The Taliban announced that the group has discovered and seized a cache of weapons and ammunition in Panjshir province. According to the Taliban officials, the storage unit had been found during an operation in a mountain in Hisa-e-Awal district of the province.
National Resistance Front (NRF), the main anti-Taliban resistance force in Panjshir, has not reacted to the report so far.
The spokesperson of the Taliban police command in Panjshir has said that light and heavy weapons have been seized in the operation.
The National Resistance Front has been fighting against the Taliban mostly in the mountains and valleys of Panjshir province.
Afrasiab Khattak, a former Pakistani senator, has claimed that the Taliban had killed Dr Najibullah, the former president of Afghanistan, on the orders of a Pakistani military officer.
He said that Taliban fighters and a Pakistani officer at midnight entered the United Nations compound in Kabul city after capturing it in 1996 and killed Najibullah and his brother Shapoor Ahmadzai.
Dr Najibullah had taken refuge at the United Nations Compound when Kabul fell to the anti-Soviet Mujaheedin in 1992.
On the 26th anniversary of Dr Najibullah's death, Khattak said that in the 1990s, Pakistan had dispatched the Taliban to destroy Afghanistan as a country and a nation, and for the first step, they killed Najibullah.
This former member of Pakistan's senate said that Najibullah wanted an advanced and free Afghanistan, therefore, he had become a national hero for most Afghans.
Khattak added that during their reign in Afghanistan in the 1990s, the Taliban turned the country into a hub for foreign terrorist groups and a playground for major players.
Referring to the current situation in Afghanistan, Khattak urged the world to support the resistance against the Taliban.
Facilitating and advancing women and girls’ access to quality education is crucial for Afghanistan’s recovery and future development, stated António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, in his three-monthly report on the ground situation in Afghanistan.
He emphasised on the continuing restrictions on Afghan women and girls’ rights, stating that more restrictions will have lasting detrimental consequences for the recovery and stability of Afghanistan.
He urged the Taliban to review the mahram and Islamic hijab directives and to clarify their recommendatory, non-mandatory nature, so as to facilitate women and girls’ participation in education, employment and all other areas of daily life.
He stated that women reported an increase in the informal policing of women by families, communities and employers, who often acted out of fear of potential consequences for not adhering to gender-specific directives.
In his report, the UN Secretary General also stated his serious concern regarding the apparent impunity with which members of the Taliban continue to carry out extrajudicial killings, torture, ill-treatment and arbitrary arrests and detentions of former government officials and former Afghan National Defence and Security Forces members, and individuals accused of affiliation with ISIL-K and the National Resistance Front. He called on the Taliban to uphold their public commitments regarding respect for human rights, in particular the general amnesty, and hold those responsible for human rights violations to account, while taking the necessary steps to prevent their reoccurrence.
The lack of mechanisms for inclusivity, consultation and representation in the de facto administration continues to raise concern, the report stated. “The current policy direction of the Taliban may sow the seeds of future instability, especially if the needs of the Afghan people are not addressed, their rights are curtailed, and the country’s diversity is not adequately reflected in governance structures,” it added.
The report also stressed that the security situation reveals a worrisome trend in recent months, particularly the series of attacks by ISIL-K, recurring armed opposition clashes with Taliban de facto security forces and the continuing presence of foreign terrorist groups in Afghanistan. It called on the Taliban leadership to engage in a serious counter-terrorism dialogue to strengthen international cooperation in countering these threats, while complying with obligations under international law.
Touching upon the topic of media freedom, he stated that the continued pressure placed by the Taliban on journalists and civil society activists is cause for alarm.
The report despite highlighting the human rights violations, also called on regional and international organisations, as well as the international community, to consider scaling up financial support to meet basic needs for the Afghan population such as for the provision of food, medical and clothing needs, educational and vocational training, and to support the deployment of health and education personnel in detention facilities.
Guterres said that the humanitarian response plan remains only 41.8 per cent funded, with a shortfall of some $2.59 billion, despite pledges of about $2.4 billion that were made in March and called upon donors to renew their support so that the life-saving response is scaled up and delivered ahead of the winter season.
Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, Taliban’s Deputy Foreign Minister, has said that no one has a religious reason which can justify depriving girls of education. Stanikzai said on Tuesday that education is obligatory for men and women and schools must be reopened for Afghan girls.
The Taliban Deputy Foreign Minister added, "As soon as possible, education will be provided and the gates of schools will be opened for everyone." Stanikzai urged the Taliban not to discriminate in disseminating education.
He stressed that in order to ensure justice and national unity, education should be provided to everyone.
The Taliban official added that depriving Afghan girls of education increases the rifts between the Taliban and Afghan citizens.
He asked the officials of the Taliban’s Ministry of Education to resolve issues that have caused the school gates to remain closed for girls.
As per reports, the Taliban leaders have difference of opinion regarding the education of girls in high schools. It has been reported that Nurullah Munir, the former minister of education of the Taliban, was dismissed because of his views in favour of the opening of girls' high schools in Afghanistan.
Agents of the Ministry of Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice of the Taliban have announced new restrictions for media outlets in Kabul. Sources said that female guests on TV shows must wear masks compulsorily otherwise media outlets can’t invite them for their shows.
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.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has announced that Markus Potzel, acting head of the UN mission in Kabul, will address the United Nations Security Council regarding Afghanistan on Tuesday.
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.