Afghanistan
Despite mistrust, Afghan Shiites seek Taliban protection
Outside a Shiite shrine in Kabul, four armed Taliban fighters stood guard on a recent Friday as worshippers filed in for weekly prayers. Alongside them was a guard from Afghanistan’s mainly Shiite Hazara minority, an automatic rifle slung over his shoulder.
It was a sign of the strange, new relationship brought by the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan. The Taliban, Sunni hard-liners who for decades targeted the Hazaras as heretics, are now their only protection against a more brutal enemy: the Islamic State group.
Sohrab, the Hazara guard standing watch over the Abul Fazl al-Abbas Shrine, told The Associated Press that he gets along fine with the Taliban guards. “They even pray in the mosque sometimes,” he said, giving only his first name for security reasons.
Not everyone feels so comfortable.
Syed Aqil, a young Hazara visiting the ornate shrine along with his wife and 8-month-old daughter, was disturbed that many of the Taliban still wear their traditional garb — the look of a jihadi insurgent — rather than a police uniform.
Read: US urged to help more people escape Taliban-led Afghanistan
“We can’t even tell if they are Taliban or Daesh,” he said, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.
Since seizing power three months ago, the Taliban have presented themselves as more moderate, compared with their first rule in the late 1990s when they violently repressed the Hazaras and other ethnic groups. Courting international recognition, they vow to protect the Hazaras as a show of their acceptance of the country’s minorities.
But many Hazaras still deeply distrust the insurgents-turned-rulers, who are overwhelmingly ethnic Pashtu, and are convinced they will never accept them as equals in Afghanistan. Hazara community leaders say they have met repeatedly with Taliban leadership, asking to take part in the government, only to be shunned. Hazaras complain individual fighters still discriminate against them and fear it’s only a matter of time before the Taliban revert to repression.
“In comparison to their previous rule, the Taliban are a little better,” said Mohammed Jawad Gawhari, a Hazara cleric who runs an organization helping the poor.
“The problem is that there is not a single law. Every individual Talib is their own law right now,” he said. “So people live in fear of them.”
Some changes from the previous era of Taliban rule are clear. After their August takeover, the Taliban allowed Shiites to perform their religious ceremonies, such as the annual Ashura procession.
The Taliban initially confiscated weapons that Hazaras had used, with permission from the previous government to guard some of their own mosques in Kabul. But after devastating IS bombings of Shiite mosques in Kandahar and Kunduz provinces in October, the Taliban returned the weapons in most cases, Gawhari and other community leaders said. The Taliban also provide their own fighters as guards for some mosques during Friday prayers.
“We are providing a safe and secure environment for everyone, especially the Hazaras,” Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said. “They should be in Afghanistan. Leaving the country is not good for anyone.”
Read: Bangladesh condemns bomb-laden drone attack in Saudi Arabia
The Hazaras’ turning to Taliban protection shows how terrified the community is of the Islamic State group, which they say aims to exterminate them. In past years, IS has attacked the Hazaras more ruthlessly than the Taliban ever did, unleashing bombings against Hazara schools, hospitals and mosques, killing hundreds.
IS is also a shared enemy. Though they are Sunni hard-liners like the Taliban, IS militants are waging an insurgency, with frequent attacks on Taliban fighters.
Some Hazara leaders see a potential for cooperation. Ahmed Ali al-Rashed, a senior Hazara cleric, praised the Taliban commanders who now run the main police station in Dashti Barchi, the sprawling district of west Kabul dominated by Hazaras.
“If all Taliban were like them, Afghanistan would be like a garden of flowers,” he said.
Others in Dashti Barchi were skeptical the Taliban will ever change.
Marzieh Mohammedi, whose husband was killed five years ago in fighting with the Taliban, said she’s afraid every time she sees them patrolling Dashti Barchi.
“How can they protect us? We can’t trust them. We feel like they are Daesh,” she said.
The differences are partly religious. But also Hazaras, who make up an estimated 10% of Afghanistan’s population of nearly 40 million, are ethnically distinct and speak a variant of Farsi rather than Pashtu. They have a long history of being oppressed by the ethnic Pashtu majority, some of whom stereotype them as intruders.
Aqil said that when he tried to go to a police station for a document, the Taliban guard at the gate only spoke Pashtu and impatiently slammed the door in his face. He had to come back later with a Pashtu-speaking colleague.
