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As the world is in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic, in South Asia, Afghanistan is especially vulnerable because it shares a 921-km open border with Iran. The Republic of Iran is one of the worst-affected nations in the world by the coronavirus.

As of today (March 28, 2020) Iran has registered 15,315 active cases of coronavirus with 2,234 persons dead, and counting. In Afghanistan, the number of coronavirus cases has seen a steady increase. Out of the approximately 800 suspected cases, there are now 110 positive cases and four deaths. With an epidemic at its borders, Afghanistans weakened public healthcare system faces its gravest challenge.

Thousands of Afghan refugees are returning from Iran every day in overloaded taxis, buses and minivans into the chaos of rudimentary health screenings at the border crossing. According to the International Organisation for Migration, more than 115,000 Afghans returned from Iran just between March 8 and 21. This marked the highest rate of returning immigrants from Iran in over a decade.

The Islam Qala-Dougharoun is the most-used border crossing point, connecting the cities of Herat, Afghanistan and Mashhad, Iran. According to the agency, even if the border crossing were to be closed, Afghans who wanted to get home could easily find a way, given how porous the border is.

Given this massive influx from one of the worst-affected countries in the world, the city of Herat, with nearly 300,000 people, has become the epicentre of the virus in Afghanistan. Till March 26, it had over 65 confirmed virus cases in Afghanistan. Kabul, with seven active cases, is the second most affected city.

Also read: Lockdown in London: The Demise of What the Neoliberal City Has Made Us Accustomed To

The first casualty from COVID-19 in Afghanistan was reported from Balkh, thereafter three casualties were all from Herat. Four NATO members whose nationalities have been withheld have also tested positive for COVID-19 in Afghanistan. By March 26, the death toll from COVID-19 has gone up to four, with another 55-year-old man dying in Herat.

According to medical journal Lancet, the first case of COVID-19 in Afghanistan came from Iran. In early February a 35-year-old male Afghan shopkeeper visited Qom, Iran where he stayed for nearly a week and home to Herat on February 15, 2020. The very next day, he began to display the initial symptoms of COVID 19 fever, headache, cough and dyspnea. At the private clinic which he visited for his initial checkup, he was suspected of having contracted COVID-19 as he had recently returned from Iran and he was referred to the governmental hospital for further investigation.

The confirmed diagnosis was made three days after admission. Seventeen days from admission, the patient was in good health and a molecular test was done again with a negative result. All individuals who had been in close contact with the patient were quarantined at home, and accommodations and vehicles related to the patient were disinfected.

One of the biggest challenges that healthcare givers are facing is the detection of COVID-19 in asymptomatic patients. In order to circumvent the substantial chains of transmission throughout Afghanistan, it is essential that a complete lockdown be enforced in the provinces bordering Iran. In Herat province, people have been disturbingly cavalier towards the spread of coronavirus, attending a buzkashi match, prayer meetings, visiting markets and celebrating during the Persian new year festival of Nowruz (March 21-22).

In a bid to curb the spread of the coronavirus, a new 100-bed hospital is being hurriedly built in Herat. In a country where health services can only be described as fragile, an unchecked community outbreak of coronavirus will mean that half of Afghanistans estimated 32 to 34 million people could contract the virus, and that more than 110,000 may die. Given this grave situation, on March 25, 2020 Afghan authorities locked down the western province of Herat bordering Iran. A curfew has now been imposed in the three provinces bordering Iran Herat, Farah and Nimroz. And from today, a lockdown will be applied in Kabul and its provincial districts.

Amidst crippling sanctions, Iran is unable to access medical aid and equipment. Tehran has rejected the humanitarian assistance offered by Washington, and instead in a message directed at Washington Ayatollah Khameini charged, No one trusts you. You are capable of bringing into our country a drug that will keep the virus alive and prevent its eradication.

In response to Afghanistans and Irans cases, Pakistan closed its border at Chaman with Afghanistan, starting on March 2. Then on March 21, Pakistan reopened the Chaman-Spinboldak border. Apparently a decision taken on humanitarian grounds, there are apprehensions as Pakistan witnessed a rise in coronavirus cases after pilgrims from Iran entered the country via the Taftan border.

