Dmitry Zhirnov, the Russian ambassador to Afghanistan, said that it is not easy to work in Kabul, because the situation is similar to that at the frontlines. He said that the diplomats should take care of their safety, use armoured vehicles, helmets, and body armour.
“The diplomats live behind security walls with barbed wire,” Zhirnov explained.
In an interview with Russian media outlets, Zhirnov added, "Diplomats should basically work like facing frontline conditions."
At the same time, the Russian diplomat stressed that Moscow wants to save Afghanistan from instability. He said, "Contact has now been made with the new authorities."
The statements from the Russian ambassador to Afghanistan comes close on the heels of the attack on the Russian embassy in Kabul in late 2022 in which two senior Russian diplomats had been killed. ISIS had claimed responsibility for this attack.
A Human Rights Institute has highlighted that Hazara community under the Taliban regime is facing increased threats of arbitrary arrest, disappearance, loss of employment and education, denial of humanitarian aid, and forced displacement.
It called on the United Nations Human Rights Council to conduct an independent investigation on targeted attacks and massacres against the Hazaras and other ethnic groups in Afghanistan.
The report titled, Human Rights Conditions for Hazaras in Afghanistan Under the Taliban Regime, has been published by the San Jose State University Human Rights Institute.
Through the report, the Human Rights Institute stresses that Hazaras who were members of the military and police of the former Afghan government said that they are doubly at risk because of their ethnicity. Even, Hazara journalists and women’s rights activists expressed that they are being censored and are being watched more than others and face harsher punishments when stopped by Taliban soldiers.
Apart from this, the report emphasised that the situation of Hazara women and girls is also bad as they are stopped more often by Taliban soldiers and forced to comply with stricter hijab and mahram policies than other women.
While referring to the various attacks across Afghanistan, the report added that the community has also been subjected to systematic human rights abuses and targeted in planned attacks on schools, mosques and public streets with ISIS-K taking responsibility for many of the attacks, but Taliban soldiers also engaged in human rights abuses against members of Hazara communities, the report added.
Also, insecurity and attack on religious gatherings is one of the serious threats against Hazaras, the report said. “Before the return of the Taliban, the Ghani government used to distribute weapons and security equipment to the Hazara local people under a temporary process to ensure the security of Muharram events and the people themselves took part in providing security. However, in 2022, the Taliban did not implement this program. Taliban even asked the people not to gather in the streets for the Muharram mourning and to hold their events only in mosques and religious houses,” it added.
The report emphasized on themes of forced displacement of Hazaras, repression of Hazara women and girls and also regarding the allegations of limited and unbalanced aid distributions in the Hazara living areas which has increased the level of poverty and hunger among the Hazara communities.
The report stated that this has forced a large number of Hazara people to leave their homeland and immigrate to other countries due to poverty and insecurity.
The report noted that even in the government structure, the Taliban doesn’t have any Hazaras in their top leadership and have fired most Hazaras who worked in the civil service under the former Afghan government, the report added.
The report highlighted that Hazara women’s rights activists faced harsher reactions and consequences while taking part in protests and resisting Taliban policies. Civil activists and Hazara women's rights activists, professors, teachers, and journalists have been threatened, insulted, and otherwise violated during Taliban rule.
Since the fall of the former Afghan government in August 2021, living conditions for many people in Afghanistan have worsened. Governmental services shut down, the Afghan currency quickly dropped in value, food costs skyrocketed, hundreds of thousands of Afghans fled the country, most international organizations closed their offices, and security deteriorated.
In order to formulate the report, the rights institute had interviewed Hazaras, victims, Afghan women's rights activists, anti-Taliban protesters, Afghan civil rights activists, journalists, Hazara human rights defenders, a World Hazara Council key member, among others.
Russia confirmed that the country has started construction of an outpost on the border between Afghanistan and Tajikistan. Alexander Sternik, a Russian foreign ministry official, said that Moscow’s funds have been spent after sources of confirmed threats from the region.
He added that the outpost will be a modern center that will fulfil all the needs.
Sternik said, "The construction of a border outpost on the border of Tajikistan and Afghanistan with the participation of the Russian Federation is ongoing."
At the same time, he emphasised that "Russia, as an ally, directly supports Tajikistan”.
The Russian official announced the construction of this modern outpost while Vladimir Putin, the Russian president had previously said that he did not want the southern borders of his country to witness tension.
Russia and Tajikistan are the main members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, the Commonwealth of Independent States, and the Collective Security Treaty Organisation. Both countries enjoy close cooperation in the region and around Afghanistan.
After the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, members of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation with the participation of the Russian and Tajik military have held several military exercises on the border with Afghanistan.
The Taliban’s Ministry of Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice announced that its religious policemen have visited several provinces of Afghanistan. The Taliban inspectors have asked photographers in Zabul province to observe "Sharia principles" while taking photographs.
The Taliban has not explained what are the "Sharia principles" in photography.
The Taliban ministry added that it has said in a statement that the Ministry's "religious policemen" also advised barbers in Zabul to refrain from shaving "beards and hair against Sharia".
In Takhar province, the religious policemen of the Taliban have also asked women to "observe the religious hijab when leaving the house”.
The Taliban’s ministry of Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice added that the ministry’s religious policemen have staged outposts in Kaspisa province and called on the drivers to pray.
The Taliban’s interior minister Sirajuddin Haqqani said that the Taliban will work for the security of Afghans, including the Hazara people. In a meeting with Shia figures, Haqqani added that the Hazaras are expected to support the Taliban's security forces.
The Taliban's Ministry of Interior announced that Sheikh Abdul Naser Bamiyani, Seyyed Sufi Gardizi, and Ahmad Hossein Sangardost, have met Haqqani and praised the performance of the Taliban's Ministry of Interior and assured that "they will put all efforts to strengthen the Taliban rule”.
Taliban’s senior leaders assured ensuring the safety of Hazara people, even though after the group’s takeover of Afghanistan, attacks against the Hazara community have increased.
Hazaras are one of the most vulnerable ethnic groups who have experienced brutal attacks by Islamic State-Khurasan, the Taliban, and other radical groups in the recent three decades in Afghanistan.
Sibghatullah Ahmadi, spokesman of the National Resistance Front (NRF), reacted to Taliban's harsh reactions to the crowd who had gathered around the Kabul airport. Ahmadi said that Afghanistan has become a prison and Taliban are the country’s "murderous and sick prison guards”.
He added that the Taliban enjoy "torturing and killing people" in Afghanistan.
According to the NRF spokesperson, the Taliban have taken Afghan people as hostages.
Ahmadi shared a video clip of shootings of the Taliban on his Twitter account and said that the Taliban and Mullah Hibatullah, the hidden leader of the group, "will face justice on the day of freedom”.
The video, which has been retweeted by Ahmadi, shows that while the crowd is scattered outside the airport, the Taliban members shoot from inside a car. As they shoot, they laugh and shout, "Are you going to Turkey?"
On Wednesday evening, sources reported that the Taliban were shooting around the Kabul airport. The Taliban said that a "rumour" had spread among the people that the group was sending people to Turkey to help earthquake victims.
Later, the Taliban said that they had dispersed people from around the Kabul airport.
