“The attorney general’s office has suspended... the president of the football federation, his deputy, the federation’s secretary general, the head of goalkeepers and the head of provincial coordinators” Afghanistan has made strides to promote female football — as well as the national side KABUL: Afghanistan has suspended five officials including the president of the country’s football federation over allegations of sexual and physical abuse against the national women’s team, officials said Sunday. The decision comes days after President Ashraf Ghani ordered the attorney general to conduct a “thorough investigation” into what he called “shocking” claims of abuse by male officials against members of the women’s team — allegations that were first reported in Britain’s Guardian newspaper. “The attorney general’s office has suspended... the president of the football federation, his deputy, the federation’s secretary general, the head of goalkeepers and the head of provincial coordinators,” Jamshid Rasuli, spokesman for the attorney general, told AFP. “To conduct the investigations thoroughly, collect evidence and to ensure justice, the team of prosecutors decided to suspend these people,” he said, adding that all the suspended officials were male. The Guardian cited what it described as senior figures associated with the women’s team who said the abuse had taken place in Afghanistan, including at the Afghanistan Football Federation (AFF) headquarters, and at a training camp in Jordan last February. The story quoted former captain Khalida Popal — who fled the country after receiving death threats and has spoken out previously about the discrimination women face in Afghanistan — as saying male officials were “coercing” female players. Popal welcomed news of the suspensions, tweeting: “If we all stand together and raise our voice and become the #Voice4voiceless no one would be dare to hurt innocents. #Football is not abuse.” Safi Sadab, an AFF spokesman, told AFP the federation was ready to “cooperate with the investigation.” Football’s world governing body FIFA has also said it was looking into the claims, while the Danish sportswear company Hummel announced it had canceled a sponsorship deal with the team due to the allegations. Afghanistan has made strides to promote female football — as well as the national side, four years ago it launched its first all-women’s football league that ran in parallel with the men’s. In 2017 the female teams were sidelined by a lack of funding. Topics: football Afghanistan Related Special 1010 World More than 700,000 Afghans leave sanction-hit Iran 655 World Afghan election complaint body says vote in capital Kabul invalid India should grab chance for peace with Pakistan, says ex-spy chief Updated 09 December 2018 Sanjay Kumar December 09, 2018 17:32 333 Pakistani PM has good rapport with military Indian elections might delay New Delhi response NEW DELHI: The former chief of India’s spy agency, A. S. Dulat, has urged New Delhi to embrace peace overtures by neighboring Pakistan. Dulat, who used to lead the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), said Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan was indicating that he wanted to move forward with India. “We say that Khan is a stooge of the army and he says that he and the army are on the same page,” Dulat told Arab News. “Whichever way you look at it, it’s an asset. Part of our problem has also been with the Pakistani army. If the PM of Pakistan gets along well with Rawalpindi it is easier for us,” said Dulat. Dulat was an adviser on Kashmir between 2000 and 2004 after retiring from RAW and wrote a book about it: “Kashmir: The Vajpayee Years.” In it, he wrote about how close India and Pakistan came to working out a solution for the dispute. Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since the end of British colonial rule in 1947. An armed campaign for independence or a merger with Pakistan has riven the Indian side of the divided territory since 1989. India and Pakistan both claim the territory in its entirety. Rebels have been fighting Indian control since 1989 with India accusing Pakistan of arming and training rebels, a charge Pakistan denies. “We need to make use of the opportunities that Imran Khan offers to us, otherwise there is no option,” said Dulat. “You cannot live in denial of Pakistan’s existence in the subcontinent. As an important neighbor you need to respond to Khan’s gesture. “I want the Indian government to respond to Imran Khan’s gesture but I am giving an excuse on its behalf, that it might respond after the elections next year,” he added. His comments were welcomed by Kashmir-based Prof. Siddiq Wahid. “Dulat is intimately aware of what’s going on in Kashmir. So certainly he should be viewed by Delhi with some gravitas,” Wahid told Arab News. But he said that Kashmir had changed considerably since Dulat’s time at RAW and that a more creative solution might be needed. “Unless Kashmir is made a participant in any dialogue between India and Pakistan, the talk will not make any progress,” said Wahid, who is a senior fellow at a New Delhi-based think tank. “Narendra Modi regime’s objective is polarization and therefore it does not want an image that paints it as a reconciling force. Therefore, it desists from talks with Pakistan,” Wahid said. Prof. Harsh V. Pant, from the Observer Research Foundation, said Dulat’s words had little sway. “The bigger point is whether we should take Imran Khan seriously or not,” he told Arab News. “I won’t be surprised if Modi comes back to power after the 2019 elections there would be a significant outreach. But before the general elections, I don’t see any possibility of reaching out to Pakistan in any significant way.” Pant added that Khan and his government were under pressure from the US, casting doubt on the prime minister’s motives for extending an olive branch. “The Modi government has succeeded in marginalizing Pakistan at an international level and that is putting pressure on Islamabad. If you have the Trump administration coming down heavily on Pakistan, it has something to do with what New Delhi has accomplished in Washington.” Topics: international news latest news headline India Pakistan A. S. Dulat Wagah Border Related Special 264 World Peace only way forward for Pakistan, India: PM Khan Special 790 photos World Pakistan, India change gates at Wahga-Attari border on Independence Days loading... 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