Authorities in Iran's Razavi Khorasan announced the seizure of 18 kilograms of drugs on the border with Afghanistan. Mohammad Reza Dabiri, Director General of Police of the province, said that the drugs had been discovered on Friday at the Khaf country with Afghanistan.
Khaf county of Razavi Khorasan province shares 91 kilometers of joint border with Afghanistan.
Iranian media have also published pictures of the seized drugs.
The Taliban banned the cultivation and sale of poppy in Afghanistan this year, but no alternative has been announced by the group.
However, there have been reports that poppy cultivation continues in Afghanistan and is being smuggled to neighbouring countries.
Hugo Shorter announced on Saturday that his mission as head of the UK mission to Afghanistan has come to an end. Shorter had been in charge of the British Embassy for Afghanistan since January 2022.
The UK foreign office has not yet introduced the replacement of Shorter as the new head of mission for Afghanistan.
Shorter said that the UK mission’s priority under him has been life-saving support to around 28 million Afghans in need. He also said that his country has sent more than $600 million in humanitarian aid to Afghanistan since April 2021.
At the end of his term, Shorter also explained the policies of the British government towards Afghanistan. According to him, from London's perspective, after 40 years of conflict further violence is in no-one’s interest.
He stressed that instability and civil strife would lead to a deeper humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan and there is a potential of Islamic State-Khurasan’s resurgence in the country.
The former British head of mission for Afghanistan has said that he has interacted with the Taliban and the Afghan society over the past year. Shorter acknowledged that some will not agree to the interaction with the Taliban, but he emphasised that "without dialogue, you cannot progress after years of conflict." According to him, "more isolation will not help the Afghan people”.
Shorter emphasised on the importance of girls' education in Afghanistan and said, "We must learn from the past. This means keeping dialogue open while remaining resolute on our principles."
Twitter Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk retweeted paragraphs of an article and said that Taliban are “making a day in the life videos” on the microblogging platform. Telegraph newspaper published an article on Monday and said that the Taliban have become dependent on Twitter.
The British daily added that the Taliban, who have left their villages and entered Kabul, are tired of the traffic, are afraid of street crimes, and spend their time on Twitter, in the capital city.
In reply to Musk's tweet, Mohammad Jalal, a member of the Taliban, wrote that Afghanistan has lithium reserves estimated at one trillion dollars.
He added that lithium in Afghanistan is a vital part of high-capacity batteries for electric devices and urged Musk to invest in Afghanistan.
However, Habib Khan, an Afghan reporter and one of the well-known Afghan civil activists, replied to Musk and said that the Taliban glorify suicide bombings and promote terrorism on the microblogging platform.
This journalist asked Musk to do Afghanistan a favour and stop the Taliban's access to Twitter.
Elon Musk, the owner of Twitter, has reflected on the activities of the Taliban on the social platform, as over the past months a social media campaign has been launched against the activities of the group on Twitter.
Social media activists have launched #BanTaliban campaign on the microblogging site and urged Musk to stop Taliban’s activities on Twitter.
However, contrary to expectations, Musk has not taken serious measures to ban the Taliban’s access to the platform. At the same time, several Taliban members have bought blue ticks on Twitter.
During the two decades of war with the international forces and the former Afghan government, the Taliban have used social media as a tool to spread their thoughts, news, and activities.
In many cases, the Taliban were faster than Afghan government’s spokespersons in spreading news and happenings around Afghanistan.
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.
