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THE BACKGROUND: For Afghanistan, 2021 was punctuated by the chaos of a U.S. withdrawal and an uncertain next chapter. The Taliban, who were unseated as the countrys rulers by a U.S.-led coalition after the 9/11 attacks 20 years ago, could not be stopped by a collapsing Afghan military and Western-backed government that fled. They quickly took power back in mid-August asked,The Associated Press has revealed, by former President Hamid Karzai to help keep Kabul from falling into chaos and deadly violence.

Four months into Taliban rule, Afghanistan isfacing a looming economic meltdownand humanitarian catastrophe. Billions of dollars worth of the countrys assets abroad, mostly in the U.S., have been frozen and international funding to the country has ceased.

The world is waiting before extending any formal recognition to the new rulers in Kabul, wary the Taliban could impose a similarly harsh regime as when they were in power 20 years ago despite their assurances to the contrary.

The Taliban urge patience but some signs are worrisome: For instance, girls are not allowed to attend high school in most provinces, and though women have returned to their jobs in much of the health care sector, many female civil servants have been barred from coming to work.

However, security has improved under the Taliban, following their crackdown on crime, and humanitarian organizations say they can now reach parts of the country that were previously no-go areas.

Here, Associated Press reporters who covered the Talibans lightning sweep across the country and the subsequent fallout reflect on the story and their own experiences.

FILE - A U.S. Chinook helicopter flies over the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, Aug. 15, 2021. Helicopters landed at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul as diplomatic vehicles left the compound amid the Taliban advance on the Afghan capital. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul, File)

Kathy Gannon, news director, Afghanistan and Pakistan:

This last year has been a particularly tumultuous one. It began really with the announcement by President (Joe) Biden that the last of the U.S. soldiers and NATOs soldiers would leave Afghanistan, but Im not sure that anyone thought that it would result in such chaos and such real misery for so many. ... Even Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, I think, was really taken by surprise that the Americans were leaving, that NATO would leave. I dont think that he ever felt that they would actually. And certainly we talked at the time to many people within the army, people within the government who were really surprised at the announcement. Even though the U.S. had been talking to the Taliban, had negotiated the agreement, had said that as of May 1st, they would begin this withdrawal, there really was a belief among many Afghans that it would not happen.

FILE - In this image provided by the U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. service members assigned to Joint Task Force-Crisis Response, are pallbearers on Friday, Aug. 27, 2021, for the service members killed in action during operations at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, as transfer cases are placed onto a U.S. Air Force C17A Globemaster III for the flight back to the United States. (1st Lt. Mark Andries/U.S. Marine Corps via AP, File)

Even before the Taliban took power, in 2018 there was a Gallup survey, and it showed that barely 2 percent of the population had any faith in their future in the next five years. And that was years before the Taliban took power. So the groundwork was already there. People were very frustrated. The poverty level was quite high already. There were very few jobs for people. People felt really discouraged with the future of their country.

So then when the Americans were leaving and then embassies were announcing they were going to close, it was almost like a snowball, gaining, gaining momentum. Rumors spread on social media that said, the Americans will take anybody who shows up at the airport. Just arrive. You dont even need to have your national papers. Well, for many Afghans, I think this was seen as their opportunity for a better life. Their opportunity to go to America, to go to the West, to have a future that they really had not seen as being a possibility in their own country even before the Taliban arrived.

And then, with the arrival of the Taliban, of course, there was tremendous apprehension and tremendous fear, particularly among the young generation who had not been there when the Taliban last ruled between 1996 and 2001. So I think that that all of that led to this massive surge toward the airport in Kabul, and no one was prepared for it.

And for me, in many ways, that really was a bit of an indictment of the last 20 years, that there was such a lack of hope and faith in the future. And the civil society, on whom so much faith had been put, seemed to be the first ones to make this rush to the airport because they feared for their lives, they feared for the future. They feared for the future of their children.

So that really contributed to that chaos in those iconic images of young men rushing the C-17 aircraft, hanging on to the wheels, trying to get into the aircraft. All of this uncertainty and fear contributed to that. And really the last 20 years, that didnt give them much hope for the future.

