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Head coach Aaqib Javed brushed aside criticism of Pakistan’s reliance on spin bowling as they seek a clean sweep against the West Indies in the second Test starting on Saturday.Pakistan completed a 127-run win inside three days in the opening Test, with spinners Sajid Khan taking nine wickets, Noman Ali six and Abrar Ahmed five for their third straight win at home.West Indies left-arm spinner Jomel Warrican also grabbed a career-best 7-32 as 34 of the 40 wickets in the match went to spinners.The second Test will also be played on a dry and grassless pitch in the central city of Multan.Former Pakistan players and analysts hit out at the spin-heavy strategy, saying the team would struggle on away tours where pitches may not be as conducive to spin.Aaqib, a fast bowler from an era dominated by the great pacemen Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis, insisted the spin assault would continue.”We found that the West Indies have a weakness in dealing with the spin bowling, so we exploited that and will do that again,” Aaqib told a news conference on Friday.West Indies skipper Kraigg Brathwaite had no qualms about Pakistan’s tactics.”Pakistan are playing at home and if they believe spinning pitches are their strength then that’s fine and that’s how cricket is played,” Brathwaite said.”I have played on pitches which took turn from day one but not like this, which had cracks from day one,” he said.- ‘Believe in your plan’ – West Indies will be without injured pace bowler Jayden Seales, who took three wickets in the first match and will be replaced by the experienced Kemar Roach.Pakistan are unlikely to make any changes.Brathwaite said his batters need more faith after the first Test, in which his team managed just 137 and 123 in their two innings, with Alick Athanaze the only one to reach a half century.”It was a difficult pitch to bat in the last game,” Brathwaite said.”I would say you need to believe in your plan from ball one and not think of the third or fourth ball.”Pakistan are eighth and the West Indies ninth and last on the World Test Championship table.Another victory in Multan could see the hosts rise to seventh.Pakistan were forced to make radical changes last year after losing the first of three Tests against England, their 11th straight home Test without a win.The Aaqib-led selection panel dropped out-of-form batter Babar Azam and rested pace spearheads Shaheen Shah Afridi and Naseem Shah.The tactics worked on the spin-friendly pitches in Rawalpindi and Pakistan went on to win the series 2-1.”If we had taken these decisions earlier we would have been in the race for World Test Championship final,” Aaqib said.

The Taliban authorities that rule Afghanistan have imposed a severe interpretation of Islamic law on the population, heavily restricting all aspects of women’s lives. This week, the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor said he was seeking arrest warrants against senior Taliban leaders over the persecution of women, a crime against humanity.The government claims it secures Afghan women’s rights under Sharia law, but many of the edicts are not followed in the rest of the Islamic world and have been condemned by Muslim leaders. The United Nations has called it a “gender apartheid”, and no country has formally recognised the government since they swept to power in a lightning but largely bloodless military offensive in 2021. – Education -Taliban authorities banned girls from public secondary classes at the start of the new school year in 2022.A year later, universities were also closed to women. The last options for education — midwifery and nursing – were banned from teaching women late last year. Afghanistan is the only country in the world where girls and women are barred from education and the move has been widely criticised by Muslim leaders — including the Saudi-based Muslim World League.- Work -Taliban authorities have made it increasingly difficult for women to work in a bid to keep them segregated from men.While they held positions throughout the civil service of the foreign-backed government ousted by Taliban insurgents, women have been mostly been fired, forced to stay home, and have had their pay slashed.Officially, women can no longer work for NGOs and the United Nations apart from in education and health, although the ban has not been strictly enforced.Women are allowed to work from home or in women-majority businesses, such as textiles.Private businesses can employ women, but in offices that are supposed to be segregated. – Public life -In cities, where women once generally already wore modest clothing and headscarves, huge billboards and posters on shop windows order them to cover their hair, faces and their bodies with a long cloak and face mask. Women rarely appear on television, and many journalists have been pushed off screen. They are banned from public spaces such as parks and gyms, while baths and salons have been closed down.Women travelling long distances must be accompanied by a male chaperone.In one of the latest orders, women cannot sing or recite poetry in public, and their voices and bodies must be “concealed” outside the home.The Ministry of Women’s Affairs was shut down and their offices taken over by the Ministry of Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, the Taliban authority’s morality police.

