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The Mounting Troubles for Afghanistan Beyond Its Security Threats

As US troops withdraw from Afghanistan, impacts of climate change may bear heavy on the war-battered country, further scuttling any prospects of political, social or economic stability in the region.

As American and NATO troops vacate Afghanistan, uncertainty looms over Kabul. The consternation is not limited to the mountainous nation and is spreading across the world, particularly South Asia. Security experts believe that the withdrawal of US soldiers will now embolden Islamist terrorist organisations in the region, and Kabul may fall into the hands of the Taliban again. In a disturbing trend, the radicals who ruled Afghanistan between 1994 and 2001 have already started to get hold of the key positions in the country in last few months.

However, another worrisome dimension of the troop withdrawal has been building up behind the scenes. Afghanistan is highly prone to natural disasters like earthquakes, floods, landslides, avalanches and recurring droughts. It faces serious threats of climate change impacts, including crises in agriculture due to prolonged droughts and sudden floods, loss of wildlife and biodiversity, unemployment and so on. One particular concern is the problem of migration which has roots not only in conflict and violence, but will be aggravated due to climate change and extreme weather events. The new circumstances have shattered any hope of dealing with this threat which is hovering over the war-stricken country.

Sinking into civil war

With US-NATO troops returning to their homeland, there is little clarity about what the new Afghanistan will look like or how it will shape up politically. Experts say Taliban does not want any elections and their offer of power sharing based on Sharia law has been rejected by the current Afghan administration. “This country is sinking into an intense civil war again. There is a completely unacceptable divide between Kabul and Taliban,” warns security expert Ajai Sahni who is also the executive director of Institute for Conflict Management & South Asia terrorism portal.

Also read: Is the Violent Endgame in Afghanistan Leading Up to a New ‘Great Game’?

“Taliban is increasing its area of influence every day and wherever they dominate, they will set up a sharia-based regime. Therefore, I am not sure anyone will be able to work there other than some rouge-state players like China and Pakistan. Even they would like to see some stability there,” Sahni said. As the conflict intensifies, the country’s resources will be diverted towards combat and fortification. As a result, preparations against climate change and disasters will likely get no attention.

Looming climate crisis

Data suggests that at least 9 million people were affected and 20,000 lives were lost between 1980 and 2017 due to disasters caused by natural hazards. According to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) more than 1.1 million people were displaced due to disasters in Afghanistan at the end of year 2020. In last twenty years more than 6.5 million people have been affected by flood and around five million live in the areas prone to landslides and avalanches.

Afghan Commandos arrive to reinforce the security forces in Faizabad the capital of Badakhshan province, after Taliban captured neighborhood districts of Badakhshan recently, July 4, 2021. Photo: Afghanistan Ministry of Defence//Handout via Reuters

The impacts of extreme weather events induced by climate change however, won’t spare the majority of Afghan population which is grappling with destitution. Like any other country, women and children are the biggest victims of internal migration here too. According to Amnesty, nearly 4 million people in Afghanistan are living in camps and most of them are women and children. These camps are overcrowded and many of them do not have basic amenities like bathroom and toilets.

It is noteworthy that social mores strictly prohibit Afghan women to interact and solicit help from men outside their family. For any woman, medical help becomes impossible, if it is available at all, unless the doctor or nurse is a female. “In Afghanistan, the number of people displaced by the climate crisis is rising, with women and young people hardest hit by the increasingly severe droughts and flooding that impact the conflict-stricken country,” says Sudipta Kumar, Country Director of ActionAid Afghanistan.

“Our research shows there is no overall national regulatory framework that addresses climate change or that protects people forced to migrate due to climate disasters,” he said.

Presently, the Taliban is mounting pressure in several parts of country. This offensive will likely aggravate in coming days. In the regions controlled by them, it will be a double whammy on women who have already been the worst victims of changing climate. “We’re calling for existing policies and strategies to be climate-proofed and gender responsive. This means recognising the disproportionate impact of climate migration on women and girls, and the increasing threat of gender-based violence, child marriage and exploitation they face due to the climate crisis. As conflict and insecurity rise following the US troop withdrawal, women and girls already displaced by climate change are at even greater risk,” said Sudipta.

