ISLAMABAD: US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad has sought Pakistan’s help in starting intra-Afghan dialogue.A statement issued by US Embassy in Islamabad says that the US special representative visited Islamabad on May 8. He met with Chief of Army Staff...

ISLAMABAD: US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad has sought Pakistan’s help in starting intra-Afghan dialogue. A statement issued by US Embassy in Islamabad says that the US special representative visited Islamabad on May 8. He met with Chief of Army Staff...

HERAT, Afghanistan: Two policemen and four other people were killed in Afghanistan on Saturday after a deadly clash at a public food donation in central Ghor province, officials said.Hundreds of people had gathered outside the governor´s office in the provincial capital Firozkoh, where a...

KABUL: Seven people were killed when protesters angry over what they see as unfair food aid distribution during the coronavirus pandemic clashed with police in Afghanistan’s western Ghor province on Saturday, according to a local member of parliament.Fourteen more were wounded during the...

KABUL: At least six people were killed when protesters angry over what they saw as unfair food aid distribution during the coronavirus pandemic clashed with police in Afghanistan’s western Ghor province on Saturday, according to officials.

Four civilians and two police officers died in the incident, according to Tariq Arian, spokesman for the Ministry of Interior.

“A delegation will be sent from Kabul to investigate today’s incident in a comprehensive manner,” he said, adding that 10 police officers and nine civilians were injured.

Gulzaman Nayeb, a lawmaker representing Ghor, said that seven people were killed and more than a dozen wounded during the protest, sparked by growing discontent at the distribution allegedly favouring people with political connections.

Police had opened fire after some among the around 300 protesters threw stones, started to fire guns and tried to enter the governor’s house, said Mohammad Arif Aber, a spokesman for the provincial governor of Ghor. He put the toll at two dead and five wounded. He denied that aid was being unfairly distributed.

War-ravaged nation has reported 4,033 cases of Covid-19 and 115 deaths

Among the dead was Ahmad Naveed Khan, a local volunteer radio presenter who was sitting in his nearby shop and was hit in the head by a bullet, according to Ahmad Quraishi, executive director at the Afghanistan Journalists Centre.

The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) is looking into the “worrying reports of police firing on protesters”, its chairperson Shaharzad Akbar said on Twitter.

Rights group Amnesty International also called for an independent investigation into the use of police force.

The government has been distributing food aid around the country as the restrictions imposed by the coronavirus pandemic have led to many job losses and rising food prices. Akbar said this week that the commission was being inundated with complaints from the public that food aid is being distributed unfairly.

“We hear repeated complaints from people that the ones who are receiving the limited aid that is there are not the ones that are most deserving, they are the ones who have connections to local authorities or local officials,” she said, adding it was not possible to verify the extent to which it was happening.

Afghanistan has reported 4,033 cases of the coronavirus and 115 deaths.

Published in Dawn, May 10th, 2020

QUETTA: Pakistan opened its border with Afghanistan at Chaman on Saturday to allow return of Afghans to their country.

Last month, Pakistan sent back over 37,000 Afghan families after it opened the Pak-Afghan friendship gate at Chaman on the special request of the Afghan government.

Official sources said that the friendship gate opened from 8am to 5pm and 2,977 Afghan citizens stranded in different areas of Balochistan crossed into Afghanistan.

Majority of these Afghan citizens had entered Pakistan without travelling documents.

Majority of returnees had entered Pakistan without travel documents

They crossed into Pakistan through the Chaman border and other entering points between Pakistan and Afghanistan on the basis of Afghan national identity cards only.

“The border had opened for crossing Afghans and Pakistanis into their respective countries,” a senior official of the Chaman administration, Zakaullah Durrani, told Dawn over phone.

He said that so far 488 Pakistanis stranded in Afghanistan had also returned.

Majority of these Pakistani belonged to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa while some of them belong to Balochistan and Punjab, he said.

He said that these Pakistanis had been sent to their respective provinces after medical check-up by health officials at the border.