“This sort of situation makes me lose hope in the future,” he said. “They don’t know us. They are not broadminded to accept other communities. They act as if they are the owners of this country.”
Read: Bangladesh Embassy in Seoul joins 'Busan International Seafood & Fisheries EXPO 2021'
A young Hazara woman, Massoumeh, said four people were killed last month in her part of Dashti Barchi, raising residents’ fears that people with roles in the previous government were targets.
She went with a community delegation led by a local elder to the area’s Taliban police station to discuss security. The only woman in the delegation, she had to wait in the yard while the others met with the district commander, who she said tried to blame the security failings on the local elder. As the delegation left, a guard told them not to bring a woman with them again, she said.
“How can you keep security in Afghanistan if you can’t keep security in our village?” she said.
The 21-year-old Massoumeh was a nurse at Dashti Barchi’s main hospital in 2020 when IS gunmen stormed the maternity ward, killing at least 24 people, mostly mothers who were pregnant or had just given birth — one of the militants’ most horrific attacks.
Since then, she has been too afraid to return to work because of death threats after she spoke about the attack on Afghan TV. Soon after the attack, two militants approached her on a bus late at night, picking her out using a photo on their phone, and pulled a gun on her, warning her not to go back to work, she said. She and her father still get threatening phone calls, she said.
Police under the previous government gave her some protection, she said. But she doesn’t even bother to ask the Taliban police for help.
“Of course not. We are afraid of them,” she said. “No one will come and help us.”
Other events in the Hazaras’ central Afghanistan heartland have raised the community’s concerns. In Daikundi province, Taliban fighters killed 11 Hazara soldiers and two civilians, including a teenage girl, in August, according to Amnesty International. Taliban officials also expelled Hazara families from several Daikundi villages after accusing them of living on land that didn’t belong to them.
Read: Indian government is revamping aquaculture for a ‘blue revolution’
After an uproar from Hazaras, further expulsions were halted, Gawhari and other community leaders said.
But so far, the Taliban have rejected repeated requests from the Hazaras for a say in government. Gawhari, the cleric, said a Hazara delegation approached the Taliban and proposed 50 Hazara experts and academics to be brought into the administration. “They were not interested,” he said.
The international community is pressing the Taliban to form a government that reflects Afghanistan’s ethnic, religious and political spectrum, including women. The Taliban’s Cabinet is comprised entirely of men from their own ranks.
Last week, Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi expressed impatience with international demands for inclusivity. “Our current Cabinet fulfils that requirement, we have representatives from all ethnicities,” he told reporters.
The highest level Hazara in the administration is a deputy health minister. Several other Hazaras hold some provincial posts, but they are Hazaras who long ago joined the Taliban insurgency and adopted its hard-line ideology. Few in the Hazara community recognize them.
Ali Akbar Jamshidi, a former parliament member representing Daikundi province, said Hazaras won’t be satisfied with a few local positions and want to be brought into the Cabinet and the intelligence and security services.
The Taliban, he said, are running a government “that acts like a warlord who has seized everything.”
“Physical security is not enough. We need psychological security as well, feeling like we are part of this government and it is part of us,” he said. “The Taliban can benefit from us. They have the opportunity to form a government for the future, but they are not taking this opportunity.”
US urged to help more people escape Taliban-led Afghanistan
A coalition of organizations working to evacuate people who could be targeted by the Taliban rulers in Afghanistan appealed Monday for more assistance from the U.S. government and other nations as conditions deteriorate in the country.
Members of the AfghanEvac Coalition met in a video call with Secretary of State Antony Blinken to press the case for additional resources to help tens of thousands of people get out of Afghanistan, now faced with a deepening economic and humanitarian crisis in addition to a precarious security situation following the U.S. withdrawal.
Participants said afterward they were grateful for what the State Department has done so far, including helping to arrange a series of evacuation flights for U.S. citizens and residents since the withdrawal, but more will be needed in the months ahead.
Read: Allow unimpeded aid into Afghanistan, say NSAs in Delhi Declaration
“The State Department doing enough isn’t enough; we need whole of government solutions; we need the international community to step up and we need it quickly,” said Peter Lucier, a former Marine who served in Afghanistan who works with coalition-member Team America. “Winter is coming. There is a famine already. ”
Private groups, particularly with ties to the veteran community, have played an important role in the evacuation and resettlement of tens of thousands of Afghans since the U.S. ended its longest war and the government fell to the Taliban. Members of the coalition, which includes about 100 organizations, have been working to help people get on the scarce flights out of the country and helping them get settled in communities once they reach the United States.
