Local sources said that on Thursday, a Taliban member killed a 10-year-old girl in the Bootkhak roundabout of Kabul city. Sources told Afghanistan International that the alleged accused is a bodyguard of Qari Badr, the deputy chief of the Taliban's prisons.
According to the sources, the ten-year-old child was shot from a close range on Thursday morning and two bullets made contact with the child's chest.
The Taliban have told the local people that they have arrested and imprisoned the accused.
Previously, there have been reports that the Taliban forces killed civilians in different areas, and despite the promises made, none of the perpetrators have been punished.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the European Union, in cooperation with Tashkent, established an educational center for Afghans living in Uzbekistan. According to the United Nations, the EU Knowledge Center operates in Termez city.
A UNDP statement stressed that the Centre is funded under the “enhancing capacities of Surkhandarya region to educate and train Afghan citizens” initiative, and is the outcome of a common effort by the EU, UNDP, and the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, and Innovation of the Republic of Uzbekistan.
Charlotte Adrian, the EU representative for Uzbekistan, said that this new initiative is part of the effort through which the EU provides support Afghan citizens who have been displaced and are away from their motherland for reasons out of their control.
She added, “We hope that the project implemented by the UNDP, our long-term partner, will ensure that Afghan citizens living in Uzbekistan benefit from gaining new knowledge and skills that will help them improve their livelihoods and support their families”
International organisations take new initiatives to educate Afghans outside Afghanistan at a time when inside the country, the Taliban has imposed serve restrictions on Afghan citizens, particularly women and girls across the country.
Girls have been banned from schools and universities, and according to human rights organisations, the Taliban has been slowly eradicating them from social life.
General Murad Ali Murad, the former Deputy Chief of Staff of the Afghan Army, said that "the negligence of the Afghan politicians and leaders" weakened the army during the previous regime. Murad added that former president Ashraf Ghani viewed the army through an ethnic lens.
In an interview with Afghanistan International on Wednesday, he said that Ashraf Ghani appointed incompetent army officers to head the security institutions of Afghanistan.
The former Deputy Chief of Staff of the Army stressed that the Afghan army was well-trained and equipped, however, indirectly he also approved former president’s inner circle’s narrative that the Afghan army collapsed due to global and regional conspiracy and the Taliban took over Afghanistan.
However, in the interview, General Murad blamed the presidential palace for the defeat of the previous government’s army in Afghanistan; a criticism that Ghani, his former Vice-President Armullah Saleh, and other senior aides to the former president rejected.
Murad accused Ghani and his security team of "pulling out experienced and educated generals from the leadership of the Afghan army, police and other security agencies and appointing inexperienced junior and young officers at leading positions of the security and defense forces”.
Ashraf Ghani's government, within the framework of the plan to reform the Afghan security forces, had retired and dismissed hundreds of military personnel and placed some young military personnel at important positions, such as the command of the army corps.
During this interview, Murad did not try to analyse the collapse of the Afghan army from a military point of view and stressed that there was a conspiracy against the security forces inside the government.
He said, "The enemies fought with us during the day and were equipped and financed at night. Even their wounded were dragged from the battlefield.”
Zabihullah Mujahid, Taliban's spokesperson, said that the Taliban doesn’t rely on foreign aid and will not collapse due to lack of it. Mujahid reacted to a report from Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) which stated that Afghanistan faces a risk of collapse.
OCHA said that with the end of the 20-year war between the Taliban and the previous government, Afghanistan under the rule of the Taliban has begun a new period characterised by economic crisis, hunger, malnutrition, a sharp increase in poverty in cities and villages, the collapse of the health system, and repression of the media.
The UN agency explained that the collapse of the previous regime led to the suspension of global aid, which previously accounted for 75 percent of public spending, including maintaining the health system.
According to OCHA, Afghanistan's economic crisis is widespread and more than half of the households have experienced economic shock over the last six months.
The Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid has also acknowledged the economic crisis in Afghanistan.
Mujahid said that any country that has "experienced a long war and invasion will have economic challenges for a while".
At the same time, he said that the Taliban is determined to restore the economic resources of Afghanistan.
Iran's ambassador in Kabul, Hassan Kazemi Qomi, said that the Taliban has not denied releasing the water rights of Iran from the Helmand river. Qomi said that the Taliban has verbally and in writing emphasised that the Helmand water treaty will be implemented.
However, Qomi added that the Kamal Khan Dam diverts the water to a direction other than Iran.
He said that measures should be taken to stop this diversion, and the Taliban officials told him that they have been taking necessary measures to do the same.
During the previous Afghan government, the Helmand water issue caused tension between Afghanistan and Iran. However, after taking control of Afghanistan, the Taliban announced that the group was committed to the Helmand Water Treaty.
Last year, the Taliban released waters of the Kamal Khan dam in Nimroz province.
Qomi has also stressed that the Taliban is willing to cooperate with the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Earlier this year, Iran's foreign minister had said that although the Taliban released a part of the waters of the Kamal Khan Dam and "recognised" Iran's claim, the Islamic Republic is not satisfied with the Taliban's level of release of water.
During a meeting with Martin Griffiths, the UN Deputy Secretary General, Sirajuddin Haqqani, the Taliban's Minister of Interior said that the ban on girls' education is due to a difference of opinion about the educational curriculum.
He said that the ban is not permanent and will be resolved.
Haqqani added that security has been ensured in Afghanistan and the world should support this development.
In this meeting, Griffiths emphasised on lifting restrictions on Afghan women's right to education and work.
According to a statement of the Taliban's Ministry of Interior, Griffiths added, "We should not criticise each other's performance because excessive criticism closes the doors to understanding."
Earlier, the United Nations had criticised the Taliban for restrictions on Afghan women's right to work and education, as well as what it considers to be widespread human rights violations.
