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Taliban, IS Make Millions of Dollars From Mining Minerals in Afghanistan

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(Last Updated On: October 24, 2022)

Rising global demand for cosmetics, marble and stainless steel is helping Taliban and Islamic State (IS) militants in Afghanistan fund their increasingly violent insurgencies, according to an investigation by Global Witness.

The insurgent groups make millions of dollars annually from mining talc, chromite, and marble in the eastern part of Afghanistan.

 The international NGO in a report on Tuesday estimates the Taliban earns $2.5 million to $10 million a year from mining talc alone.

 It is unclear how much Islamic State’s local affiliate, which has fought and taken over mining areas from the Taliban in three districts of Nangarhar province, has managed to exploit the mines, according to Global Witness.

“The relationship between the Islamic State and mining is powerful and worrying, but it is only a case study for what is a much larger problem,” said Nick Donovan, a campaign director at Global Witness.

“Not just insurgent groups but also a host of other illegal, semi-legal and legal armed groups across the country benefit from mining. The Taliban in Nangarhar province demonstrate this with particular force.”

Global Witness cited unidentified people claiming that IS had brought in foreign engineers from Pakistan and Saudi Arabia and installed heavy machinery at the mining sites. Phones are banned and locals are searched and monitored by the groups near the mines, according to the report.

“Talc is being extracted in the regions which are under the Taliban’s control, but their transport and exportation is being done through under government control areas,” said Naser Timori, researcher of Integrity Watch Afghanistan (IWA).

According to Global Witness, most of Afghanistan’s talc production is smuggled across to Pakistan at the Torkham border where it can eventually be shipped out to other markets.

“The relevant institutions should not be silent regarding the situation of mines [in the country], they can be called guilty from law’s perspective,” said Mohammad Zamir Zamani, a lawyer.

Calling the report as worrying, the Interior Ministry Spokesman Najib Danish said that they will make efforts to ensure security of the mines in the country.

The Ministry of Mines and Petroleum refused to make a comment in this regard. Earlier, the Defense Ministry has also expressed concerns regarding the mining of minerals by the militant groups in the areas which are under control of the anti-government elements. 

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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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