Reports About Killing of Detainees in Panjshir Credible, Says UNAMA

He said that United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) will support Afghan girls to attend secondary school in Afghanistan.

Earlier, on the first anniversary of the closure of secondary schools for girls in Afghanistan, Potzel had said that the continuous exclusion of Afghan girls from school had no valid justification.

He had stressed that nowhere in the world do girls face such a situation.

According to the UN official, the closure of schools was harmful for the coming generation of girls and for the future of Afghanistan.

In the past week, pictures and videos have been published on social media showing that the Taliban killed the National Resistance Front forces taken captive in coldblood.

At the same time, Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesperson of the Taliban, had announced that the group had killed around 40 and arrested over 100 fighters of the National Resistance Front.

In one of these videos, a picture of a Panjshiri father and son had also been published, who was first captured and then shot by the Taliban.

"The member states consider it extremely important to establish an inclusive government in Afghanistan with the participation of representatives of all ethnic, religious and political groups of Afghan society," the declaration read.

The SCO also advocated the formation of Afghanistan as an independent, neutral, united, democratic and peaceful state, free from terrorism, war and drugs, the document added.

The declaration came even as Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said that peace in Afghanistan, where the Taliban formed government last year after toppling West-backed set up, will not only ensure peace in Pakistan but will also have positive impact on the regional development.

He added that “it would be a big mistake to ignore Afghanistan this time around”, emphasising that peace in region is interlinked with peace in Afghanistan. It is Pakistan’s opinion that strengthening Afghanistan in the security and counterterrorism domain should run parallel to the SCO’s socio-economic support to the Afghan people, he said.

However, President of Tajikistan, in the SCO meeting said that terrorism in Afghanistan is a threat for all country members of this organization. Emomali Rahmon added that drug trafficking from Afghanistan is still a challenge and the time has come to implement a system to combat it.

Meanwhile, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while indirectly referring to Pakistan’s delay in allowing passage of Indian relief to Afghanistan, called upon SCO member states to give transit access to each other and pitched for boosting connectivity for ensuring resilient supply chains for the region.

Heads of states from China, Pakistan, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan gathered in Samarkand to attend a summit of the central Asian security body, formed by Beijing. Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran, and Mongolia are observer countries, while Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Turkey attended the summit as “dialogue partner”.

In a statement on Friday, Karzai urged the Taliban to facilitate the ground for national dialogue to ensure a peaceful settlement of the current war in Afghanistan.

He added, "The bitter experiences of the past have proved that war and bloodshed are not the solutions to problems, but on the contrary, they cause more destruction."

He stressed that "dialogue and understanding" is the only solution to the current crisis.

Over the past few weeks, violence and clashes have escalated in Panjshir province. The Taliban have started an offensive against the NRF forces and has deployed additional fighters to the province.

Taliban spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid recently claimed that as a result of the group’s offensive, 40 resistance fighters have died and over 100 of them had been arrested.

The Taliban published video clips too of killing the NRF captives in coldblood on social media which has received international criticism from watchdog groups.

NRF has accused the Taliban of committing war crimes in Panjshir and added that the group has inflicted high casualties to the Taliban forces during the ongoing clashes.

Ahmad told Pakistani media on Thursday, "Pakistan and the international community have enough reasons to believe that some areas in Afghanistan are still being used by terrorist groups as safe havens."

Islamabad reiterated its stance on terrorist sanctuaries in Afghanistan after the Taliban denied the presence of Masood Azhar, the leader of Jaish-e-Mohammed in Afghanistan.

However, a Taliban source told Afghanistan International on Thursday that Pakistan raised the issue of Masood Azhar’s presence in Afghanistan and his handover to Islamabad after the Taliban arrested four members of Jaish-e-Mohammed in Kandahar.

A diplomatic source also said that Pakistan demanded the Taliban to hand over Azhar to Islamabad so that the country could get out of the Financial Action Task Force gray list.

A diplomatic source in Islamabad said that last week the FATF had asked Pakistan to arrest Azhar.

Pakistan has been on the gray list of the FATF for several years now for failing to check money laundering leading to terror financing. Pakistan is trying to get out of the FATF's gray list by completing the required 27 indicators.