Also read: Pakistan Still Wants to Have Its Jihadist Cake and Eat it Too

An uncertain future

Due to protracted war and conflict, while Afghan society has endeavoured to seek security and fight poverty for decades, there has been scant chance to sensitise and build awareness towards the looming climate crisis, changing weather patterns and environmental degradation. “Our journalists were born during the war (with Taliban). So, our priorities, the topics in our stories and news was all about fight, all about war, all about violations, violence, challenges and instability,” says Asef Ghafoory who is a journalist in Kabul. He explains that Afghan media persons didn’t have enough time to work on the issues of agriculture and climate.

Many farmers still do not know about the reasons behind the rising number of extreme weather events or the threats to biodiversity. They need training and help to grow climate-resilient crops and deal with the whims of erratic weather. This needs resources and political will, which will be focused again to deal with security and conflict issues in the new scenario. Like journalists, the current administrators, policy makers and activists who could have written, advocated and implemented steps to tackle climate issues, were born or have grown up with war as a constant backdrop. Now all of them stare at a grim future where the security concerns are extending beyond the imminent military conflagaration.

“As the influence of Kabul diminishes in areas that are lost, these international (aid and humanitarian) organisations may simply withdraw. If somebody asks me what can be done in such a scenario, I don’t have much to suggest. I am afraid that the prospects are very bleak,” Sahni said. The irony is that the United States, which is the biggest contributor to the historically accumulated carbon in the space – and still currently ranked the second biggest emitter after China – perhaps did not even consider the humanitarian fallouts from the climate crisis before deciding to exit the longest military conflict in US history.

This article was originally published on Carbon Copy, and has been republished here with permission.

Trump Says He Cancelled Peace Talks with Taliban over Attack

The latest Taliban attack in Kabul last week resulted in the death of 11 civilians and 1 American soldier

Washington/Islamabad: US President Donald Trump on Saturday said he cancelled peace talks with Afghanistan’s Taliban leaders after the insurgent group claimed responsibility last week for an attack in Kabul that killed an American soldier and 11 other people.

Trump said he had planned a secret meeting with the Taliban‘s “major leaders” on Sunday at a presidential compound in Camp David, Maryland. Trump said he also planned to meet with Afghanistan’s president.

But Trump said he immediately called the talks off when the insurgents said they were behind the attack.

“If they cannot agree to a ceasefire during these very important peace talks, and would even kill 12 innocent people, then they probably don’t have the power to negotiate a meaningful agreement anyway,” Trump said on Twitter.

The surprise announcement left in doubt the future of the draft accord worked out last week by Zalmay Khalilzad, the special US envoy for peace in Afghanistan, for a drawdown of thousands of US troops over the coming months.

Also read: Taliban Attack in Kabul Kills 16, Shadow Looms Over Peace Deal

There was no immediate reaction from the Taliban but the decision appeared to catch them by surprise.

Just hours before Trump‘s tweet, a senior Taliban leader privy to talks in Doha with US officials including Khalilzad and Taliban chief negotiator Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, said an agreement to sign the deal appeared close.

Taliban fighters, who now control more territory than at any time since 2001, launched fresh assaults on the northern cities of Kunduz and Pul-e Khumri over the past week and carried out two major suicide bombings in the capital Kabul.

One of the blasts, a suicide attack in Kabul on Thursday, took the life of US Army Sergeant 1st Class Elis A. Barreto Ortiz, 34, from Puerto Rico, bringing the number of American troops killed in Afghanistan this year to 16.

A spike in attacks by Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan has been “particularly unhelpful” to peace efforts there, a senior US military commander said on Saturday as he visited neighbouring Pakistan, where many Taliban militants are based.

US Marine General Kenneth McKenzie, who oversees American troops in the region, declined to comment on the diplomatic negotiations themselves but criticised a wave of Taliban violence that has cast a long shadow over the deal.

“It is particularly unhelpful at this moment in Afghanistan’s history for the Taliban to ramp up violence,” McKenzie, head of US Central Command, told reporters travelling with him.

McKenzie said for the peace process to move forward, “all parties should be committed to an eventual political settlement” which, in turn, should result in reduced violence.

