The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) on Monday announced that reports of the alleged killing of detainees by the Taliban appear to be credible. UNAMA said on Twitter that the perpetrators of these murders must be held accountable.
The UN office stressed that the Taliban’s investigation of the cold-blood killings must be transparent in order to be taken seriously and said that UNAMA continues to track Panjshir developments.
UNAMA confirmed the credibility of the killings in Panjshir a week after the Taliban published video clips of the cold-blood killing of the National Resistance Front Forces detained by the group in Panjshir.
In one of these videos, a picture of a Panjshiri father and son had also been published, who was first captured and then shot dead by the Taliban.
At the same time, Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesperson of the Taliban, had announced that the group had killed around 40 members and arrested over 100 fighters of the National Resistance Front.
Markus Potzel, United Nations Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan, said that United Nations will continue its efforts to reopen girls' high schools. Potzel, while visiting a school, said on Twitter that no girl in Afghanistan will be deprived of education next year.
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.
Taliban's Ministry of Defense said on Saturday that the group is investigating the alleged killing of captives in Panjshir. The Ministry added that in case videos published on social media are proved to be new and related to Panjshir province, perpetrators will be prosecuted.
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 countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) consider it important to create an inclusive government in Afghanistan, according to the Samarkand declaration signed on Friday.
"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”.
Former Afghan president Hamid Karzai expressed "grave concern" about the escalation of the conflict between the Taliban and the National Resistance Front (NRF) in Panjshir province. Karzai called the conflict between the two sides "fratricide" and demanded an end to the war.
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.
Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said that it has enough reasons to confirm the presence of terrorist groups in Afghanistan. Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, added that terrorists use areas in Afghanistan as sanctuaries.
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.