State Department spokesman Ned Price said the call included discussion of what he called “our collective efforts” to aid visa holders and applicants and to “facilitate the departure of these individuals who are at a stage where it is appropriate to do so.”
About 82,000 people have come to the U.S. so far under what the Biden administration calls Operation Allies Welcome. The Department of Homeland Security said 10% were American citizens or permanent residents.
The rest were a combination of people who had obtained special immigrant visas, for those who had worked for the U.S. government as interpreters or in some other capacity; people applying for one of the visas but who hadn’t yet received it; or other Afghans who might be vulnerable under the Taliban, such as journalists or government officials, and qualified to come as refugees. Nearly half were children.
As of Monday, DHS said about 46,000 are still being housed at domestic U.S. military bases until they can be resettled by private refugee organizations around the country. Another 2,600 remain at overseas transit points, dubbed “lily pads,” as they undergo security vetting and health screening before coming to the U.S.
Read: In Afghanistan, a girls’ school is the story of a village
The State Department said separately Monday that some people coming to the U.S. from countries other than Afghanistan under the broader refugee program would be temporarily delayed so refugee agencies can focus on resettling Afghans. The pause would run through Jan. 11 and won’t apply to certain categories, including urgent cases, family reunifications and those who have already made travel arrangements.
The AfghanEvac Coalition has urged the U.S. government to establish more of the “lilly pads,” and work with other nations to create more pathways for people to reach safety. It’s unclear how many people need to be evacuated but organizations have estimated the number conservatively in the tens of thousands. Aid agencies said about 300,000 have fled Afghanistan into Iran, including many members of Shiite communities seeking refuge from both the Taliban and attacks by the Islamic State affiliate in the country.
Lucier and Shawn VanDiver, a founder of the coalition, said without providing specifics that they raised “specific stumbling blocks” and “choke points,” that are preventing people from reaching safety in the U.S. or elsewhere. Both said it will require more time and input from other parts of the government to solve those problems.
“The answers are complex,” Lucier said. “There are no simple technical fixes to a lot of this.”
The meeting takes place against a backdrop of intense criticism by some Republicans in Congress, attacking a frantic evacuation, which was set in motion by President Donald Trump’s decision to sign a peace deal with the Taliban and set a withdrawal date, and for what they have alleged is insufficient vetting of refugees. They have also accused the administration of understating the number of American citizens left behind.
Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee wrote Blinken on Monday seeking interviews with more than 30 State Department officials to address what they called the “many unanswered questions about the planning – or lack thereof – that preceded the drawdown and evacuation.” Those include the number of American citizens and residents still in Afghanistan and mechanisms for continued evacuations.
Read: US set to appeal UK refusal to extradite WikiLeaks' Assange
As of Monday, the U.S. has assisted the departure of 435 American citizens and 325 permanent residents since Aug. 31, including with some recent flights, Price said.
Blinken said Friday that the U.S. has offered the opportunity to leave Afghanistan to all American citizens and permanent residents it has identified as remaining in the country who wish to depart and have appropriate travel documents. Several hundred Americans are reported to still be in Afghanistan, though not all have indicated they want to leave, Biden administration officials have said.
The Gulf nation of Qatar has agreed to represent the United States in Taliban-run Afghanistan following the closure of the American Embassy in Kabul and will handle consular services for American citizens in Afghanistan and will deal with routine official communications between Washington and the Taliban government.
Allow unimpeded aid into Afghanistan, say NSAs in Delhi Declaration
A strong focus on delivering Afghanistan from terrorism, a truly inclusive government that represented the will of the people and unimpeded humanitarian assistance formed the core of the "complete consensus" that India’s regional NSA-level conference arrived at Wednesday in the form of a Delhi Declaration.
The Declaration emphasised that Afghanistan’s territory shouldn’t be used for "sheltering, training, planning or financing" any terrorist act while reiterating support for a peaceful, secure and stable Afghanistan reported Times of India.