“If we can’t get that going in, then it is difficult to see if the parties are going to be able to carry out the terms of the agreement, whatever they might or might not be,” McKenzie said.

Also read: How Successful Were the Afghan Peace Talks in Qatar?

Under the draft accord, some 5,000 US troops would be withdrawn over the coming months in exchange for guarantees Afghanistan would not be used as a base for militant attacks on the United States and its allies.

However, a full peace agreement to end more than 18 years of war would depend on subsequent “intra Afghan” talks involving officials and civil society leaders as well as further agreement on issues including the remainder of the roughly 14,000-strong US forces as well as thousands of other NATO troops.

The Taliban have rejected calls for a ceasefire and instead stepped up operations across the country and it remains unclear whether they will accept direct negotiations with the Afghan government, which they consider an illegitimate “puppet” regime.

New civil war?

For Afghans, the Taliban‘s recent escalation of attacks has underscored fears it may be impossible to reach a stable settlement following any complete US withdrawal.

Ghani dismissed the talks as “meaningless” following Thursday’s suicide bombing and his spokesman said an official reaction to Trump‘s announcement would come soon.

The Taliban‘s strategy appears to be based on the assumption that battlefield success would strengthen their hand in future negotiations with Afghan officials. Some of their field commanders have also said they are determined not to surrender gains when they are close to victory, suggesting the leadership is under internal pressure not to concede a ceasefire.

But that has risked undermining acceptance of the deal by Washington and its NATO allies as well as by Kabul.

“The Taliban‘s leaders will have to show they can stop the attacks, if not, then what is the point of holding long negotiations with Baradar?” said one Western diplomat in Kabul.

Also read: Car Bombed in Kabul Diplomatic Area Two Days After Suicide Blast

Even within the Taliban ranks, there appears to be doubt about how any agreement would take effect, given growing opposition to the deal from the government side.

“Don’t ask me how to implement the peace accord,” the Taliban official said.

Memories of the bloody 1990s conflict between the Taliban and rival militia groups are vivid. Former US envoys who worked on Afghanistan warned last week that “total civil war” with “catastrophic” consequences for US national security was possible.

Many have worried about a fracture along ethnic and regional lines, with Persian-speaking Tajiks and Hazaras from the north and west against southern and eastern Pashtuns, the group that have supplied most of Afghanistan’s rulers and where the Taliban draw most support.

Some Taliban are based in neighbouring Pakistan, where McKenzie held talks on Saturday with a top Pakistani general. More talks are scheduled for Sunday.

McKenzie said he did not know whether any of the planning for the recent wave of attacks in Afghanistan came from Pakistan-based militants.

But McKenzie commended Pakistan for supporting the peace efforts in Afghanistan, in the latest sign of an improvement in long-fraught relations between Washington and Islamabad.

“A lot of Pakistanis have been killed by militant attacks inside Pakistan. I think Pakistan sees the benefits of a stable Afghanistan,” McKenzie said.

(Reuters)

Afghanistan: Three Blasts Rock Kabul Killing at Least 15 as US General Visits

Afghan security experts say insurgents are increasing attacks to gain greater leverage in the eighth round of peace talks expected to begin this month in Qatar.

Kabul: Three bombs rocked the Afghan capital of Kabul on Thursday, killing at least 15 people, officials said, as the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff was meeting top US and NATO officials in the city.

Eight employees of the ministry of mines and petroleum were killed and 27 wounded in an attack on their bus, ministry officials said in a statement. Five women and a child were among the dead.

Minutes after the blast, a suicide bomber blew himself up a few meters away, killing at least seven people and wounding 20.

“First a magnetic bomb pasted to a minibus exploded, then a suicide bomber blew himself near the bus attack site and the third blast happened when a car was blown up by unknown militants,” said Nasrat Rahimi, a spokesman of the interior ministry in Kabul.

“The death toll could rise from all the three blasts,” he said.

The Taliban, fighting to restore strict Islamic law after their 2001 ouster at the hands of US-led troops, claimed responsibility for the car bomb alone.

Spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said nine foreign forces were killed and two vehicles destroyed, but government officials did not confirm the Taliban claim.

Also read: How Successful Were the Afghan Peace Talks in Qatar?

US Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Marine General Joseph Dunford also met US peace envoy for Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, who is leading talks with Taliban militants to end the 18-year-long war.

The US is trying to negotiate a deal that would see foreign forces pull out of Afghanistan in return for security guarantees by Taliban militants, including a pledge that the country will not become a safe haven for terror groups.

Afghan security experts said the insurgents were increasing attacks to gain greater leverage in the peace talks. The eighth round is expected to begin this month in Qatar.

The Taliban also clashed with Afghan forces in the northern province of Takhar to secure control over checkpoints and capture several districts. Both sides said that they have inflicted heavy damage on their opponents.

In the eastern province of Nangarhar, a roadside bomb hit a wedding party on Thursday. Six women and three children were killed in the blast in Khogyani district, the provincial governor’s office said in a statement.

No group has claimed responsibility for that attack.

(Reuters)

Misguided Talks With the Taliban Won’t Bring Peace to Afghanistan

An interim government arrangement involving the Taliban may be politically expedient for the US but will leave Afghanistan and the entire world worse-off.

Dark, bizarre, surreal: we are short of adjectives to accurately capture the current political situation in Afghanistan. On May 8, even as they were in talks with the US, the Taliban attacked the Kabul office of a US aid NGO, killing nine. On May 5, the Taliban mounted attacks on armed forces outposts in northern Afghanistan, killing more than a dozen servicemen.

Earlier in March, the Taliban’s shadow police subjected women to public lashings evoking comparisons to their brutal medieval-era style rule between 1996 and 2001. This is to say nothing of the 75,000 plus Afghan civilians who have been killed in heinous acts of terrorism since 2001.

And despite all this, the US seems determined to strike a deal with the Taliban through negotiations which erode the authority of the Afghan national unity government, a government midwifed by them and one that couldn’t have survived this long without them. On May 9, the US Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad tweeted that slow but steady progress was made on the framework to end the Afghan war and the Doha round of talks were now getting into the ‘nitty-gritty’.

If we are to believe Khalilzad, the US remains hopeful of forming an interim government involving the Taliban on the basis of this quid pro quo: the US will scale down its presence in Afghanistan in return for security guarantees by the Taliban. Though the details are yet to be worked out, there appears to be an in-principle agreement on this broad arrangement between the US, the Taliban, and the Taliban’s minders – the ISI. If it works out, President Trump will appeal to the voters in the 2020 presidential elections that he has brought soldiers back from Afghanistan – from a war he now refers to as “ridiculous”.

Is peace even on the cards?

Frustrated by the violence, many analysts feel this arrangement is the only way to end decades of civil conflict. But this hope is bereft of underlying realities.

Also read: India to US: Not in Favour of ‘Interim’ Government in Afghanistan

First and foremost, a US-led Pakistan-owned dialogue bypassing the legitimate government of Afghanistan has very little chance of success. For the talks to have any impact on the ground, an intra-Afghan dialogue is a prerequisite since the Taliban represents a small minority of Afghans.

US special envoy for peace in Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad. Credit: Reuters

But thus far, the Taliban has consistently held that it will talk only with the US and that too about a quicker withdrawal of troops. Only after that will it engage with the Afghan government, a condition which is irrelevant as the government will cease to exist in any meaningful manner once the Americans exit.

The Taliban is negotiating from a position of strength; they have even declined the call by the loya jirga – a grand assembly having significant normative legitimacy – for a ceasefire during Ramzan.

An interim government arrangement involving the Taliban will leave Afghanistan and the entire world worse off. To give any serious consideration to guarantees by a terrorist group that it would not support other terrorist groups indicates incompetence, short-sightedness, or both.

Just as a reminder of how hollow these promises are: the Taliban continues to sponsor and engage in terrorism and the deputy chief of the Taliban is from the Haqqani network, a group with ties to the al Qaeda and other terror groups. This Haqqani network has been referred to, by the Americans themselves, as “a veritable arm of the ISI”.

Amongst those that the US is negotiating with are Taliban figures accused of war crimes, some who have been imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay and a few who represent those who have the blood, of not just Afghans, but also of Americans and Indians on their hands. Some of them are charged with war crimes for summary executions of surrendered Northern Alliance cadres and Hazara Shias in Bamiyan.