But I want to say there was no evidence from when the Taliban last ruled that there would be widespread retribution killings. Sadly, though, revenge killings have been a hallmark of every regime change in Afghanistan. There were scores of retribution killings when the Taliban were overthrown in 2001 by U.S.-backed Afghan allies, and human rights groups have reported upward of 80 revenge killings, particularly of former military people, by the returning Taliban rulers. However, until now there has been no evidence of systematic retribution.

The fact that the Taliban are here and that the world seems surprised seems a little bit in and of itself surprising, given that there were two years of negotiations with the Taliban, with the plan that at the end of these negotiations, there would be an agreement that would include them in power. And I think the future is still a mystery. The jury is still out on whether the Taliban will make good on some of their promises to guarantee education for girls. Whether they will open up their ranks, whether they will include more people. And I think that there still is not a clear picture of what that will look like. But what there is a clear picture of is that Afghans are desperate for help. The U.N. has said that 98 percent of Afghans by the end of this year will be in desperate need, and its still not clear that the world is ready to rise up to the occasion.

FILE - In this image provided by the U.S. Marine Corps, evacuees wait to board a Boeing C-17 Globemaster III during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, Aug. 30. 2021. (Staff Sgt. Victor Mancilla/U.S. Marine Corps via AP, File)

Fazel Rahman, senior television producer, Afghanistan:

The biggest surprising and shocking moment for me this year came in the middle of night: Gunmen knocked on the AP bureaus door, looking for us and they were threatening us with death. But we were very, very lucky. Fortunately, they were not able to harm anyone. We dont know who they were. The Talibans spokesman Suhail Shaheen was notified right away about these people knocking at the AP door. Taliban officials within two days had come to the office, and after looking around, assured our AP people no one would or should enter our premises without our permission. Should anyone do that we were told to call the officials. We have certainly been cautious, but we have not had Taliban or others unlawfully enter our premises.

As an Afghan, I see my people losing their hopes. They lost the achievements of 20 years, two decades, overnight. You know, my daughter cannot go to school. My boys are leaving the house, and she is not able to.

Unfortunately, because the Taliban came to power again, you know its very difficult for them to leave again, at least for a short time. The good thing is, we have winter ahead of us, which is not usually a fighting time in Afghanistan. And I think we have chances of negotiation.

Originally posted here:
US withdrawal and Afghanistan's next chapter - Military Times

A British man is missing in Afghanistan after a report he has been detained by the Taliban. Grant Bailey was arrested in the Afghan capital, Kabul, where he has been working as a security consultant.

The arrest came during a Taliban security clampdown, according to the Daily Mirror.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office could not confirm his identity, but a spokesperson said: We are aware of the detention of a British national in Afghanistan and have been in touch with their family to support them.

Baileys work duties include liaising with the US state department on security-related issues. He was last heard from on Saturday after being arrested at gunpoint, a UK security source told the Mirror.

The Mirror quoted the source saying: We were quite surprised he went back to Kabul after the western withdrawal as the security situation there is obviously much worse.

Added to that, the Taliban government is making it very difficult for the few ex-pats working there, making it very difficult to travel. A lot of people are trying to get to the bottom of what has happened to him, where he is being held, and under what charges.

Bailey is believed to have returned to Kabul in September shortly after the Taliban took over and the US and UK forces withdrew amid chaotic scenes at Kabul airport. His employer has been contacted for comment.

Baileys arrest underlines the continuing risks facing the small number of westerners who continue to work in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, hundreds of Afghans who were previously employed by UK organisations, including former BBC staff and those who worked for the British Council and UK forces, have been forced into hiding since the Taliban took over.

Earlier this month, Joseph Seaton, the former British Council Afghanistan English manager, said of his former colleagues: These people are living in constant fear of their lives. They were contracted under a British government-funded scheme to teach English teachers British values of diversity, inclusion and equality, the values that the Taliban oppose. They were always told they were employees of the British government.

Since the Talibans takeover, the UN has warned that 23 million Afghans face hunger due to conflict, drought and an economic downturn.

In October, the World Food Programmes executive director, David Beasley, said: Afghanistan is now among the worlds worst humanitarian crises if not the worst and food security has all but collapsed.

Read the original here:
Briton missing in Afghanistan after reports of Taliban arrest - The Guardian

For decades, U.S. policy toward Pakistan has been predicated on Americas goals in Afghanistan. Pakistan both helped and hindered the U.S. war on terror, making for a notoriously dysfunctional relationship. Now the United States is out of Afghanistan, and the relationship is on shaky footing. Its time to reimagine it.

