3 Opponents Killed in Badakhshan, Claims Taliban

Taliban-affiliated Bakhtar News Agency has published parts of the speech attributed to the Taliban leader, but no picture of him at the Kandahar meeting, has been published.

Since the fall of Kabul to the Taliban on August 15, 2021, the person whom the Taliban consider to be their leader has never appeared in public. However, periodically the Taliban publish decrees, news and audio files attributed to Akhundzada.

Bakhtar News Agency has quoted Akhundzada as asking Afghan professionals who have left the country to return "to build airplanes and vehicles inside the country because it will benefit the nation”.

Akhundzada has also said that he has “issued a decree to take care of child beggars”. “If a child of this country remains uneducated, the responsibility will return to me,” the Taliban leader has stressed. He said that he has asked Taliban officials to admit children begging on the streets to schools.” However, the Taliban leader still has not spoken about providing secondary education for girls in Afghanistan.

It has been more than 335 days since the Taliban prevented the reopening of girls' schools in Afghanistan.

The educational system in Afghanistan has suffered dramatically in the past two years as a result of COVID-19 and the Taliban reign of the country.

On Thursday, the Taliban held a meeting in Kandahar with the presence of the group's officials. In a resolution issued at the end of the Kandahar meeting, the Taliban condemned the US airstrike in Sherpur area of Kabul, which led to the killing of Ayman al-Zawahiri, the al-Qaeda leader.

In this resolution, it has also been mentioned that any neighbouring country of Afghanistan that has allowed the American drone to fly in its space is also a partner in this "crime".

The UN office in Kabul revealed the figure of casualties following an explosion at a mosque in district 11 of Kabul on August 17.

According to the Taliban, 21 people had been killed and 23 others had been injured because of the Wednesday evening explosion at the mosque in Kabul. Some sources reported an even higher number of casualties.

UNAMA has also expressed its sympathy to the families of the victims and stressed that many civilians were killed and injured in the attack.

The UN agency did not provide further details about the exact number of casualties in Wednesday's attack.

With the security situation deteriorating in Afghanistan, UNAMA urged the Taliban authorities to take concrete steps to prevent all forms of terrorism in Afghanistan.

UNAMA has said that the Taliban should provide additional support to vulnerable communities in Afghanistan.

Despite the large-scale attacks and the increase in the number of civilian casualties, Taliban officials claim that Afghanistan is safe and the group is in control of the security situation of the country.

On Thursday, the Taliban announced that a major gathering of the group has kicked off in southern Kandahar province.

According to the Taliban, more than 3,000 tribal elders, religious scholars, and Taliban officials participated in the meeting.

The Taliban foreign minister announced at the Kandahar meeting that the group is working on formulating a foreign policy and claimed that they have reached important achievements in foreign affairs.

Muttaqi once again emphasised that the Taliban seeks good relations with the world and urged the international community to allow Afghans to live a prosperous life.

Muttaqi claimed that the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in eleven days with the support of the people and stressed that it shows the popular legitimacy of the group.

According to the Taliban officials, the Kandahar gathering is being held to discuss the current situation of Afghanistan.

China is concerned about Uyghur and Turkistan Islamic Movement militias’ activities at the Afghanistan borders.

With Taliban’s need for recognition and development of economic relations, the group has promised Chinese officials during meetings in the past months, that they will drive out Uyghurs from the borders and will fight against the Turkistan Islamic Movement.

It has been reported earlier that Chinese officials in a meeting with Sirajuddin Haqqani, leader of the Haqqani network and Taliban minister of interior, have discussed these matters.

China considers Turkistan Islamic Movement a threat to their national security. According to the Chinese media, China’s ambassador in Kabul in a press conference, confirmed that they will cooperate in various sectors and will expand their relations with the current Taliban government in Afghanistan.

Earlier, Al-Jazeera had reported that 20 people had been killed and 40 others got wounded.

Sources said that the attack on Sediqiya mosque in Khairkhana area had been caused by planted explosives.

Meanwhile, Emergency Hospital in Kabul said that 27 injured had arrived at the hospital following the explosion, of which five were children. The hospital confirmed the death of three people to AFP.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack yet.

Despite the Taliban’s claim of providing security across the country, Afghanistan has witnessed regular attacks by armed groups. In recent months, Islamic State- Khurasan (IS-K) has taken responsibility of most attacks on civilians.

Taliban, Hamid Karzai, the former president, and Abdullah Abdullah, former chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation condemned the attack.

Despite an increase in explosive and suicide attacks, Mohammad Khalid Hanafi, Taliban’s minister of promotion of virtues and prevention of vice in the group’s meeting in Kandahar said that after Taliban’s takeover, security situation has improved in Afghanistan, administrative corruption has ended and the economy is getting better. Bakhtar News Agency reported that he said, “After faith, security is very important”.