Afghanistan
Asia Cup: Pakistan win thriller against Afghanistan to make the final
Pakistan made the final of the Asia Cup T20 after beating Afghanistan by one wicket in the Super 4 match in the UAE' Sharjah Wednesday.
Pakistan lost five wickets when they needed 42 runs. They lost four of them in the 18th and 19th overs while chasing a below-par total. In the last over, Pakistan needed 11 runs.
Naseem Shah hit two sixes off the first two balls of Fazalhaq Farooqi who picked up three wickets before the last over.
With Pakistan's win in today's match, Sri Lanka moved to the final after winning their first two Super 4 matches. India and Afghanistan, who lost their first two matches of the same phase, were eliminated from the race for the final.
In Wednesday's match, Pakistan won the toss and sent Afghanistan to bat first. Afghanistan were restricted to 129 for six in 20 overs.
Chasing 130, Pakistan lost their captain Babar Azam off the second ball of the innings. Fakhar Zaman also did not last long as he was run out in the fourth over.
Pakistan kept losing wickets and they were close to losing the match before two sixes of Naseem. However, Pakistan proved once again why they are called an unpredictable side.
Read: Asia Cup: Pakistan choose to bowl against Afghanistan in 'anybody's game'
Farooqi and Fareed Ahmad Malik picked up three wickets each and Rashid Khan took two.
Earlier, openers Hazratullah Zazai and Rahmanullah Gurbaz scored 36 runs in 3.5 overs for Afghanistan. Haris Rauf removed Gurbaz for 17 and Afghanistan kept losing wickets at regular intervals.
Ibrahim Zadran (35 off 37) was the highest run-getter for the Afghans. Rashid Khan remained unbeaten on 18 off 15 balls with two fours and one six.
For Pakistan, Haris picked up two wickets. Naseem Shah, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Nawaz and Shadab Khan took one wicket each.
Pakistan will now face Sri Lanka in the final on September 11.
Asia Cup: Pakistan choose to bowl against Afghanistan in 'anybody's game'
Pakistan have won the toss and chosen to bowl first in their Super 4 clash against Afghanistan in "anybody's game" in the ongoing Asia Cup today (September 7, 2022) in Sharjah.
Pakistan were outstanding in their last match against India. Afghanistan hammered Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in the group phase.
"The pitch looks good and the other thing is the dew factor. So, we are bowling first. We hope to pick early wickets and restrict them to a low total," Pakistan captain Babar Azam told the media after winning the toss.
Read:Asia Cup 2022: Pakistan vs Afghanistan match live streaming details
Wicketkeeper batter Mohammad Rizwan, who injured his knee in the last match, is playing this match.
Afghanistan captain Mohammad Nabi said they are looking forward to posting a big total.
Afghan openers Hazratullah Zazai and Rahmanullah Gurbaz have been outstanding at the Asia Cup so far.
Pakistan (Playing XI)
Mohammad Rizwan(w), Babar Azam(c), Fakhar Zaman, Iftikhar Ahmed, Khushdil Shah, Asif Ali, Mohammad Nawaz, Shadab Khan, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Hasnain, and Naseem Shah
Read:Pakistan one win away from securing final in Asia Cup 2022
Afghanistan (Playing XI)
Hazratullah Zazai, Rahmanullah Gurbaz(w), Ibrahim Zadran, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi(c), Karim Janat, Rashid Khan, Azmatullah Omarzai, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Fareed Ahmad Malik, and Fazalhaq Farooqi
Afghan mosque blast kills 18, including pro-Taliban cleric
An explosion tore through a crowded mosque in western Afghanistan on Friday, killing at least 18 people. including a prominent cleric close to the Taliban, Taliban officials and a local medic said. At least 21 people were hurt.
The explosion in the city of Herat left the courtyard of the Guzargah Mosque littered with bodies, the ground stained with blood, video from the scene showed. Men shouted, “God is great,” in shock and horror.
Read:One year on, Afghans at risk await evacuation, relocation
The bomb went off during Friday noon prayers, when mosques are full of worshippers.