Afghan taekwondo star Marzieh Hamidi told AFP the death threats she has received, forcing her to live under French police protection, show how effective her stinging criticism of the Taliban has been.The 22-year-old’s defiance of Afghanistan’s governing Taliban fits well with her coming from “a family of freedom fighters.”Her father fought in the Afghanistan army and then alongside the late mujahideen leader Ahmed Shah Massoud before moving to Iran.Hamidi’s weapon has been her voice, since coming to France in December 2021 after living for a few months under Taliban rule when they seized power again in August that year.However, her no-holds-barred criticisms of the Taliban had serious repercussions.Last September she was granted police protection after receiving 5,000 calls, including 500 threatening to either murder or rape her.French prosecutors opened an investigation in September after her lawyer Ines Davau lodged a legal complaint for cyber-harassment and death threats, as well as threats of rape.Remarkably, the erudite and passionate Hamidi — formerly Afghanistan’s national champion at -57 kilos and with a ranking in the top 100 in the world — sees the positive side.”It means that I have more power than them, because I always talk about the situation,” she told AFP at Davau’s office in Paris.”This time I talk about more details, because it’s not to boycott Taliban, it’s also to boycott who are normalising them.”It can be an athlete, an artist, activist.”She believes in particular that the men’s Afghan cricket federation has close links to the Taliban and should be boycotted by their opponents.Hamidi, whose sporting aim is to compete at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, has an Afghan passport and a 10-year French residency permit.She said it was her duty to harangue the Taliban and their supporters.The Taliban has imposed an austere version of Islamic law that the United Nations has labelled “gender apartheid” and Afghanistan is the only country in the world where girls are banned from secondary school and university. The Taliban authorities claim Islamic law “guarantees” the rights of all Afghans.”I have to fight, because I was stuck there three months,” said Hamidi.”I saw that the system is against women, how they are making it a bad place for everyone.”So because of that, I’m talking about this.”Hamidi, who was born in Iran and returned with her family to live in Afghanistan in 2020, remains in touch with friends back home.”Each time is bad when I talk with them.”- ‘Feel so lonely’ -Hamidi says wearing the burqa is repugnant — a 2022 edict by the supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada said women should wear the garment but many just wear headscarves and long coats.”I think this is the end of humanity. Like, you cannot breathe.”You put on the burqa. It’s like you put yourself in a prison when you walk in the city.”Hamidi’s way of life in France is restricted in a manner which would be alien to ordinary people.Phone calls have to be made to cinemas and restaurants alerting them to her coming, accompanied by a police bodyguard, and to ensure it is “a safe area.”Her frustration boils over at times.”I mean, at my age, it’s too much for me, you know, like, I just want to live free and to go crazy,” she said.”I’m proud of my fight, I’m not regretful of my fight, but I’m sad what’s going on in my life because of that.”This is costing my safety, my freedom, my joy in life.”She has the unconditional support of her parents, three sisters and brother — who live at an undisclosed location.”It’s the spirit of my parents that they are combatants,” said Hamidi, who managed to see them recently.”They really have this spirit to fight against this Taliban ideology.”Because of that, they always support me. “Sometimes my mum tells me, ‘calm down, Marzieh’. But, it’s my mom. She’s stressing for me.”My father, he’s like, no, no, no, keep going, keep going.” Hamidi, whose sole company largely consists of her PR representative Baptiste Berard Proust and Davau, says things are bleak at times.”At the end of the day, it’s me facing this,” she said.”Sometimes I feel so lonely, even if I have good people around me.”I’m kind of lost, sometimes it’s difficult to keep the balance in life for me.”It’s a lot of pressure, because the most important thing for me is my taekwondo.”She admits she is “really afraid”. nevertheless her indomitable spirit ensures she remains unbowed.  “If I stay silent, they win.”

