No Religious Reason To Deprive Girls of Education, Says Taliban's Stanikzai

Managers of a list of TV channels in Kabul too confirmed that agents of the Taliban have shown up at the TV stations’ offices and imposed new restrictions on Sunday. However, they haven’t provided details about these restrictions.

Previously, the Taliban had imposed restrictions on female media workers in Afghanistan. According to the order of the Taliban, wearing masks had been mandatory for Afghan female presenters.

In the past year, the Taliban has imposed many restrictions in the field of media and on journalists.

Many local media organisations have stopped their operations due to threats and pressure from the Taliban in the provinces and many female journalists have lost their jobs.

Hundreds of journalists have also left Afghanistan and active media outlets in Afghanistan are not allowed to report freely or against the wishes of the Taliban.

Earlier, Nasir Ahmad Faiq, the head of Afghanistan's permanent mission to the United Nations, too, said that he is going to address the UN security council on the situation of Afghanistan.

Faiq had written on his Twitter handle that the UNSC's session will be focused on the situation in Afghanistan, where he will be voicing the people's concerns and demands.

This comes even as the UN General Assembly has had speakers commenting on the situation of Afghanistan in its recent session. Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly on Friday, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said that Pakistan would also like to see an Afghanistan which is at peace with itself and the world, and which respects and nurtures all its citizens, without regard to gender, ethnicity and religion.”

While Sharif avoided direct mention of the Taliban government, he spoke at length about regional instability and terrorism — of which he called Pakistan “the principal victim”.

Even Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Qatar’s Foreign Minister, said that there is no clarity “on the way forward” for Afghanistan on the sidelines of the UNGA.

The Qatari minister said, “We’ve been advising the international community that we need to arrange a blueprint for the way forward—what are the required series of conditions we need from the current leadership in Afghanistan, in exchange of what we can provide as an international community.”

Also, Somaya Faruqi, the former captain of the Afghan girls robotics team, pleaded the world leaders at the UN to safeguard the rights and education of women in Afghanistan.

Women, life, and freedom is the famous slogan of the popular movement which had started in Iran after the Iranian girl Mehsa Amini had been killed in the custody of the morality police of Iran.

The nationwide uprising against the Islamic Republic regime, which started after the murder of Amini across Iranian cities, continued on Sunday evening.

Nabil on Twitter added, "This time, the youth, especially the women of Iran, targeted the Iranian mullahs' regime, which originates from religious extremism."

The NRF while stating that the presence of such terrorists on Afghanistan soil is a threat to regional security and stability, blamed the Taliban occupation of the country as the reason why it has now become a haven of global terrorists.

As per the NRF statement, "These leaders met Sirajuddin Haqqani, the leader of the Haqqani network, and discussed their plans to make the network of foreign fighters extremely powerful in the north of the country in the next six months and to deploy 50 per cent of all foreign fighters in Central Asia."

The NRF claimed that this information has been sought through reliable sources who in turn had alerted the Front’s strategic analysis unit.

According to the sources, some of the terror group members who have been shifted include, Haji Forqan, the leader of the East Turkistan Islamic Movement; Mawlawi Ibrahim, the head of the Ansarullah Jamaat of Tajikistan; Shaikh Zakir, the head of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and Abdul Haq Uighuri, the head of the Al Qaeda branch in the north of Afghanistan.

As per the information available, it has been stated that these individuals came to Kabul on Tuesday, August 20, 2022, and stayed at the Haji Afzal house in Wazir Akbar Khan on 11th Street which is owned by the Haqqani network, for three days.

The sources added that during these meetings, Abdul Haq from Haji Forqan Network and Shaikh Zakir from Islamic Movement Uzbekistan assumed the responsibility of strengthening the al-Qaeda and communicating with other branches of the group.

As per reports, more foreign fighters are now heading towards Afghanistan. Haqqani network has appointed Mawlawi Ibrahim Tajik as the person in charge of the network of foreign fighters in the north of the country. Tajik has strong connections with the Islamic State (ISIS).

There are apparent plans to work in close coordination with the Haqqani network to assist ISIS in northern Afghanistan and slowly increase its influence through Kunduz province and the border districts of Takhar and Badakhshan to the Central Asian countries, as per the sources.

NRF stated that Mawlawi Ibrahim left Kabul for Kunduz on Monday, August 22, 2022, in a private Toyota Corolla car whose driver was a trustee of the Haqqani network; while Haji Forqan and Abdulhaq Uighuri left Kabul on Sunday, August 21, 2022, for Pul-e-Khumri city, Baghlan province, and are staying at the headquarters of the Taliban Intelligence Directorate in Baghlan and Shaikh Zakir, the head of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, left Kabul for the Baharak district of Badakhshan province in a Toyota Corolla car belonging to Khalifa Mahboobe Faizabad, on Tuesday, August 23.

As per NRF, currently, Shaikh Zakir lives in the building of the former office of the National Solidarity program and is now one of the military bases of the Taliban in the Baharak district of Badakhshan province.

Forqan, Shaikh Zakir and Abdul Haq Uyghuri may lead some section of the al-Qaeda network in northern Afghanistan, the NRF added.

The Supreme Council leaders in a statement said that such interactions with the Taliban will cause them to be more defiant of the wishes of the Afghan people and global expectations.

The Supreme Council has welcomed the recent joint statement of western countries which called for an elected government as the only solution to lasting peace and stability in Afghanistan.

The Supreme Council of National Resistance for the Salvation of Afghanistan includes many well-known Afghan politicians and leaders.

Former Vice-President Abdul Rashid Dostum; Tajik leader Atta Mohammad Noor; and Hazara leader Mohammad Mohaqiq are among the members of the Supreme Council.

They have warned that if the Taliban does not enter into direct and constructive negotiations, they will consider military options.