Among the dead was Mujib-ul Rahman Ansari, a prominent cleric who was known across Afghanistan for his criticism of the country’s Western-backed governments over the past two decades. Ansari was seen as close to the Taliban, who seized control over Afghanistan a year ago as foreign forces withdrew.
His death was confirmed by the chief Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid. Just before the bombing, Ansari had been meeting in another part of the city with the Taliban government’s deputy prime minister, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who was on a visit to Herat. He had rushed from the meeting to the mosque to get to the noon prayers, an aide to Baradar said in a tweet mourning the cleric.
Ambulances transported 18 bodies and 21 people wounded from the blast to hospitals in Herat, said Mohammad Daud Mohammadi, an official at the Herat ambulance center,
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Friday’s blast.
Read: Taliban: 2 civilians killed in a bomb blast in Afghanistan
Last month, a bombing at a mosque in the capital Kabul targeted and killed a pro-Taliban cleric in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group. IS has waged a bloody campaign of attacks on Taliban targets and minority groups, particularly Shiites whom the extremist Sunni IS considers heretics. It has frequently hit mosques with suicide attacks during Friday prayers.
Herat’s Guzargah Mosque, where Ansari has long been the preacher, draws followers of Sunni Islam, the dominant stream in Afghanistan that is also followed by the Taliban.
Ansari was for years a thorn in the side of Afghanistan’s pro-Western government. In his sermons at the Guzargah, he urged his many supporters to carry out protests against the governments and preached against women’s rights.
Asia Cup: Bangladesh win toss, opt to bat first vs Afghanistan
Bangladesh have won the toss and opted to bat first against Afghanistan in their first match of the Asia Cup in the UAE on Tuesday.
Bangladesh included Mohammad Naim in the playing XI as the opener with Anamul Haque Bijoy. Mushfiqur Rahim will keep the wicket for Bangladesh in the absence of Nurul Hasan Sohan who is out due to an injury. Mohammad Saifuddin is also making a comeback to T20Is after a long gap forced by injury.
While Bangladesh start their campaign with this match, Afghanistan won the first match against Sri Lanka by eight wickets.
Bangladesh have been going through a bad patch in the format. They won only two matches after the last World Cup played in Oman and the UAE.
Read:Asia Cup 2022: BAN vs AFG Match Live Streaming Details
The Tigers have made a few changes to their set-up recently. The regular head coach Russell Domingo has been removed from the T20 duties. Bangladesh appointed the former Indian cricketer Sridharan Sriram as the T20 technical consultant, and he is playing the role of the head coach in the Asia Cup.
Shakib Al Hasan made a comeback as the captain with the Asia Cup. He was handed the captaincy right before this T20 event.
With the match against Afghanistan, Shakib is going to become the only third Bangladeshi to play 100th T20Is. Before him, Mahmudullah Riyad and Mushfiqur Rahim reached the milestone.
Bangladesh (Playing XI): Mohammad Naim, Anamul Haque, Shakib Al Hasan (c), Afif Hossain, Mushfiqur Rahim (w), Mosaddek Hossain, Mahmudullah Riyad, Mahedi Hasan, Mohammad Saifuddin, Taskin Ahmed, Mustafizur Rahman
Afghanistan (Playing XI): Hazratullah Zazai, Rahmanullah Gurbaz(w), Ibrahim Zadran, Najibullah Zadran, Karim Janat, Mohammad Nabi(c), Rashid Khan, Azmatullah Omarzai, Naveen-ul-Haq, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Fazalhaq Farooqi
Asia Cup 2022: BAN vs AFG Match Live Streaming Details
The Bangladesh national men’s Twenty20 cricket team are going to start their Asia Cup 2022 campaign on Tuesday ( August 30) against Afghanistan on 8pm (Bangladesh Time).
Where to Watch the Live Streaming of Bangladesh vs Afghanistan Match
GTV (Gazi Television) will broadcast all matches of this sports event in Bangladesh. The matches can also be watched on BTV (Bangladesh Television) National and Channel Nine.