He said that Pakistanis who arrived from Afghanistan on Saturday would be quarantined in the tent village quarantine centre established at Killi Faizo close to the Pak-Afghan border.

“Those Pakistanis who are not willing to spend 14 days in quarantine will be sent back to Afghanistan,” an official of health department said, adding that quarantine was mandatory for all those Pakistanis who were coming from Afghanistan according to SOPs issued by the government of Pakistan.

Mr Durrani said that 488 Pakistanis were allowed to go home after completing the 14-day quarantine period.

Published in Dawn, May 10th, 2020

Shayma doesn't fear militant threats and conspiracies while getting her children vaccinated with polio drops that could finally eradicate the crippling disease.

Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad has sought Pakistan's support for reducing violence in Afghanistan and accelerate the intra-Afghan dialogue, the US Embassy here said on Saturday. Khalilzad discussed the Afghanistan peace process with Pakistan Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa on Friday. During the discussion, he also asked for help to secure the release of American navy veteran-turned contractor Mark Frerichs, who went missing in Afghanistan. The embassy said Khalilzad discussed the ongoing efforts by the US to advance the Afghan peace process. He "sought Pakistan's support in pressing for a reduction in violence, the immediate start of intra-Afghan negotiations, and assistance in helping obtain the freedom of American Mark Frerichs", it said. The embassy noted that Pakistan's military leaders reaffirmed their support for the US efforts. Earlier, the Pakistan Army in a statement on Friday said during the meeting between ...

At least six were killed when protesters angry over what they see as unfair food aid distribution during the coronavirus pandemic clashed with police in Afghanistan's western Ghor province on Saturday, according to officials.

We would like to have positive relations with neighbouring countries including India, said Taliban's spokesperson.

Seven killed in protests over food distribution in Afghanistan, local MP says - Times of India

The post Afghan Refugee inspires in solo flight around world appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

While the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) provides mental health care of comparable or superior quality to care provided in private and non-VA public sectors, accessibility and quality of services vary across the VA health system, leaving a substantial unmet need for mental health services among veterans of the recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, says a new congressionally mandated report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Increasing population, overconsumption and technological development have depleted many of the world’s natural resources, with profound impacts on the environment. This study applies the concept of criticality, which determines whether a resource may become a limiting factor to future development, to water.

Social entrepreneur harnesses the power of stories to help illiterate communities leverage their ingenuity to find solutions to local problems.

Local communities played a key role in the creation of Bamyan Plateau Protected Area, a large new national park in Afghanistan.

First of all, creating an afghan based on crochet patterns is simple. There are numerous crochet patterns for afghan blankets that can be huge as gifts or furnishings at home. Basic afghan covers can even possess a central theme.

Afghanistan's trailblazing producer makes a return with his most notable work to date in a sultry album cover.

Afghan peace process: America recognises India's role, says US Envoy after meeting S Jaishankar

The US asked India to get involved in the internal political process in Afghanistan. Sources said this formed the core of the discussions between US special envoy, Zalmay Khalilzad and foreign minister S. Jaishankar, NSA Ajit Doval and foreign secretary Harsh Shringla in Delhi.

This week on The House, two Conservatives join us to talk about what's next for the party now that Andrew Scheer has resigned. Bloc MP Stephane Bergeron lays out his party's demands to work co-operatively with the Liberals. Finally, the parents of a soldier who died in Afghanistan talk about media reports saying that the war was a failure.

The Tweed River Art Gallery features a swag of interesting exhibitions just now, and there's nothing like a gallery hiatus to encourage you to get along to them. The Gallery closes for the first half of October to allow major works on the Margaret Olley Art Centre, which will open as an extension of the gallery in early 2014.

Friends of a man allegedly murdered on South Australia's Nullarbor Plain on Monday say he had previously worked as an interpreter with the Australian Defence Force (ADF) and the US Army in Afghanistan, and had "escaped the warzone" in moving to Australia.

Clashes erupt after people complain about a perceived failure to help the poor during the pandemic.

