AT-KABUL: Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Industries (ACCI) on Monday termed abduction, high taxes and visa issuance challenges as the main barriers ahead of traders, urging the government to take measures for solution. The chamber’s deputy Khanjan Alokozai criticized 25 percent increase in the rate of energy, asking for the …

The main faction of the Afghan Taliban led by Mullah Akhtar Mansoor may return to the negotiating table with Afghan government representatives despite escalating violence in Kabul which has dented peace efforts. The Taliban expressed their willingness to resume the fledgling peace process following recent talks between the group’s interlocutors …

AT-KABUL: Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs calls the unemployment rate above 40 per cent. “Although there is no new survey regarding unemployment rate, but it can be above 40 percent in the country,” Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Nasrin Oryakhil said Sunday. She said that based on a …

AT-KABUL:  The counter-narcotics police have arrested two smugglers with 23kg drugs in Parwan province, a provincial security official said Sunday. Salim Noori, spokesman for Parwan police, said that the smugglers were arrested in an operation with 23 kg crude hashish in the Jabul Sraj district. “The arrested smugglers had skillfully …

Tariff increased by 25pc in 15 provinces to recover losses By Akhtar M. Nikzad-KABUL: The state-run power distribution company announced Sunday that the cost of electricity would increase by 25 per cent in 15 provinces, underling fall of Afghani against the US dollar as major reason. The electricity cost two …

AT-KABUL: Sixty-four Taliban fighters were killed and 50 others wounded in different crackdowns in the past 24 hours, security officials said Sunday. In a press release, Ministry of Defense (MoD) said that Afghan National Army (ANA) with the collaboration of the Afghan National Police (ANP) and National Directorate of Security …

AT-KABUL: Armed Taliban insurgents shot dead the wife of a police officer at his house in Darqad district of Takhar province, a security official of the province said Sunday. Noor Mohammad Hakimi, provincial police chief told media that, Taliban insurgents stormed the officer’s home Saturday night in the Noorkhil village …

AT-KABUL: The National Directorate of Security (NDS) on Sunday said that its operatives had killed a key Taliban military commander in the eastern Logar province. In a statement the NDS, identified the commander as Mohammad Rahim, saying he was killed along with two others accompanying him in the Khoshi district. …

Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat (DABS) is all set to drop power bill bomb on consumers. Spokesman for the state-run electricity distribution company, Wahidullah Tawhidi, said that tariff on imported electricity for consumers was to be increased by 25 percent. The decision has been taken to recover the loss of around …

Afrasiab Khattak-Religious seminaries have a long history but Taliban (students of the seminaries) emerged as an independent and separate political entity in mid 1990s. They ostensibly rose as a player in Afghan politics to fill the vacuum created by the dramatic decline of former mujahideen in the early 1990s but …