Politics
Rescuers in Afghanistan race to reach remote quake-hit mountain villages
- Late night magnitude-6 quake comes as one of Afghanistan’s worst tremors.
- Rescue efforts focus on remote mountain areas, hindered by terrain, weather.
- WHO highlights overwhelmed local health system and aid delivery challenges.
Rescuers in Afghanistan will try to reach isolated villages in the eastern region of Kunar, the epicentre of an earthquake that killed over 800 people and injured more than 2,800, authorities told Reuters on Tuesday.
Rescue operations were carried out in four villages in Kunar on Monday after the quake struck and efforts will now be focused on reaching more remote mountain areas, said Ehsanullah Ehsan, the provincial head of disaster management.
“We cannot accurately predict how many bodies might still be trapped under the rubble,” said Ehsan. “Our effort is to complete these operations as soon as possible and to begin distributing aid to the affected families.”
One of Afghanistan’s worst earthquakes, with a magnitude of 6, struck around midnight local time on Monday, at a shallow depth of 10 km (6 miles), killing 812 people in the eastern provinces of Kunar and Nangarhar.
Mountainous terrain and inclement weather have hindered rescuers reaching remote areas along the Pakistani border where the quake flattened mudbrick homes.
Gaining access for vehicles on the narrow mountain roads was the main obstacle for relief work, said Ehsan, adding machinery was being brought in to clear roads of debris.
On Tuesday, a line of ambulances was on the damaged mountain road trying to reach Kunar villages, as helicopters flew in, bringing aid supplies and taking the injured to hospitals, according to a Reuters witness.
Some of those injured have been transferred to hospitals in Kabul and the adjacent province of Nangarhar, said Ehsan.
Taliban soldiers were deployed in the area, providing help and security. The disaster has further stretched the war-torn nation’s Taliban administration, already grappling with a sharp drop in foreign aid and deportations of hundreds of thousands of Afghans by neighbouring countries.
“National and international organisations are present in the area, have organised their assistance, and, God willing, aid will be distributed in an orderly manner,” said Ehsan.
Rescue teams and authorities are trying to dispose of animal carcasses quickly so as to minimise the risk of contamination to water resources, a UN official said on Monday.
“Damaged roads, ongoing aftershocks, and remote locations of many villages severely impede the delivery of aid,” the World Health Organisation said in a situation update, adding that over 12,000 people had been affected by the quake.
“The pre-earthquake fragility of the health system means local capacity is overwhelmed, creating total dependence on external actors,” said the update.
Afghanistan is prone to deadly earthquakes, particularly in the Hindu Kush mountain range, where the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates meet.
A 6.1-magnitude earthquake that killed 1,000 people in the eastern region in 2022 was the first major natural disaster faced by the Taliban government.
Huge crowds took to the streets Saturday in all 50 US states to vent their anger over President Donald Trump’s hardline policies at “No Kings” protests that Republicans ridiculed as “Hate America” rallies.
From New York and Washington to smaller cities in Michigan and Trump’s second home in Florida, demonstrations in the eastern half of the United States revved up ahead of similar events due out west.
More than 2,700 protests are planned coast to coast, and organisers say they are expecting millions to attend.
“This is what democracy looks like!” chanted thousands at a protest in Washington near the National Mall, home to the city’s iconic landmarks.
“Hey hey ho ho, Donald Trump has got to go!” said protesters, many of them carrying American flags.
Demonstrators are up in arms over what they see as strongarm tactics since the Republican billionaire returned to the White House in January, including attacks on the media, prosecuting political opponents and a vast immigration crackdown.
A US government shutdown is now in its third week, with the Trump administration firing thousands of federal workers and lawmakers showing little sign they are ready to break the impasse.
Thousands flooded New York’s Times Square, Boston Common and Chicago’s Grant Park.
“I never thought I would live to see the death of my country as a democracy,” 69-year-old retiree Colleen Hoffman told AFP as she marched down Broadway.
“We are in a crisis— the cruelty of this regime, the authoritarianism. I just feel like I cannot sit home and do nothing.”
In New York’s Queens borough, demonstrators carried colorful signs that read “Queens Say No Kings,” and “We protest because we love America and want it back!” while some chanted, “We love our country, we can’t stand Trump!”
