Moscow Consultative Meeting on Afghanistan Begins

The spokesperson of the Ministry of Transport and Aviation of the Taliban said that overflights in Afghanistan have increased after the Taliban signed a contract for air traffic control of Afghanistan airspace with United Arab Emirates (UAE) firm GAAC Holding.

The group had announced that with GAAC Holding in charge, the provision of flight services at Afghanistan's airports will increase.

This is while, according to reports, after the fall of the previous government, foreign flights to Afghanistan as well as the overflights through Afghanistan’s airspace have decreased drastically.

After the Taliban entered Kabul and the evacuation process from Kabul in August 2021 caused some families to separate, some left their family members in Afghanistan and moved to the United States.

In a statement released on Monday, the State Department said that since August 2021, the United States has supported the reunification and resettlement of Afghan families. “Although the United States has been able to successfully reunify some families, others remain separated, and continue to experience hardship and challenges. The purpose of this reunification landing page is to help those families which are still separated,” it read.

Individuals seeking reunification with family members in Afghanistan may have different avenues to pursue reunification depending on their immigration status or method of entry to the United States. The US State Department’s family reunification landing page can help identify pathways and guide individuals on how to begin the applicable process for: U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents (LPRs), refugees, asylees, and Afghan parolees, including those subsequently granted temporary protected status.

The landing page will be located on a new section of the Department’s Afghanistan Inquiries page, and the U.S. Mission to Afghanistan and the USCIS websites which will direct individuals seeking reunification with their family members to the available pathways.

This comes against the backdrop of the State Department recently emphasising that the US will use every tool appropriate to see that the Taliban lives up to the commitments that it has made to the Afghan people. Citing Taliban’s commitment to uphold Afghanistan’s women, its girls, its religious minorities and ethnic minorities’ rights, the Department’s spokesperson Ned Price said that the Taliban has not lived up to these commitments.

He said that the international community will continue to expect that the Taliban meet the commitments they have made to the Afghan people in key areas.

The Us State Department also said that it is seeking a regular transfer of power to an inclusive government in Afghanistan. It said that the country's commitment to the Afghan people is sustainable and continues its efforts to form an inclusive government. "Our commitment to the people of Afghanistan is enduring," the ministry's statement said. "We will continue to push for an orderly transition of power to an inclusive government with broad support, especially women and minorities."

The Department added that the United States will use every diplomatic, economic, political and aid tool at its disposal to protect the fundamental rights of the Afghan people.

In a meeting with the Taliban minister of refugees, Pakistan's ambassador in Afghanistan, Obaid ur Rehman Nizamani, said that the perpetrators of such mistreatments are enemies of both countries.

In recent months, Pakistani police have arrested hundreds of Afghan migrants in Pakistan.

Last week, the Taliban Consulate General in Karachi announced that around 1,300 Afghan refugees were imprisoned in Pakistan's Sindh province for illegal stay in the country.

The writers of these letters have asked the UN Security Council to take immediate action to save Afghan women under the Taliban rule.

According to Razia Barakzai, one of the organisers of the campaign, in the letters, there are cases such as "targeted and continuous killings of women, stoning and beating up of women, sexual assaults, torture, and arbitrary arrests, forced and underage marriages, compulsory hijab, mistreatment, humiliation, and insulting of women”.

Other matters discussed in the letters have been the closure of girls' schools, the ban of women from stadiums and amusement parks, denying women the right to employment, travel, and political participation, and extensive violations of women's human rights.

Mujahid quoted Akhundzada as saying, "Those files in which all the sharia (Islamic law) conditions of hudud and qisas have been fulfilled, you are obliged to implement. This is the ruling of sharia, and my command, which is obligatory.”

Hudud refers to offences which, under Islamic law, certain types of punishment are mandated, while qisas translates as “retaliation in kind” -- effectively an eye for an eye. Hudud crimes include adultery -- and falsely accusing someone of it -- drinking alcohol, theft, kidnapping and highway robbery, apostasy, and rebellion.

Qisas covers murder and deliberate injury, among other things, but also allows for the families of victims to accept compensation in lieu of punishment.

The Taliban spokesperson said that Akhundzada in a meeting with the judges of the group delivered the message. However, the Taliban have not released any document that proves the leader of the group is alive.

These statements attributed to Akhundzada come two days after the Taliban flogged 20 people on various charges in Taloqan city of Takhar province after the Friday prayers.

The Taliban accused four of these men and women of having affair and beat each of them with 30 lashes.

Seven other girls were also flogged for not observing the hijab required by the Taliban and roaming in the city’s bazaar and nine other young men were flogged for accompanying these girls in the bazaar.