Search Operations to Continue for 7 Days in Mazar-i-Sharif City, Says Taliban

According to the sources, serious disagreements between the Taliban’s head and deputy of intelligence in the province have arisen and both sides have taken actions against each other.

This incident comes after an explosion occurred at 11am on Wednesday near the gate of Balkh in Mazar-i-Sharif city, sources told Afghanistan International.

Taliban confirmed the explosion and announced that six people had been injured in this incident.

No one has claimed responsibility for the explosion yet, even though IS-K has been claiming responsibility for such attacks.

Several days ago, the Taliban’s spokesperson said that the group is facing intelligence failures.

In some cases, Taliban officials have arrested residents of areas dominated by Tajik and Hazara ethnicity. According to the witnesses, in some of the houses, eight Taliban members entered the homes together.

It has been reported that the search operations are more focused in Police District 4 of Mazar-i-Sharif city.

Zabihullah Mujahid, Taliban’s spokesperson, had earlier said that the group has no intention of searching houses again. However, Taliban officials confirmed that these house-to-house searches in Balkh are being conducted in coordination with the intelligence directorate and the Taliban’s army.

The search operations started after Wednesday’s explosion, in which according to the Taliban, at least six people got injured.

Taliban has always attributed such attacks to the Islamic State-Khurasan (IS-K) and has called these searches necessary in order to fight against the IS-K and collect weapons. Mujahid also claimed in the press conference that IS-K has been suppressed in Afghanistan.

Mukhmudov, who was speaking at the meeting of defense ministers of the member countries of SCO in Tashkent, emphasised that border surveillance with Afghanistan should be strengthened further.

At the Tashkent SCO meeting on Wednesday, defense ministers of the member countries expressed their concern about the presence of terrorist groups in Afghanistan. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that with the active presence of Islamic State-Khurasan (IS-K) and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, religious radicalism is also on the rise across the region.

In the meeting, cooperation in defense, stability, and security among SCO members and the coordination of the member countries to deal with challenges and threats were discussed.

Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, and India are permanent members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.

Sources added that on Tuesday night, Taliban arrested this former officer after stopping his vehicle. His corpse was found on Pul-e-Tarsht area of Warsaj district on Wednesday morning.

Taliban had announced general amnesty for former soldiers after taking over Afghanistan in 2021. However, according to the human rights organisations and media groups, the Taliban has arrested, tortured and killed tens of former security forces during the past one year.

Nizamuddin was a member of Afghanistan’s army in Balkh province.

Taliban officials have not commented on the issue yet.

Facebook has warned users of restricting or blocking their accounts if the company’s policies are violated.

Facebook had previously suspended a number of Taliban-controlled media accounts. Meta Facebook’s parent company had told Afghanistan International during its earlier move that the closure of Taliban media pages on Facebook and Instagram was due to the fact that the Taliban is a sanctioned terrorist group in the United States.

The company had said that it will block all pages related to the Taliban group based on its policy on dangerous organisations.

After the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, the accounts of a number of Facebook users were blocked due to the publication of pictures of the Taliban or the presence of the word Taliban in the texts.

Meta Platforms Inc. the parent organization of Facebook considers the Taliban a terrorist group and has banned the activities of this group on the company’s platforms.