With several countries sharing concerns about terrorist groups active in Afghanistan and their benefactors, it also stressed respect for sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity and also non-interference in Afghanistan's internal affairs.
Also read: NSAs’ meeting on Afghanistan today, focus on regional security
Afghanistan conference: India looks to forge consensus on terror, legitimacy, aid
NSA Ajit Doval set the tone for India’s conference on Afghanistan with discussions Tuesday on enhanced terror threat from the country, and also the looming humanitarian crisis it's facing, with his Tajikistan and Uzbekistan counterparts. Both central Asian countries share a border with Afghanistan
The conference chaired by NSA Ajit Doval saw the participants discussing the evolving security situation in Afghanistan and its regional and global implications while calling for efforts to ensure Afghanistan didn’t turn into a safe haven for global terrorism. Official sources said participating countries acknowledged India’s concerns over cross-border terrorism perpetrated by Pakistan based groups who are also active in Afghanistan.
China and Pakistan will be missing when the national security chiefs of seven key regional countries gather here on Wednesday for a security dialogue on Afghanistan. The day-long event, the first being hosted by India, will focus on terrorism and related security challenges and uncertainties
According to sources, the participants also stressed that no one should boycott the NSA dialogue process due to the "bilateral agenda". Both China and Pakistan had turned down India's invite to the conference. The NSAs also called on PM Narendra Modi and were said to have had a substantive exchange with him as PM shared India's perspective on Afghanistan.
NEW DELHI: The NSA conference on Afghanistan on Wednesday saw India and Russia joining others in underlining the importance of ensuring the rights of women, children and national minorities in Afghanistan. They condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and underscored that the
Also read: Saarc FMs' meet on UN assembly sidelines called off over Afghanistan
Afghanistan soil shouldn’t be used to target others: India & Russia
"The sides paid special attention to the current political situation in Afghanistan and threats arising from terrorism, radicalisation and drug trafficking as well as the need for humanitarian assistance’’ said the Declaration issued shortly after the conference that saw participation by 7 countries, including Russia and Iran, apart from India. The conference is seen as an important step by India to underline its role in regional efforts for peace and stability in Afghanistan and to remain relevant despite the Kabul takeover by a traditionally inimical Taliban. Russia, as Doval said in his opening remarks, was the initiator of the idea for a conference.
According to the Declaration, the countries stressed the necessity of forming an open and truly inclusive government that represented the will of all the people of Afghanistan and had representation from all sections of their society, including major "ethnopolitical forces’’ in the country.
"Inclusion of all sections of the society in the administrative and political structure is imperative for the successful national reconciliation process in the country,’’ said the participating countries. There was an understanding that it was important for the Taliban to address this issue before the international community could consider recognising their government.
On terrorism, the Declaration said, they condemned in the strongest terms all terrorist activities and reaffirmed their firm commitment to combat terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, including its financing, the dismantling of terrorist infrastructure and countering radicalization, to ensure that Afghanistan would never become a safe haven for global terrorism. They also called for collective cooperation against the menace of radicalisation, extremism, separatism and drug trafficking in the region.
The conference emphasised that the fundamental rights of women, children and minority communities are not violated and expressed concern over the deteriorating socio-economic and humanitarian situation in Afghanistan while underlining the need to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Afghans.
“Reiterated that humanitarian assistance should be provided in an unimpeded, direct and assured manner to Afghanistan and that the assistance is distributed within the country in a non-discriminatory manner across all sections of the Afghan society,’’ said the Declaration. This is significant as India’s proposal for transporting 50,000 MT wheat to Afghanistan via Pakistan is still pending with Islamabad. "The NSAs noted the need to provide humanitarian assistance and emphasized that the land and air routes should be made available and no one should impede the process," said a source.
Recalling the relevant UN resolutions on Afghanistan, the participants noted that the UN had a central role to play in Afghanistan and that its continued presence in the country must be preserved.
They also expressed deep concern over the suffering of the people of Afghanistan arising from the security situation in Afghanistan and condemned the terrorist attacks in Kunduz, Kandahar and Kabul.
Official sources said the meeting exceeded India's expectations as they highlighted that this was the only dialogue at the level of NSAs and that there was complete unanimity on the need to continue this process and have regular consultations.
