Taliban Has Given Written Pledge To Counter Terrorism For First Time, Says China

May 9 is the anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany, and Russia and the former Soviet Union member states hold a ceremony to commemorate the day every year.

The biggest ceremony to commemorate May 9 was held in Moscow.

Meanwhile, the Russian cultural center in Kabul had also organised a round table with the presence of Afghans to commemorate this day.

The Russian embassy in Kabul said that the country’s Afghan friends held a round table in honour of the “Victory Day”.

The two anti-Taliban fronts issued separate statements announcing their operations against the Taliban.

According to NRF, in their operations in Kapisa, four Taliban members had been injured too.

NRF added that in another operation in Sarai Sang, in the center of Takhar province, its forces killed the senior Taliban commander in charge of investigations.

AFF said that its forces have conducted their operation in Breshankot, in district 7 of Kabul city, and along with the dead Taliban members, the front wounded two other Taliban members.

The Taliban has not reacted to the statements of NRF and AFF.

It seems that the anti-Taliban fronts have started a new wave of attacks against the Taliban forces.

On Monday, NRF had claimed that eight Taliban fighters had been killed, and 15 others were wounded in a clash in Khost Baghlan district. The front confirmed that they had lost four of their fighters in the skirmish too.

However, in the past, the group has flogged Afghans accused of running away from home.

Recently, Abdul Malik Haqqani, the deputy chief justice at 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 of 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.

Over the past few months, the Taliban 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.

The US Secretary of State said that the leaders of the Islamic countries have argued that the Taliban's behaviour is not based on Sharia and Islamic scholars have said that Quran emphasises on education of men and women.

It has been around 600 days since the Taliban banned the education of girls in secondary, and higher schools in Afghanistan. The group has also banned Afghan girls and women from higher education in Afghanistan.

The Taliban has not reversed its decisions about the ban on the education and work of Afghan women despite widespread international condemnation and criticisms.

The Taliban has not responded to the new report of UNAMA yet.

According to the UNAMA report, the Taliban continues to physically punish these people and repress the voices of opposition against the group.

In the new report of the UN agency which has covered the period from February to April 2023, the arrest of critics of the Taliban including Parisa Mubarez and her brother on February 11 in Taloqan city; four women who participated in a protest on March 26 in Kabul; education activist Matiullah Wesa on March 2; university professor Ismail Mashal on March 4; civil activist Narges Sadat on February 11, and Zakaria Osuli on January 31 have been mentioned as instances of the Taliban’s crackdown on voices that criticise the group’s policies and practices in Afghanistan.

Some of these arrested individuals have been released from Taliban detention over the past few weeks.

According to the UNAMA report, the Taliban used excessive force and violence during their search operations in Kabul between February and April 2023. The report also confirmed severe restrictions by the Taliban on Afghan media operations.

The UNAMA report has too recorded new orders by the Taliban’s Ministry of Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice and said that on February 14, the Taliban banned the celebration of Valentine’s Day in Kabul and arrested owners of a café in the capital city on the same day.

UNAMA also stressed that the Taliban imposed a ban on the celebration of Nowruz, the Shamsi new year, and said that the Taliban agents established temporary checkpoints across the city to identify those who celebrated Nowruz.

On March 20, a decree attributed to Hibatullah Akhundzadeh, the leader of the Taliban, was published, which changed the name and mission of the Prosecutor General's Office to "General Directorate for Monitoring and Prosecuting Judgments and Orders". UNAMA said in its report that the order strongly confirms that prosecutors are no longer part of the criminal investigation process.

However, UNAMA has announced in its new report that during the past three months, the office has provided training on human rights and international humanitarian laws to 483 members of the Taliban in Wardak, Kapisa, Balkh, Bamiyan, Kandahar, Parwan, Samangan, Sar-i-pol, Laghman, Jawzjan, Farah, Kunar and Khost provinces. According to UNAMA, these training sessions have been provided to the Taliban members after the group has imposed a ban on the right to education and work of Afghan women.