Also read: To Combat the COVID-19 Crisis, We Need to Respond With a Unity of Purpose

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Pakistan has jumped to 1,106. Reports indicate that the Pakistan army has started to move COVID-19 positive patients from Punjab province to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Gilgit Baltistan. Locals in Muzaffarabad and Mirpur are protesting the setting up of quarantine centres in an area where there are hardly any healthcare facilities.

In this situation, Indias has played a decisive role in forming a joint strategy to fight COVID-19 in the SAARC region and initiating a SAARC Corona Emergency Fund with a contribution of $10 million. India evacuated nearly 400 of its citizens from Iran between March 10 and 15. When Iran refused to screen Indians stranded in the country for coronavirus, India dispatched a temporary lab, medicines, doctors, healthcare workers and medical personnel to Iran for testing, screening the people for coronavirus, evacuating Indians and foreign nationals from there and later announcing to donate the lab to Iran.

For Afghanistan, which is in the midst of an internal dissension, with both Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah claiming to be presidents, a violent Islamic State attack on the Sikh community, talks with the Taliban and withdrawal of $1 billion American aid, a mass outbreak of the virus would be cataclysmic.

The pandemic calls for a large-scale response. As the traditional security provider in the region, India must too be at forefront in the battle against COVID-19, by coordinating a platform to ensure sustained funding and delivery of diagnostics and treatments.

Vaishali Basu Sharma has worked as a consultant with the National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS) for several years. She is, at present, associated with the think tank Policy Perspectives Foundation.

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Afghanistans Open Border With Iran Leaves it Vulnerable to COVID-19 - The Wire

As the survivors of the suicide attack carry the bodies of their deceased loved ones to the cremation grounds

New York, New York, March 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- UNITED SIKHS is deeply saddened in the wake of Wednesdays cowardly attack on Gurdwara Guru Har Rai in Shor Bazar, Kabul, Afghanistan which left 24 Sikhs dead and scores injured. The Sikh worshippers had gathered to pray for the world in response to the Covid-19 pandemic that has gripped the globe. Sadly their prayers were shattered by the bullets of terror. UNITED SIKHS is in touch with the families on the ground and has setup a GoFundMe page along with Facebook campaign for urgent assistance to the Afghani Sikhs impacted by this horrific act of violence. The assistance will be two-folds Advocacy to rehabilitate and Humanitarian Aid for urgent and emergency needs. UNITED SIKHS urges the United States, Canada, Australia, United Kingdom, France, Germany, India, Pakistan and other countries to answer the plea of the Sikhs and give them Special Protected Status. Special entry into their countries via protected asylum, relocation, security and/or rebuilding efforts must be undertaken on an urgent basis. UNITED SIKHS is working with the United Nations Secretary General, Antonio Guterres to speed up the migration of the Afghan Sikhs with UNHCR. We realize that the only plausible option is international resettlement along with a process where the Sikh heritage in Afghanistan can be preserved.

In the past 48 hours UNITED SIKHS has contacted the Afghan Sikh community in Afghanistan to assess their immediate needs through our chapter in Peshawar, Pakistan. Our legal wing has contacted the Afghanistan Ambassadors in the USA, Canada, UK, Australia and Kenya to seek security and safety of all remaining Sikhs in Afghanistan. We have reached out to the UN Rapporteurs to familiarize them with the issue at hand while seeking migration assistance for the Afghan families. We have urged the global community on social media to write to their congressmen, members of parliament and relevant law makers asking them to condemn this terrorist attack.

UNITED SIKHS has been advocating for the Afghan Sikhs since 2015 when refugee status was sought in Canada with the leadership of Alberta MLA Manmeet Singh Bhullar before his tragic passing. In 2018 after the Jalalabad bombing left 12 Sikh leaders dead, UNITED SIKHSpresented before the 39th session of the Human Rights Council the plight of the Hindus and Sikhs in Afghanistan. Later that year a petition was filed in the Canadian Parliament seeking safe passage. In the USA, over the past few years, the State Department has been approached as well as direct meetings taken place with Ambassador Brownback of the Office of International Religious Freedom.