Bangladesh let 178 former paramilitary troops walk free from jail Thursday, nearly 16 years after they were detained over a violent mutiny that massacred dozens of senior army officers.Rampaging troops from the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) murdered 74 people during the two-day revolt that began in Dhaka and spread across the country in 2009, destabilising the government of then-premier Sheikh Hasina weeks after she took office. Thousands of participants were rounded up after the mutiny ended with more than 150 initially sentenced to death in trials criticised by rights groups for procedural shortcomings. Those bailed on Thursday had been acquitted of murder charges, but were kept in custody on accusations of violating explosives laws — with their cases still pending more than a decade after the revolt.”I can’t express my feelings in words. I am returning to my family. I came out of a life full of darkness into the light,” newly released prisoner Abul Kashem, 38, told AFP. The releases came months after the ouster of Hasina following a student-led uprising against her 15 years of autocratic rule over the South Asian nation. Relatives of the jailed men thronged prisons in Dhaka from early in the morning after news of the impending release spread.”It feels like a dream. I never would have imagined he could come out of jail if Hasina was still in power,” Shiuly Akter, 40, the wife of one of the men released on Thursday, told AFP. “There was no justice here; what happened to us was unfair. My husband knew nothing about the mutiny or the killings. He was just a novice in the BDR when he was arrested.”A previous official investigation into the mutiny blamed years of pent-up anger among ordinary soldiers, who felt their appeals for pay rises and better treatment were ignored. But that probe was carried out during Hasina’s tenure, and her opponents have claimed her involvement in a conspiracy to orchestrate the mutiny in a plan to weaken the military and bolster her own power. Since her fall, families of soldiers killed in the violence have been campaigning to reopen the investigation, a demand met last month by the interim government which replaced Hasina’s regime. The mutineers stole thousands of weapons from the BDR headquarters before embarking on a killing spree in the barracks.The uprising quickly spread, with thousands of soldiers pledging allegiance to the mutineers before it was quashed by the army.

Bangladeshi students braved bullets to overthrow an autocratic government, but six months after the revolution, many say finding a job is proving a harder task than manning the barricades.Dhaka University student Mohammad Rizwan Chowdhury’s dreams of ample opportunities for youth have been badly dented, saying he had seen little action from the caretaker government of Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus.”I can’t see any fruitful initiatives taken by the government so far,” Chowdhury grumbled, a25-year-old student who took part in the protests that drove autocratic ex-leader Sheikh Hasina into exile on August 5.Unemployment was a key driver of protests last year. Since the revolution, it has only grown worse.At the end of September 2024, the number of people seeking employment in the country of 170 million hit 2.66 million, a six-percent increase from 2.49 million the year before, according to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).The International Monetary Fund warned in September that economic activity had “slowed markedly, while inflation remains at double-digit levels”, with tax revenues down while spending pressures had increased.For many, the euphoria of Hasina’s ouster is fading.Chowdhury said that while Yunus handed cabinet posts to student leaders, he felt demands were being ignored.”Although our representatives are part of the administration, I’m not sure whether our voices are being heard,” the political science graduate said.- ‘Whatever jobs they can’ -Literature graduate Shukkur Ali, 31, scrapes by on odd jobs to support his elderly and sick parents.”I do anything and everything just to cover the bare minimum,” he told AFP, adding that newspaper job advertisements have dried up.”I used to apply only for white-collar jobs in educational institutions or banks — but failed,” he said. “Now, anything is good for me. I just want a job.”Independent analyst Zahid Hussain,71, former lead economist at the World Bank in Dhaka, said that around a third of the working labour force are “underemployed doing whatever jobs they can to pay the bills”.Bangladesh’s economy grew dramatically after its independence in 1971.That was largely due to its textile industry producing global brands in a multi-billion dollar business as the world’s second-largest garment exporter.But jobs outside the crowded clothing factories for university graduates are far fewer.Educated Bangladeshis make up 87 percent of those without work, according to BBS figures.The government says it is making every effort to address the issue.Shafiqul Alam, Yunus’ press secretary, said robust tax generation would allow the government to invest in the public sector and create a “huge” number of jobs.”Ensuring better revenue collection is a priority, as the previous government left behind a broken economy,” Alam said.- ‘Empty-handed’ -But Yunus, an 84-year-old microfinance pioneer, is also swept up in what he calls the “extremely tough” challenge of restoring democratic institutions ahead of elections slated for this year or early 2026.Those reforms include an overhaul of the constitution and the public administration to prevent a return to autocracy.”The interim government is preoccupied with managing the mess they inherited,” said Hussain, adding there were only “sporadic attempts” to support the youth, such as hiring students to assist traffic police.”The administration isn’t functioning at full speed,” he said. “I’d rate them 50 out of 100.”Challenges are daunting.”The public sector can recruit no more than 20,000 to 25,000 graduates, while around 700,000 graduates leave colleges each year,” said AKM Fahim Mashroor, chief of popular online job site Bdjobs.The private sector provides around 85 percent of jobs, but there is little optimism there either.”Both the public and private sectors have been slow in recruiting since August 5,” he added.And the unrest has spooked investors.Bangladesh’s central bank says foreign investment between July and November 2024 was $177 million — less than a third of the $614 million secured under Hasina’s iron-fisted rule during the same period the previous year.Taskeen Ahmed, president of the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said the government should roll out programmes to support young job-seekers including “loan schemes for youth to start businesses”.Some like Subir Roy, a 31-year-old finance graduate who was nominated to a government job only for it to be rescinded without reason, said it was already too late for him.”My father sold a small piece of land to send me to university… now I’m returning home empty-handed,” Roy said. “I’ll join my father in the paddy field.”