The United States must treat Pakistan as a country in its own right, not as a fulcrum for U.S. policy on Afghanistan. That starts with America disentangling itself from the close military relationship with Pakistan.

A reset wont be easy: Resentment is rife. America sees Pakistans support for the Taliban as one reason it lost in Afghanistan; Pakistan sees the Taliban insurgency it faced at home as blowback for partnering with America next door. In Washington the grim mood has led to talk of disengagement and sanctions. Neither approach will work or be satisfactory in the long run.

Pakistan, meanwhile, wants a broad-based relationship with the U.S. focused on geoeconomics which is not realistic.

Instead, the Biden administration seems to be defaulting to the status quo: largely limiting engagement with Pakistan to Afghanistan, mostly for over-the-horizon counterterrorism options. This sets up a repetition of the old, failed cycle, missing the opportunity to steer Pakistan away from its own harmful overreliance on the military to a more productive future.

It would be smarter and safer for the United States to pivot to a multidimensional approach that acknowledges the realities of the country and its neighborhood. Pakistan is a nuclear-armed country with a population of more than 220 million, neighboring not just Afghanistan but also Iran and Pakistans close friend China and nuclear-armed rival India. Pakistan faces immense domestic challenges, including with governance and terrorism. It also has unrealized economic potential.

The first and most important step to this pivot would be explicitly reducing American dependence on its usual partner in Pakistan: the military and intelligence services. While Pakistans military is perceived as more efficient than its civilian institutions, it has repeatedly shown that its incentives are not aligned with Americas.

U.S. reliance on Pakistans military has weighted the civilian-military equation evidenced in how military spending accounts for about 16 percent of Pakistans annual expenditures. (U.S. military spending accounts for 11 percent.) Pakistans dominant military has kept active the specter of potential conflict with India, and its intelligence services have cultivated relationships with an array of dangerous nonstate armed actors.

A civilian-focused U.S. policy will help Pakistan begin to shift the balance away from its military and will, in the longer term, bolster Pakistans democracy. While that certainly wont guarantee liberalism in Pakistan, it can in time curb approaches favored by the military including relationships with jihadists that have proved harmful for the region and Pakistan itself.

In practical terms, that will mean U.S. cabinet secretaries make fewer calls to Pakistani army chiefs and more to civilian ministers. It will mean that President Biden should finally make a long-awaited call to Pakistans prime minister to discuss China, India, counterterrorism and the economy, not just cooperation on Afghanistan.

There are risks to this approach. The military and intelligence services in Pakistan wont be thrilled about this downgrade in their status, and they may choose to retaliate by reducing cooperation in areas like intelligence sharing or by limiting access to Pakistani airspace for counterterrorism operations. This approach might also seem to be asking the U.S. government to overlook past issues with Pakistan (especially its support of the Taliban) and will require a level of generosity that some believe Pakistan does not deserve. But the benefits from such a reset stronger Pakistani civilian institutions, which will mean a more reliable partnership both diplomatically and militarily for the United States will ultimately outweigh short-term risks.

Once Americas reliance on Pakistans military is explicitly and clearly reduced, U.S. policy toward Pakistan can be steered toward economic and other forms of engagement. This can be a step-by-step process.

First, America and Pakistan should look for avenues to boost trade. (The United States is Pakistans top export destination, but Pakistan is Americas 56th-largest trading goods partner.) Washington could, for example, provide technical support to industries like textiles while making clear Pakistan must produce and market its goods at competitive prices. Second, U.S. firms should be encouraged to consider investments in Pakistan which could be a strong incentive for Pakistan to further improve its investment climate.

America can also engage with Pakistan in other ways, like helping it tackle its massive air pollution problem. Engagement that is not conditional on security concerns wins hearts and minds in Pakistan.

Thats not to say there wont need to be an Afghanistan element to this new approach, given that America still needs Pakistans help for over-the-horizon counterterrorism options to deal with any threats from militant groups in Afghanistan. Plus, America wants Pakistan to withhold recognition of the Taliban. But it should be only one aspect not all of U.S.-Pakistan policy.