Alarmingly, a second attack occurred when an explosion jolted the grieving families while performing the final rites of the deceased. Afghanistan has historically been home to hundreds of thousands of Sikhs for centuries. However due to the constant targeted violence the Sikh population has dwindled to barely one thousand, made up of less than 300 families, with only a few gurdwaras (houses of worship and learning) functioning in the country. One of the reasons some have been hesitant to leave Afghanistan has been to safeguard and protect their historical institutions. However with the constant carnage and devastation there remains very little in an alternative.

Globally, all UNITED SIKHS chapters stand unified in its condemning of the violence against the Sikh community in Afghanistan. The Sikh faith believes in bringing out the mutual understanding, respect and dignity of ALL people. Together, we join the world in supporting the families of those lost to this terrorist and senseless attack on our community.

About UNITED SIKHS: UNITED SIKHS is a U.N. affiliated, international non-profit, non-governmental, humanitarian relief, human development and advocacy organization, aimed at empowering those in need, especially disadvantaged and minority communities across the world. UNITED SIKHS is registered: as a non-profit tax-exempt organization pursuant to Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code in the USA; as a Registered Charity in England and Wales under the Charities Act 1993, Charity Number 111 2055; registered in Australia as a not for profit NGO (ABN 24 317 847 103); and is a registered NGO in Belgium; as a non-profit organization in Canada; under the Societies Registration Act 1860 in Panjab and as a tax-exempt organisation under section 80G of the Income Tax Act 1961; under the French Association Law 1901; under the Societies Registration Act 1860 in Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa, Pakistan; as a registered society under the Registrar of Societies in Malaysia (registered as UNITED SIKHS Malaysia Humanitarian Aid Organisation- Regn No: PPM-015-14-06042015); and an NGO pending registration in the Rep of Ireland.

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UNITED SIKHS calls for decisive action after the massacre of 24 Sikhs in Afghanistan - GlobeNewswire

The satanic Islamic State (IS) attack in the old city of Kabul came not too long after a US Institute of Peace (USIP)s forecast in January 2020. I had quoted this in my column dated March 13 that a precipitate US withdrawal without a broad-based peace deal would help Pakistans proxy terrorist groups to mount attacks on Indian interests in Afghanistan. However, this time, the attack did not come from Pakistans proxies in Afghanistan, but independently.

On Wednesday (March 25), a Gurdwara and Dharmshala in the Shor Bazar area, populated by Hindu and Sikh minorities, were attacked by terrorists. They lobbed grenades and sprayed bullets on 150 worshippers who were inside. 25 devotees were killed and 80, who were trapped inside, were rescued by Afghan Special forces and International troops. Official sources claimed that all terrorists were killed.

Islamic State promptly claimed the responsibility through Amaq News often the first point of publication for any claim of responsibility by the group. It said that the attack was led by an Indian national named Abu Khalid al-Hindi for avenging the crackdown on Muslims in Kashmir. Since 2015, Abu Khalid al-Hindi was active on Twitter, criticizing US, Russia and the criminal Gulf Princes.

However, his name was not seen among the new set of regional leaders of Islamic State of Khorasan (ISK), compiled by the Long War Journal (June 30, 2019), which mentioned Abu Talha al-Hindi as in-charge of India and Abu Abdallah al-Kashmiri as the head of Kashmir unit.

A study of terrorism history reveals that terrorist groups operating in terror ravaged areas like Syria, Iraq or Afghanistan indulge in destructive and escalating competition to wrest tactical advantage. They may not have specific grievances locally, but want to show their might. This is seen more in failed states, where the monopoly of using coercive power is not with the Central Government. Afghanistan may not be a failed state but 15% of its landmass is in rebel hands and its divided government hangs by a thread with the support of US forces.