Moreover, the Taliban’s links with other terrorist groups continue to remain strong. The al Qaeda had sworn loyalty to the Taliban in the past. As recently as May 11, the al Qaeda’s As Sahab released a video advertising the group’s role in an ambush on an Afghan National Army (ANA) convoy in Paktika province.

Also read: Interview | Taliban’s Military ‘Reverses’ Could Increase Possibility of Intra-Afghan Talks: Daudzai

Al Qaeda went further and used the footage to emphasise its alliance with the Taliban. What should not be forgotten is that the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba was born in Kunar and operated from Taliban-occupied territory till Operation Enduring Freedom.

The precursors to the Jaish-e-Mohammad – Harkat-Ul-Ansar or Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami – also trained its cadres in Afghanistan. Other Pak-based jihadi tanzeems, with the support of the ISI, have used Afghan soil for sanctuary, training and battle inoculation – something that could not happen without tacit approval from the Taliban.

Some reports suggest a mechanism will be instituted to monitor the Taliban’s assurances regarding terrorism and that the US will retain a small counter-terrorism force. Very little is known of this apart from hints that the monitoring mechanism will be international in nature.

The Pakistanis are said to be supportive as an international presence could help to ensure that international aid does not dry up. However, in the east, which is India’s concern, an international monitoring group will find it next to impossible to be effective as the border is porous, sanctuaries are easily available across the border and Pakistani agencies are unlikely to cooperate, if not be complicit.

Members of Taliban delegation take their seats during the multilateral peace talks on Afghanistan in Moscow last December. Credit: Reuters

Pakistan is adept at providing shelter to international terrorists, as was demonstrated in the case of Osama bin Laden. The monitoring mechanism in the east can only address Pakistani concerns which are currently the Kunar-based Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, now rebranded as ISIS in Afghanistan.

Finally, to give the benefit of the doubt, even if the Taliban leadership was to have a sudden change of heart, it’s not as if they will be able to resist other groups with whom it has fraternal ties or other bonds. When 100,000 US troops with aerial support could not succeed, it is unlikely that the Taliban and a small US counter-terrorist force would.

Also read: The Afghanistan of Today is Not Yet Ready for Peace

So what can India do?

A few days ago, foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale reiterated to Zalmay Khalilzad that India would be uncomfortable if a drawdown of US troops in Afghanistan, as a consequence of the talks with the Taliban, was followed by an interim arrangement. Khalilzad had been told much the same thing earlier in January when he visited Delhi.

India’s position has been consistent that the peace process should be Afghan-driven and Afghan-owned. Consequently, there has been disquiet in India about the direction of these talks.

If keeping the Taliban out is no longer an option, India should push for a transitional government with a mandate to hold elections within a specific timeframe. The next best alternative would be to ensure that the head of the arrangement is an internationally acceptable figure with the necessary gravitas, clout and ability to run the government.

Independent-minded Afghan leaders should be encouraged to take up appropriate portfolios in the transitional government while ensuring that the most obnoxious elements of the Taliban are kept away from governance. India should also put its weight behind measures to ensure that the Afghan National Security Forces and other government structures are kept intact.

One of the pressure points would be the deliberations at the international level. There is noticeable ennui at the international level and the US has failed in presenting an alternative. While this makes a compact with the Taliban more acceptable, India needs to resist the easing of UN restrictions till such time there is proof that the Taliban has changed.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. Credit: Reuters

The worsening US-Iran relationship is another variable that weakens the Indian position. It is not too early to imagine that Trump’s focus will now shift to Iran. India has temporarily been exempted from CAATSA sanctions to build the Chabahar Port but this is unlikely to be maintained for long.

Also read: Will an Imposed Peace End All Peace in Afghanistan?

India needs to continue to stress the importance of this port not only as an alternate route to Afghanistan but also as a route to Central Asia. We need to get more of the world involved in this project – the Japanese, for example, need to be convinced that the project is worth funding; China needs to be assured that it is not intended to undermine CPEC and that Chabahar cannot be a competitor to the enormous capability of Gwadar but will at best be a feeder port. More importantly, India needs to convince the US of the importance of this port and the Iranians of our seriousness.