India's satellite TV channel Star Sports has got the rights to distribute the broadcast worldwide as an official broadcaster of the Asia Cup.
Furthermore, foreign channels like T-Sports, Sony Sports, Ten Cricket Video also give the scope to watch the matches from Bangladesh.
Read: Asia Cup 2022: Which Bangladesh players have potential to bat like Hardik Pandya?
Bangladeshi Cricket lovers can watch the event for free from any device through Sony Live Bioscope and Toffee apps. Among the digital platforms, Disney Plus Hotstar subscribers can enjoy live streaming for a fixed subscription charge.
How to Watch the BAN vs AFG Match Live from Mobile Phone
The Bangladeshi cricket fans can also watch the Asia Cup 2022 Matches Live from Mobile Phone. The Grameenphone (GP) users can watch the Asia cup cricket matches live streaming via MyGP app.
Read Asia Cup 2022: How Bangladesh can defeat a confident Afghanistan team
UN warns 6 million Afghans at risk of famine as crises grow
Warning that Afghanistan faces deepening poverty with 6 million people at risk of famine, the U.N. humanitarian chief on Monday urged donors to restore funding for economic development and immediately provide $770 million to help Afghans get through the winter as the United States argued with Russia and China over who should pay.
Martin Griffiths told the U.N. Security Council that Afghanistan faces multiple crises -- humanitarian, economic, climate, hunger and financial.
Conflict, poverty, climate shocks and food insecurity “have long been a sad reality” in Afghanistan, but he said what makes the current situation “so critical” is the halt to large-scale development aid since the Taliban takeover a year ago.
More than half the Afghan population -- some 24 million people -- need assistance and close to 19 million are facing acute levels of food insecurity, Griffiths said. And “we worry” that the figures will soon become worse because winter weather will send already high fuel and food prices skyrocketing.
Also read: UNHCR raises concerns over Afghan refugees forced returns from Tajikistan
Despite the challenges, he said U.N. agencies and their NGO partners have mounted “an unprecedented response" over the past year, reaching almost 23 million people.
But he said $614 million is urgently required to prepare for winter including repairing and upgrading shelters and providing warm clothes and blankets -- and an additional $154 million is needed to preposition food and other supplies before the weather cuts access to certain areas.
Griffiths stressed, however, that “humanitarian aid will never be able to replace the provision of system-wide services to 40 million people across the country.”
The Taliban “have no budget to invest in their own future,” he said, and “it’s clear that some development support needs to be started.”
With more than 70 percent of Afghan’s living in rural areas, Griffiths warned that if agriculture and livestock production aren’t protected “millions of lives and livelihoods will be risked, and the country’s capacity to produce food imperiled.”
Also read: One year on, Afghans at risk await evacuation, relocation
He said the country’s banking and liquidity crisis, and the extreme difficulty of international financial transactions must also be tackled.
“The consequences of inaction on both the humanitarian and development fronts will be catastrophic and difficult to reverse,” Griffiths warned.
Russia called the U.N. Security Council meeting on the eve of the first anniversary of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and its ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, sharply criticized the “ignominious 20-year campaign” by the United States and its NATO allies.
He claimed they did nothing to build up the Afghan economy and their presence only strengthened the country’s status “as a hotbed of terrorism” and narcotics production and distribution.
Nebenzia also accused the U.S. and its allies of abandoning Afghans to face “ruin, poverty, terrorism, hunger and other challenges.”
“Instead of acknowledging their own mistakes and supporting the reconstruction of the destroyed country,” he said, they blocked Afghan financial resources and disconnected its central bank from SWIFT, the dominant system for global financial transactions.
China’s U.N. Ambassador Zhang Jun also accused the U.S. and its allies of “evading responsibility and abandoning the Afghan people” by cutting off development aid, freezing Afghan assets and imposing “political isolation and blockade.”
U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield accused the Taliban of imposing policies that “repress and starve the Afghan people instead of protecting them” and of increasing taxes on critically needed assistance.
