Tag: Afghan

  • Afghan held for Gujarat drug haul

    By Express News Service

    NEW DELHI:  The National Investigation Agency on Tuesday arrested one more Afghanistan national in connection with the seizure of 2,988 kg of heroin at Mundra port in Gujarat. 

    With the arrest of Sobhan Aryanfar, 28, who lived in Delhi’s Neb Sarai area, NIA has so far made eight arrests in the case of massive drugs seizure, officials said on Tuesday.

    The NIA had registered a case under sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, the Narcotic Drug and Psychotropic Substance Act and the Indian Penal Code over seizure of 2,988.21 kilograms of narcotics substance (heroin) at Mundra Port in Gujarat in September involving foreign nationals in procurement and delivering of consignment, the official said.

    Aryanfar has been found to be involved in the conspiracy of transporting narcotic drugs concealed in import consignment of semi-processed talc stones’ originating from Afghanistan, the official said.

    He said Aryanfar is the fourth Afghan national to be arrested in the case, adding that investigation in the case is still on.

  • Don’t let Afghan cinema die: Filmmaker Sahraa Karimi

    By IANS

    TORONTO: Afghan filmmaker Sahraa Karimi during a virtual conversation out of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) said that she is trying to start a new life, a new journey but is very sad, of course. The director added that anytime she is alone, she thinks immediately to go to Kabul.

    Karimi is the director behind the feature film ‘Hava, Maryam, Ayesha’ and is the first woman to head Afghan Film, the country’s national cinema body. She fled Afghanistan last month after Kabul fell to the Taliban and landing in Kiev, Ukraine with help from the Slovak Film and Television Academy, reports hollywoodreporter.com.

    Since fleeing the country less than one month ago, Karimi has been conducting interviews and participating in major industry events like the Venice Film Festival and now TIFF’s “Visionaries” conversation session to discuss her experiences as a refugee and call for the support of Afghan cinema and filmmakers.

    During her TIFF session, Karimi noted that she has been attempting to get answers from the now Taliban-controlled Afghan government as to whether or not she still holds her post in Afghan Film but has yet to receive an answer.

    “This is the reality. They don’t tell me that I am not the general director of Afghan Film but they don’t tell me anything else,” Karimi said, adding that she would go back to the country, should she be able to continue her work but it is doubtful if she, as a woman, would be allowed to do so.

    “Every day I dream that there will be a call and we can go back,” she said.

    Leading up to the takeover of Kabul by the Taliban, Karimi was busy trying to plan for a national film festival and attempting to open more movie theaters in the country.

    Two of her young employees from Afghan Film were killed in a car explosion.

    She recalled: “I was searching for their (bodies) all night and the next day. That was the moment I had really lost hope.”

    On August 15 after the Taliban entered the city, Karimi said she headed to the airport with her family and two assistants from Afghan film and by August 17, they were on a Turkish flight to Ukraine.

    “It was like a film,” she said of the experience trying to get onto an airplane, likening the experience of the Korean film ‘Train to Busan’.

    “It was like zombies are coming to attack you and you are running.”

    Karimi plans to turn her experience fleeing Afghanistan into a feature titled ‘Flight from Kabul’, hoping to finish a first draft of the screenplay later this month, and is soon set to teach at Italy’s National Film School in Rome.

    Karimi sees filmmaking as a change agent, noting that the Afghan government did not do enough to support the arts, reports hollywoodreporter.com.

    “One of the biggest mistakes this past 20 years of the government of Afghanistan is that they didn’t support art and culture and cinema. They didn’t even build one cinema in Afghanistan,a said the filmmaker, noting that there were no film funds or attempts to build out infrastructure for productions.

    “If we had real cinema, if we had real production, if the private sector and government-supported filmmakers to make a film industry, then we wouldn’t be in this situation right now,” she said.

    Asked what her advice would be for young Afghan filmmakers, she said: “Do not let Afghan cinema die. Even if you are in exile.

    “I just ask all filmmakers around the world, please don’t be silent about the situation in Afghanistan and don’t be silent about the cinema of Afghanistan.”

  • Children of Afghan refugees in India see ‘dark future’ after Taliban takeover

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: When Afghan refugees in India held a protest in Delhi on August 23, sisters Dia and Diyana were at its forefront, one wrapped in the Afghan national flag while the other held up a placard, appealing to the United Nations to help the people of the war-torn nation.

    Dia (10) and Diyana (12), residents of an Afghan enclave in south Delhi, should be learning and playing, but at this tender age, the sisters braved it out in a hot weather, expressing their concern about the children, particularly girls, in Afghanistan since its takeover by the Taliban.