Inspired bowling and a 34-ball 79 by opener Abhishek Sharma helped India to a crushing seven-wicket win over England in the first T20 international on Wednesday.Spinner Varun Chakravarthy and fast bowler Arshdeep Singh shared five wickets between them as India bowled out England for 132 after the hosts elected to field first in Kolkata.Left-hander Sharma then came out firing and despite losing two of his partners smashed a 20-ball fifty and ended with eight sixes and five fours to steer the team to victory in 12.5 overs and a 1-0 lead in the five-match series. The T20 series, followed by three ODIs, between the two teams serve as a warm-up for the 50-over Champions Trophy next month.England skipper Jos Buttler smashed 68 off 44 balls but the rest of the line-up failed to get going.”The energy, the way we started, that set the benchmark,” India skipper Suryakumar Yadav said. “All the bowlers had their own plans and executed.”England opener Phil Salt fell for a duck on the third ball of the match, with a leading edge off his bat sending the ball high and into the gloves of wicketkeeper Sanju Samson.Arshdeep dismissed Ben Duckett for four in the third over, with Rinku Singh taking a stunning backward running catch from the covers.Buttler hit back with four boundaries off Hardik Pandya as he attempted to rebuild in a 48-run third-wicket partnership with his new deputy Harry Brook, who scored 17.Chakravarthy bowled Brook with a googly and sent back Liam Livingstone for a duck as the ball darted into the stumps once again.Buttler reached his fifty in 34 balls but wickets kept tumbling and in an attempt to push the scoring the skipper finally fell to Chakravarthy, who returned figures of 3-23, the ball after hitting the bowler for six.Arshdeep, Axar Patel and Pandya took two wickets each and a run out from the last ball saw England all out in 20 overs.India raced to 41 in 4.1 overs before fast bowler Jofra Archer took down Sanju Samson, for 26, and Suryakumar, for a duck, in the space of four deliveries.”He (Archer) always looks good, he’s a superstar,” said Buttler. “To see him and (Mark) Wood operate in tandem is exciting. Venue to venue, you got to assess the conditions quickly and play well.”Sharma kept up the batting blitz to take the sting out of the England bowling.The 24-year-old Sharma finally fell to Adil Rashid but not after a show that entertained the raucous home crowd.It was a disappointing start for England’s new white-ball coach Brendon McCullum, who was previously only in charge of the Test side.India surprisingly left out Mohammed Shami after the fast bowler returned to the squad following a heel injury that kept him away from competitive cricket for over a year.The second T20 is on Saturday in Chennai.

Inspired bowling and a 34-ball 79 by opener Abhishek Sharma helped India to a crushing seven-wicket win over England in the first T20 international on Wednesday.Spinner Varun Chakravarthy and fast bowler Arshdeep Singh shared five wickets between them as India bowled out England for 132 after the hosts elected to field first in Kolkata.Left-hander Sharma then came out firing and despite losing two of his partners smashed a 20-ball fifty and ended with eight sixes and five fours to steer the team to victory in 12.5 overs and a 1-0 lead in the five-match series. The T20 series, followed by three ODIs, between the two teams serve as a warm-up for the 50-over Champions Trophy next month.England skipper Jos Buttler smashed 68 off 44 balls but the rest of the line-up failed to get going.Phil Salt fell for a duck on the third ball of the match, with a leading edge off his bat sending the ball high and into the gloves of wicketkeeper Sanju Samson.Arshdeep dismissed Ben Duckett for four in the third over, with Rinku Singh taking a stunning backward running catch from the covers.Buttler hit back with four boundaries off Hardik Pandya as he attempted to rebuild in a 48-run third-wicket partnership with his new deputy Harry Brook, who scored 17.Chakravarthy bowled Brook with a googly and sent back Liam Livingstone for a duck as the ball darted into the stumps once again.Buttler reached his fifty in 34 balls but wickets kept tumbling and in an attempt to push the scoring the skipper finally fell to Chakravarthy, who returned figures of 3-23, the ball after hitting the bowler for six.Arshdeep, Axar Patel and Pandya took two wickets each and a run out from the last ball saw England all out in 20 overs.India raced to 41 in 4.1 overs before fast bowler Jofra Archer took down Sanju Samson, for 26, and skipper Suryakumar Yadav, for a duck, in the space of four deliveries.But Sharma kept up the batting blitz to take the steam out of the England bowling.The 24-year-old Sharma finally fell to Adil Rashid but not after a show that entertained the raucous home crowd.It was a disappointing start for England’s new white-ball coach Brendon McCullum, who was previously only in charge of the Test side.India surprisingly left out Mohammed Shami after the fast bowler returned to the squad following a heel injury that kept him away from competitive cricket for over a year.The second T20 is on Saturday in Chennai.

