A 14-year-old Afghan boy who lost both hands after being hit by a roadside bomb is getting used to new prosthetic limbs. An international NGO and a human rights group helped him after he was featured in an RFE/RL report.
Some 900 Taliban members were freed from Afghanistan's largest prison outside Kabul as part of a prisoner swap under a cease-fire deal. Former detainees were given new clothes outside Pul-e Charkhi prison on May 26, as well as cash and transport home.
Fewer worshippers than in previous years came to Faisal Mosque in Pakistan's capital, Islamabad, to pray on the Eid al-Fitr holiday on May 24. In Quetta, in Pakistan's province of Balochistan, the main holiday prayers took place outdoors.
A Pakistani International Airlines aircraft with at least 99 people on board crashed on May 22 into a residential area in the southern port city of Karachi after experiencing technical problems. The pilot had reported technical problems before the crash.
Medical staff in the Afghan capital, Kabul, have been caring for newborn babies left motherless in a deadly attack on a maternity hospital by gunmen on May 12. Volunteers have come forward to breastfeed the children. It's still unclear who was behind the atrocity.
In the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, life was returning to normal after the government began relaxing lockdown measures that were implemented to fight the spread of the coronavirus. Markets were busy on May 12, but many shoppers and vendors did not wear masks or practice physical distancing.
The Afghan Interior Ministry said at least 14 people were killed in the May 12 attack, including two newborns and an unspecified number of nurses. Security forces managed to rescue 80 women and infants from the facility after killing the attackers in an hours-long shootout.
Farmers in Afghanistan are growing poppies in government-controlled areas, insisting that there are no real economic alternatives to cultivating the flowers for the opium trade. It's estimated that Afghanistan's poppy fields are the source for much of the world's illegal heroin supply.
Afghan shopkeeper Saeed Wali has finally married his fiancee after taking 12 years to pay a $2,800 bride price.
In Pakistan many vendors and shoppers, however, did not follow official health recommendations and were not seen wearing face masks or practicing physical distancing at the Sabzi Mandi market on April 30.
Disabled women in Afghanistan have told RFE/RL of the widespread discrimination they suffer in their country, which has one of the highest proportions of disabled people in the world. Their accounts come as Human Rights Watch reports that many also face sexual harassment from government officials.
Hundreds of millions of Muslims around the world began the holy month of Ramadan under lockdown and other restrictions to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
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