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First day of 2021 starts with assassination of Ghor journalist

Bismillah Adil, a journalist and civil society activist in Ghor, was assassinated on Friday in Feroz Koh city, the center of the province, local officials confirmed.
Adil was head of Radio Sada-e-Ghor, local radio in Ghor, and was killed by unknown armed men in Dara-e-Taimur village on the outskirts of Feroz Koh city, officials added.
The deputy governor of Ghor has confirmed the incident to the media.
Reports indicate that Adil was also attacked twice in the past by gunmen but he survived.
So far no group claimed responsibility for the attack.
This comes a week after a journalist in Ghazni, Rahmatullah Nikzad, who was head of the journalists’ union in the province, was killed in an attack by armed men outside his home in Ghazni city.
Meanwhile, yesterday Special Forces from the Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS) have arrested two men in connection with the assassination of Nikzad.
According to the statement, the perpetrators are Taliban militants who were among the 5,000 prisoners freed by government earlier this year under the terms of the US-Taliban agreement.
The militants were identified as Hamidullah and Zikrullah and “were among 5,000 Taliban prisoners that reunited with the Qari Obaid group, who are responsible for targeted killings in Ghazni,” read the statement.
“In the last two months, they (suspects) have assassinated Rahmatullah Nikzad, a judge and two Ghazni revenue department staff members in the province,” the statement read.
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Afghan national admits to Munich car attack that injured 39

A 24-year-old Afghan man who drove a car into a crowd at a demonstration in Germany’s Munich on Thursday has confessed that he deliberately did it, a prosecutor said.
A total of 39 people were wounded in the incident, according to police.
Two are in a critical condition, including a child, and a further eight are in a serious condition, police spokesman Guido Limmer told reporters.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and several regional leaders visited the scene on Friday morning, all laying flowers.
“The brutality of this act has left us deeply disturbed and bewildered,” Steinmeier said in a statement, noting that it appeared the suspect had “wanted to kill and injure people indiscriminately”.
“The perpetrator is in custody and will be brought to justice in accordance with the law,” he said.
The suspect was said to have arrived in Germany in 2016 at the height of the mass migrant influx to Europe.
Former Afghan president Hamid Karzai condemned the attack and offered his condolences to the families of the victims.
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US, China in dispute over who should draft UNSC resolutions on Afghanistan

Richard Gowan, the UN Director at the International Crisis Group, said on Friday that United States and China have been at odds over who should draft Afghanistan resolutions in the Security Council, adding that the debate has escalated since President Donald Trump took office.
In an article published on the website of an American organization called Just Security, Gowan wrote that the dispute has significant implications not only for how the UN engages with the Islamic Emirate in Kabul, but also for how Beijing positions itself as a leading power in the Security Council.
In UN parlance, penholders are the council members that “initiate and chair” the drafting of mandates, tabling the initial versions of texts for negotiations. The nation that “holds the pen” on a given file has significant leeway to set the terms for how the council approaches a peace operation or sanctions regime.
China, to date, has stood apart from the other permanent members. While it co-drafted some resolutions with the United States on North Korea in the 2010s, it has wielded the pen on no other country-specific issues on the council agenda.
This is despite the fact that Beijing has become more willing to assert itself in other ways in the council – such as casting its veto – in recent decades.
However, last fall, China indicated that it wished to act as penholder on Afghanistan.
Beijing has a number of reasons to focus on Afghanistan and the U.N. Assistance Mission there (UNAMA). Beijing appears to see a continuing U.N. presence in Afghanistan as suiting its interests. Beijing is both wary about Afghanistan as a potential haven for terrorists, and intrigued by its mineral wealth, according to Gowan.
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Russian FM: Situation in Afghanistan poses serious threat to neighboring countries

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has expressed concern over the situation in Afghanistan, saying it poses a serious threat to neighboring countries.
During a meeting with Tajikistan’s Foreign Minister, Lavrov emphasized the need for cooperation to address security threats in the Central Asian region, particularly in Afghanistan.
He specifically mentioned Russia and Tajikistan as countries that could be affected by the instability in Afghanistan.
He added that cooperation within multilateral frameworks, such as the Moscow Format on Afghanistan, the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), is essential to counter these threats.
Meanwhile, Russia and Tajikistan have agreed to strengthen their cooperation in combating terrorism and drug trafficking.
However, the Islamic Emirate has repeatedly called these concerns unfounded and consistently emphasized that it will never allow Afghan soil to be used against other countries.
Earlier, the IEA stated that regional joint efforts are necessary to eradicate terrorism.
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