This new approach can reset the relationship in a constructive direction in the longer term, compared to the alternative: a policy menu of disengagement and sanctions.

Disengagement may satisfy Pakistan hawks in Washington, but it makes for disingenuous policy. It reduces Americas leverage with Pakistan in the event of a conflict with India and ignores the reality of Pakistans nuclear status and domestic struggle with terrorist groups. Disengagement also risks pushing Pakistan further into Chinas arms, which is not inevitable. (China has promised Pakistan $62 billion under the Belt and Road initiative, though the project has seen slowdowns.)

As for sanctions: Not only did U.S. sanctions against Pakistan in the 1990s fail to curtail its nuclear program, but also Pakistans takeaway was to hedge against future American abandonment which in turn partly contributed to its dual-track policy after 2001.

Whats more, a wealth of evidence shows broad-based sanctions make for ineffective foreign policy. And their effect is limited when other countries dont sign on. More effective and multilateral tools exist to shape Pakistans behavior, like the Financial Action Task Force, an international watchdog monitoring terrorist financing. Its graylisting of Pakistan in 2018 prompted the country to crack down on Lashkar-e-Taiba and other jihadist groups.

To be fair, shifting the U.S. approach to Pakistan wholesale will not be easy. Decades of American policy have seen Pakistan squarely through the Afghanistan prism, and government inertia makes change difficult. Mr. Bidens focus is on the Indo-Pacific. Critical statements by Pakistans Prime Minister Imran Khan regarding the United States havent gone over well in Washington, and his move to skip Mr. Bidens summit for democracy may have left a sour taste. Pakistans military wont be happy. But such a policy change is possible, if done deliberately and done right.

This shift would be in line with the Biden administrations foreign policy frame of great power competition, helpfully keeping Pakistan from gravitating further toward China.

Pakistan is simultaneously important and complicated. There is no magic bullet when it comes to reimagining a new policy, but the United States now has an opportunity to steer the relationship in a potentially more productive direction. Washington should give it a shot.

Excerpt from:
Opinion | U.S. Policy Toward Pakistan Can't Be All About Afghanistan - The New York Times

KARACHI, Pakistan For these four young people, Pakistan is home. They were born and raised there. They have big plans: to study, to open their own businesses, to succeed.

But Pakistan says their home is elsewhere. Each of the four a lab technician, a web developer, a jewelry maker, a former welder with dreams of travel was born to parents from Afghanistan who fled to Pakistan because of war and persecution.

The children have been in legal limbo all their lives, at risk of deportation to a strife-torn country they have never seen.

Some live in Al-Asif Square, a neighborhood of low-slung, barrackslike apartment buildings on the outskirts of the port city of Karachi, where the refugee population is often blamed for high crime rates and gang violence. With their vulnerable legal status, opportunity is hard to come by.

Pakistan is home to an estimated hundreds of thousands of children of Afghan refugees. Without official recognition or citizenship, they cannot attend most schools or universities, get many jobs or buy property or cars.

Muhammad Saleem, 24, a lab technician, does not have documentation, so no medical school will admit him.

His lack of documents also means he earns about one-quarter of the market rate for lab technicians, or $85 a month.

Unfortunately, I could not fulfill the dream of my parents of becoming a doctor, he said.

While Pakistani law grants citizenship to those born there, the government has long refused to recognize the claims of children of Afghans amid public pressure to stem the tide of refugees from Afghanistan. Recently, Prime Minister Imran Khan introduced an alien registration card system that would allow Afghans and their locally born children to start businesses but it would still deny them full legal rights, human rights groups warn.

The problem may soon get much bigger.

Politicians and the public alike worry that more refugees will cross into Pakistan from Afghanistan after the Talibans takeover of the country in August, further crowding cities and camps for displaced people. Already, Pakistan officially hosts 1.4 million refugees, according to the United Nations, though experts say hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants live there, too.

Afghanistan Under Taliban Rule

With the departure of the U.S. military on Aug. 30, Afghanistan quickly fell back under control of the Taliban. Across the country, there is widespread anxiety about the future.

The wave of new refugees has been smaller than expected, in part because of Pakistans tighter border controls. However, Islamabad expects an influx once the border is opened as economic conditions and stability worsen in Afghanistan.

Pakistans stateless young people work and live on the edges of society.