She asked how the Taliban -- which has not be recognized by a single country -- expect to build a relationship with the rest of the world when it provided a safe haven for the leader of al-Qaida, Ayman al-Zawahiri, in downtown Kabul. He was killed by a U.S. drone strike on July 31.
Nonetheless, Thomas-Greenfield said, the United States is the world’s leading donor in Afghanistan, providing more than $775 million in humanitarian aid to Afghans in the country and the region in the last year.
As for Afghan frozen assets, President Joe Biden announced in February that the $7 billion in the U.S. was being divided -- $3.5 billion for a U.N. trust fund to provide aid to Afghans and $3.5 billion for families of American victims of the 9/11 terror attacks in the United States.
“No country that is serious about containing terrorism in Afghanistan would advocate to give the Taliban instantaneous, unconditional access to billions in assets that belong to the Afghan people,” Thomas-Greenfield said.
To Russia’s claims that Afghanistan’s problems are the fault of the West and not the Taliban, Thomas-Greenfield asked, “What are you doing to help other than rehash the past and criticize others?”
She said Russia has contributed only $2 million to the U.N. humanitarian appeal for Afghanistan and China’s contributions “have been similarly underwhelming.”
“If you want to talk about how Afghanistan needs help, that’s fine. But we humbly suggest you put your money where your mouth is,” Thomas-Greenfield said.
Russia’s Nebenzia took the floor again, calling the suggestion tunning.”
“We are being asked to pay for the reconstruction of a country whose economy was essentially destroyed by 20 years of U.S. and NATO occupation?" he asked. “You are the ones who need to pay for your mistakes. But first of all, you need to return to the Afghan people the money that has been stolen from them.”
Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador, had the last word.
“If the Russian Federation believes that there was an economy in Afghanistan to be destroyed, it’s been destroyed by the Taliban,” she said.
Asia Cup: Afghanistan make flying start beating Sri Lanka by 8 wickets in opener
Afghanistan made a flying start in the Asia Cup outplaying five times champions Sri Lanka by eight wickets with 59 balls remaining in the opening match at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium in UAE on Saturday. After dismissing Islanders Sri Lanka cheaply for 105 runs in 19.4 overs in T20 format, Afghanistan easily reached their target scoring 106 runs for loss of two wickets in 10.1 overs.Replying to Lankan poor total, Afghanistan made a flying start scoring 85 runs in 6.1 overs in the opening stand, before the departure of opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz, who quick-fired 40 runs off 18 balls, featuring three fours and four sixesAnother opener Hazaratullah Zazai contributed an unbeaten 28-ball 37 runs hitting five fours and one six, one down Ibrahim Zardan scored 13-ball 15 runs with the help of two boundaries while number four Najibullah Zardan remained not out on run a ball 2.
Read: Asia Cup 2022: Sri Lanka vs Afghanistan, Group B Match 1 previewHasaranga De Silva took one wicket conceding 19 runs in three overs. Sent in to bat first earlier, Sri Lanka faced initial batting collapse losing three wickets ---Kusal Mendis (2), Charith Asalanka (0) and Pathum Nissanka (3)-- for just five runs in two overs. Later, number four Danushka Gunathilaka pairing with Bhanuka Rajapaksa tried their best to repair their early damage, contributing 44 runs in the 4th wicket stand. Number five batter Bhanuka Rajapaksa scored the team highest 38 runs of just 29 balls hitting five fours and one six while two down Danushka Gunathilaka made run a ball 17 featuring three boundaries. After the dismissal of four wickets for 49 runs in 7.2 overs, no Sri Lankan middle order and lower order batters were able to reach the double figure score, except number eight batter Chamika Karunaratne, who scored 31 runs off 38 balls with three fours and one six.Fazalhaq Farooqi was the most successful Afghan bowler grabbing three wickets for just 11 runs in his 3.4 over spell and was adjudged the man of the match.Besides, Afghan captain Mohammad Nabi and Mujeeb Ur Rahman grabbed two wickets each while Naveen Ul Haq took one wicket.
One year on, Afghans at risk await evacuation, relocation
More than a year after the Taliban takeover that saw thousands of Afghans rushing to Kabul’s international airport amid the chaotic U.S. withdrawal, Afghans at risk who failed to get on evacuation flights say they are still struggling to find safe and legal ways out of the country.