Eleven people were killed Wednesday after rumours of a fire on their train caused them to jump off and were crushed to death by another incoming train, officials said.The incident in the western Maharashtra state is the latest to hit India’s creaking rail network, which carries millions of passengers each day and has seen several disasters over the years. “People were run over by a train,” said Ayush Prasad, a top official of Jalgaon district where the accident occurred, some 400 kilometres (250 miles) from the country’s financial hub of Mumbai. “11 people have died and about five are undergoing treatment.”  It was not immediately clear whether the fire alarm was false. A spokesperson for Indian Railways was quoted by local media as having said that someone had pulled the “alarm chain” on a Mumbai-bound train, following which “a few passengers got down from the train”.  “At that moment, they were run over by another train going in the opposite direction,” the spokesperson said.India’s interior minister Amit Shah expressed his “deepest condolences to the families of those who lost their lives in this accident”.Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said the “tragic incident” was “deeply disturbing”. “Deeply saddened by the tragic loss of lives,” he said in a post on X. India has launched a $30 billion railway infrastructure modernisation in a bid to boost the economy and connectivity.But analysts say that while the number of accidents has gone down over time, India’s antiquated rail system still has a long way to go.An average of 20,000 people died each year between 2017 and 2021 in rail accidents, according to official records. In 2023, nearly 300 people were killed when a passenger train and a stationary goods train collided, with the derailed compartments then striking another fast-moving passenger service.

The Taliban government said Tuesday it had released two American citizens from prison in return for an Afghan fighter held in the United States, in a deal brokered by Qatar.Outgoing US president Joe Biden agreed on the deal shortly before leaving office on Monday, with the exchange finally taking place after Donald Trump returned to the White House, according to a person familiar with the negotiations.”An Afghan fighter, Khan Mohammed, imprisoned in America has been released in exchange for American citizens and returned to the country,” the Afghan foreign ministry said in a statement.The ministry said Mohammed had been serving a life sentence in California after being arrested “almost two decades ago” in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar.Mohammed, who was convicted of narco-terrorism by a US court, returned to the province on Tuesday, where he was greeted by a crowd and presented with garlands of flowers. He told journalists he was grateful to the Taliban authorities for his release and he was “very happy” to be reunited with his family.”A lot of innocent people are imprisoned, my request is that all of them can be released and be able to return to their homes,” he said.His son, Rafiullah Mohammed, said his father was innocent and that the family demanded compensation.Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP two US nationals had been released, declining to provide any further details on the exchange.- ‘Overwhelming gratitude’ – The family of US citizen Ryan Corbett, who was detained by the Taliban in 2022, confirmed he was released and thanked both the Biden and Trump administrations, as well as Qatar.”Today, our hearts are filled with overwhelming gratitude and praise to God for sustaining Ryan’s life and bringing him back home after what has been the most challenging and uncertain 894 days of our lives,” the family said on their website.They called for two other Americans still held in Afghanistan to be released.The person familiar with the deal confirmed William McKenty as the second released American detainee. Little is known about what he was doing in Afghanistan and his family asked for privacy.Qatar’s lead negotiator, Mohammed bin Abdulaziz bin Saleh Al-Khulaifi, confirmed the Gulf state’s mediation in the exchange, with all the released people going through Doha.Two other Americans are believed to remain in detention in Afghanistan, former airline mechanic George Glezmann and naturalised American Mahmood Habibi.In August 2024, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation said it was seeking information about the disappearance of Afghan-American businessman Habibi two years previously.- ‘New chapter’ -Biden came under heavy criticism for the chaotic withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan in 2021, more than a year after Trump presided over a deal with the Taliban insurgents to end US and NATO involvement in the two-decade war.After Trump’s election win in November, the Taliban government had said it hoped for a “new chapter” in ties with the United States.Taliban authorities have repeatedly said they want positive relations with every country since sweeping back to power in 2021.No state has officially recognised their government, with restrictions on women’s rights a key sticking point for many countries, including the United States.The Taliban government on Tuesday called the exchange “a good example of resolving issues through dialogue, expressing special gratitude for the effective role of the brotherly country of Qatar in this regard”.”The Islamic Emirate views positively those actions of the United States that contribute to the normalisation and expansion of relations between the two countries,” it added, using the Taliban authorities’ name for their government.A 2008 US Department of Justice statement named Mohammed — in his 30s at the time — as a member of “an Afghan Taliban cell” and said he was arrested in October 2006 and sentenced in December 2008 to “two terms of life in prison on drug and narco-terrorism charges”. It was the first narco-terrorism conviction in a US federal court, the statement said.At least one Afghan prisoner remains in detention at the secretive US prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, Muhammad Rahim, whose family called for his release in November 2023. In February last year, two former prisoners held in Guantanamo Bay until 2017 were welcomed home to Afghanistan, more than 20 years after they were arrested. 

