Recent Events in Afghanistan

The Barakat Team is wishing you all a very happy Tuesday. Today’s blog post will be focused on explaining the recent events in Afghanistan.

• Vice President Abdul Rashid Dostum accused of torturing political rival Ahmad Ishchi

Political rival, Ahmad Ishchi, has accused the current Vice Presdient of Afghanistan, Abdul Rashid Dostum, of torture over a period of five days after he was abducted by Dostum last month. During this time Dostum was acting-president, as President Ashram Ghani was out of the country. Ishchi claims that Dostum threatened his life, and used his power to manipulate Ishchi. There are also many witnesses that reported seeing the assault take place. Although Dostum and his staff have not made an official statement, and appear to be less than concerned, many of the Western embassies in Kabul call for a more thorough and transparent investigation of the accusations on hand.

General Dostum was formerly a warlord, and has faced accusation of human rights violation and abuse in the past. Dostum was allegedly one of the United States’ earliest and biggest allies, but his reputation was why the United States recommended Hamid Karzai not use the general as his campaign ally. On the other hand, President Ghani elected to run with Dostum in order to attract attention and gain support of Dostum’s ethnic Uzbek community.

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• Secretary of Defense Carter makes a trip to Afghanistan

Secretary of Defense Ash Carter made a trip to Afghanistan where he met with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani along with US military commanders. It was the Obama administrations intention to remove troops from Afghanistan before President Obama left ISIS, but with the “lingering Taliban insurgency, and the emergence of local ISIS affiliate and the continued presence of al Qaeda, terrorists, Obama revised the plan several times, eventually opting to hand-off the issue to his successor.”

There are currently 9,800 Americans serving in Afghanistan, and the goal is the reduce this number to 8,450 by 2017.

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• Threat of Taliban emerges once again due to private financing from Saudi Arabia

The security situation in Afghanistan has reportedly been deteriorating in the last year. It has been reported that only 60% of the country is controlled by the President Ashraf Ghani’s leadership, the remainder of which is controlled by paramilitaries and the Taliban.

One would wonder with the Taliban has not yet lost its momentum over its overthrow, however they have continually received funds from many Saudis even though the King himself officially supports the Afghan Government, as well as the American mission in Afghanistan.

Saudi royals, philanthropists, and oil tycoons have been privately financing the insurgency in Pakistan and Afghanistan for many years now. Secretary of State John Kerry calls their support “surrogate money” that has been shown to prop up the Taliban and ISIS.

To read more please visit this site.