KABUL: Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Sunday announced a cease-fire with Taliban insurgents from Monday to mark the Muslim Eid Al-Adha holiday, despite the heavy fighting seen over recent days in the central city of Ghazni.
“The conditional cease-fire will start tomorrow and it will continue as long as the Taliban preserves and respects it,” he said in an Afghan Independence Day ceremony in Kabul.
“We call on the leadership of the Taliban to welcome the wishes of Afghans for a long-lasting and real peace,” he said.
A senior official in Ghani’s office said the “conditional” cease-fire would run for three months.
It was not immediately clear whether the Taliban had accepted Ghani’s call for a truce during Eid, the annual Islamic feast of sacrifice, which officially begins on Tuesday.
This month the Taliban fought an intense battle with Afghan forces to control the strategically important city of Ghazni.
At least 150 soldiers and 95 civilians were killed in a five-day siege, which eased last week when Afghan soldiers backed by US forces pushed back the heavily armed rebels.
The Taliban said in a statement that they had control over half of Afghanistan.
Blasts, suicide attacks and clashes between hard-line Islamic militants and Afghan forces killed over 1,600 civilians in the first six months of the year, the highest number in the past decade, the United Nations said in a statement on Sunday.
Ghani’s cease-fire announcement was limited to the Taliban and excluded other militant groups such as Daesh.
Afghanistan announces Muslim Eid holiday cease-fire with Taliban
Afghanistan announces Muslim Eid holiday cease-fire with Taliban
- “We call on the leadership of the Taliban to welcome the wishes of Afghans for a long-lasting and real peace,” President Ashraf Ghani said
- Ghani’s cease-fire announcement was limited to the Taliban and excluded other militant groups such as Daesh
Bangladesh rocked by unrest over death of student leader
- Protesters torch media offices, political sites and cultural landmarks
- Government declares state of mourning, urges calm amid rising tensions
Violent protests erupted in several cities across Bangladesh after the death of youth leader Sharif Osman Hadi late on Thursday, with concerns of further unrest ahead of national elections in which he was due to run.
Hadi, 32, a spokesperson for the Inquilab Mancha platform who participated in the student-led protests that overthrew the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, was shot in the head by masked assailants in Dhaka last Friday while launching his campaign for the elections.
He was initially treated at a local hospital before being flown to Singapore for advanced medical care, where he died after spending six days on life support.
Hadi was an outspoken critic of India, and Inquilab Mancha describes itself on its website as a “revolutionary cultural platform inspired by the spirit of uprising.”
In Dhaka, videos circulating on social media showed mobs vandalising the offices of the country’s largest daily newspaper, Prothom Alo, as well as the Daily Star.
The demonstrations were marked by emotionally charged slogans invoking Hadi’s name, with protesters vowing to continue their movement and demanding swift justice. Several areas remained tense, with additional police and paramilitary forces deployed to prevent further violence.
Police did not immediately comment, while the fire service said the blaze at the Daily Star was under control. Troops were deployed to the scene, and firefighters rescued journalists trapped inside the building.
Bangladesh has been governed by an interim administration led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus since August 2024, after Hasina fled to India following a student-led uprising. The government has been grappling with fresh protests over delayed reforms, and warnings of unrest by Hasina’s party, which has been barred from the vote, scheduled for February 12.
In a televised address to the nation following Hadi’s death, Yunus said: “His passing represents an irreplaceable loss to the nation’s political and democratic sphere.”
Urging citizens to remain calm, Yunus said the government was committed to ensuring a transparent investigation and bringing all those responsible to justice. He also appealed for restraint, warning that violence would only undermine the country’s path toward a credible election.
The interim administration has declared Saturday a day of state mourning in honor of Hadi, with national flags to be flown at half-mast and special prayers planned across the country. The home of the country’s first president, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the father of Hasina, was vandalized and set on fire once again, after having been attacked twice previously in February and August last year.
In Dhaka, the premises of the prominent Bengali cultural organization Chhayanaut were vandalized and torched. In the northwestern district of Rajshahi, protesters demolished an Awami League party office using a bulldozer, while demonstrators blocked major highways in several other districts.
Violence was also reported in a number of cities across Bangladesh, including the port city of Chittagong, where protesters attacked the Indian Assistant High Commission and set fire to a house belonging to a former Awami League education minister. The unrest follows fresh anti-India protests earlier in the week, with ties between the neighbors deteriorating since Hasina fled to Delhi. On Wednesday, hundreds of demonstrators under the banner “July Oikya” (July Unity) marched toward the Indian High Commission in Dhaka, chanting anti-India slogans, while also demanding the return of Hasina.
