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Unidentified Gunmen 12 Minority Hazaras In Ghazni
Unknown gunmen kidnapped 12 ethnic minority Hazaras from a car in east Afghanistan, days after suspected Taliban fighters kidnapped and killed four Hazaras in the same province, according to Reuters.
Tuesday’s kidnappings in the province of Ghazni follow a spate of suicide bombings in Kabul last week and add to fears of an increase in sectarian violence as the Taliban’s anti-government insurgency gathers pace.
The passengers were travelling to Ghazni city when the gunmen stopped their car in Jaghuri, officials said.
“We are currently in contact with local elders. They will speak with the kidnappers to free our Hazara people,” Mohammad Ali Ahmadi, a deputy governor of Ghazni said.
Hazaras, an ethnic group belonging mainly to the Shi’ite branch of Islam, were persecuted under the Taliban’s hardline Sunni Islamist rule, although sectarian violence has been rare since the end of the Taliban rule in 2001.
On Sunday, suspected Taliban fighters, seeking to re-establish their hard-line Islamist regime after it was toppled by U.S.-led military intervention in 2001, kidnapped four Hazaras while they were travelling from the Jaghori district to Ghazni.
“The Taliban kidnapped them from a car in a same way and later security forces found their bodies,” Ahmadi said.
In February, masked gunmen kidnapped 30 Hazaras in the southern province of Zabul. Nineteen were freed in May, two were killed and nine are still missing.
Almost 5,000 civilians were killed or wounded in Afghanistan in the first half of the year, according to U.N. figures
In the meantime, The bodies of four men abducted last week in Afghanistan’s eastern province of Ghazni have been found, Press TV reported.
According to the officials, the men kidnapped by militants had all been shot dead.
The bodies were spotted in the Nawur district bordering Pakistan, said deputy police chief of Ghazni province Asadullah Ensaf on Wednesday.
He added that three of the men were members of the Hazara Shia community while the other was a Sunni Pashtun.
The Ghazni governor’s spokesman Shafiq Nang said that the men were engineers, adding that they had been kidnapped by militants last Thursday.
He, however, did not provide more details about the victims.
Meanwhile, a security official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the engineers were working in the government’s construction projects.
The Hazara Shia community has been targeted by the Taliban and other militants in Afghanistan.
In February, masked gunmen kidnapped 30 Hazara men in Zabul province, located in south of Ghazni.
The men were travelling by bus from Iran when they were seized. The gunmen took their money and phones before leaving them.
In April, four Hazara farmers were also kidnapped in Ghazni province as they were buying livestock in the local market. They were beheaded by the gunmen after local authorities rejected the kidnappers’ demands to release comrades of the militants who were held by the government.
Last month, 11 Hazaras were also kidnapped in the northern province of Baghlan. The abductees were released later.
Hazaras currently make up nine percent of Afghanistan’s estimated 31-million-strong population.
A senior Red Cross official has called for the return of Afghan refugees from Pakistan to occur “in a more staggered way” so Afghanistan can better absorb them.
“It will be important to work with the government of Pakistan in 2024 to ask that if there are going to be returnees,” that they arrive “in smaller numbers at a time just so it is more manageable on the Afghan side,” said Alexander Matheou, regional director, Asia Pacific Region for the International Federation of the Red Cross, Voice of America (VOA) reported on Saturday.
Speaking in the Qatari capital, Doha, Matheou told journalists on Friday the challenges facing Afghan returnees from Pakistan was one of several pressing issues he discussed with the officials of the Islamic Emirate in Kabul.
“You will be aware that over half a million have crossed the border over recent months, and it is likely that we will see large numbers of new arrivals in the coming months,” he said.
“I imagine this is probably the largest population flow in a short period of time in Asia since the population movement from Myanmar into Bangladesh in 2017,” he added. “So, it is a significant event.”
Since October, Pakistan has expelled more than 500,000 Afghan refugees who lacked proper documentation.
Matheou noted many of the returnees have lived in Pakistan for decades and are ill-equipped to begin a new life in a country that to them is unknown, without government or international support.
He described the returnees as being in generally poor health, especially the children, who account for nearly half of all returnees.
“The evidence of that was we visited clinics where they reported a real spike in cases of acute malnutrition coming from the arrivals from Pakistan.
“We visited routine immunization programs of the IFRC and the Afghan Red Crescent in the villages, and there it was clear looking at the children that as well as being anemic, you could see wasting and stunting among the children,” he said.
Turkmenistan is committed to complete the Turkmenistan–Afghanistan– Pakistan–India (TAPI) energy project together with the regional countries, Muhammetmyrat Amanov, CEO of TAPI Pipeline Company Limited, said.
“Turkmenistan is making significant progress on the TAPI natural gas pipeline, which aims to supply 33 billion cubic meters annually to South Asia” Amanov said speaking at the Turkmen Energy Investment Forum (TEIF 2024) in Paris.
He highlighted that the Turkmenistan section of the pipeline is complete and the ongoing discussions to advance the project beyond Turkmenistan are in strict alignment with international standards.
Amanov said the project emphasizes environmental sustainability by leveraging natural gas to reduce emissions significantly compared to coal and oil, thereby tackling indoor pollution and enhancing regional air quality.
“In light of the ongoing project developments, Turkmenistan remains committed to upholding international law, fulfilling its obligations, and adhering to international norms and regulations,” he stressed.
Three road construction projects worth about one billion Afghanis started in capital Kabul on Saturday.
The projects were inaugurated by Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar.
The projects are: the second phase of Kotal Khairkhane road, the first part of the Shahid square to Qasaba, and the Airport road to Gumruk.
In the inauguration ceremony, Mullah Baradar said that Kabul municipality is working hard to beautify and regulate the city, and people should cooperate with the government in protecting public benefit projects.
He directed the officials of Kabul municipality to complete the mentioned projects on time and with good quality.
The second phase of Kotel Khairkhaneh road is 2.5 kilometers long and 60 meters wide. Thie road will cost 364 million Afghanis and will be completed in 20 months.
The Shahid square-Qasaba road is 1.8 kilometers long and 45 meters wide, which will be built at a cost of 175 million Afghanis in one year.
The Airport-Gumruk road is 2.7 km long and 60 meters wide, which will be completed at a cost of 407 million Afghanis in 20 months.
The projects are funded by Kabul Municipality.
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