700,000 Afghan Citizens Lost Jobs After Taliban’s Takeover of Afghanistan, Says ICRC

The sources added that the Taliban tried to prevent the press conference, but as the activists continued with their agenda, around 60 Taliban members from various agencies, including the group’s General Directorate of Intelligence, stormed the conference venue and detained the activists.

The sources said that the Taliban detained Zarifa Yaqoobi, and four of her male colleagues and transferred them to an unknown location.

According to the sources, the Taliban members also searched the cell phones of all participants and beat up those who declined to bow down to the group’s demands. According to them, the Taliban members even deleted photos and video documents from the event.

The conference was held at the "Mirzaee Center" located in district 13 of Kabul city. The journalists had been prevented from attending the conference too. The Taliban officials, however, have not reacted to the reports of detention of these activists.

However, Zamir Kabulov, the Russian Special Representative for Afghanistan told TASS news agency, that the Taliban will not attend the Moscow format meeting.

The last Moscow Format consultative meeting on Afghanistan was held on October 20, 2021. United States had not sent a representative to the meeting. However, the Taliban delegation headed by Abdul Salam Hanafi, Deputy Prime Minister of the group, was present during the Moscow meeting held last year.

The formation of an inclusive government was the main agenda of last year’s Moscow meeting. In the meeting, Abdul Salam Hanafi, Deputy Prime Minister of the Taliban, had urged the international community to recognise the group’s government in Afghanistan.

Hanafi had promised that there would be no threat emanating from Afghanistan to regional and international security. But since then, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan have been among the neighbouring countries of Afghanistan that have been attacked by Islamic State-Khurasan (IS-K) several times.

After the fall of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in August 2021, the Czech Republic temporarily shut down its embassy in Kabul.

According to Czech media, the consular services of the Czech Republic for the citizens of Afghanistan will be provided by the Czech embassy in Islamabad.

The Czech Republic first opened its embassy in Kabul in 2007.

The Taliban have not reacted to the news so far.

In a joint statement issued by the two leaders, Xi and Sharif have expressed their satisfaction with the results of the three meetings that the foreign ministers of the neighbouring countries of Afghanistan had held on the situation of the Central Asian country.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister visited Beijing during the week and discussed China’s major economic projects in Pakistan with President Xi Jinping

China and Pakistan enjoy close economic and political ties. The two countries continue to work closely with the Taliban after the group took over Afghanistan in August 2021.

In the past year, China has been vocal about its aid support to the Taliban and economic projects, including the mining sector in Afghanistan.

Islamabad has also pushed hard to recognise the government of the Taliban, but the strict laws of the Taliban on women and girls have been a major issue that no regional player, including Pakistan, can recognise the group as a legitimate Afghan government.

The Central Bank stressed that these donations have been delivered to a commercial bank in Kabul.

The Central Bank announced that they appreciate the international community’s assistance to Afghanistan and urged for more interaction with the country in other banking sectors.

In a statement, the bank added that humanitarian aid through the banking sector creates transparency and facilitates access to humanitarian aid to all Afghans.

Earlier, United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) had stated that the international community doesn’t hand over humanitarian aid meant to be for the Afghan people to the Taliban or the group’s controlled Central Bank. UNAMA stated that this aid has been distributed by the United Nations and its partners in Afghanistan.