Month: October 2021

In Afghanistan, a girls’ school is the story of a village

AP, 29 October 2021 An interesting reportage from a village in Wardak province, where many people welcomed and even celebrated the Taleban victory in Kabul but still insist that girls should attend school. It only goes up to grade 6 but “The school [when it] opened two months ago, [it] mark[ed] the first time in […]

29 Oct 2021

What now for the Taleban and Narcotics? A case study on cannabis

Fazl Rahman Muzhary •

It has been more than a year since the Taleban banned the cultivation of cannabis and the production and trafficking of cannabis resin, known as hashish, in areas of Afghanistan under their control. The Taleban put a great deal of effort into formulating the ban, consulting Islamic scholars and various of their commissions before issuing […]

27 Oct 2021

Landmark Judgement: US court finds detention of an Afghan in Guantanamo unlawful

Kate Clark •

A United States court has ruled that the detention of Afghan Asadullah Harun Gul in Guantanamo is unlawful, the first time in ten years that anyone at Guantanamo has won such a petition. The ruling comes just days after the government cleared him for transfer out of the detention camp – as AAN’s Kate Clark […]

24 Oct 2021

One of the two last Afghans in Guantanamo authorised for release, but when?

Kate Clark •

The United States authorities have cleared the transfer of the Afghan national, Asadullah Harun Gul, out of Guantanamo after detaining him without trial for 14 years. It accused Harun of being a Hezb-e Islami commander who conducted attacks on coalition forces and liaised with al-Qaida but has never given him any meaningful opportunity to answer […]

18 Oct 2021

Sirajuddin Haqqani: Pakistan’s ‘Sword Arm’ And ‘Strategic Asset’ In Afghanistan – Analysis

Jamestown Foundation, 18 October 2021 A short reference to AAN research published in 2016 about Serajuddin Haqqani’s late father, Jalalauddin.

18 Oct 2021

Taliban play down ISIS-K threat despite spate of attacks

The National (Dubai), 12 October 2021 AAN’s Ali Adili is quoted here on the Taleban-IS relationship: As for Afghans who have already endured more than four decades of war, ISKP has become “a new spectre haunting the people”, independent Afghanistan analyst Ali Adili said. “The Taliban as a militant group has poor-to-zero accountability when it […]

12 Oct 2021

Strange Quiet Arrives in [southern] Afghanistan After Decades of War

Wall Street Journal, 11 October 2021 Reportage by Sune Engel Rasmussen from Helmand, Zabul and Kandahar, showing the other side of the war, local populations driven to support the Taleban because of western forces-caused destruction. He tweetd about his journey: I didn’t fully understand the scale of destruction in Sangin until I went there. In […]

11 Oct 2021

The Khalid Payenda Interview (2): Reforms, regrets and the final bid to save a collapsing Republic

Kate Clark • Roxanna Shapour •

In this second part of this interview, former Minister of Finance Khalid Payenda talks to AAN’s Kate Clark and Roxanna Shapour about the reaction of the Republic’s leadership to his plans to get the economy back on track and fight corruption and whether it was already too late to effect meaningful change. He gives a […]

9 Oct 2021

Mindestens 43 Tote bei Anschlag auf Moschee in Kundus

dpa/Süddeutsche Zeitung, 8 October 2021 In this article in on eof the leading German dailies, dpa material with quotes from AAN’s Thomas Ruttig is used (In German) on ISs strength in Afghanistan: Dem Afghanistan-Experten Thomas Ruttig von der Denkfabrik Afghanistan Analysts Network zufolge bedeuten die Anschläge des IS nicht, dass die Gruppe stärker geworden ist. […]

8 Oct 2021

Die schwierige Aufarbeitung des Afghanistan-Einsatzes

Augsburger Allgemeine, 8 October 2021 AAN’s Thomas Ruttig is quoted (in German) in this aricle in the southern Germany-based daily about the German defence ministry’s first round of an attempted appraisal of the German mission in Afghanistan. Thomas calls the attempt an ‘introspection’ missing ‘a sufficient number of independent voices’: Für Thomas Ruttig, Direktor des […]

8 Oct 2021

The Taleban’s Caretaker Cabinet and other Senior Appointments

Martine van Bijlert •

After three rounds of senior appointments — on 7 September, 21 September and 4 October – most key posts appear to have been filled, at least in Kabul. These appointments have solved the immediate question of who will head the state institutions that will help restart the government. However, given the uncertainties about how the […]

7 Oct 2021

The Taliban’s Campaign to Rob Villagers of Their Land [in Daikundi]

Spiegel, 6 October 2021 A reportage in the leading German news magazine about Taleban displacing Hazara settlers in a Daikundi valley, based on contradictory land tenure documents and their control over the local court.

6 Oct 2021