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Posts tagged: Nangrahar

Nangrahar

Hit from Many Sides (2): The demise of ISKP in Kunar

Obaid Ali • Khalid Gharanai •

One year ago, the Afghan affiliate of the Islamic State – called Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) – lost its last territorial base in Afghanistan in Kunar province. This followed a first severe defeat in their major stronghold in the country, in Nangrahar province in late 2019. No open ISKP presence is left in Kunar […]

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Blood in the Abode of Peace: The attack on Kabul’s Sikhs

Fabrizio Foschini •

At a time when Afghans face a looming pandemic and worsening conflict, one recent event has stood out: the attack on the Sikh gurdwara in the Old City of Kabul one week ago. It was an unprecedented, sectarian attack on a peaceful, non-Muslim religious minority. 26 people were killed and 11 wounded, men, women and one child. […]

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ISKP fighters photographed alongside their captured weapons after their surrender to Afghan government in November 2019. (photo: Noorullah Shirzada/AFP)

Hit from Many Sides 1: Unpicking the recent victory against the ISKP in Nangrahar

Obaid Ali •

In the very high mountains of Nangrahar are hiding out the last few, small groups of Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) fighters in that province. The group was driven out of their last remaining bases in Nangrahar at the end of last year. Who drove them out is, however, contested: the government, the Taleban and […]

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Sudais is in his father, Baktullah's, fruit and vegetable store in Shadal Bazaar village of Achin district. Life is slowly returning to normal after government and US forces pushed ISKP out of most of the district in 2017 and 2018. Public services – education, healthcare and electricity supply – are still patchy, barely-functioning or non-existent. Photo: Andrew Quilty, 2017

One Land, Two Rules (4): Delivering public services in embattled Achin district in Nangrahar province

Rohullah Sorush • S Reza Kazemi •

Achin district in the south of Afghanistan’s key eastern province of Nangrahar has been heavily fought over by the Taleban, ISKP and government and United States forces. The delivery of public services has been hampered, helped or abolished depending on who has been in charge at any given time; ISKP banned almost all public services […]

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Smoke rises from where an American airstrike targeted a presumed ISKP fighting position in Mamand Valley. As seen from Combat Outpost Blackfish on April 22, 2018. Photo: Author

“Faint lights twinkling against the dark”: Reportage from the fight against ISKP in Nangrahar

Andrew Quilty •

It has been almost four years since the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) captured territory in southern Nangrahar province, where it ruled with extreme brutality, and nearly two years since the United States military and Afghan government forces began concertedly fighting the group there. (The Taleban, too, have fought ISKP sporadically.) The last commander of […]

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Afghan Singers Fall Silent

AAN •

IWPR, 24 March 2014 Most weddings are held without music again in many parts of Nangrahar province, reports Kabul-based IWPR, due to influence of the Taleban. Musicians struggle to survive and their profession is in danger again: as one musician relates: "Three years ago, we would go out to weddings in the districts. There were […]

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Historic Afghan [Buddhist] Sites Face Ruin

AAN •

IWPR, 12 March 2014 "In the Shahi Qala area of Surkhrod district [in Nangrahar province,] eastern Afghanistan, half-a-dozen round towers lie scattered at intervals of a few hundred metres. They are Buddhist stupas" built when the area belonged to the Gandhara kingdom, writes the Institute for War and Peace Reporting. But they are crumbling, "as officials […]

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When and Why to Catch a TTP Leader: Faqir Muhammad’s Arrest

Fabrizio Foschini •

The capture last week of a prominent Pakistani militant in the Afghan province of Nangrahar by Afghan police and intelligence has made a sensation in both countries, being widely interpreted as a positive step for diplomatic relations and cooperation. But it also led to controversial commentaries by some observers. The presence inside Afghanistan of Pakistani […]

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Land Grabs in Afghanistan (1): Nangrahar, the disputed o-rangeland

Fabrizio Foschini •

In the last ten years, land disputes have become a permanent feature of Afghanistan’s landscape. Always influenced by the misuse of state power, often bursting into open conflicts, sometimes getting into the limelight usually reserved for political violence, they are very seldom addressed properly by the government. Also highlighted by recent accusations by the High […]

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Sherzai Staying or Leaving? A Nangrahar Tug-of-War

Fabrizio Foschini •

Gul Agha Sherzai may well be satisfied with the ‘gold medal’ he has been awarded on Sunday by a local labour organization for his services. It could represent the final achievement of his long-lasting tenure as governor of Nangrahar province. After almost six years, many local powerbrokers in Eastern Afghanistan, and maybe himself too, seem […]

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