The Afghanistan Central Bank, controlled by the Taliban, banned online trade of foreign exchange in the country and declared it “illegal”. Saber Mohmand, the Central Bank’s spokesperson warned that violators will face prosecution.
“There is no instruction in the Islamic law to approve it”, he told Bloomberg.
Since Taliban’s takeover in August 2021, the collapsing economy in the country has forced Afghans to use Forex (Foreign Exchange Market) or digital currencies, in other to keep their money out of Taliban’s access.
Even though, there is no information about the number of active users of Forex in Afghanistan, Mohmand said that “millions of dollars” are being traded mainly in Sara-e-Shahzada, the biggest exchange market in the capital of Afghanistan. The order comes as the Taliban is trying to reintegrate Afghanistan’s devastated economy.
Lack of recognition of this regime has caused loss of international assistance in Afghanistan which had accounted for over 40 percent of Afghanistan’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) previously.
Mullah Baradar, Taliban’s deputy prime minister visited earthquake-hit provinces of Paktika and Khost on Tuesday, a week after the disaster struck the region on June 22. Taliban’s office of first deputy PM announced that Baradar took 53 million afghanis in cash along with them.
This cash aid will be distributed transparently by the commission of disaster management of the Taliban, the office added.
According to Taliban’s statement, Mullah Baradar promised victims that the government will cooperate with the people, oversee that their houses are rebuilt, send in more economic aid and help them return to their normal life.
Pictures shared show Khalil Haqqani, Taliban’s minister of refugees and one of the senior members of Haqqani network members, along with Mullah Baradar. This is for the first time that Mullah Baradar and Khalil Haqqani have been seen together in the past 10 months, ever since there were reports of their dispute in the Arg (presidential palace of Afghanistan).
Meanwhile, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) announced that they have appealed for USD 110 million for emergency aid for the victims of the earthquake in Afghanistan for the next three months. It added that 362,000 people have been affected in Khost and Paktika provinces.
Social media users have launched a fundraising campaign in support of 1,500 families displaced from Balkhab district to Yakawlang district of Bamyan province. The families, who are in dire economic conditions, have been displaced due to the recent clashes in Balkhab district.
As the Taliban launched their offensive in Balkhab district of Sar-e-Pol province, hundreds of locals reportedly fled from their homes to the mountains or to neighboring districts and provinces.
Local sources in Bamyan confirmed to Afghanistan International that the displaced from the Balkhab war are now living in the province without shelter, water, or food.
Social media campaign organizers have emphasised that the affected citizens of Balkhab war need food, medicine, and shelter.
Over the past few days, Taliban has sent thousands of troops to Balkhab district in Sar-e-Pol province to suppress Mawlawi Mahdi, the group’s only Hazara commander. After three days of fighting, Taliban officials said that the group took control of the Balkhab district and the offensive was over.
However, a number of human rights groups have expressed concern about the possibility of civilians being killed by the Taliban in Balkhab district. Amnesty International had said that it is deeply concerned about the summary executions and civilian casualties by the Taliban forces in the district.
As the clashes began, there were reports of Taliban killing civilians in Balkhab. However, a Taliban spokesman said that no one had been "oppressed" and that "propaganda about civilian casualties in Balkhab was untrue".
Zabihullah Mujahid, Taliban spokesperson, said that in Balkhab, "people live in peace and security".
The Taliban’s foreign ministry announced on Monday that Wang Yi, Chinese Foreign Minister, during a phone conversation with Amir Khan Muttaqi, Taliban’s Foreign Minister, said that his country is committed to begin flights between Afghanistan and China.
He also added that the visa issuance process will soon resume for Afghan businessmen.
Yi also expressed condolences for the deadly earthquake in southeastern Afghanistan. China had earlier announced that they will provide humanitarian aid worth USD 7.5 million for victims of the earthquake in Khost and Paktika provinces.
Even though China has not recognized the Taliban government in Afghanistan, it has still maintained good relations with the group's officials at the highest level.