In Los Angeles, organizers plan to float a giant balloon of Trump in a diaper. They said they expect 100,000 people to attend.
So far, Trump’s response to Saturday’s events has been muted.
“They’re saying they’re referring to me as a king. I’m not a king,” he told Fox News show “Sunday Morning Futures.”
But his top surrogates were in more fighting form, with House Speaker Mike Johnson calling the day of protest the “Hate America rally.”
“You’re going to bring together the Marxists, the Socialists, the Antifa advocates, the anarchists and the pro-Hamas wing of the far-left Democrat Party,” he told reporters.
Republican lawmaker Tom Emmer also used the “Hate America” phrase and referred to participants as the “terrorist wing” of the Democratic Party.
‘Country of equals’
Beyond the United States, the “No Kings” movement is even organizing events in Canada, and small protests took place Saturday in Malaga, Spain and Malmo, Sweden.
On Thursday, Deirdre Schifeling, chief political and advocacy officer for the American Civil Liberties Union, said protesters wanted to convey that “we are a country of equals.”
“We are a country of laws that apply to everyone, of due process and of democracy. We will not be silenced,” she told reporters.
Leah Greenberg, co-founder of the Indivisible Project, slammed the Trump administration’s efforts to send the National Guard into US cities and crack down on undocumented migrants.
Trump has ordered National Guard troops into Los Angeles, Washington and Memphis. Planned deployments to Chicago and Portland, Oregon have so far been blocked in the courts.
“It is the classic authoritarian playbook: threaten, smear and lie, scare people into submission,” Greenberg said.
Top Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer encouraged demonstrators to let their voices be heard.
“I say to my fellow Americans this No Kings Day: Do not let Donald Trump and Republicans intimidate you into silence. That’s what they want to do. They’re afraid of the truth,” he wrote Saturday on X.
“Speak out, use your voice, and exercise your right to free speech.”
More than seventy Khwarij belonging to Gul Bahadur group, including key Khwariji leader Farman alias Al-Karamah, have been killed during effective precision strikes on terrorist hideouts of Khwariji Gul Bahadur group in the areas of Paktika.
According to credible intelligence sources, these strikes were carried out in the night of 17th of October.
According to security officials, the Khwariji Gul Bahadur group is involved in major and numerous acts of terrorism in Pakistan while infiltrating from Afghanistan.
On October 17, the same group also carried out a failed VBIED attack in Khadi area of North Waziristan, in which three women, two children and a jawan were martyred.
Moreover, other Khwariji leaders Gulab alis Deewana, Rehmani, Adil,Siddiqullah Dawar, Ghazi Maddah Khel, Muqarrab, Qismat Ullah and Fazal-ur-Rehman were also killed in the attacks.
Khwariji Fazal-ur-Rehman is the close relative of Gul Bahadur. Similarly, Khwariji Ashiq Ullah alias Kausar and Younus were also killed in these strikes.
The security officials termed the killing of important Khwarji leaders as a significant and big success
- “All aircraft are safe,” says airport official Masudul Hasan.
- Blaze disrupts both domestic and international flights.
- No immediate information on what caused blaze.
Flights out of Bangladesh’s main airport were delayed or diverted on Saturday after a major fire broke out in the cargo terminal, officials said.
Thirty-six firefighting units are working to douse the flames, Talha Bin Zasim, an officer at the Fire Service and Civil Defence Media Cell, told Reuters.
Operations at Dhaka’s Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport were suspended, airport official Masudul Hasan told reporters, adding all aircraft are safe.
There was no immediate information as to what may have caused the blaze.
Both domestic and international flights were affected.
An IndiGo flight from Delhi to Dhaka was diverted to Kolkata, and an Air Arabia flight from Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates was sent on to Chittagong.
Meanwhile, a Cathay Pacific flight from Hong Kong was seen circling in the sky after failing to land at Dhaka airport, officials said.
The army, navy, and air force joined the fire service in efforts to bring the blaze under control.
This is the third major fire reported in Bangladesh this week. A fire on Tuesday at a garment factory in Bangladesh and an adjacent chemical warehouse killed at least 16 people and injured others. On Thursday, another fire burned down a garment factory building in an export processing zone in Chittagong.
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