Qalandar Ebad, the Taliban’s Minister of Public Health, arrived in Iran on Friday to participate in the meeting of the Group of Five. The Taliban’s Ministry of Public Health said that Group of Five will discuss cooperation in the health sector.
Over the past eight months, Ebad has visited Iran three times.
The meeting of the Group of Five with a focus on the health sector will be hosted by Iran with the participation of Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the cooperation of the World Health Organisation.
Amir Khan Muttaqi, the Taliban’s foreign minister, arrived in Islamabad on Friday to participate in a tripartite meeting with the foreign ministers of Pakistan and China. Taliban’s foreign ministry said that Muttaqi will hold bilateral talks with the Chinese Foreign Minister.
According to the Taliban’s foreign ministry, the delegation led by Muttaqi will discuss bilateral relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan during their Islamabad visit.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan had said on Thursday that the Taliban’s foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi; the group’s minister of commerce Nooruddin Azizi, and several other officials of the Taliban will visit Islamabad.
Taliban’s foreign ministry stressed that among others, the group’s delegation will discuss political, and commercial relations, regional stability, and transit during the Islamabad visit.
The Chinese Foreign Minister is also due to land in Islamabad for the two-day meeting.
Sources said that Abdul Ghani Haqbin, former counterterrorism chief of the Taliban Police in Kandahar has been released after an order by the group’s leader. Haqbin had been arrested by the Taliban intelligence agency on charges of “adultery” in Spin Boldak city six months ago.
Both Haqbin and Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada belong to the Noorzai tribe in southern Afghanistan.
Taliban sees adultery as a crime and has severely punished ordinary Afghan citizens accused of similar cases in the past.
On Thursday, Abdul Malik Haqqani, the deputy chief justice in the Taliban’s Supreme Court, announced that since taking power in Afghanistan the group had sentenced hundreds of people to “Qisas [retribution] and stoning”.
Haqqani said that the Taliban has ordered the execution of 175 people and the stoning of 37 people throughout Afghanistan since taking power in the country. He emphasised that the courts of this group have ordered four people to be put under the wall and Sharia laws have been implemented on 103 other people.
The images obtained by Afghanistan International show that a number of Taliban members have visited Kandahar prison to welcome the release of Abdul Ghani Haqbin.
Over the past few months, this group has arrested and tortured dozens of people on morality charges and extramarital affairs, including adultery. During this time, the Taliban have flogged many people in public.
Vedant Patel, the deputy spokesperson of the US Department of State, said that the possibility of the Taliban benefiting from the US aid is not true. Patel told Afghanistan International that the mechanisms of aid transfer and distribution prevent the Taliban from using it.
However, in a new report, the US Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) stressed that the US State Department and SIGAR don’t know how much revenue the Taliban gathers from the United Nations and non-governmental organisations’ aid.
However, in response to Aref Yaqubi of Afghanistan International, Patel said that the US has confidence in the aid distribution mechanism in Afghanistan and is sure that the US aid will reach the Afghan people.
The US Congress tasked SIGAR in March to determine how much US money the Taliban receive through paying taxes, fees, import duties, purchasing or receiving licenses, or public services. The new report of SIGAR has not been able to give a definitive answer to this question.
John Sopko, the US Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, had previously told the US Congress that due to a lack of cooperation from the US Department of State and aid organisations, there is no clear information about whether the Taliban is benefitting from the US in Afghanistan or not. However, Sopko had not ruled out the possibility of the Taliban taking advantage of the US aid.
The Associated Press (AP) in a report on Wednesday said that the Taliban have been interfering in the work of non-governmental and relief organisations in various ways and harassing them in Afghanistan.
According to the AP report, Taliban officials seek to influence the decision-making about projects and the implementation process.
Recently, a Taliban member launched aerial shooting during the process of food distribution, which is one of the cases of harassment of non-governmental organisation workers during aid delivery.
AP reported that Taliban members enter the offices of non-governmental organisations without prior notice and ask them to provide information about their project plans, budget, relief operations, and employees.
Sirajuddin Haqqani, the Taliban’s interior minister, urged the group not to treat people in Afghanistan harshly and said that such a behaviour distances them from religion. Haqqani on Thursday also talked about Afghans’ dissatisfaction with the Taliban.
However, during the introduction ceremony of the new governor of the Taliban for Kandahar province, he emphasised on unity among the Taliban and stressed on “obedience” to the Taliban leader Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada.
The Taliban leader has appointed Mohammad Ali Hanafi, known as Mullah Shirin, as the governor of Kandahar. Mullah Shirin, who was previously the deputy defence minister for intelligence affairs of the Taliban, has close relations with Akhundzada.
Haqqani said that he had attended the introduction ceremony on the orders of the Taliban leader and asked the new Kandahar governor to serve the people of the province.
The Taliban’s interior affairs minister pointed out various issues facing the Taliban to an audience that was mainly Taliban officials and fighters, and according to him, several of them have been dissatisfied with the current situation among the group.
Haqqani also tried to paint a public-centered image of the Taliban and defended the shortcomings of the Taliban regime led by Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, whom he referred to as “Sheikh Sahib” during his speech.
Without referring to any specific cases, Haqqani indirectly asked the Taliban to stop behaving harshly with the people. According to him, the Taliban should not rush to implement the Sharia orders of their regime on the people in Afghanistan, because he thinks that people will build hatred towards religion.
Some observers believe that Haqqani has differences with the Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada on Taliban policies. Hassan Abbas, a professor at the National Defence University in Washington, has described Haqqani as a pragmatic leader of the Taliban.
In his newly published book on the Taliban, Abbas has spoken about the internal differences of the Taliban and said that some within the group believe that radical policies of Akhundzada will lead to more isolation of the Taliban.
Haqqani, without referring to the statements of observers such as Abbas, said that "the Taliban did not fight for position and power”.
He stressed that Mullah Hibatullah did not differentiate between the Taliban of different provinces and provided support to all Taliban members.
The Cannes Film Festival announced eight members of the main competition jury. Afghan French writer and filmmaker Atiq Rahimi is among the jury members of the 76th edition of the film festival.
Rahimi and other jury members will support Ruben Ostlund, the president of the jury for this year’s competition.
The Cannes Film Festival will be held from May 16 to 27.
It has been unveiled that along with Rahimi, the jury will comprise Moroccan director Maryam Touzani; French actor Denis Ménochet; British-Zambian screenwriter and director Rungano Nyoni; American actress and director Brie Larson; American Actor and director Paul Dano; Argentinian director and screenwriter Damián Szifrón and French director Julia Ducournau.
This is the first time that an Afghan filmmaker has been selected as a member of the jury of this prestigious film festival.
The jury will award the Palme d'Or to one of the 21 nominated films on May 27.