Among those left behind is a 49-year-old interpreter who worked for a NATO contractor in 2010 accompanying convoys in Kandahar. Only six days after the Taliban reached the capital last August, they came looking for him.
“They come to my house and they threatened my son and my wife (when) I was not at home. They (then) destroy my office,” he told AP via WhatsApp referring to the place where he taught English. He asked that his name not be revealed for security reasons.
This month, he was interrogated by the Taliban again for more than two hours.
During the chaotic days of the U.S. pullout, he had tried several times to reach Kabul Airport but, like many, failed to get through massive crowds made even more dangerous by attacks around the airport that killed dozens. He then tried to leave Afghanistan by crossing the land border with Pakistan but was stopped by the Taliban who demanded $700 per person to cross — money he did not have. To make matters worse, his passport is no longer valid.
Like millions of Afghans, he’s also been impacted by the country’s economic freefall, caused in part by international sanctions and vanishing foreign aid.
“We eat once a day,” the interpreter said. Still, he continues hoping he and his family will leave Afghanistan at some point.
“I never give up because of my future and my children future,” he said.
Since their return to rule, the Taliban have been trying to transition from insurgency and war to governing, with the hard-liners increasingly at odds with the pragmatists on how to run a country in the midst of a humanitarian and economic crisis. But a year on they have so far failed to gain international recognition. Initial promises to allow girls to return to school and women to continue working have been broken.
Those who have failed to evacuate include interpreters and drivers but also women journalists, activists and athletes who say they cannot live freely under a Taliban-led government.
The U.S., together with other Western nations, hastily evacuated more than 120,000 people, both foreign nationals and Afghan citizens, in August last year.
Some 46,000 Afghans who remained in the country after Aug. 31 have since applied for U.S. humanitarian parole, according to the Migration Policy Institute. But only 297 have been approved so far.
Because there is no longer a U.S. consulate in Afghanistan, asylum-seekers must make their way to other countries with consular services for in-person interviews.
The list of obstacles to getting out of Afghanistan is extensive, starting with the difficulty in obtaining passports as offices repeatedly close due to technical problems.
“Today, the vast majority of Afghans don’t have access to legal identity, meaning if they need tomorrow to be able to get to safety legally, they can’t,” said Nassim Majidi, co-founder and executive director of Samuel Hall, an independent think tank that conducts research on migration and displacement. Majidi was speaking at a seminar organized by the Migration Policy Institute looking at the situation of Afghans in Afghanistan and abroad a year after the withdrawal.
Read: Taliban: 2 civilians killed in a bomb blast in Afghanistan
Around 2,000 Afghans and their families who worked with NATO, its agencies, and member countries were among those evacuated from Kabul according to the military alliance. But the evacuations were organized by individual member countries. NATO, as an organization, had no repatriation plan.
Evacuations from third countries are still happening, although sporadically. Earlier this month a plane carrying nearly 300 Afghans who had collaborated with the Spanish government landed in Madrid. Germany and France also have continued to work on evacuation cases, Majidi said.
But thousands of Afghans are still living in limbo in third countries including Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kosovo and Albania while they wait for their applications to be processed for resettlement to the United States and Canada.
Though life-saving for many, the evacuations also fractured families. Among them is that of an Afghan journalist who asked to remain anonymous, fearing for the safety of her relatives in Kabul.
“It was really difficult to leave everything behind in an hour,” she told the Associated Press in a phone interview from her new home in Nijmegen, in the Netherlands, which she moved into after months of living in a temporary refugee shelter.
The government of the Netherlands had called her on Aug. 26 offering a single spot on an evacuation flight. Her relatives told her she needed to save herself first if she wanted to help them.
A year later, three of her family members have recently managed to get evacuated to France, she said. But despite repeated family reunification requests to the Netherlands and other European countries, the majority of her siblings remain in Kabul, living across the street from a police station now in Taliban hands.
