Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban spokesperson, announced in a press conference on Thursday that the group has not yet found the body of the al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri. Mujahid added that the investigation into the murder of the al-Qaeda leader is still ongoing.
United States had said that al-Zawahiri had been killed in a drone strike in Sherpor area of Kabul on July 31.
Local sources in Takhar province told Afghanistan International that Taliban members killed a former Afghan army officer named Nizamuddin in Warsaj district of this province, on Tuesday night. According to the sources, Taliban took Nizamuddin’s car with them and killed him.
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 increased restrictions on the Taliban on its social networking site. In the latest move, when Facebook users search for names of Taliban members on the social network, they are issued warning messages stating that the search is related to dangerous organisations.
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.
Wang Yu, China’s ambassador in Kabul, said that the exploration and extraction of Aynak Copper mine will begin soon, as per Taliban-affiliated Bakhtar News Agency.
Wang Yu, on Wednesday, met Shahabuddin Delawar, Taliban’s minister of mining and petroleum and discussed solving challenges regarding the Aynak copper mine project and Amu River Project.
Delawar had earlier said that China can start the extraction process based on an agreement with the previous government.
The Chinese contractor company has been granted the tender of extracting the Aynak copper mine for a period of 30 years.
This mine is the biggest copper mine in Afghanistan and the second biggest copper mine in the world.
The contract of exploitation and enrichment of Aynak mine was signed between the Afghanistan ministry of mining and petroleum and MCC, a Chinese company, in 2008.
The extraction and enrichment project of Aynak mine is a big and strategic project for Afghanistan from an economic and political view, as per experts.
Local sources reported an explosion in Mazar-i-Sharif city on Wednesday. Sources added that this incident occurred near Balkh Gate at 11 am. Taliban’s head of Public Health Directorate in Balkh province said that at least six people got injured as the result of the explosion.
Taliban’s security officials in Balkh said that the explosion took place in Police District 4 and the blast occurred when the explosives were in the perpetrator's hand. Taliban added that no one was hurt in the incident.
However, Najibullah Tawana, head of Public Health Directorate in Balkh province, reported that six people have been injured in the incident and said that the condition of one of the injured is critical.
A video of the incident which has been shared on social media depicts several injured people.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Tajikistan President Emomali Rahmon discussed Afghanistan and the expansion of bilateral cooperation and security of the region. The two presidents stressed that thousands of ISIS fighters and other terrorists are present in Afghanistan.
During the telephone conversation, Rahmon said that the increase in the activity of terrorist groups, including ISIS, in Afghanistan has caused the instability of central Asian countries.
According to him, since August 2021, thousands of members of ISIS, Al-Qaeda, Ansarullah and Hizb ut-Tahrir have been released from Afghan prisons.
Putin also believes that northern Afghanistan has become a hub for ISIS and Al-Qaeda fighters.
The Tajik president has warned Central Asia states that the presence of terrorists in Afghanistan may lead to the radicalisation of the region.
Rahmon is going to talk about Afghanistan at the next meeting of the leaders of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which will be held in Samarkand in September.
According to media reports, in addition to the president of Tajikistan, the presidents of Russia, China, India, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan will probably attend the upcoming SCO meeting.