Competitive escalation was evident in 2013 between Ayman al-Zawahiris al-Qaeda and the budding Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), over the Syrian Jabhat al-Nusra. Their dispute arose when al-Zawahiri rejected al-Baghadi (ISIS)s order of merger of al-Nusra with ISIS, which was earlier known as al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI). US National Security Agency (NSA) picked up chatters indicating that al-Zawahiris al-Qaeda, then known as al-Qaeda (Central), would mount spectacular attacks on US embassies to show who was more powerful. It resulted in the temporary closure of 22 US embassies in the Middle East and North Africa.

By 2014, global watchers were surprised with the agility of ISIS in capturing Iraqi towns in quick succession. In June 2014, it over-ran Mosul and announced a Caliphate. That was the beginning of the splintering of al-Qaeda (Central) with its 36 affiliates from Indonesia to Morocco, joining the ISIS bandwagon as its Vilayats. That was the period when both al-Qaeda and ISIS had continued indulging in competitive escalation of terrorist attacks to show their might.

The Combating Terrorism Centre (CTC) at West Point had published an assessment in December 2018 on Islamic State Wilayat Khorasan (ISK), whose total lethality and mortality per attack increased every year in Pakistan and Afghanistan. This was mainly due to their high end and low end cooperation with 11 local associates. Though, Abu Muhammad al-Adnani had made an announcement on ISK in January 2015, it was preceded by defections by nine former al-Qaeda local leaders in Afghanistan and six Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in 2014. In 2016, they announced Kashmir as part of Wilayat Khorasan.

As a result, they were able to conduct 211 attacks, resulting in 1,511 deaths in Afghanistan between January 2014 and July 2018. During the same period, they organized 83 attacks in Pakistan with 706 deaths. ISK carried out the second-deadliest attack in Pakistans history in July 2018, by bombing an election rally in Balochistan, killing 149.On July 1, 2018, ISK carried out a suicide attack in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, killing 19, mostly Sikhs who were going to meet the visiting President Ashraf Ghani.

The purpose of this piece is to flag threats to India from other groups, not necessarily Pakistans proxies in Afghanistan, after US withdrawal.

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Kabul Attack Shows Pakistan-backed Terrorists Are Not The Only Threat To Indo-Afghan Ties - Outlook India

The Ministry of Defense (MoD) confirmed that a military helicopter made an emergency landing in North-eastern Takhar province.

According to a statement released by MoD, the Mi-17 helicopter belonging to the Afghan military, made an emergency landing in Taloqan city on Thursday.

The statement further added that the helicopter has likely made an emergency landing due to bad weather conditions.

However, the defense ministry said it will investigate the incident to ascertain the exact cause of the incident.

The Ministry of Defense also added that the helicopter made the emergency landing in a safe area and no one on-board, including the pilots of the helicopter sustained injuries.

The Khaama Press News Agency is the leading and largest English news service for Afghanistan with over 3 million hits a month.Independent authors/columnists and experts are welcomed to contribute stories, opinions and editorials. Send stories to news@khaama.com.

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MoD investigating the emergency landing of Mi-17 helicopter in NE of Afghanistan - The Khaama Press News Agency

Armed terroristsattackeda Gurudwara in Shor Bazar Area of Afghanistan on Wednesday. Twenty-eight people lost their lives in the dastardly attack. The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack, however, the possible role of the Tehreek-e-Taliban backed by Pakistan has not been ruled out. Earlier, it was reported the Islamic Statecommuniqueclaiming responsibility for the attack identified the terrorist as an Indian national Abu Khalid al-Hindi who carried out the attack in order to avenge the supposed plight of Muslims in Kashmir. Meanwhile, Afghan and Western security agencies believe that the attack was ordered by Quetta Shura of the Taliban at the behest of Pakistani intelligence. As per areportby Hindustan Times, the operation was code-named Blackstar and the Haqqani Network led by Talibans deputy commander Sirajuddin Haqqani and elements of Lashkar-e-Tayyeba were used to carry out the attack. Now, it has emerged that Abu Khalid al-Hindi who attacked Sikhs in Afghanistan was one Mohammed Sajid Kuthirummal who had escaped from Kasargod, Kerala in 2015 to join ISIS, reported ANI.