Finally, the onus is on the Taliban to prove that they have eschewed plans of a military conquest, are ready to participate in electoral politics, and have moved away from their medieval mindset. It is equally important to force Pakistan away from its preference for a weak regime in Kabul.

If the Taliban is allowed to continue on its path, Afghanistan will be led towards a disastrous civil war. This will damage Pakistan’s credibility even more, put strains on its already precarious financial position, and bring instability to the region. Hope is a good thing but also a misleading one. And hope definitely doesn’t make for good policy. In negotiating with the Taliban, the US is placing hope over reality. Afghans and the world will suffer the consequences of this mistake if they do not course correct.

Anand Arni and Pranay Kotasthane are with the Takshashila Institution, a centre for research and education in public policy

Afghan Working Women Targets of Violence for Working Outside the Home

Attacks by IS and the Taliban on ministry and aid-group offices along with violence from conservative family members have forced working women to rethink employment and childcare.

Kabul: Minutes before Mena Mangal, a prominent Afghan journalist and parliamentary adviser, was shot dead by two men in Kabul, she had left her parent’s home after reminding them to pay the neighborhood shopkeeper 15 Afghanis (20 cents).

“Mena never forgot her duty towards our home and work. After years of struggle she had achieved success and happiness,” said Anisa Mangal, Mena’s mother, told Reuters, as she sat surrounded by her husband, four daughters, a son, grandchildren at her two-story home in eastern Kabul.. “She did the right things … worked very hard to become a professional woman.”

No-one has been arrested over the broad daylight killing, but police officials said Mangal’s family had filed a case against four men, including her ex-husband. “These four people are on the run but the police are trying to arrest them,” said Kabul police spokesman Firdaws Faramarz.

Mangal’s mother believes it was her dedication to home and career that got her killed. She accuses her daughter’s ex-husband of involvement in the murder because Mangal would not give up her job and continued to appear on television.

Reuters was unable to contact Mangal’s former husband. Calls to family members went unanswered.

The brazen attack on Mangal has drawn widespread condemnation — including from US officials and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — and highlighted what activists say is the continuing plight of Afghan women, who still suffer high levels of sexual and domestic violence and discrimination.

Also Read: Afghan Women Cry For Help After Journalist Mina Mangal’s Killing

Educated Afghan women, the torchbearer’s of a drive to improve women’s rights since the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001, say they still face hostility, be it from conservative family members or hard-line Islamist groups, for pursuing professional and financial independence.

Earlier this month, for example, the Taliban, launched a deadly attack on the head office of US-funded aid group Counterpart International in Kabul, citing the “intermixing” of women and men working at the site and its promotion of “western activities”.

At least nine people were killed and 20 were wounded in a siege that lasted for more than seven hours.

“The Taliban want to kill women who work with men. If I die, there will be no one to feed my parents and siblings,” said an Afghan woman who has worked at Counterpart for more than three years, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“If I sit at home will the Taliban come to pay the bills?”

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said its fighters targeted Counterpart because it was funded by US aid agencies.

Women could study and work, he said, but the intermingling of the genders ought to be kept in check in Afghanistan.

Anisa Mangal holds a photo of her daughter Mena Mangal, an Afghan journalist and parliamentary adviser, who was recently killed in Kabul, Afghanistan May 14, 2019. Credit: Reuters/Mohammad Ismail.

Price of freedom

Though many hardships remain, access to public life has improved for Afghan women since US-backed forces ousted the Taliban, especially in cities such as Kabul, where tens of thousands now work outside the home.

But for many, concerns about the hazards of going out to a job extend beyond their own safety.

Until April, thousands of Afghan women now working for the government were happy to bring their children to the office. The daycare center attached to every government building provided reassurance their children were close by and safe.

The centers were originally established in 1945 to encourage women into the workforce, but closed under the Taliban, who ruled from 1996 to 2001 and did not allow women to go to school or work, nor walk on the street without being accompanied by a male relative and wearing the burqa.

Now reopened, the government runs more than 370 creches where around 17,000 children aged from 3 months to 5 years are provided with milk, food, cots, toys and education at subsidized rates.

“Having a daycare center next to my office is a blessing, I feed my child after every two hours and get back to work without any stress,” said Sadia Seddiqi, an HR official at a government ministry.

