The Taliban can threaten with a whisper. After 20 years of violent struggle, and the loss of tens of thousands of civilian lives, they took power here using brutal force.
Even so, Afghan women refuse to be intimidated.
Tamana Zaryabi Paryani is one of those women. It takes raw courage to stand up to armed men who want to take away almost everything you have achieved in life.
Taliban burned musical instrument in front of a musician in Afghanistan’s Paktia province, a video posted by an Afghan journalist shows, in which the musician was seen crying after his instrument was set on fire.
A viral video posted by Abdulhaq Omeri, a senior journalist of Afghanistan also shows that a man with a gun was laughing at him, while another was making a video of his “miserable condition.”
Video : Taliban burn musician's musical instrument as local musicians weeps. This incident happened in #ZazaiArub District #Paktia Province #Afghanistan . pic.twitter.com/zzCp0POeKl
— Abdulhaq Omeri (@AbdulhaqOmeri) January 15, 2022
The Taliban’s defense minister, Maulvi Mohammad Yaqoob Mujahid, recently responded to news that the U.S. plans to station 2,000 troops at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul by presenting what he considered to be a tit-for-tat: according to the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), the austere diplomat tweeted: “If America wants 2,000 English [i.e., American] troops at its embassy in Afghanistan, we also want 2,000 Fidayeen Mujahideen [i.e., suicide bombers] from the Fateh Force at the embassy of Afghanistan in America.” Two-thousand suicide bombers in Washington! It’ll almost be like Congress, but bigger.
A team of Afghan intelligence agents poured about 3,000 litres of liquor into a canal in Kabul, the country’s spy agency has said, as the new Taliban authorities crack down on the sale of alcohol.
Video footage released by the General Directorate of Intelligence showed its agents pouring alcohol stored in barrels into the canal after seizing it during a raid in the capital.
Hours before Kabul fell to the Taliban on Aug. 15, the Afghan Air Force was melting down. Instead of unleashing air attacks against advancing insurgents, some airmen were fighting each other.
At the Kabul airport, some Afghan Air Force personnel guarding the airfield tried to force their way onto a military helicopter preparing to lift off, according to the Afghan Air Force pilot flying the craft and two other people familiar with the incident. The chopper’s destination was across town, but the guardsmen were convinced it was leaving the country and were determined not to be left behind, the pilot told Reuters. Another guard, trying to stop them, pointed his gun at the cockpit.
The Biden argument has been that we can and should dispatch over a hundred million dollars of humanitarian aid and that we can safely fund and stock aid efforts in Afghanistan because somehow the Taliban won’t get their hands on it.
Taliban authorities in Afghanistan on Sunday gave new guidance to taxi drivers, advising them against taking fares from women who do not follow a strict Islamic dress code by wearing the hijab, or Islamic headscarf.
The Ministry of Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice also told drivers they should not take women who wish to travel more than 72 kilometers (45 miles) without a male relative as a chaperone.
Afghan drivers were given written recommendations not to play music in their cars and only take women as passengers if they’re wearing a hijab.
The Taliban’s Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, which is in charge of implementing Islamic law in the country, confirmed the new restrictions to a local Kabul news outlet on Saturday.
KABUL, Dec 18 (Reuters) – Senior Taliban officials appealed on Saturday for international help to combat a deepening economic crisis that has fuelled fears of another refugee exodus from Afghanistan.
The comments, at a special meeting to mark the U.N.’s international migrants day, underlined the new Islamist Taliban government’s push to engage with the world community, four months after they seized power in Kabul.
Heaped in plastic bags in a small room in rural southern Afghanistan, the white crystals glisten.
They are “export quality” methamphetamine, and will be trafficked to countries as far away as Australia. Once there, the 100kg (220lb) stored in this room will have a street value of around £2m ($2.6m).
Outside, smoke billows from two barrels where new batches of meth are being cooked.
Drugs are big business in Afghanistan, and under the Taliban, trade is booming. The country has long been linked with heroin, but in recent years, it has also emerged as a significant producer of crystal meth – another dangerously addictive drug.
The cultivation of opium poppy as a medicinal plant has a long tradition in Afghanistan.
The milky sap extracted from the seed pods is dried to produce raw opium, an effective remedy for severe pain. Today, opium is used primarily as an intoxicant and as a raw material for the production of stronger drugs like heroin.
In the last harvest season, which ended in July, an estimated 6,800 tons of opium were produced in Afghanistan. This was an 8% increase over 2020, according to a recent report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
According to the report, Afghanistan accounts for 85% of global opium production, and Afghan opiates supply 80% of users worldwide.
Western nations, led by the United States, on Saturday blasted the Taliban over “summary killings” and forced disappearances of former members of the Afghan security forces reported by rights groups.
This comes a week after Human Rights Watch released a 25-page report documenting the killing or disappearance of former military personnel, police, intelligence service members, and militia.
“We are deeply concerned by reports of summary killings and enforced disappearances of former members of the Afghan security forces as documented by Human Rights Watch and others,” read a joint statement by 22 nations, including the US, France, Germany, and Japan.
That’ll strike fear in their hearts!
Heroin dogs of Kabul: Shocking photos show homeless Afghan men giving Class A drug to stray mutts so that they stick with them to keep them warm during bitter winter
It’s not uncommon to see men smoking heroin between the blast walls near Shahr-e Naw Wedding Hall in southwest Kabul. Opioid use is prolific in the Afghan capital, despite the Taliban pledging to ban the production of drugs and tackle narcotics addiction under their rule.
But what may be more surprising to those passing through the area is the disturbing sight of heroin being fed to the stray dogs that roam the area.
Ahmad (not his real name) has been smoking heroin for several years, feeding his addiction through a mixture of stealing, begging and collecting plastic bottles for recycling. A mixed-breed stray dog, likely born on the streets of Kabul, lies nearby. Ahmad places a plastic bottle tight over the dog’s nose and blows heroin smoke through the open top. After a few ‘hits’ the subdued dog stands and stares.
Poor dogs.
More than 100 former Afghan security forces have been killed by the Taliban or have disappeared since the militants seized control, according to a new report by Human Rights Watch.
The rights group said an amnesty promised by Taliban’s leadership had not prevented local commanders from targeting former soldiers and police.
HRW accused the leadership of “condoning” the “deliberate” killings.
A Taliban spokesman recently denied any revenge killings were taking place.
What a God-Awful scam that all was.
Fresh from their conquest of Afghanistan, the Taliban are welcoming intrepid tourists to the famous Bamiyan Buddha statues, ancient monuments that the militant group blew up two decades ago.
Hewn out of a rocky cliffside in central Afghanistan’s Bamyan Valley around the sixth Century AD, the Bamiyan Buddhas stood more than 150 feet tall for 1,400 years, until the Taliban blew them to pieces with high explosives in 2001, shortly before the US invasion ended their brief reign over Afghanistan.
