Iranian, Tajik Presidents Discuss Afghanistan

Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi (R) greets his Tajik counterpart Emomali Rahmon (L) during a welcome ceremony at the presidential palace in Tehran, Iran, 30 May 2022. (EPA)
Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi (R) greets his Tajik counterpart Emomali Rahmon (L) during a welcome ceremony at the presidential palace in Tehran, Iran, 30 May 2022. (EPA)
TT

Iranian, Tajik Presidents Discuss Afghanistan

Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi (R) greets his Tajik counterpart Emomali Rahmon (L) during a welcome ceremony at the presidential palace in Tehran, Iran, 30 May 2022. (EPA)
Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi (R) greets his Tajik counterpart Emomali Rahmon (L) during a welcome ceremony at the presidential palace in Tehran, Iran, 30 May 2022. (EPA)

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi held talks in Tehran on Monday with Tajik President Emomali Rahmon.

Discussions focused on the situation in neighboring Afghanistan.

Raisi said both countries want stability and security in Afghanistan and throughout the region and consider the presence of terrorists in this country very worrying.

The two parties signed cooperation agreements in various fields less than two weeks after the inauguration of an Iranian factory for military drones in Tajikistan.

Iran and Tajikistan agree on the issue of Afghanistan and that an inclusive government should be formed, said Raisi.

He stressed that Iran and Tajikistan "believe that the outsiders and the evil hands of arrogance that strengthen ISIS and terrorist groups in the region do not even think about the security of the people of Afghanistan and the region, and they are only pursuing their own political goals and interests."

"Evidence of this was the 20-year presence of NATO and the United States in Afghanistan, which resulted in nothing but war, bloodshed, and destruction for the country," he added.

Raisi had traveled to Dushanbe in September on his first foreign visit.

Raisi said his visit helped increase trade relations between the two countries fourfold.

During Rahmon's visit, senior Iranian and Tajik officials Iran signed 17 documents of cooperation in politics, economy, trade, transportation, investment, new technologies, environment, sports, energy, judiciary, education and research, and tourism in the presence of the two presidents.

Raisi said the agreements are a "turning point in strengthening and deepening relations between the two countries."

On May 17, Iran's Chief of Staff Mohammad Bagheri visited Dushanbe and inaugurated a drone factory, "Ababil 2," to produce UAVs capable of flying for about 90 minutes with a range of 150 km.

It was the first time Iran publicly announced the manufacture of weapons and drones outside its territory, which is seen as an attempt to establish a balance of power in the region, especially after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan.

In January, Pakistan's "The Frontier Post" revealed that the US is trying to persuade the governments of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan to set up military bases in their territories for possible special operations in Afghanistan, including drones and units to assess intelligence data.



Bangladesh Says Student Leaders Held for Their Own Safety

People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
TT

Bangladesh Says Student Leaders Held for Their Own Safety

People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)

Bangladesh said three student leaders had been taken into custody for their own safety after the government blamed their protests against civil service job quotas for days of deadly nationwide unrest.

Students Against Discrimination head Nahid Islam and two other senior members of the protest group were Friday forcibly discharged from hospital and taken away by a group of plainclothes detectives.

The street rallies organized by the trio precipitated a police crackdown and days of running clashes between officers and protesters that killed at least 201 people, according to an AFP tally of hospital and police data.

Islam earlier this week told AFP he was being treated at the hospital in the capital Dhaka for injuries sustained during an earlier round of police detention.

Police had initially denied that Islam and his two colleagues were taken into custody before home minister Asaduzzaman Khan confirmed it to reporters late on Friday.

"They themselves were feeling insecure. They think that some people were threatening them," he said.

"That's why we think for their own security they needed to be interrogated to find out who was threatening them. After the interrogation, we will take the next course of action."

Khan did not confirm whether the trio had been formally arrested.

Days of mayhem last week saw the torching of government buildings and police posts in Dhaka, and fierce street fights between protesters and riot police elsewhere in the country.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government deployed troops, instituted a nationwide internet blackout and imposed a curfew to restore order.

- 'Carried out raids' -

The unrest began when police and pro-government student groups attacked street rallies organized by Students Against Discrimination that had remained largely peaceful before last week.

Islam, 26, the chief coordinator of Students Against Discrimination, told AFP from his hospital bed on Monday that he feared for his life.

He said that two days beforehand, a group of people identifying themselves as police detectives blindfolded and handcuffed him and took him to an unknown location to be tortured before he was released the next morning.

His colleague Asif Mahmud, also taken into custody at the hospital on Friday, told AFP earlier that he had also been detained by police and beaten at the height of last week's unrest.

Police have arrested at least 4,500 people since the unrest began.

"We've carried out raids in the capital and we will continue the raids until the perpetrators are arrested," Dhaka Metropolitan Police joint commissioner Biplob Kumar Sarker told AFP.

"We're not arresting general students, only those who vandalized government properties and set them on fire."