But this sense of security changed in April, after a suicide bomber and gunmen belonging to the Islamic State group attacked the Afghan communications ministry in central Kabul.

About a dozen people were killed during the attack. Police evacuated about 100 children along with 2,800 employees from the complex.

Harrowing TV pictures of children, teachers, and mothers screaming for hours after every gunshot inside the ministry building has forced hundreds of mothers to re-think their childcare.

Meena Ahmadi, who works at the communications ministry, said several of her colleagues do not bring their kids to daycare after the attack and some of them had chosen to resign.

“I am afraid of coming to the office,” she said. “I get upset when I remember my colleagues who were killed. The attack has impacted my child too.”

(Reuters)

Peace Talks Between Afghan Taliban and US to Take Place on Wednesday

The talks will be the fourth in a series between Taliban leaders and US special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad.

Peshawar: Afghan Taliban representatives will meet US officials for two days of peace talks starting on Wednesday, but they refuse to meet “puppet” Afghan government officials, senior Taliban members said. The Taliban have rejected requests from regional powers to allow Afghan officials to take part in the talks, insisting that the US is their main adversary in the 17-year war.

“This time we want to hold talks with the American officials,” said a Taliban leader based in Afghanistan, adding that the talks in Qatar would involve a US withdrawal, prisoner exchange and the lifting of a ban on movement of Taliban leaders. The insurgents, seeking to reimpose strict Islamic law after their 2001 ouster by US-led troops, called off a meeting with US officials in Saudi Arabia this week because of Riyadh’s insistence on bringing the Western-backed Afghan government to the table.

Zalmay Khalilzad, former US ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq and the UN Credit: Reuters/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo

The war in Afghanistan is America’s longest overseas military intervention. It has cost Washington nearly a trillion dollars and killed tens of thousands of people. The talks will be the fourth in a series between Taliban leaders and US special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad.

“After mutual consultations, we are going to meet US officials in Doha on Wednesday. The meeting will continue for two days,” a senior member of the Taliban said on condition of anonymity. Former Afghan Interior Minister Umer Daudzai, who is senior adviser to President Ashraf Ghani, is due in Pakistan on Tuesday where he is expected to meet Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi.

Pakistani officials say Afghanistan will need foreign economic aid for years, even after any peace agreement has been signed, and have also been trying to push the Taliban to accept talks with Kabul.

Also Read: Taliban Seeks Venue Change From Saudi Arabia to Qatar for Peace Talks With US

Pakistan cooperation

A close aide to Ghani said the government was ready to meet the Taliban “anywhere and any time”.

“Every country involved in Afghanistan expects the Taliban to hold direct talks with the Afghan government, but they have not agreed to meet us,” the official said on condition of anonymity. Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) took part in the last round of talks in December.

Western diplomats based in Kabul said Pakistan’s cooperation in the peace process will be crucial to its success. Independent security analysts and diplomats said the neighbouring country’s powerful military has kept close ties with the Afghan Taliban. US officials have accused Pakistan of providing safe haven to Taliban militants in its border regions and using them as an arm of its foreign policy. Pakistan denies the claim.

Turkey has said it will host leaders of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Last week, Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, met Ghani in Kabul to discuss the peace process. The meeting was held after Taliban officials met with Iranian authorities in Tehran.

The US, which sent troops to Afghanistan in the wake of September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington and at the peak of the deployment had more than 100,000 troops in the country, withdrew most of its forces in 2014. It keeps around 14,000 troops there as part of a NATO-led mission aiding Afghan security forces and hunting militants.

Reports last month about US President Donald Trump’s plans to withdraw thousands of troops from Afghanistan triggered uncertainty in Kabul which depends on the US and other foreign powers for military support and training. As peace talks gain momentum a draft agreement drawn up by the influential US think tank RAND Corporation outlining the clauses for a potential peace deal has been circulated among Afghan officials and diplomats in Kabul.

The document, reviewed by Reuters, suggests that the US and NATO withdraw their military missions in phases over an expected period of 18 months. It adds that the US may continue providing civilian assistance and seek contributions from other donors. The US Embassy in Afghanistan and Zalmay Khalilzad’s office in Washington did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

(Reuters)