Taliban Hands Out Corporal Punishment to 300 Men, Women & Children In 6 Months, Says UN

Earlier in Balkh province, the Taliban officials had displayed barrels containing explosives, which had been used during the Taliban insurgency, for public viewing.

The Taliban used hand-made barrel bombs and suicide bombers as part of their bloody tactics against the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the foreign forces present in the country after 2001.

Human rights organisations have repeatedly criticised these attacks as the cause of massive civilian casualties in the past twenty years.

According to the Taliban-controlled Bakhtar News Agency, the minister of information and culture of this group called the use of various tools in this group's attacks in the past twenty years "values of Jihad" that should be placed in museums and displayed for the public in Afghanistan.

According to Uzbek media outlets, an 18-tonne shipment of pomegranate juice, containing 9,000 bottles, had been stopped at the port of Termez in Surxondaryo region, for a company registered in Uzbekistan.

During the inspection process, the Uzbek customs officers noticed the letter “M” on some of the bottles with a different colour from the rest of the shipment. When they cross-checked the shipment, they found out that the bottles contained methamphetamine.

Uzbek officials said that they found 103 kilogrammes of drugs in 48 bottles in the shipment.

Uzbekistan customs said that currently one gram of methamphetamine is worth about 700 dollars in the global market and the total cost of drugs imported and seized from Afghanistan is more than 70 million dollars.

The UN reiterated on staying in Afghanistan while the deadline for the review of United Nations’ activities in Afghanistan ended on Friday and the Taliban didn’t change its position on the ban of female staffers of the UN agencies in Afghanistan.

UNAMA stressed that after the ban had been imposed on the work of female staffers of the UN missions in Afghanistan, the organisation spoke to various parties including civil society, women groups, and aid workers in Afghanistan.

UNAMA added that the UN agencies continue focused, principled, and constructive engagement with all Taliban authorities to lift the ban on the right to work of its female staffers and ensure the safety of all UN staff and aid workers.

The UN in Afghanistan said that the United Nations relevant entities on the ground in Afghanistan continue to discuss appropriate working modalities and emphasised that humanitarian operations continue to be undertaken across the country.

In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China said that the two sides have met in Islamabad on Friday and the Pakistani President welcomed the move to expand cooperation between the two countries.

According to the statement, Pakistan has been cooperating with China to support peace and reconstruction of Afghanistan.

Pakistan and China have close relations with the Taliban and have accepted representatives of the group in the Afghan embassies in Islamabad and Beijing.

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.