Madad Ali, a 23-year-old web developer, has been working through online platforms such as Upwork that connect freelancers with employers. But jobs that pay electronically require identity cards and bank accounts, so he has found under-the-table methods.

Mr. Ali is Hazara, an ethnic group that has been persecuted in Afghanistan and in parts of Pakistan. His parents fled in 1995, a year before the Taliban occupied roughly three-quarters of the country and enforced a harsh interpretation of Islamic law.

While working on a computer in his modest apartment, Mr. Ali says that his lack of credentials depresses him. To overcome depression, he said, I often go to the beach.

Tens of thousands of children do not go to school because they have no government-issued birth certificates, and most either study in religious seminaries to memorize the Quran or collect recyclable trash for scrap dealers in the major markets.

In Al-Asif Square, most of the residents are refugees, and amid the apartments is a school for the refugees children that offers classes up to grade 12. It is registered with the Afghan Ministry of Education, but the schools certification is not recognized by Pakistan.

Sameera Wahidi, 22, completed school there but could advance no further because she does not have the proper documents.

A person who wants to keep studying has to go to Afghanistan, said Ms. Wahidi, whose parents moved from Afghanistans Takhar Province during the 1980s. But I was born in Pakistan, and I have never seen Afghanistan in my life.

She added, For our parents, Afghanistan could be their homeland, but for me, Pakistan is my country.

She learned how to make earrings, necklaces and bangles at a United Nations center for Afghan refugees. She made a modest living until the coronavirus pandemic.

Now the buyers have stopped purchasing our work, Ms. Wahidi said, but we are hopeful it will be resumed soon.

When Mr. Khan, the prime minister, pledged to grant citizenship to the children of refugees after he assumed office in 2018, Samiullah, a child of Afghan refugees, was among thousands including Rohingya and Bengalis long stranded in Pakistan by decades of unrest who took part in a rally to thank Mr. Khan.

But political backlash forced Mr. Khan to back down from that commitment. Political parties in Pakistan said that the Afghan refugees upset the ethnic balance in parts of the country.

This year, Samiullah, 23, had to quit his $7-a-day job as a welder at a workshop in Al-Asif Square because the work was affecting his eyes.

Now I am searching for jobs, but everyone has been asking me to bring a Pakistani national identity card, said Samiullah, who like many Afghans uses only one name.

Samiullah once wanted to open his own metal shop. Like many young people, his mind wanders, and he dreams of seeing the United States or Australia. But he has no passport.

It is not my fault that I was born and raised in Pakistan, and it seems that Ill die here, too, he said, adding, But I firmly believe that the government, one day, will give us citizenship cards.

Progress has come in small steps. In 2019, Mr. Khan allowed refugees holding proof of registration cards to open bank accounts.

Still, the refugees of Al-Asif Square live in a precarious state. Their nonlegal status makes them vulnerable to exploitation. Law enforcement officials, they say, frequently target them.

I avoid going outside the neighborhood because of fear of the police, said Samiullah. They frisk him and ask to see his identity card, he said, and then let him go after taking a bribe of about $3.

Read more from the original source:
Born and Raised in Pakistan, but Living in Legal Limbo - The New York Times

A spokesperson of the Taliban Inamullah Samangani reacted to the recent concerns of Russias President Vladimir Putin and added that there is no threat from Afghanistans borders to regional countries.

Inamullah Samangani in a voice clip on Monday, December 28 said that there is latterly neither potential nor a de facto threat from Afghanistans border to any other country.

During his meeting with Tajikistans President Emomali Rahman, Vladimir Putin said that the security situation on the Afghanistan-Tajikistan border is concerning.

Putin mentioned his countrys military equipment given to Tajikistans military forces to get stronger and address potential threats from other countries.

As we have assured security inside Afghanistan, the borders of Afghanistan are likewise well protected and are under surveillance. Rumors over Potential threats from our borders are baseless. Said Samangani.

Vladimir Putins concerns over insecurity on Afghanistans borders with Central Asian countries are not new, earlier; he had expressed some concerns and had discussed the issue with Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistans heads of state.

Russia has also conducted military drills with Tajikistans forces on the border with Afghanistan.

See the rest here:
No threat from Afghanistan's borders to region: Taliban reacted to Putin's concerns - The Khaama Press News Agency