Four years ago, Mohammed Sajid Kuthirummal had escaped to join ISIS. Before he did, he was a shopkeeper in Kasargod, Kerala. He had joined ISIS along with 14 others from Kasargod itself. Mohammed Sajid Kuthirummal was wanted by NIA in its 2016 Kasargod ISIS module case and had a red corner notice out against him.

The 2016 Kasargod IS module caserelatesto the criminal conspiracy hatched by terrorists from Kasaragod district of Kerala since Ramadan, 2015, with the intention of joining and furthering the objectives of ISIS. As part of the conspiracy, 14 accused from Kasaragod district had left India or their workplaces in Middle-East Asia between mid-May and early July 2016, before travelling to Afghanistan or Syria, where they joined the ISIS.

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During the investigation by Kerala Police, the role of 29-year-old Yasmeen Mohammad Zahid, a resident of Batla House, Okhla Jamia Nagar, New Delhi but originally from Sitamarhi district of Bihar, as a co-conspirator of Abdul Rashid was revealed. She was arrested on August 1, 2016, after she was intercepted at Indira Gandhi International Airport while attempting to exit India for Afghanistan, along with her child. As per the Kerala police, Yasmeen Mohammad Zahid was actively aiding Abdul Rashid in his activities including raising funds to support ISIS. The case was handed over to the NIA after she was arrested.

Read: ISIS shifting base to Afghanistan, poses threat to South Asian countries including India: Iran Minister

The NIA investigation revealed that Abdul Rashid, Yasmeen and others from 2015 were involved in activities to further objectives of the ISIS in Kerala and other places of India. 15 people including Sajid had fled from Kerala, India to join the terror group in Nangarhar province in Afghanistan.

The involvement of Mohammed Sajid Kuthirummal was revealed by the NIA after he joined the ISIS. Sajid had left on March 31, 2015 for Dubai from the Mumbai airport. Others had all left on different dates. It was reported that all of them had gone to Iran before going off the radar.

The NIA chargesheet said, Preliminary investigation in the above cases revealed that the missing persons left India and joined the IS in the Nangarhar province of Afghanistan. The accused are continuing their anti-national activities by propagating the ideology of and inviting support for the IS, through various means including, but not limited to, Internet based social media platforms.

The NIA website still has Mohammed Sajid Kuthirummal as one of the most wanted terrorists.

Wilayat Khorasan of Islamic State in Afghanistan (ISIS-K), the group Mohammed Sajid is said to have joined, mainly comprises of terrorists from Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

Earlier in 2019, 900 terrorists, some of whom were family members of Indians who had joined ISIS, surrendered in the Eastern province of Nangarhar, where the Afghan national security forces were conducting operations against the ISIS. The operations started on the 12th of November 2019 against the terror outfit. 93 terrorists, that included several Pakistanis, had surrendered only hours after Afghanistans offensive against the terror outfit began on the 12th of November 2019.

Interestingly, it wasreported that the Khorasan group of ISIS, or the ISIS-K, had attempted a suicide attack in India in 2018. This was claimed by a top US official. The ISIS-K operates in South Asia and according to Russel Travers, Acting Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Office of Director of National Intelligence, ISIS-K concerns the US the most among all of its other branches.

Of all of the branches and networks of ISIS, ISIS-K is certainly one of those of most concern, probably in the neighbourhood of 4,000 individuals or so, Travers hadsaidin response to a question from Maggie Hassan, the junior Senator from New Hampshire. They have attempted to certainly inspire attacks outside of Afghanistan. They attempted last year to conduct a suicide attack in India. It failed, he had added.

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Abu Khalid al-Hindi who attacked Sikhs in Afghanistan was one Mohammed Sajid from Kasargod ISIS module, Kerala: Here is all you need to know - OpIndia