The Taliban’s Supreme Court announced that the group has released 2,460 prisoners on the occasion of Eid. In a statement, the Taliban’s Supreme Court on Wednesday, said that these people met the criteria to be “pardoned”.
No details have been provided about the charges against these people and how long they were in Taliban’s prisons.
The Taliban’s Supreme Court also stated that it has reduced the prison terms of 471 other prisoners.
According to the Taliban’s statement, based on the decrees from the Taliban leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada and Abdul Hakim Haqqani, these prisoners have been released.
While there is no official account of the number of prisoners inside the Taliban prisons, unofficial reports indicate that many dissidents, civil activists, and soldiers in the republic order of Afghanistan have been imprisoned by the Taliban.
France deported an Afghan national for supporting terrorism in the country. In 2020, the Afghan national was sentenced to 18 months in prison, for “praising terrorism” and justifying the assassination of a French teacher on social media.
Samuel Paty, a geography and history teacher, was attacked on October 16, 2020, by a young Muslim refugee from Chechnya in the suburbs of Paris after showing caricatures of the Prophet of Islam to students during one of the discussions related to freedom of expression in France.
After that incident, the 26-year-old Afghan national was arrested by the French police for supporting the murder of this teacher on social media, including Facebook and TikTok.
After serving his sentence in a detention center in Lille city, the Afghan national was transferred to New Delhi on a flight on March 23 to be returned to Kabul.
This is the first time that France has deported an asylum seeker to Afghanistan after the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan in 2021.
The recent statement of the United Nations Deputy Secretary-General about discussions regarding the recognition of the Taliban has been met with strong reactions. National Resistance Front’s (NRF) foreign relations head, Ali Nazari, has called the statement deeply concerning.
Nazari added that recognising a terrorist and criminal organisation as Afghanistan's government is an insult and betrayal to the resilient people of the country.
The head of the foreign relations of NRF called on the international community to stand united with Afghanistan and oppose any attempt to legitimise a terrorist group.
Previously, Amina Mohammed, the deputy secretary general of the United Nations said that in two weeks, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will meet with the various countries' special representatives for Afghanistan.
She added, “We hope that we'll find those baby steps to put us back on the pathway to recognition [of the Taliban], a principled recognition. Is it possible? I don't know. [But] that discussion has to happen. The Taliban clearly want recognition, and that's the leverage we have."
Meanwhile, the Women Movement for Freedom and Peace described the UN official's statement as "irresponsible and hasty".
The movement said in a statement that Mohammed's statements are against the values of human rights and the main mission of the United Nations, and ignores the basic rights of the Afghan people.
Criticising the statements of this UN official, the movement said that in the last 20 months, the Taliban have excluded women from social life.
Several Afghan citizens have also criticised the statements of the Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations.
Amina Mohammed said on Monday that recognising the Taliban would help hold the group accountable.
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) announced that the organisation is committed to staying and delivering aid to the millions of Afghans in need. UNDP said that it supports thousands of women-owned businesses, public service initiatives, and enterprises in Afghanistan.
Earlier, Achim Steiner, the UNDP administrator, had stated that if the Taliban doesn’t agree with the work of the United Nation’s Afghan female staffers, the organisation is ready to leave Afghanistan.
UNDP also announced on Tuesday that the number of Afghans living in poverty has increased from 19 million in 2020 to 34 million in 2022.
Referring to the findings of its recent report that foreign aid prevented the collapse of Afghanistan's economy, the United Nations Development Programme called continued international support for the people of Afghanistan critical.
The organisation has called on the Taliban to immediately lift the ban on Afghan female staffers of the UN and other restrictive decisions against women in Afghanistan.
The Taliban recently banned female staffers of the UN from working with UN offices in Afghanistan.
Following this decision, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan asked all male and female staffers of the UN to avoid reporting for work in the UN offices.
Mawlawi Abdul Kabir, Taliban’s deputy prime minister for political affairs, has said that Afghan media industry is essential for the Taliban regime. Abdul Kabir discussed media scene in the country with Afghan journalists and media managers during an “Iftar dinner” in Kabul.
The Taliban has imposed severe restrictions on the media and journalists over the past 20 months since they have taken control of Afghanistan.
According to a statement issued by the Taliban on Wednesday, Abdul Kabir said that the Taliban sees the media industry as "a bridge between the government and the nation”.
The Taliban’s deputy prime minister urged the media representatives to present the real situation of Afghanistan and refrain from propaganda.
Abdul Kabir also stressed that Afghan society would be incomplete without a strong media industry.
He also asked the media representatives to "maintain their independence and publish the realities of society with a nationalistic and Islamic spirit”.
The Taliban's restrictions and pressures on the media professionals have caused many media groups to end their activities and hundreds of journalists to flee the country.
Taliban convened a rally on Tuesday to bolster the support of the clerics in Panjshir province. In the gathering, the Taliban read what they termed as “Panjshir clerics fatwa” in which chaos against the Taliban has been considered as rebellion.
However, several clerics who had been present at the rally questioned the validity of the issued fatwa.
Abdul Mutalib Amiri, a resident of Panjshir, read the fatwa, a part of which stressed that "the one who succeeds with sword and takes charge of the caliphate, is called "Amir al-Muminin" and for the one who believes in God, it is not permissible to spend even one night without accepting the Amir al-Muminin as Imam.”
The fatwa emphasised that “the government of the Islamic Emirate has been established through allegiance and dominance, both ways for gaining legitimacy, that are considered to be clear signs of an Islamic government”.
Local Taliban officials, including Mohammad Mohsen Hashemi, the governor of the group for Panjshir, participated in this meeting.
However, some clerics who participated in the meeting questioned the validity of the issued fatwa.
One of the participants said that a fatwa is issued by someone who is "the most respected inhabitant of a region”. Referring to the fact that he was invited to issue a fatwa, the cleric said, "How honoured I am that the Islamic Emirate soldiers search me twice,” before entering the venue of the meeting.
According to this participant, the Taliban even checked his turban to make sure that there is no bomb hidden in it.
In the reports broadcast by local media, participants of the programme openly criticised the mistreatment of the people of Panjshir by the Taliban.
Mawlawi Kazem, one of the clerics of Panjshir, said that "issuing a fatwa is not a simple matter in which anyone dares to stand up and issue a fatwa”.
Shaikh Masihullah, a tribal elder, also called on the Taliban to demonstrate good behaviour with the people of Panjshir and said that there should not be a double standard with residents of this province.
Although Panjshir was one of the safest provinces in Afghanistan in the twenty years before the Taliban took over, after the Taliban entered this province, numerous reports of mass arrests, widespread torture and shooting of civilians and prisoners of war were published in this province.
Human rights organisations have accused the Taliban of using widespread violence against the people of Panjshir province and committing war crimes.