Taliban’s foreign ministry quoted Wang Yi as saying, “China is against sanctions on Afghanistan". Yi was also quoted appreciating the role of the Taliban’s embassy in Beijing for strengthening the relation between both the countries.
The United Nations Security Council, of which China is a member, has imposed sanctions against the group due to it being included in the terrorist groups' list of this organization. Recently, this council decided to extend the travel exemption of Taliban leaders temporarily.
Taliban’s Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs has suspended over 500 employees of kindergartens of this ministry without notice, most of whom are women and the only breadwinners of their families.
Some of these employees said that the Taliban suspended them from their jobs instead of firing them to prevent them from protesting. According to the Taliban’s written decree, due to organizational shortcomings, 517 positions in the kindergarten directorate are on hold. Of these, 311 suspended positions were of teachers.
The date on the document shows that it had been sent three weeks ago on June 6 from the hiring directorate of the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs to the Directorate of Kindergarten.
One of these employees told Afghanistan International that they have been suspended without any notice. According to the source, most of the employees that have been suspended are women and the only breadwinners of their families and are now facing a difficult situation.
Earlier, the Taliban had fired or suspended employees of former government in different departments too. However, the group says that instead of firing them, their employment has only been put on hold and if needed, they will be absorbed into the system again.
At the same time, these employees said that the Taliban uses this method to prevent them from protesting.
The Former Director of the Afghanistan intelligence agency, National Directorate of Security (NDS), claimed on Monday, that the Taliban is in an effort to portray a man named Mullah Hamdullah as Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, the Taliban’s supreme leader.
Rahmatullah Nabil, who published a Twitter thread on Monday with a video from a Taliban seminary in which the group’s flag is displayed, emphasized that the man, Mullah Hamdullah, is the same person who spoke to the people on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr on May 1, 2022, and appeared as the supreme Taliban leader at the Hakimiyah seminary in Kandahar on October 30, 2021.
According to the former spy chief of Afghanistan, the same person may appear in the Taliban Ulema Assembly, a grand assembly that is scheduled to take place in Kabul, as Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada. Only one old photo of the Taliban supreme leader has been released so far, but the group has not been able to prove that he is alive, after more than 10 months in power in Afghanistan.
The Taliban occasionally issue decrees in the name of their supreme leader. In the first months after the fall of Kabul on August 15, 2021, the Taliban's major policies and appointment of senior government officials, including the group’s cabinet members, were attributed to decrees by Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, but later the group attributed minor issues such as devotion of funding for a road to decrees by the Taliban leader.
Last week, Taliban-controlled media and news agencies reported that about 30 businessmen had met with Mullah Hibatullah in Kandahar. A few photos were published of this meeting; however, the Taliban leader was not visible in any one. Pictures released by the Taliban of the alleged meeting with their leader showed a row of men sitting in a relatively luxurious room, without their leader in the frame. The next day, the same men discussed, what they called their meeting with Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, with Amir Khan Mottaqi, the Taliban's acting foreign minister.
Bakhtar News Agency and Afghan National Television, both controlled by the Taliban, then released videos of conversations with a number of men who claimed to have met with Mullah Hibatullah.
The Taliban also released a video showing Sirajuddin Haqqani, the group's acting interior minister, visiting the quake-hit areas of Paktika and attending a telephone call. The Taliban claim that the conversation of Haqqani took place with Mullah Hibatullah.
There was only one blurry image of Mullah Omar, the first Taliban leader when he was alive, which was a screenshot of a video of a ceremony in Kandahar.
Unlike now, during their reign of Afghanistan in the 1990s, the Taliban did not allow the publishing of photos and videos that show the faces of living beings. But it was in 2015 and after confirming the news of their leader's death, the Taliban introduced Mullah Akhtar Mansour as their leader and published a photo of him.
After Mullah Akhtar Mansour was killed on his way back to Pakistan from Iran, a man named Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada was introduced as the new leader of the Taliban, who has not been seen since, except for in a portrait.
Foreign intelligence agencies have ruled out the possibility of Akhundzada being alive, but the Taliban continue to insist that he is alive and in charge of the group's affairs, without publishing a photo or video of him.
