[🇦🇫] Afghanistan News & Discussion

ghazi · Mar 10, 2024

Kabul hopes Afghanistan, Pakistan can address mutual concerns

KABUL (Ariana News): Abdul Qahar Balkhi, spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has expressed hope that Afghanistan and Pakistan can address their mutual concerns.

Balkhi told Al Jazeera TV channel that both sides should find a “better pathway” that safeguards the “goodwill” that the government and people of Pakistan had shown towards Afghan refugees.

In October last, Pakistan gave illegal refugees a deadline to leave voluntarily or face forced repatriation.

The United Nations says that Pakistan has forced more than 450,000 Afghans out of the country.

Balkhi also dismissed fears that some refugees will be persecuted after return.

“We have maintained a policy of general amnesty. Thanks Allah, we are Muslims. Unlike certain powers that killed and suffocated thousands of prisoners in containers, we declared a general amnesty, and we have shown in our deeds that the general amnesty stands for anyone that collaborated with foreign powers. There are hundreds of thousands that are currently working shoulder-to-shoulder with the government of Afghanistan and government bodies. And there are millions of others who are living peacefully and enjoying their lives,” Balkhi said.

He said that Pakistan started expelling Afghan refugees without coordinating with Kabul and against international practices.

Ghazi52 · Sep 11, 2024

[H3]Taliban frees Afghans deported from Germany[/H3]
The Frontier Post

LONDON (Agencies): Dozens of Afghans deported from Germany have been freed by the Taliban government, The Independent reported.

Germany’s first deportation of Afghans since the 2021 Taliban takeover came as Olaf Scholz, Germany’s chancellor, vowed to crack down on foreign criminals.

Up to 28 Afghans were sent back to Afghanistan about a week ago and were subsequently released after providing “written assurances,” the Taliban said.

Suhail Shahin, the chief of the Taliban political bureau in Qatar, said that the deportees pledged to avoid committing crimes in Afghanistan.

Amnesty International and other human rights groups criticized the German government for placing the Afghans at risk in their homeland.

The deportation, which was carried out after months of negotiations, followed a series of high-profile attacks in Germany by Afghan and Syrian suspects.

In May, a 25-year-old Afghan stabbed a German police officer.

A week ago, a Syrian national allegedly carried out a deadly knife attack in Solingen, killing three people and injuring eight others.

Scholz said: “It outrages me when someone who has found protection here commits the most serious crimes.”

However, Germany will avoid normalizing relations with the Taliban despite the deportation deal.

A spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry said: “As long as the general conditions are as they are, and the Taliban behave the way they do, there will be no effort to normalize relations with the Taliban.

“There are contacts on a technical level, especially through our representative office in Doha.”

Ghazi52 · Sep 11, 2024

[H2]Muttaqi urges Islamic countries to help release Afghan assets[/H2]

Ghazi52 · Oct 5, 2024

Saif · Nov 26, 2024

300 Afghan reporters suffer rights breaches: UN

More than 300 Afghan journalists have suffered rights breaches since the Taliban surged back to power in 2021, a United Nations report said yesterday, documenting dozens of cases of torture and arbitrary arrest.

www.thedailystar.net

300 Afghan reporters suffer rights breaches: UN

More than 300 Afghan journalists have suffered rights breaches since the Taliban surged back to power in 2021, a United Nations report said yesterday, documenting dozens of cases of torture and arbitrary arrest.

Afghanistan's media sector has shrunk under three years of Taliban rule, while monitors criticised Kabul for allegedly trampling reporters' rights.

Research by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan and its Geneva-based Human Rights Office said journalists and media outlets "operate under an environment of censorship and tight restrictions".

Between the Taliban's return in August 2021 and this September the UN team "documented instances of human rights violations affecting 336 journalists and media workers", the report said. It recounted 256 instances of "arbitrary arrest and detention", 130 of "torture and ill-treatment" and 75 of "threats or intimidation".

UNAMA chief Roza Otunbayeva said journalists "often face unclear rules on what they can and cannot report, running the risk of intimidation and arbitrary detention for perceived criticism".