    “We are scared. We know what the Taliban are, even though we were not born when they first took over our homeland. And, we know how insecure the children and women are feeling in our homeland right now,” said the elder sister.

    Along with their parents, the sisters had gone to take part in the protest held in front of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the UN Refugee Agency in south Delhi’s Vasant Vihar.

    The protest which started on Monday, have since been relayed, and the refugees are refusing to relent from their position until their demands are met, which includes issuing of support letters from the UN agency to allow migration to other countries and better opportunities in India.

    On August 23, when the protest began, a large number of Afghan refugees had gathered there, drawn from Delhi and neighbouring cities.

    Among them were scores of children, as young as a two-year-old Nihanz who came with her family members from Bhogal and took part in the demonstration riding her mother’s shoulders.

    Women power was evident at the protest, and participation by young girls, brought the focus on their plight, their vulnerability to the current circumstances and their sheer hopelessness of living a pitiable refugee life, even as Afghanistan descended further down the spiral of uncertainty.

    Holding a poster, Zuleikha Khadarkhil, 10, sat quietly next to her eight-year-old brother Mohammed Rameen, who raised vociferous slogans against the Taliban, when most children of his age are playing with toys and not taking part in a protest that may have global ramifications.

    While Zuleikha was silent, the image on the poster she held screamed about the plight of girls and their bleak future.

    There were no words on the moving artwork, just a sketch of a young girl depicted in a traditional Afghani costume, almost matching what the young protester had worn, with sadness in her eyes and one arm outstretched, reaching out for a book, signifying the curbs that the Taliban imposes on freedom and education of girls and women.

    “As refugees we feel insecure, as children we feel insecure, as girls we feel insecure, more so now after what has happened in our Afghanistan. I have a terrible feeling about the young girls and women of Afghanistan. How will they be treated now,” she lamented.

    Rameen and Zuleikha had come to the protest with their parents from Tilak Nagar, where a small community of Afghans reside.

    The protest has been led by Afghan Solidarity Committee (ASC), an umbrella organisation of Afghan refugees in India.

    The crowd shouted slogans like ‘we want future’, ‘we want justice’, ‘no more silence’ and clapped and cheered each other, as many others held banners bearing messages like ‘UN Geneva help Afghan Refugees’ and ‘Issue resident visas to all Afghan refugees’.

    The Taliban swept across the country this month, seizing control of almost all key towns and cities in the backdrop of withdrawal of the US forces that began on May 1.

    On August 15, the capital city Kabul also fell to the Taliban, even as a large number of Afghans attempted in vain to flee the war-torn nation.

    The insurgent forces have now sought to portray themselves as more moderate than when they had imposed a brutal rule in the late 1990s.

    But many Afghans remain sceptical of this and fear the return of the “regressive” regime.

    The hopelessness and dejection among the children about their future was unmistakable, with Tamanna, 10, who had come from Noida, echoing Zuleikha’s sentiments.

    “With the current situation, the future seems all dark for us, stuck between a poor refugee life with almost no education or job opportunities, and the horror of the Taliban back home,” she rued.

  • Afghan man deported from Nagpur has joined Taliban, say cops as his gun-wielding snap surfaces

    By PTI

    NAGPUR: An Afghan national, who was deported to his country from Nagpur in June this year after he was found staying here illegally, has apparently joined the Taliban and his picture holding a rifle has surfaced on social media, a senior police official said on Friday.

    The Taliban has seized power in Afghanistan as it swept into capital Kabul on Sunday after President Ashraf Ghani fled the country.

    “The man, Noor Mohammad Ajiz Mohammad, 30, was found staying in Nagpur since the last 10 years illegally. He was living in a rented place in Dighori area of the city. Acting on a tip-off, the police had started keeping a watch on his activities. He was finally nabbed and deported to Afghanistan on June 23,” he said.

    “After his deportation, he seems to have joined the Taliban and his photo holding a gun has emerged on social media,” he added.

    During the probe earlier, police had found that he had come to Nagpur in 2010 on a six-month tourist visa.

    Later, he had applied to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) seeking a refugee status for himself, but his application was rejected.

    His appeal was also turned down by the UNHRC. Since then, he stayed in Nagpur illegally, the official said.

    Another police official said that Noor Mohammad’s original name is Abdul Haque and his brother was working with the Taliban. Last year, Noor had floated a video on social media with a sharp-edged weapon.

    After he was nabbed, police found that he had “entry and exit wounds” from a gunshot near his left shoulder, he said, adding that when his social media accounts were checked, it was found that he was following some terrorists whose videos of gun firing were available on social media.

    “He was in the business of selling blankets and was unmarried. Police conducted searches at his rented accommodation, but did not find anything suspicious. His call details are also under the scanner of the police,” the official said.