Taliban Announces Closure of Salang Highway Following Deadly Fire

According to the local people, "The Taliban want to seize six thousand acres of land of the indigenous people.”

Local sources said that this land mainly belongs to the members of Uzbek and Tajik communities in the province.

In the photos obtained by Afghanistan International, people of Sar-e-Pol villages are seen marching with shovels on their shoulders and chanting slogans against "ethnic oppression".

The Taliban have not yet reacted to these protests.

After the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban on August 15, 2021, reports of forced migration of local people have emerged from various provinces of Afghanistan.

Karzai recently left Kabul for Dubai and then traveled to Germany.

As per the photo from the meeting with Manawi, other political figures including former chief of staff of president, Karim Khoram, had been present.

Manawi, who is considered to be close to Ahmad Massoud, the leader of the National Resistance Front, recently delivered documents to the International Criminal Court that include the crimes of the Taliban.

Qomi has recently published a report of his meeting with Afghan elites in Iran through his Twitter account in which he used the word Afghanistani instead of Afghan referring to those he met.

In response to Qomi, Al Hanafi Wardak, a twitter account with 75,100 followers which claims to belong to an official of the Taliban ministry of foreign affairs in its bio, said, "As a prominent diplomat in Afghanistan affairs and now acting head of the embassy in Kabul, it is important to know that our identity is Afghan, not Afghanistani."

The constitution of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan called the identity of all citizens of the country as "Afghan", but many citizens of the country believe that "Afghan" is not the national identity of all people of Afghanistan and that the word "Afghanistani" should be used for citizens of Afghanistan.

Amnesty listed administrative hurdles to obtain identification documents and problems in visa renewal as some of the issues faced by Afghan refugees.

While thanking Pakistan for hosting most Afghan refugees, the organisation however, stated that it is alarmed by the prolonged legal uncertainty experienced by the refugees as the country lacks national legislation for protection of refugees and asylum seekers.

“Afghan refugees are in limbo in Pakistan as the country has no established procedure to determine refugee status. They cannot rent houses, open bank accounts, activate SIM card or even receive medical treatment,” said Agnes Callamard, Secretary General, Amnesty International.

Amnesty also spoke about the detained protestors and urged the government of Pakistan to release them. It also asked Islamabad to reconsider their process of renewing of visas without visiting Afghanistan as most of those refugees are former government officials, journalists or activists, who are at risk of persecution from the Taliban.

Amnesty International also urged Pakistan not to forcefully deport Afghan refugees whose visas expire before December 31, 2022, a deadline set by up the country.

However, a leaked audio file attributed to him about the Taliban and Afghanistan’s relations has been in the stirring up controversy.

The Embassy of the Islamic Republic announced on Twitter that Aminian will return to Iran at the end of "three years of service" in Afghanistan. It is not clear who is the next ambassador of Tehran to Afghanistan.

Earlier, sources told Afghanistan International that Iran has replaced Bahadur Aminian, the country’s ambassador to Kabul.

The change in Tehran’s ambassador in Kabul comes weeks after Aminian’s controversial speech about the Taliban and Afghanistan had been leaked.

After Afghanistan International published his speech, Aminian has not been seen in Kabul and Iran’s deputy ambassador in Afghanistan has been in charge of the embassy’s operations.

Last month, a hacker group got access to an internal Fars News Agency bulletin and published the full text of its findings on a Telegram channel.

A part of these files was the transcript of the speech of Bahadur Aminian, the ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, in a small gathering in Tehran. Aminian had said that if his conversations would get published in the media and reached the Taliban, he would not be able to return to Kabul.

In that speech, the ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran had described the Taliban as a disaster that is unacceptable, embarrassing, and subversive, but at the same time, he had emphasised that the Islamic Republic has no choice but to work with them and support them.

He compared the Taliban, which, according to reports, came to power in Afghanistan with the extensive financial and military support of Iran, with the Mongol army, and suggested that the Islamic Republic must treat them like the Mongols so that they become civilised.