Pakistan FM Discusses Afghanistan During Moscow Visit

Abdul Rahman Zahid, director of administrative and financial affairs of the ministry said that 80,000 cattle were also lost during this period.

Zahid added that humanitarian aid has been distributed to 40,000 vulnerable families in the past month with the cooperation of other Taliban and UN agencies.

Afghanistan has witnessed an unprecedented cold during the winter of this year, and in recent weeks, the temperature has reached minus 30 degrees in several provinces.

The number of human casualties due to the cold is increasing while several relief organisations have stopped their operations after the Taliban banned women from work.

In the letter, issued by the Ministry of Higher Education of the Taliban, it has also been stated that the registration of male students "is not allowed against the provisions of the educational regulations of the bachelor's degree and postgraduate education”.

Mohammad Salim Afghan, Director of Student Affairs of the Taliban's Ministry of Education, has warned private higher education institutions that in case of violation of the group's order, legal action will be taken against them.

Previously, the Ministry of Higher Education of the Taliban suspended the rights to higher education of Afghan girls too.

The group had also banned secondary and higher education for girls soon after taking over Afghanistan in 2021.

After widespread criticism of the Taliban, the group's officials have said that the ban on girls' education is temporary.

The office of Mullah Baradar, the Taliban’s deputy prime minister for economic affairs also, welcomed the recent report of the World Bank on the economic situation of Afghanistan on Saturday.

The latest report of the World Bank stated that the inflation rate in Afghanistan has decreased from 18.3 percent to 9.1 percent, this year.

According to this report, the value of Afghani against foreign currency has also maintained its relative stability.

Mullah Baradar's office called the World Bank report a reflection of the realities of Afghanistan and asked the World Bank to resume projects that have been stopped since the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban in August 2021.

While the Taliban push to glorify "Afghanistan's economic progress", the United Nations has said that 28.3 million Afghans need help to survive this year. Over the past few days, Taliban officials have also confirmed that more than 160 people have died due to severe cold in Afghanistan.

On January 27, 2018, an ambulance was used as a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device at Sidarat square in Kabul.

According to reports, more than 235 people had been injured in the attack.

"Five years ago, I interviewed a young Afghan woman who miraculously survived the devastating Taliban suicide bombing in Kabul on January 27, 2018. It was a horrendous attack," wrote Patricia Gossman, Associate Director of Asia at Human Rights Watch.

Gossman recalled the victim’s statement, “I thought I had gone blind. There was blood running down my face into my eyes…. The street was full of bodies.”

Most of the victims of that attack were civilians. Soon after the attack, the Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

Human Rights Watch stressed that the Taliban has carried out numerous attacks against the Afghan government during its 20-year insurgency, in which civilians have been targeted.

The global human rights group said that since taking power in August 2021, the Taliban have carried out summary executions and enforced disappearances and have imposed policies that severely restrict the rights of women and girls.

Andrabi, who was the interior minister during Ashraf Ghani's presidency, said that Ghani and his inner "circle of three" are responsible for the failure of the political system and the misery of the people in Afghanistan.

Andrabi explained that Ashraf Ghani "only met his three-person circle during the 8am meetings and never consulted other senior leaders in his government".

The three-person inner circle of Ghani have been referred to Ashraf Ghani, former National Security Advisor, Hamdullah Mohib, and former head of Afghanistan Presidential Affairs Office, Fazl Mahmoud Fazli.

Due to the concentration of power in the presidential palace, Ashraf Ghani's critics refer to these people as the "three-member circle".

Mike Pompeo, the former US Secretary of State, said in a book he recently published that when the peace talks with the Taliban intensified, Ashraf Ghani was always a challenge for peace negotiations.