign minister said his government would share the “dossier” with the United Nations and five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, including the United States, China, Russia, Britain and France to pressure India to halt its terrorist actives inside Pakistan.
 
“We are now presenting irrefutable evidence to the world to demonstrate the Indian state’s direct sponsorship of terrorism in Pakistan that has resulted in the deaths of innocent Pakistanis. The international community can no longer turn a blind eye to this rogue behavior,” Qureshi said.Local residents stand beside a burning house following cross-border shelling between Pakistani and Indian forces in Tehjain village at the Line of Control in Neelum Valley, Pakistan-administered Kashmir, Nov. 13, 2020.Kashmir clashes  
 
Pakistan’s allegations came a day after military skirmishes with India along the de facto frontier in disputed Kashmir killed at least 13 people on both sides. One injured nearly 30, with both sides accusing each other of initiating the fighting in violation of a mutual cease-fire.
 
“It’s a serious escalation … We have given them a very befitting reply. There have been massive losses on Indian side in men and material,” Babar told reporters Saturday.
 
Pakistan confirmed the clashes had killed one of its soldiers and four civilians while 17 other people, including five soldiers, also were wounded.  
 
For their part, Indian military officials accused Pakistani troops of committing “unprovoked” cease-fire violations and reported the death of four soldiers and four civilians on their side of the Kashmir ceasefire boundary, known as the Line of Control. The de facto border splits Indian- and Pakistani-administered parts of the Himalayan region, which both India and Pakistan claim in its entirety
 
The nuclear-armed rival countries have fought several wars and low-intensity conflicts over Kashmir since gaining independence from Britain in 1947. Pakistan and India mutually declared a cease-fire on the LoC in 2003 in a bid to ease regional tensions.  
 
However, the truce has been almost torn apart in the face of frequent military clashes in recent years, fueling tensions and plunging bilateral relations to historic lows.
 
