Freedom’s on the march. From India’s Zee News, June 19 (emphasis added): KABUL — Forced to wear yellow patches in the days of the Taliban, the homesick Sikhs of Afghanistan still hide in back alleys and yearn for India. In… Read moreAfghanistan: Sikhs still ostracized, terrorized
At least 22 people were killed and 10 wounded when a missile hit a cluster of compounds in Datakhel district of Pakistan’s North Waziristan tribal region, locals said. Taliban leaders said the death toll was as high as 32. Reports… Read moreWaziristan: 22 killed in madrassa missile strike?
At least seven children were killed in a US air raid against a suspected al-Qaeda hideout in the Zargun Shah district of eastern Afghanistan's Paktika province June 17. The victims are believed to have been students at a madrassa near… Read moreAfghanistan: slaughter of the innocents
At least 35 have been killed in a suicide attack on a police bus in Kabul June 17—the deadliest attack since the Taliban regime fell. Most of the dead were instructors going to work at the city’s police academy, but… Read moreAfghanistan: suicide bombings escalate
Jonathan “Jack” Idema, the last of three imprisoned US citizens convicted of illegal detention and torture in Afghanistan in 2004, was released June 2, Afghan authorities have confirmed. Idema, a former member of the US Army Special Forces, was arrested… Read moreAfghanistan: US citizen convicted of torturing detainees released
One Abdur Raziq contributes June 9 a brief account to the open-posting website Ground Report (“Where You Make the News”) of the Taliban crackdown on elements of traditional Pashtun culture which are considered “un-Islamic” in Pakistan’s Tribal Areas—Lakhtai dancing boys… Read morePakistan: Taliban threaten Lakhtai boys and “eunuch” dancers
Afghan president Hamid Karzai survived the third assassination attempt on his life on [June 10] when Taliban militants fired rockets at a building in which he was giving a speech [outside Kabul]. [The president is known as the “mayor of… Read moreAfghanistan: Karzai dodges rocket attack
Najib Manalai, an adviser to Afghanistan’s minister of culture and youth affairs, has described the Taliban [in an interview] as a composite of different elements, “hijacked by Pakistani intelligence services and by international terrorist groups.” While there exists de facto… Read moreDoes Pakistan control the Taliban?
Mansour Dadullah, new Taliban military commander since the death of his brother Mullah Dadullah in combat last month, told AlJazeera in an exclusive interview: “Sheikh Osama bin Laden is alive and active. He’s carrying out his duties. The latest proof… Read moreTaliban commander: Osama calls the shots
Two women journalists, Zakia Zaki and Sanga Amach, have been killed by gunmen in Afghanistan in the past week. Zaki, who was killed in an attack at her home late June 5, ran a private radio station, partially funded by… Read moreAfghanistan: women journalists assassinated
The US military said coalition and Afghan troops killed six Taliban fighters and arrested four in eastern Afghanistan May 30, but a provincial official and residents said the casualties were villagers. The coalition statement did not mention the location in… Read moreAfghanistan: more controversy over civilian casualties
At least 13 people were killed and more than 32 wounded in Shiberghan, capital of Afghanistan’s northern Jowzjan province, when police opened fire to break up a protest against governor Juma Khan Hamdard on May 28. Provincial spokesmen said protesters… Read moreAfghanistan: police fire on protesters in northern province
