Taliban Must Follow Through Their Commitments Made In Doha Agreement, Says Khalilzad

Noor claimed that the Taliban has been killing people mysteriously under the garb of destroying ISIS hideouts.

The former governor of Balkh called the Taliban’s actions as "barbaric" and asked the international community, especially the United Nations, not to let the people become victims of the group's policies.

Noor’s statement about the Taliban’s killing comes a day after Mohammad Asif Waziri, the spokesperson of Taliban police in Balkh province, claimed on Monday that the Taliban forces had killed six ISIS members during a military operation in Nahar-e-Shahi district.

The Taliban has not released more details about the attack or the details of the dead men.

Mersad, a media outlet leaning towards the Taliban, reported that this operation was carried out in Street 13 of the Engineer Mehdi area.

According to the new report of WFP, the organisation was supposed to aid 13 million Afghans in April, but due to the lack of funds, only nine million people had been provided support.

WFP stressed that nearly 20 million people are projected to be acutely food-insecure between November 2022 and March 2023.

The World Food Programme added four million people are acutely malnourished, including 3.2 million children under the age of 5.

The United Nations has identified 28.3 million people, which comprise two-thirds of Afghanistan's population, as people in need of humanitarian assistance.

WFP said that hunger is primarily driven by the economic crisis that has gripped Afghanistan since August 2021, compounded by decades of conflict, climate shocks, and severe restrictions on the rights of women and girls to work and pursue higher education.

The World Food Programme has reported that 82 of the 100 partner institutions of the organisation are in fully operational and female staff from 80 partner organisations are engaged in activities across all provinces of Afghanistan.

However, on International Day for Mine Awareness & Assistance, OCHA stressed that more than 4,150 identified hazards remain, posing a lethal threat to communities, in particular children in Afghanistan.

In previous reports, according to the United Nations, 150 people are killed by land mines in Afghanistan each month. Eight out of every 10 victims are children who inadvertently pick up an unexploded ordnance, some of which resemble toys.

Decades of conflict have littered Afghanistan with land mines and other explosive remnants of war. As a result, today the country is one of the most contaminated in the world. Without de-mining, Afghans harmed by decades of war cannot build themselves a safe future in their country. Without effective de-mining operations, farming cannot happen, internally displaced people cannot return to their villages, and education cannot be effective as children cannot go to school.

The Mine Action Programme of Afghanistan (MAPA) was established in 1989.

However, in both cases, there has not been any independent source to confirm the Taliban’s accounts of the operations.

Independent sources have only confirmed explosions and gun fire had been heard in Zaranj city, but it is not clear who the Taliban forces targeted in the operations.

Mohammad Asif Waziri, the spokesperson of Taliban police in Balkh province, claimed on Monday that the Taliban forces have killed six ISIS members in a military operation in Nahar-e-Shahi district.

The Taliban has not released more details about the attack or the details of the dead men.

Mersad, a media outlet leaning towards the Taliban, reported that this operation was carried out in Street 13 of the Engineer Mehdi area.

Earlier, the Taliban had also claimed to have killed ISIS fighters who were involved in the attacks on Chinese citizens and the Pakistani embassy in Kabul and Nimroz provinces.

Due to severe restrictions imposed on independent media and journalists by the Taliban, it is not easy to confirm or deny the group’s claims, particularly when they wage operations against targets across the country. The group pressurises the media outlets that present different accounts than the Taliban’s narrative on incidents in Afghanistan.

According to the sources, several employees of the Taliban’s governor office in Balkh province, who had worked with the previous government of Afghanistan too, had been detained due to suspicions of regarding the killing of Dawood Muzammil, the former Taliban governor for Balkh province.

However, on Sunday, the Taliban intelligence agency released the "confessions" of a man who is said to have been involved in the assassination of Muzammil.

Even after the arrest of the suspect by the Taliban, these employees who were arrested on March 9 haven’t been released.

Sources close to the families of the arrested people said that they have repeatedly visited the government offices of the Taliban, but haven’t been able to meet these arrested individuals.

These sources said that over the past 24 days, the families of the detainees have not been given any information about their health condition and whereabouts.

Mohammad Dawood Muzammil, the former governor of the Taliban in Balkh, was killed in a suicide attack in his office on March 9. The Islamic State – Khorasan (IS-K) claimed responsibility for the attack.

Following the attack on Muzammil, sources told Afghanistan International that the Taliban intelligence operatives had arrested more than 30 employees of the governor’s office.

The sources had stressed that some of the detainees had been injured in the explosion too.