TASHKENT — An Afghan military jet was shot down by Uzbek air defence forces and crashed after crossing the border into Uzbekistan, the Uzbek defence ministry said on Monday. The Afghan government collapsed on Sunday and the Taliban insurgents took control of the capital Kabul. The jet crashed late on Sunday in Uzbekistan’s southernmost Surxondaryo […]
ISLAMABAD — Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday seemed to endorse the Taliban taking over Kabul by saying that Afghanistan has broken the “shackles of slavery” in the neighbouring war-torn country. The longstanding war in Afghanistan reached a watershed moment on Sunday when the Taliban insurgents closed in on Kabul before entering the city […]
BEIJING — China is ready to deepen “friendly and cooperative” relations with Afghanistan, a government spokeswoman said Monday, after the Taliban seized control of the country. Beijing has sought to maintain unofficial ties with the Taliban throughout the US’ withdrawal from Afghanistan, which spurred an advance by the Islamist hardliners across the country that saw […]
DHAKA — Human Rights Watch on Monday called for a United Nations probe into the alleged enforced disappearances of Bangladesh opposition activists, demanding sanctions on the officials found responsible. The rights watchdog released a report identifying 86 political activists, businessmen and student members of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party who went missing over the past […]
KABUL — The Taliban has called the claims of girls being forced to marry its fighters “baseless” and accused the Afghanistan government of running a “poisonous propaganda” against it. In a series of tweets, Taliban spokesperson Suhail Shaheen said, “All those claims that the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan forces people to marry their young girls […]
ISTANBUL — As the Taliban mass at the gates of Kabul, they are promising a new era of peace in Afghanistan, with amnesty for those they have been battling for two decades and a return to normal life. But Afghans who remember the Taliban’s brutal rule and those who have lived in areas controlled by […]
KABUL — Two Taliban officials told Reuters on Sunday there would be no transitional government in Afghanistan and that the group expects a complete handover of power. President Ashraf Ghani left Afghanistan after Taliban fighters entered the capital Kabul earlier on Sunday, capping their return to power two decades after being forced out by U.S.-led […]
KABUL — Taliban insurgents entered Afghanistan’s capital Kabul on Sunday and an official said President Ashraf Ghani had left the city for Tajikistan, capping the militants’ lightning push for power. A senior Afghan Interior Ministry official said Ghani had left for Tajikistan. Asked for comment, the president’s office it “cannot say anything about Ashraf Ghani’s […]
KABUL — An Afghan lawmaker and the Taliban say the militants have seized Jalalabad, cutting off Kabul to the east. The militants posted photos online early Sunday showing them in the governor’s office in Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar province. Abrarullah Murad, a lawmaker from the province told The Associated Press that the insurgents seized […]
HOSHIARPUR — Punjab, December 1, 1982. That winter day was special. The dense fog and cold was usual but it was fading away, with the warmth and love that came with the reunion of a family who had been separated in the India-Pakistan Partition 35 years before. As she made her way from Lahore to […]