Now silent under Taliban, a Kabul cinema awaits its fate
The cool 1960s-style lines of the Ariana Cinema’s marquee stand out over a traffic-clogged roundabout in downtown Kabul. For decades, the historic cinema has entertained Afghans and borne witness to Afghanistan’s wars, hopes and cultural shifts.
Now the marquee is stripped of the posters of Bollywood movies and American action flicks that used to adorn it. The gates are closed.
After recapturing power three months ago, the Taliban ordered the Ariana and other cinemas to stop operating. The Islamic militant guerrillas-turned-rulers say they have yet to decide whether they will allow movies in Afghanistan.
Like the rest of the country, the Ariana is in a strange limbo, waiting to see how the Taliban will rule.
The cinema’s nearly 20 employees, all men, still show up at work, logging in their attendance in hopes they will eventually get paid. The landmark Ariana, one of only four cinemas in the capital, is owned by the Kabul municipality, so its employees are government workers and remain on the payroll.
The men while away the hours. They hang out in the abandoned ticket booth or stroll the Ariana’s curving corridors. Rows of plush red seats sit in silent darkness.
The Ariana’s director, Asita Ferdous, the first woman in the post, is not even allowed to enter the cinema. The Taliban ordered female government employees to stay away from their workplaces so they don’t mix with men, until they determine whether they will be allowed to work.
The 26-year-old Ferdous is part of a post-2001 generation of young Afghans determined to carve out a greater space for women’s rights. The Taliban takeover has wrecked their hopes. Also a painter and sculptor, she now stays at home.
Read: Taliban says US will provide humanitarian aid to Afghanistan
“I spend time doing sketches, drawing, just to keep practicing,” she said. “I can’t do exhibitions anymore.”
During their previous time in power from 1996-2001, the Taliban imposed a radical interpretation of Islamic law forbidding women from working or going to school — or even leaving home in many cases — and forcing men to grow beards and attend prayers. They banned music and other art, including movies and cinema.
Under international pressure, the Taliban now say they have changed. But they have been vague about what they will or won’t allow. That has put many Afghans’ lives — and livelihoods — on hold.
For the Ariana, it is another chapter in a tumultuous six-decade history.
The Ariana opened in 1963. Its sleek architecture mirrored the modernizing spirit that the then-ruling monarchy was trying to bring to the deeply traditional nation.
Kabul resident Ziba Niazai recalled going to the Ariana in the late 1980s, during the rule of Soviet-backed President Najibullah, when there were more than 30 cinemas around the country.
For her, it was an entry to a different world. She had just married, and her new husband brought her from their home village in the mountains to Kabul, where he had a job in the Finance Ministry. She was alone in the house all day while he was at the office.
But when he got off work, they often went together to the Ariana for a Bollywood movie.
After years of communist rule, it was a more secular era than recent decades, at least for a narrow urban elite.
“We had no hijab at that time,” said Niazai, now in her late 50s, referring to the headscarf. Many couples went to the cinema, and “there wasn’t even a separate section, you could sit wherever you wanted.”
At the time, war raged across the country as Najibullah’s government battled an American-backed coalition of warlords and Islamic militants. The mujahedeen toppled him in 1992. Then they turned on each other in a fight for power that demolished Kabul and killed thousands of people caught in the crossfire.
The Ariana was heavily damaged, along with most of the surrounding neighborhood, in the frequent bombardments and gunbattles.
It lay abandoned in ruins for years, as the Taliban drove out the mujahedeen and took over Kabul in 1996. Whatever cinemas survived around Kabul were shuttered.
The Ariana’s revival came after the Taliban’s ouster in the 2001 U.S.-led invasion. The French government helped rebuild the cinema in 2004, part of the flood of billions of dollars of international aid that attempted to reshape Afghanistan over the next 20 years.
With the Taliban gone, cinema saw a new burst of popularity.
Read:Taliban say they won’t work with US to contain Islamic State
Indian movies were always the biggest draw at the Ariana, as were action movies, particularly those featuring Jean-Claude Van Damme, said Abdul Malik Wahidi, in charge of tickets. As Afghanistan’s domestic film industry revived, the Ariana played the handful of Afghan movies produced each year.
They had three showings a day, ending in the mid-afternoon, at 50 afghanis a ticket — about 50 cents. Audiences were overwhelmingly men. In Afghanistan’s conservative society, cinemas were seen as a male space, and few women attended.
