Spin Boldak Border Crossing Closes After Taliban-Pakistan Clashes

Ahmadi also asked other media outlets to correct their reports who has based it on the Guardian story.

On Tuesday, a report had been published by the Guardian newspaper that a gay university student had been tortured and killed by the Taliban in Kabul.

Afghanistan International was able to contact Ahmadi, whose picture was used in the Guardian report portraying him as the dead student.

Ahmadi had learned about the news of the killing of the gay student from media outlets, but he did not know why his photo was published in the news by the Guardian.

The main source of the Guardian newspaper's report, which has been reflected in various media outlets inside and outside Afghanistan, was Pinknews, a website that covers LGBTQ stories. The website is considered a reliable source of news related to the LGBTQ community.

Pinknews published the news of the killing of a young gay Afghan, quoting his close friend, and in the description of the photo of this news, the credits stated that it was "supplied", which meant that the photo was sent to the newspaper.

The Taliban has imposed severe restrictions on Afghan women and girls in the past year in Afghanistan.

Women have been denied the right to work, and social and political activities and secondary and high schools for Afghan girls have been shut down by the Taliban.

The United Nations and human rights organisations have repeatedly accused the Taliban of widespread violations of human rights and have asked this group to respect the basic rights of Afghan citizens.

However, despite global efforts and criticisms, the group has not been flexible with their anti-women policies.

Salahuddin Ayubi, a powerful Uzbek commander of the Taliban in northern Afghanistan, had left Kabul for his hometown in Faryab province in recent weeks due to reports of dissatisfaction with the Taliban’s policies.

Last week, sources in Faryab said that a delegation of the Taliban had met Ayubi in Maimana city, but an agreement had not been reached between the two sides.

It has been reported that Ayubi has been dissatisfied with the Taliban due to the neglect of Uzbeks' participation in the group’s governance structures.

Many believe that Ayubi has played a prominent role in the war against the former Afghan government and the fall of the northern provinces in the past years, but has been ignored by the Taliban leadership after the group took control of power in Afghanistan.

Bennett’s visit to Panjshir comes at a time when the residents of Paryan district of the province protested against the Taliban.

Last month, following the Taliban’s killing of the members of the National Resistance Front (NRF) forces in cold blood in Panjshir, Bennett had asked the Taliban to investigate the killings. However, his stance had been met with criticisms by the NRF officials.

A spokesperson of the NRF had said that the Taliban have been "the main perpetrators of the war crimes and crimes against humanity”.

Meanwhile, earlier Mohammad Alam Izadyar, the former deputy of the Afghan Upper House of Parliament, had quoted Bennett as saying that he was keen to visit Panjshir to document and report human rights violations by the Taliban, but the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) official had barred him due to security concerns.

The Minister of Interior of Tajikistan addressed the two-day conference on regional security cooperation and border management. He emphasised that Afghanistan's problems should be the focus of all stakeholders.

The International and Regional Border Security and Management Cooperation to Counter Terrorism and Prevent the Movement of Terrorists conference, kicked off on 18 October in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.

The conference has been held in cooperation with the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Tajikistan, the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Office, the European Union, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar.

On the first day of the conference, Emomali Rahmon, the Tajikistan president had said that to curb security risks, it is necessary to build a security belt around Afghanistan. Rahmon had stressed that terrorists try to cross the Central Asian borders.

Taliban have not reacted to these statements of Tajik officials. However, the group has launched a campaign on Twitter in the past days to promote their suicide attacks in the past twenty years in Afghanistan.