Killed Second in Command of Islamic State – Khorasan in Balkh Province, Claims Taliban

In a statement it has said that even with the start of the new academic year in Afghanistan from Saturday, it is a day of grief for Afghan teenage girls as the has failed to take action to stop the ban.

It has been 550 days since the Taliban denied the right to education to girls and women and the group hasn’t worked on any of their promises to reopen the secondary schools for girls.

Sahar Fetrat, Assistant Researcher, Women's Rights Division of HRW, said, “The Taliban’s misogynistic regime has made Afghanistan the only country banning girls from secondary school. They promised to respect girls’ right to education, but the day girls’ schools reopened, March 23, 2022, the Taliban shamefully broke their promise and sent teenage girls home,” she wrote in her statement.

The statement also called on world leaders for prompt, pragmatic, and meaningful actions.

The statement also spoke about how the Taliban doubled down on their disregard for women last year by banning women’s university education too.

Fetrat emphasised that no country can imagine a prosperous future without educated girls and women.

Balkhi added that the delegation also examined the general situation of the consulate building which had been damaged due to snowfall in Tajikistan.

The delegation was headed by Mohammad Musa Amiri, head of finance and administration of the Taliban's foreign ministry.

The Taliban has not published any photos of the visit of the delegation or of the Afghan consulate building in Khorog.

However earlier, Tajik media had reported that several houses, including the Afghan consulate in Khorog, had been damaged due to snowfall.

Tajikistan and the Afghan embassy in Dushanbe have not yet commented on the visit of the Taliban delegation from Badakhshan province.

The government of Tajikistan has been vocal about the politics of the Taliban and the Afghan embassy in Dushanbe is also led by Zahir Aghbar, the ambassador of the previous government of Afghanistan to Tajikistan.

Dushanbe, which has hosted several opposition leaders of the Taliban, has repeatedly emphasised that the group must form an inclusive government.

The Taliban regularly announces repairing armoured personal carrier vehicles left by the US forces in Afghanistan.

According to the US House of Representatives, after the withdrawal of the country's military forces from Afghanistan, seven billion dollars’ worth of military equipment has been left behind in Afghanistan.

The US is concerned that the military equipment under Taliban control could be used by terrorist groups or would be accessed by China or Russia, the two main US rivals.

Earlier, several international organisations said that the Taliban might ask for help from Russia and China to repair the remaining damaged military vehicles in Afghanistan.

Mujahid stressed that the ISIS group has been suppressed across the country.

However, the commander of CENTCOM spoke to the members of the Armed Forces Committee of the US House of Representatives on Thursday and stressed that ISIS has become stronger in Afghanistan.

According to General Kurilla, ISIS is a global organisation with an office in charge of all ISIS operations including Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and even Indonesia, which is in touch with the leadership of the group.

The Taliban spokesperson said that the US officials' interest in this issue is a campaign in favour of ISIS and must be stopped.

Earlier, General Kurilla had said that in the next six months, ISIS in Afghanistan could target US and other Western countries’ interests.

He added that ISIS' ability to conduct operations in Asia and Europe is expanding rapidly.

According to the assessment of the US General who addressed the US senate, ISIS will not be able to carry out terrorist attacks on American soil in the near future. However, he said that hundreds of American citizens abroad are vulnerable to attacks by the group.

According to the Qatari foreign ministry, the two sides also discussed the progress in the plan to support the health sector in Afghanistan.

Canadian and Qatari senior officials discussed the two government’s support for girls’ education even though it has been over 500 days since the Taliban banned secondary and higher education for Afghan girls.

Meanwhile, Al Khater had previously criticised the Taliban's ban on girls' education too. Khater had said that the Taliban should follow the example of other Islamic countries such as Qatar, Indonesia, and Malaysia, where despite a ruling Islamic system, women have the right to education and work.