On June 17 one of her older brothers was allegedly beaten to death by Taliban forces on the street after he was found carrying a photo of Ahmad Shah Massoud, the leader of the Northern Alliance that fought the Taliban, she said.
Days later, she said, the men showed up at the family’s home and forced them to sign a death certificate that stated he had died of “natural causes.” The AP was unable to independently verify her claims.
With most of her family still in Afghanistan and many bureaucratic hurdles to face in the Netherlands, it has been difficult to start a new life, she said.
“Until now it is just darkness.”
Official: Flooding in eastern Afghanistan kills at least 9
Heavy flooding from seasonal rains in eastern Afghanistan overnight left at least nine people dead, swept away homes and destroyed livestock and agricultural land, a provincial official and a villager elder said Sunday.
Associated Press video showed villagers in the Khushi district of Logar province south of the Afghan capital of Kabul cleaning up after the flooding, their damaged homes in disarray.
Abdullah Mufaker, head of Logar province's Natural Disaster Management Ministry, said it was still unknown how many were killed and injured by the rising waters but that there were at least nine fatalities.
Read: 31 dead in India flash floods & landslides
“The exact number is not clear for the time being, and the people have gone to remove the dead bodies,” he said.
Del Agha, a village elder, said the flooding was unprecedented in the history of Khushi. “It destroyed all the people’s animals, houses and agricultural lands,” he said. "People are homeless, they have been refuged to the mountains.”
Last week, heavy rains set off flash floods that killed at least 31 people and left dozens missing in northern Afghanistan.
Bombing at Kabul mosque kills 10, including prominent cleric
A bombing at a mosque in the Afghan capital of Kabul during evening prayers on Wednesday killed at least 10 people, including a prominent cleric, and wounded at least 27, an eyewitness and police said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, the latest to strike the country in the year since the Taliban seized power. Several children were reported to be among the wounded.
The Islamic State group’s local affiliate has stepped up attacks targeting the Taliban and civilians since the former insurgents’ takeover last August as U.S. and NATO troops were in the final stages of their withdrawal from the country. Last week, the IS claimed responsibility for killing a prominent Taliban cleric at his religious center in Kabul.
According to the eyewitness, a resident of the city’s Kher Khanna neighborhood where the Siddiquiya Mosque was targeted, the explosion was carried out by a suicide bomber. The slain cleric was Mullah Amir Mohammad Kabuli, the eyewitness said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
He added that more than 30 other people were wounded. The Italian Emergency hospital in Kabul said that at least 27 wounded civilians, including five children, were brought there from the site of the bomb blast.
Read: 4 wounded in sport stadium blast in Afghanistan's Kabul
Khalid Zadran, the Taliban-appointed spokesman for the Kabul police chief, confirmed an explosion inside a mosque in northern Kabul but would not provide a casualty toll or a breakdown of the dead and wounded.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid also condemned the explosion and vowed that the “perpetrators of such crimes will soon be brought to justice and will be punished.”
There were fears the casualty numbers could rise further. On Thursday morning, one witness to the blast who gave his name as Qyaamuddin told The Associated Press he believed as many as 25 people may have been killed in the blast.
“It was evening prayer time, and I was attending the prayer with others, when the explosion happened,” Qyaamuddin said. Some Afghans go by a single name.
AP journalists could see the blue-roofed, Sunni mosque from a nearby hillside. The Taliban parked police trucks and other vehicles at the mosque, while several men carried out one casket for a victim of the attack.
A U.S.-led invasion toppled the previous Taliban government, which had hosted al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States.
Since regaining power, the former insurgents have faced a crippling economic crisis as the international community, which does not recognize the Taliban government, froze funding to the country.
Separately, the Taliban confirmed on Wednesday that they had captured and killed Mehdi Mujahid in western Herat province as he was trying to cross the border into Iran.
Mujahid was a former Taliban commander in the district of Balkhab in northern Sar-e-Pul province, and the only member of the minority Shiite Hazara community among the Taliban ranks.
Mujahid had turned against the Taliban over the past year, after opposing decisions made by Taliban leaders in Kabul.