KABUL (Pajhwok): Last week, Afghanistan hit Pakistani military sites with heavy weapons in retaliation to airstrikes by Pakistani military aircraft inside Afghanistan, Azerbaijan opened its embassy in Kabul and the European Union (EU) announced five million euro assistance for vulnerable Afghans.
Last week’s major developments
- Airstrikes in Khost and Paktika provinces will have consequences that Pakistan will be unable to control: Mujahid
- Afghan security forces struck Pakistan military sites along the Duran Line with heavy weapons
- Imran Khan condemned Pakistan’s airstrikes in Afghanistan
- New education year begins but the doors of intermediate and higher education remained closed girls and women
- Azerbaijan for the first time opened its embassy in Kabul while the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) introduced its military attaché in Moscow
- EU announced five million euro assistance for vulnerable people in Afghanistan
Casualties
Last week, 31 people were killed and 50 others injured in different incidents of violence in Afghanistan.
Three people were killed and 12 others injured in a suicide bombing in Kandahar City, officials said.
Reports said that eight civilians were killed and injured in Pakistani forces airstrikes in Khost and Paktia provinces, an individual was also killed and another injured in Paktia province.
Four people were killed and 11 others injured as a result of clashes between families in the Dara-i-Nour, Goshta, Khogyani and Haska Mena districts of Nangarhar province, officials said.
Separately, a bride was stabbed to death in the Koz Kunar district of Nangarhar after her Badali bride committed suicide; two children were killed in a blast caused by an Explosive Ramnant of War (ERW) in the Nazyano district.
Eleven people were injured as a result of a clash over grassland in the Pashtonkot district of Faryab province, nine people were injured as a result of clash over assistance distribution in the Khawja Sabzposh district, a girl was killed in the Qarmagol district while cleaning a weapon, a young man was killed in Pashtonkot district and unknown gunmen killed a man in the Qaisar district and a woman in Almar district, local officials said.
In Badghis, a man was killed and another injured in the Tagab district, while a drug addict killed his 7-year-old daughter in Qala-i-Naw, the provincial capital, security officials said.
In Kunar, two children were injured in a hand grenade blast, local officials said. Two people were killed in Khost province while an appellant court judge and his 7-year-old daughter were killed in Ghor province, a child was killed in Pajhsir in an ERW blast and a man killed his wife in Sar-i-Pul province.
Note: These figures are based on reports reaching Pajhwok Afghan News. Some incidents may have gone unreported or sources provided incorrect figures.
The previous week, seven people were killed and five others were injured in separate incidents of violence in Afghanistan.
This comes that before August 15, 2021, regime change in Afghanistan besides criminal incidents, hundreds of civilians and personnel from conflicting parties were killed and injured every week.
Afghanistan’s befitting response to Pakistan
Last week, the IEA Spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said that Pakistan planes bombed the houses of ordinary people in the Barmal district of Khost and Spera district of Paktika provinces in which five women and three children were killed.
IEA termed Pakistan’s airstrikes in Afghanistan an attack on the territorial integrity of Afghanistan and the Afghan Defence Ministry said that security forces hit Pakistani army sites along the Durand Line with heavy weapons, there was also a firefight between Pakistani and Afghan forces in the Dand-i-Patan district.
Mujahid warned Pakistan’s deadly airstrikes in southeastern Khost and Paktika provinces will have consequences that the neighbour will be unable to control.
Pakistan said that Tahrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Commander Abdullah Shah and his comrades were targeted in the airstrikes but Abdullah Shah in a video message said that he was in Waziristan and was living there.
After the airstrikes, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Pakistani ambassador in Kabul and handed him a demarche.
Some Afghan politicians have slammed Pakistani airstrikes in Khost and Paktika provinces as violation of international rules and hailed retaliation from Afghanistan, saying the Aghan nation cannot tolerate such actions.
Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan condemned Pakistan’s recent airstrikes inside Afghanistan and observed Islamabad’s foreign policy failure behind the deterioration of relations between the two countries.
The leader of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf political party told journalists in prison that terrorist incidents could increase in Pakistan if relations with Afghanistan deteriorated.
New academic year, call for girls’ schools reopening
Last Wednesday, the new academic year started across the country, with school doors staying closed for girls above the sixth grade.
While marking the new academic year, Ministry of Education (MoE) officials rang the bell at the Amani High School in Kabul on Wednesday.
Girls have been banned from going to schools and universities after the takeover of the IEA in August 2021. IEA, however, repeatedly said that ban on girls’ education was temporary and it would be lifted when suitable environment is provided.
Afghan officials said that an illiterate nation always dependent others and a nation that depends on others could never be stable, therefore, in addition to religious education, more work should be done to equip Afghan children with modern education and technology.
Former President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani in his new year’s message stressed over the resumption of girls education and said girls had been deprived of education for more than 1,000 days at a time when getting education is an order from Allah (SWT) and his Prophet (PBUH).
Former President Hamid Karzai again asked the IEA to allow girls attend schools and universities so that the country could become self-sufficient and competitive.
UNAMA urged the IEA to end this unjustifiable and damaging ban on girls’ education. “As #Afghanistan‘s new school year begins, it is now more than 900 days since girls aged 12+ have been barred from attending school & university, education for all is essential for peace & prosperity,” UNAMA wrote on its twitter handle.
Amnesty International said that the IEA shall allow girls to go to schools.
Inter-state relationships
Last week, Azerbaijan opened its embassy in Kabul for the first time and it is expected that ambassador level diplomat of the IEA would be sent to Baku in the coming days.
In another development, the IEA appointed Ahmad Zmarak as its Defence Attaché in Moscow.
Italian Ambassador to Afghanistan Natalia Quintavalle during a meeting with Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said her country wanted to expand embassy services in Kabul.
Afghan foreign ministry said the two sides exchanged views on the development of ties between the IEA and Western countries.
Continuation of aid
Last week, EU pledged five million euro assistance with vulnerable people in Ghor, Daikundi and Badakhshan provinces and Saudi Arabi provided 100 tonnes of dates worth 15 million afs.
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