Wahidi recalled how he and other staffers had to preview all foreign films to weed out those with scenes considered too racy — with couples kissing or women showing too much skin, for example.
Letting something slip through could bring the wrath of some movie-goers. Offended audiences were known to hurl objects at the screen, though it didn’t happen at the Ariana, Wahidi said. He remembered one patron at the Ariana, outraged by a scene, storming out and shouting at him, “How can you show pornography?”
Ferdous was appointed as the Ariana’s director just over a year ago. She previously led the Kabul municipality’s Gender Equality division, where she had worked to gain equal pay for women employees and install women as senior officers in the capital’s district police departments.
When she came to the Ariana, the male staff were surprised, “but they have been very cooperative and have worked well with me.”
She focused on making the cinema more welcoming to women. They dedicated one side of the auditorium for couples and families where women could sit. Those entering the cinema had to be patted down by guards as a security measure, and Ferdous brought in a female guard so women patrons would feel more comfortable.
Couples began coming regularly, she said. In March 2021, the cinema hosted a festival of Afghan films that proved very popular, attended by Afghan actors who held talks with the audiences.
Now it has all been brought to a halt, and the Ariana’s staff is left not knowing their fate. The male employees have received part of their salaries since the Taliban takeover. Ferdous said she has received no salary at all.
“It is women who suffer the most. Women are just asking for their right to work,” she said. “If they are not allowed, their economic situation will only get worse.”
Inanullah Amany, the general director of the Kabul Municipality’s cultural department, said that if the Taliban do ban movies, the Ariana’s employees could be transferred to other municipal jobs. Or they could be dismissed.
The staff said they couldn’t even guess what the Taliban will decide, but none held out much hope they would allow movies.
That would be a loss, said Rahmatullah Ezati, the Ariana’s chief projectionist.
“If a country doesn’t have cinema, then there’s no culture. Through cinema, we’ve seen other countries like Europe, U.S. and India.”
NSAs’ meeting on Afghanistan today, focus on regional security
Ahead of the NSAs meeting on Afghanistan, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval held bilateral meetings with his Tajik and Uzbek counterparts on Tuesday, reports The Indian Express.
Sources said Doval and Tajikistan’s NSA Nasrullo Rahmatjon Mahmudzoda exchanged “views on Afghanistan, with significant convergence of assessments”. “Concerns were expressed on the sharp increase in terrorist threats from Afghanistan in the recent past,” said sources. The Tajik NSA highlighted the “gravity of the situation in Afghanistan”.
Read: India moves to patent the over century-old logos of Darjeeling’s ‘Toy Train’
Sources said “discussions took place on the looming humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan”. Already, food shortages are being reported from various parts of the country.
On the bilateral front, discussions were held on the deepening cooperation in areas like “defence, border management and border infrastructure development”, sources said.
Sources said the two NSAs “felt that the legitimacy of any Afghan government within Afghanistan was important before the issue of its international recognition”. This has been flagged by India earlier as well.
Sources said that both sides “emphasised the need for Afghanistan’s neighbours to ensure unhindered access of humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan”, and agreed that “neighbouring states must play a constructive role in Afghanistan”. This is again a reference to Islamabad, as it has been sitting on India’s request to send foodgrain to Afghanistan through Pakistan.
Read: E-payments unicorn Paytm launches India's biggest-ever IPO
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar too met Makhmudov.
Russia, Iran, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan are participating in the meeting to be held at the level of national security advisors, and chaired by NSA Doval, on Wednesday. Doval will also meet NSAs of Russia and Iran for bilateral meetings on Wednesday.
Sources said the meeting of NSAs will look at evolving a “regional security architecture” to deal with the challenges arising out of the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, mainly terrorism within and across its border, radicalisation and extremism, cross-border movement, drug production and trafficking, and potential use of weapons and equipment left behind by the US and its allies.
The Delhi meeting will be attended by Rear Admiral Ali Shamkhani (Iran), Nikolai P Patrushev (Russia), Karim Massimov (Kazakhstan), Marat Mukanovich Imankulov (Kyrgyzstan), Nasrullo Rahmatjon Mahmudzoda (Tajikistan), Charymyrat Kakalyyevvich Amavov (Turkmenistan) and Victor Makhmudov (Uzbekistan).