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Pakistan and rival India say fierce military clashes across their frontier in disputed Kashmir have killed at least 13 people and wounded many more on both sides, with each country accusing the other of initiating the fight.The two nuclear-armed South Asian nations routinely trade fire across the cease-fire boundary, known as the Line of Control (LoC), which splits the Indian- and Pakistani-administered parts of the Himalayan region.Officials and Kashmiri villagers reported that Friday’s skirmishes, however, were among the worst and most widespread they had witnessed in recent months.A Pakistani Kashmiri carries an injured child at a hospital following cross-border shelling between Pakistani and Indian forces in Tehjain village at the Line of Control in Neelum Valley, Pakistan-administered Kashmir, Nov. 13, 2020.A late-night Pakistani military statement accused Indian forces of resorting to what it denounced as “unprovoked and indiscriminate” artillery and heavy mortar shelling against both army and civilian populations in various sectors along the LoC.The statement confirmed the death of one soldier and four civilians, saying 12 civilians and five soldiers were wounded. The Pakistan army, it said, gave “a befitting reply” to Indian troops, inflicting “substantial losses” on them.For their part, military officials in India alleged that Pakistan started the fighting, killing four Indian soldiers and four civilians while several people were wounded.An Indian army statement claimed militants were trying to infiltrate the LoC from the Pakistani side before the clashes erupted.”Suspicious movement was observed by Indian army alert troops at forward posts along LoC. … This was accompanied by unprovoked cease-fire violations by Pakistan in multiple sectors. Infiltration bid was foiled,” it said.Late Friday, Islamabad summoned the Indian chargé d’affaires to condemn and protest against the actions by New Delhi.”These egregious violations of international law reflect consistent Indian attempts to escalate the situation along the LoC and are a threat to regional peace and security,” said a Pakistan Foreign Ministry statement.It went on to note that India had committed more than 2,700 cease-fire violations since the beginning of the year, killing 25 people and causing “serious injuries” to more than 200 civilians. The Pakistani statement did not provide details of military casualties during that period.Local residents stand beside a burning house following cross-border shelling between Pakistani and Indian forces in Tehjain village at the Line of Control in Neelum Valley, Pakistan-administered Kashmir, Nov. 13, 2020.Tensions between archrivals India and Pakistan have in recent times escalated over Kashmir, leading to routine military clashes and almost tearing apart the LoC truce.Both India and Pakistan claim Kashmir in its entirety. The dispute has sparked several wars and low-level conflicts between the rivals since both countries gained independence from Britain in 1947.In August 2019, New Delhi revoked the decades-old constitutionally enshrined semiautonomous status of the two-thirds of Kashmir it administers, fueling mutual tensions and acrimony.Islamabad rejected the move as a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions on Kashmir, saying neither side is allowed to unilaterally alter the status of the internationally recognized disputed territory. Pakistan also rejects Indian allegations its troops provide cover to militant infiltration to fuel violence in Kashmir, saying the charges are meant to distract world attention from alleged human rights abuses Indian forces are inflicting on Kashmiris.
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Pakistan and rival India say fierce military clashes across their frontier in disputed Kashmir have killed at least 13 people and wounded many more on both sides, with each country accusing the other of initiating the fight.The two nuclear-armed South Asian nations routinely trade fire across the cease-fire boundary, known as the Line of Control (LoC), which splits the Indian- and Pakistani-administered parts of the Himalayan region.Officials and Kashmiri villagers reported that Friday’s skirmishes, however, were among the worst and most widespread they had witnessed in recent months.A Pakistani Kashmiri carries an injured child at a hospital following cross-border shelling between Pakistani and Indian forces in Tehjain village at the Line of Control in Neelum Valley, Pakistan-administered Kashmir, Nov. 13, 2020.A late-night Pakistani military statement accused Indian forces of resorting to what it denounced as “unprovoked and indiscriminate” artillery and heavy mortar shelling against both army and civilian populations in various sectors along the LoC.The statement confirmed the death of one soldier and four civilians, saying 12 civilians and five soldiers were wounded. The Pakistan army, it said, gave “a befitting reply” to Indian troops, inflicting “substantial losses” on them.For their part, military officials in India alleged that Pakistan started the fighting, killing four Indian soldiers and four civilians while several people were wounded.An Indian army statement claimed militants were trying to infiltrate the LoC from the Pakistani side before the clashes erupted.”Suspicious movement was observed by Indian army alert troops at forward posts along LoC. … This was accompanied by unprovoked cease-fire violations by Pakistan in multiple sectors. Infiltration bid was foiled,” it said.Late Friday, Islamabad summoned the Indian chargé d’affaires to condemn and protest against the actions by New Delhi.”These egregious violations of international law reflect consistent Indian attempts to escalate the situation along the LoC and are a threat to regional peace and security,” said a Pakistan Foreign Ministry statement.It went on to note that India had committed more than 2,700 cease-fire violations since the beginning of the year, killing 25 people and causing “serious injuries” to more than 200 civilians. The Pakistani statement did not provide details of military casualties during that period.Local residents stand beside a burning house following cross-border shelling between Pakistani and Indian forces in Tehjain village at the Line of Control in Neelum Valley, Pakistan-administered Kashmir, Nov. 13, 2020.Tensions between archrivals India and Pakistan have in recent times escalated over Kashmir, leading to routine military clashes and almost tearing apart the LoC truce.Both India and Pakistan claim Kashmir in its entirety. The dispute has sparked several wars and low-level conflicts between the rivals since both countries gained independence from Britain in 1947.In August 2019, New Delhi revoked the decades-old constitutionally enshrined semiautonomous status of the two-thirds of Kashmir it administers, fueling mutual tensions and acrimony.Islamabad rejected the move as a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions on Kashmir, saying neither side is allowed to unilaterally alter the status of the internationally recognized disputed territory. Pakistan also rejects Indian allegations its troops provide cover to militant infiltration to fuel violence in Kashmir, saying the charges are meant to distract world attention from alleged human rights abuses Indian forces are inflicting on Kashmiris.
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