Afghan farmers claim to have “no other choice” but to illegally grow poppies – a lucrative opium crop that fuels the country’s Taliban terror group – amid the economic downturn caused by the Chinese coronavirus pandemic, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reported on Friday.

Afghanistan's government has freed 933 Taliban prisoners since the terrorists agreed to a peace deal with the U.S. in February, Pakistani newspaper Dawn reported on Friday.

Afghanistan is investigating the alleged torture and drowning of migrants at the Iranian border.

Clashes erupt after people complain about a perceived failure to help the poor during the pandemic.

The Defense Department's Inspector General has opened an investigation into whether U.S. troops were discouraged from reporting the rape and sexual abuse of children by their Afghan allies.

The emergence of ISIS in Afghanistan has introduced a new level of brutality to the conflict, beyond what has been practiced by the Taliban.

Najibullah Quraishi has covered the war in Afghanistan for more than a decade, but embedding with ISIS fighters who've recently emerged there "was the most risky and dangerous job ever I've done in my life," he says.

It appears ISIS-allied fighters are gaining a foothold in Afghanistan, but just how similar are they to the group's branches in Iraq and Syria?

Research Event

Event participants

Charu Lata Hogg, Associate Fellow, Asia-Pacific Programme, Chatham House
Hameed Hakimi, Research Associate, Asia-Pacific Programme and Europe Programme, Chatham House
Chair: Champa Patel, Head of Asia-Pacific Programme, Chatham House

Rare artefacts from Afghanistan will be on display at the Museum of History from November 6 until February 10, 2020.

Ancient Artefacts of Afghanistan - Glistening Treasures in the Dust will display 231 artefacts, including gold and glass wares, bronze sculptures and ivory carvings unearthed from four famous archaeological sites in Afghanistan.

Highlight exhibits include a golden bowl with a bearded-bull motif unearthed in Tepe Fullol and pendants with styles that were common in the Mesopotamian and Persian Plateau regions.

The precious relics are on loan from the National Museum of Afghanistan.

The museum’s director Mohammad Rahimi said that because Afghanistan borders many countries including China, the artefacts attest to the role ancient Afghanistan played as the cultural crossroads of the Silk Road.

“Afghanistan has been given the title of the crossroads of the ancient civilisation by different scholars of the world. So we had very good relations with different civilisations in the past so that’s why we can see a lot of influences of different cultures in our objects.”

Mr Rahimi added that Afghanistan is sharing its exhibit with Hong Kong as a gesture of goodwill and friendship and with the hope of strengthening relations with China.

“We have also seen different examples of our ancient relations with China. Because of that, we want to build on our relations with China through this exhibition and we have shown that we have had very good connections in the past.”

Many of the exhibits will be equipped with interactive designs so that visitors can compare and contrast the displayed treasures with similar artefacts.

Click here for details.

I am the gate keeper. Two flags gone Marking bodies where they fell, Manure, Useful, Two flags fleeing loose rounds, Auras, Fleeting, Bring your palm, I can read it now, Unhinged as I am, The last are, Making their way home. -evocative short poetry-

Nearly 6 million Afghans fled after violence erupted in the late 1970s, primarily to Iran and Pakistan. While millions returned after the collapse of the Taliban in 2001, the security situation has since deteriorated and the government struggles to meet the needs of vulnerable populations, particularly the internally displaced. This country profile explores Afghanistan’s complex migration and displacement history as well as ongoing challenges.

A former Afghan fighter discovers Jesus Christ in the Qur’an.

Pamir Productions, formed in 1991, passionately uses all forms of media to spread the gospel to Afghans worldwide.

On Wednesday, a federal high court prevented the President Trump’s led administration from sending back a man of Afghan descent who was attempting to come into the United States with a special permit kept specially for those who have come to the aid…

Washington’s special envoy to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad has called on New Delhi to directly engage with the Taliban, asking India to play a “more active” part in the Afghan peace process and the fight against terrorism.
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