The top security officials are expected to jointly call on Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday. Some of the visiting delegates will also travel to Amritsar and Agra for sightseeing.
According to sources, the country’s top security establishment, the National Security Council Secretariat, is taking the lead in organising the conference. The meeting is a “security track”, which is different from the “diplomatic track”, and the “czars of the security establishments” in these countries will discuss “practical cooperation”, they said.
T20 World Cup: Kiwis break over a billion hearts quietly
Riding on a wonderful bowling performance by their experienced pace attack, New Zealand beat Afghanistan by eight wickets in their fifth and last Super 12s match of the ongoing T20 World Cup to book their place in the semifinals.
The result eliminated not only their Afghan opponents but also pre-tournament favourites and cricketing powerhouse India, where the knives have already come out as the blame game ensued over what will be seen as nothing less than a debacle.
The eyes of the entire Indian nation were on this match in Abu Dhabi, where the pitch has offered a bit for the seam bowlers all tournament.
A win for Afghanistan would have meant a possible 3-way tie on points in the semifinals race, but favouring India who play Namibia tomorrow in the last match of the Super 12 phase. But Mohammad Nabi's side failed to trouble a New Zealand side who completed the job at hand with ruthless efficiency, rendering the India-Namibia game meaningless, except for pride.
It was Afghanistan's third defeat in the five matches they played in the Super 12s, while it was the fourth win for New Zealand. From this group, Pakistan were the first team to qualify to the semifinals with four straight wins. They take on Scotland in their last Super 12s clash tonight.
It means all four semifinalists have had to win four games to qualify. South Africa, in Group 2, missed out despite four wins.
On Sunday, Afghanistan won the toss in Abu Dhabi and opted to bat first. They lost three batters inside the powerplay while facing the quality pace attack of New Zealand. The first three wickets of Afghanistan were taken by three New Zealand pacers.
Najibullah Zadran, who came to bat at number five, posted a huge 73 off 48 balls with six fours and three sixes. But the other batters were not able to accompany him. Afghanistan were kept down at 124 for eight.
For New Zealand, Trent Boult bagged three wickets conceding 17 runs in four overs while Tim Southee took two for 24 in four overs.
In reply, losing Martin Guptill and Daryl Mitchell for 28 and 17 respectively, New Zealand chased down the target of 125 in 18.1 overs and sealed the match with eight wickets in hand.
Kane Williamson and wicketkeeper-batter Devon Conway were unbeaten for 40 and 36 respectively.
This win helped New Zealand top the points table in Group 2. They now have a better run rate, +1.16, than Pakistan’s +1.06. Both these themes have secured eight points each. However, Pakistan will get a chance to surpass them as they still have a match to play against Scotland.
With one match to play, India and Namibia have secured four and two points respectively. Scotland are the only team in this group who are yet to secure any points.
The result of the match between Pakistan and Scotland will determine who are the champions of Group 2, and according to that, the semifinals line-up will be finalized.
Meanwhile, England and Australia have secured the semifinals berths. Both these teams have earned eight points each. South Africa had also secured eight points, but Australia overpowered them by a better run rate.
The first semifinal of this T20 World Cup will take place on November 10 while the second will be played on November 11. The final will be played on November 14 in Dubai.
ICC Ranking Update: Nabi catches up Shakib
Afghanistan’s allrounder Mohammad Nabi caught up Bangladesh's Shakib Al Hasan to claim the top place of T20 allrounders as the ICC updated ICC Ranking on Wednesday.
According to the latest update, both Shakib and Nabi are placed at number one as the T20 allrounders with both having 271 rating points.
Two successive half-centuries in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 have helped Pakistan captain Babar Azam to overtake England’s David Malan and grab the No. 1 position for T20 batters.
Also Read: ICC T20 Ranking: Bangladesh steps down two notches to settle for 8th place
Babar hit 51 against Afghanistan and 70 against Namibia to lead the 2009 champions into the semi-finals, is at the top for the sixth time in his career. The 27-year-old had first attained top position on January 28, 2018. He is presently also ranked No. 1 in ODIs.
Sri Lanka leg-spinner Wanindu Hasaranga has topped the bowling charts for the first time in his career after two successive three-wicket hauls against South Africa and England.
Also Read: ICC T20 Men’s World Cup 2021: 16 Captains to Watch
Along the way, he replaces South Africa’s Tabraiz Shamsi, who was at the top since 10 April this year.
