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Ghani suggests US troops might not be withdrawn by May as planned

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(Last Updated On: January 30, 2021)

President Ashraf Ghani implied on Friday that he expects the Biden administration to keep US troops in Afghanistan for longer than anticipated under the US-Taliban deal, signed by the Trump administration, saying the Taliban aren’t meeting their obligations to reduce violence.

This comes after a dramatic surge in violence since the signing of the deal in Doha in February last year.

On Thursday Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the Taliban’s refusal to reduce the violence is raising questions over whether the 2,500 US troops remaining will leave by May as planned.

In an interview on Friday with the Aspen Institute, Ghani said such statements send “a signal to the Taliban that the US is here to secure peace and not to retreat and leave the field open.”

Ghani said during the virtual event that the new Biden administration’s review of the peace deal should take weeks, not months, which is a sign of a “very predictable” new phase in the US-Afghanistan relationship.

Ghani said he hopes to speak soon with President Joe Biden and that the US is planning to send a team to Kabul to discuss how to “energize the peace talks.”

He also said Zalmay Khalilzad, the US envoy who brokered the agreement with the Taliban will now be reporting to a “very organized decision-making process,” this being in reference to the new Biden administration.

He also stated that “NATO will play a bridging role” as the US draws down, but “NATO without US enablers cannot continue its mission.”

On the high level of violence in the country, he said Afghanistan must hold the Taliban responsible for the surge in killings.

“If the Taliban realize they can prevail through violence they will not let go,” he said adding “we must hold the Taliban responsible for this environment of violence…This is not the way to get attention. It is the way to get condemnation for truly inhuman violence.”On the issue of a possible interim government, Ghani was adamant that this was not a good idea.

He pointed out that Afghanistan has had interim governments in the past that have been unsuccessful.

“We’ve had interim governments. They have led to bloodshed,” he said adding that such a move would be detrimental to Afghanistan.

“The citizens of Afghanistan must be empowered…Where would I get the authority to dissolve the Republic? I have sworn to uphold the constitution,” he said.

Ghani also pointed out that the ethos of peace talks has not been passed down to the Taliban’s fighters on the ground.

“Peace has not been socialized to the Taliban commanders or rank and file,” he said implying that just recently the group’s leaders were seen visiting wounded fighters in a hospital in Pakistan and giving them words of encouragement.

Encouraged by the Biden administration’s approach to Afghanistan, Ghani said Washington is working with the government, and “the focus is on ending 40 years of violence.”

“The process has begun and we couldn’t be more pleased with the early focus, systematic attention, and a dialogue between two partners,” he said.

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ISIS-K leader reportedly living in Pakistan’s Baluchistan province

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(Last Updated On: March 28, 2024)

Sanaullah Ghaffari, also known as Shahab al-Muhajar, is reportedly the ISIS-Khorasan (Daesh) branch leader and is holed up in Pakistan, Reuters reports.

The 29-year-old took over as leader in 2020 and under his leadership the group has carried out extreme attacks as a means of recruiting, Reuters reported.

Reuters noted that little was known about Ghafari before the deadly 2021 ISIS attack on Kabul Airport, which killed 170 Afghan civilians and 13 American soldiers.

But after Friday’s deadly attack in a concert hall in Moscow, which left 139 people dead, Ghaffari’s group has come under intense scrutiny.

Reuters reports that Ghaffari is said to have been involved in several attacks in Afghanistan, Iran, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Pakistan.

Pakistani officials said months ago that Ghaffari had been killed in Kunar province in Afghanistan in June last year, but Reuters has reported that he did not die and instead fled to Pakistan and lives in the border province of Baluchistan.

Abdul Matin Qani, the spokesman of the Ministry of Interior of Afghanistan, says that Daesh has been suppressed in Afghanistan for more than two years and has lost its operational capacity.

The last attack carried out by Daesh in Afghanistan was the attack on the Kabul Bank office in Kandahar last week which left three dead and 12 wounded.

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IPL: Sunrisers thump MI in record breaking match

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(Last Updated On: March 28, 2024)

It was raining records at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad on Wednesday with the hosts Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) clinching a 31-run victory over Mumbai Indians (MI) in Match 8 of the Tata Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024.

Sunrisers’ batting rewrote the record books on a batting belter after the posted 277 for three.

SRH now have the highest team score in the history of the IPL – beating Royal Challengers Bangalore’s (RCB) 263 for five from the 2013 season.

In reply, MI made a spirited effort, and at one stage, were contenders to do the near impossible. In the slog overs, the enormity of the target proved a bit too much, and SRH clinched victory, but not without numerous nervous moments.

To put into perspective the carnage we witnessed – Heinrich Klaasen’s 23-ball half-century was the slowest fifty of the SRH innings.

Travis Head, playing his first match for SRH, raced to the milestone in 18 balls. Abhishek Sharma got there even faster – in 16 balls – to record the quickest fifty by an SRH batter in IPL history.

While Sunrisers notched up the highest total in the 16-year history of the IPL, just as incredibly, Mumbai Indians almost paid them back with the same coin, their batters coming out with a nothing-to-lose attitude.

The sixes kept rolling off the Mumbai bats too, helping them keep up with the asking rate for most of the chase, eventually however, they ran out of steam and finished on 246 for 5, the highest IPL total in a losing cause.

As ESPNcricinfo reported, never were more runs scored in a men’s T20 match (523). Never were most sixes hit in a men’s T20 (38). At the end of the close to four-hour six-fest, only two bowlers returned with an economy rate of under ten an over.

Thursday, March 28 : Match 9

Thursday’s match at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur sees Rajasthan Royals go up against Delhi Capitals.

Fans in Afghanistan can tune in to Ariana Television to watch the match live from 6.30pm. Alternatively the match can be screened live on arianatelevision.com

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Magnitude 5.2 quake jolts Afghanistan

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(Last Updated On: March 28, 2024)

An earthquake measuring a magnitude of 5.2 on the Richter Scale jolted Afghanistan on Thursday afternoon, the National Center for Seismology reported.

The quake was at a depth of 70km and epicentered in the mountainous north-eastern area of Ashkāsham.

The jolt was felt across the region including in Kabul, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan

There were no immediate reports of any casualties.

In October last year, over 2,000 people were killed when four 6.3-magnitude earthquakes struck in Herat province.

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