The Taliban government said Tuesday it had released two American citizens from prison in return for an Afghan fighter held in the United States, in a deal brokered by Qatar.Discussions about the prisoner exchange were confirmed last year, but the swap was announced after outgoing US president Joe Biden handed over to Donald Trump, who was inaugurated on Monday.”An Afghan fighter Khan Mohammed imprisoned in America has been released in exchange for American citizens and returned to the country,” the Afghan foreign ministry said in a statement.The ministry said Mohammed had been serving a life sentence in California after being arrested “almost two decades ago” in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar.Mohammed, who was convicted of narco-terrorism by a US court, returned to the province on Tuesday, where he was greeted by a crowd and presented with garlands of flowers. He told journalists he was grateful to the Taliban authorities for his release and he was “very happy” to be reunited with his family.”A lot of innocent people are imprisoned, my request is that all of them can be released and be able to return to their homes,” he said.His son, Rafiullah Mohammed, said his father was innocent and that the family demanded compensation.Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP two US nationals had been released, declining to provide any further details on the exchange.- ‘Overwhelming gratitude’ – The family of US citizen Ryan Corbett, who was detained by the Taliban in 2022, confirmed he was released and thanked both the Biden and Trump administrations, as well as Qatar.”Today, our hearts are filled with overwhelming gratitude and praise to God for sustaining Ryan’s life and bringing him back home after what has been the most challenging and uncertain 894 days of our lives,” the family said on their website.They called for two other Americans still held in Afghanistan to be released.US media named William McKenty as the second released American detainee, noting little was known about what he was doing in Afghanistan and that his family had asked the US government for privacy in his case.The New York Times said two other Americans remain in detention in Afghanistan, former airline mechanic George Glezmann and naturalised American Mahmood Habibi.In August 2024, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation said it was seeking information about the disappearance of Afghan-American businessman Habibi two years previously.- ‘New chapter’ -After Trump’s election win in November, the Taliban government had said it hoped for a “new chapter” in ties with the United States.Biden came under heavy criticism for the chaotic withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan in 2021, more than a year after Trump presided over a deal with the Taliban insurgents to end US and NATO involvement in the two-decade war.Taliban authorities have repeatedly said they want positive relations with every country since sweeping back to power in 2021.No state has officially recognised their government, with restrictions on women’s rights a key sticking point for many countries, including the United States.The Taliban government on Tuesday called the exchange “a good example of resolving issues through dialogue, expressing special gratitude for the effective role of the brotherly country of Qatar in this regard”.”The Islamic Emirate views positively those actions of the United States that contribute to the normalisation and expansion of relations between the two countries,” it added, using the Taliban authorities’ name for their government.A 2008 US Department of Justice statement named Mohammed — in his 30s at the time — as a member of “an Afghan Taliban cell” and said he was arrested in October 2006 and sentenced in December 2008 to “two terms of life in prison on drug and narco-terrorism charges”. It was the first narco-terrorism conviction in a US federal court, the statement said.Dozens of foreigners have been detained by the Taliban authorities since the group’s return to power.It is unclear how many Afghan citizens are in US custody.At least one Afghan prisoner remains in detention at the secretive US prison Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, Muhammad Rahim, whose family called for his release in November 2023. In February last year, two former prisoners held in Guantanamo Bay until 2017 were welcomed home to Afghanistan, more than 20 years after they were arrested.