There is no Bangladeshi at the top 10 in the ranking of batters and bowlers. The ranking is fittingly reflecting Bangladesh’s dismal show in the current World Cup. The Tigers have lost all four matches they have played in the Super 12s stage.
IS attack on Kabul hospital leaves 7 dead, 16 wounded
Islamic State militants set off an explosion at the entrance to a military hospital in the Afghan capital on Tuesday, killing at least seven people, a senior Taliban official said. It was one of the most brazen IS attacks yet since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in the summer.
Among those killed were three women, a child, and three Taliban guards, said Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid. Five attackers were also killed, he said, adding that Taliban guards prevented them from getting into the hospital. He said the attack was over within 15 minutes.
Read:In Afghanistan, a girls’ school is the story of a village
“No one was killed inside the hospital,” the spokesman said. He said Taliban guards thwarted IS plans to target medical staff and patients in the 400-bed facility.
He said Taliban special forces were subsequently deployed and searched the hospital and that a helicopter was used in the operation.
Health officials said 16 people were wounded in the attack on the Sardar Mohammad Dawood Khan hospital in Kabul’s 10th district. Mujahid said five Taliban fighters were among the wounded.
Earlier, another Taliban official had said the attack was carried out by six men, and that two of them were captured.
Read:Suicide attack on Shiite mosque in Afghanistan kills 47
During the attack, city residents had reported two explosions in the area, along with the sound of gunfire.
In recent weeks, IS militants carried out a series of bombing and shooting attacks. IS has stepped up attacks since the Taliban takeover of the country.
Afghanistan thump Namibia by 62 runs in T20 World Cup
Afghanistan gave a perfect farewell present to Asghar Afghan with a thumping 62-run victory over Namibia in the T20 World Cup Sunday.
Asghar made 31 off 23 balls in his last international appearance, which lifted Afghanistan to 160-5 after captain Mohammad Nabi won the toss and opted to bat in the Group 2 game.
Read:Shakib ruled out of T20 World Cup
Namibia batsmen fell against the slower deliveries of Afghanistan fast bowlers and limped to 98-9 with David Wiese top-scoring with 26 off 30 balls.
Fast bowler Hamid Hassan, playing his first T20 international in five years, picked up 3-9 while Naveen-ul-Haq polished off the top order to finish with 3-27.
Asghar, who announced his retirement from all forms of cricket Saturday, was given a guard of honour by Namibia fielders as he walked out to bat midway through the innings. He belted three fours and a six before scooping a catch to backward point in the penultimate over.
Read:England gives old rival Australia 8-wicket thrashing at WCup
Afghanistan, who have two tough games in hand against New Zealand and India, have four points from three games. It lost a nail-biting game to Pakistan by five wickets when hard-hitting Asif Ali smashed four sixes in the penultimate over.
Namibia have two points from two games after beating Scotland in the opening game.
Please buy T20 World Cup tickets, pleads Afghanistan captain
Afghanistan captain Mohammad Nabi has pleaded with his country’s fans to “please buy tickets” instead of forcing their way into stadiums without a valid ticket at the T20 World Cup.
“Afghan fans, please buy tickets and come to the stadium, don’t repeat again, it’s not good,” Nabi said after losing a thrilling Group 2 game to Pakistan by five wickets on Friday night with Asif Ali smashing four sixes in the penultimate over.
Ticketless fans, mostly carrying Afghan flags, tried to enter the Dubai International Cricket Stadium and the ICC said police closed all the gates an hour after the game had started “to maintain a safe and controlled environment inside the venue.”
Read 'Tigers still have plenty to take from WC'
The match began while swathes of fans outside the stadium were seen running toward the entrances. Those already inside had queued for hours and they generated a stunning atmosphere in a ground awash with color and energy.
But the closure of gates deprived numbers of fans entry despite having valid tickets.
“The ICC, BCCI and ECB apologize to any fans with valid tickets who were unable to enter the stadium tonight and request they contact the ticket provider,” the ICC said.
Read Asif's 4 sixes in 1 over seals Pakistan win over Afghanistan
The ICC also said that it had asked the Emirates Cricket Board to undertake a thorough investigation into the Friday night’s events “to learn any lessons and will work closely with authorities to ensure there is no repeat of this situation in future.”