Taliban Delegation Leaves for Tatarstan to Attend Russia-Islamic World Economic Forum

May 17, 2023, 10:21 GMT+1

A Taliban delegation on Wednesday left for the Republic of Tatarstan to participate in the Russia-Islamic World Economic Forum which is being held in Kazan city.

Taliban’s Higher Education Ministry in a statement said that this delegation will meet with Russian and officials of the Islamic countries on the side lines of the forum.

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Unknown Individuals Attack Taliban Critic in Istanbul

May 17, 2023, 09:30 GMT+1

Mohammad Hashem Danish, a political activist and a critic of the Taliban in Istanbul, told Afghanistan International that “unknown individuals” attacked him with a knife near his house.

Danish said that he had been hospitalised at a public hospital and currently, the status of his health is “better”.

The political activist also sent pictures to Afghanistan International which reveal his battered face.

Danish added that three days ago he had received a phone call from an unknown number stating that it had been one of his friends, who recently returned from Germany.

According to Danish, the caller that insisted on meeting him personally. He stated that when he agreed to meet the caller, several individuals with masks attacked him as soon as he left his house.

He told Afghanistan International that these unknown individuals beat him up and fled when the neighbours got involved in the scuffle.

Danish stressed that he doesn’t know the identity of his attackers or which group they belong to.

The Istanbul Police has not commented on the incident and other sources have also not revealed the identity of the attackers or the motivation behind the assault.

Danish usually criticises Taliban’s politics, jihadi leaders and former governments of Afghanistan during round table discussions on different television channels.

Mawlawi Abdul Kabir Appointed As New Acting Prime Minister of Taliban

May 17, 2023, 05:59 GMT+1

A Taliban official has said that the group’s leader Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada has appointed Mawlawi Abdul Kabir as the acting prime minister of the Taliban’s government.

Hassan Haqyar, an official from Mawlawi Abdul Kabir’s office, told Afghanistan International, that Mullah Hasan Akhund stepped down from his position due to old age and illness.

Over the past few months, Mullah Hasan Akhund has not been attending the Taliban’s official meetings and Mawlawi Abdul Kabir, his political affairs deputy, had been meeting with people and foreign officials.

Though Taliban didn’t provide details about Mullah Hasan’s illness, sources had earlier said that he is suffering from a heart disease.

Mawlawi Abdul Kabir, who is from Paktika province, belongs to the Zadran tribe like Sirajuddin Haqqani. He had been the governor of Nangarhar province during the previous reign of the Taliban in the 90s. It is said that he was the head of the Peshawar Council after the collapse of Taliban regime in 2001.

Later, he became a member of the Taliban’s negotiation team in Qatar and after the collapse of Ashraf Ghani’s government, he had been appointed as the assistant of Taliban’s deputy prime minister in economic affairs and later, as the deputy prime minister of political affairs.

Unidentified Drone Strike Targets House in Eastern Afghanistan

May 16, 2023, 11:34 GMT+1

Sources confirmed to Afghanistan International that a drone strike targeted a house in Bahramkhel village of Ismailkhel and Mandozai district of Khost province. According to the sources, at least two children have died due to the strike on Tuesday morning.

The drone strike targeted the house that belonged to Mufti Farooq, who is a resident of Pakistan’s Waziristan, but recently had taken over as the Imam of the village mosque.

A doctor at the Khost Civil Hospital confirmed that the bodies of the two children had been transferred to this hospital.

The Taliban have not commented on the attack so far.

Local residents in Khost province said that a drone had been flying in the sky of Ismailkhel and Mandozai district since Monday night and dropped a bomb on a house in this district at four in the morning on Tuesday.

No further details about the origin of the drone is known so far.

Daily Newspaper Finds Women Prisoners Tortured, Sexually Assaulted in Taliban Prisons

May 16, 2023, 10:06 GMT+1

A report by Hasht-e Subh Daily has found that women prisoners have been tortured and sexually assaulted by the Taliban. The report stated that the Afghan female prisoners were subjected to sexual abuse by the Taliban under pressure and after torture.

The report is based on interviews with the victims, doctors, and other sources, and highlights the situation of 90 Afghan women who have been arrested and imprisoned in Jawzjan, Faryab, and Samangan provinces after the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021.

The Daily said that these women have been jailed on charges of morality, theft, fraud, and running away from home.

The female victims and doctors have revealed shocking details about the Taliban’s prisons.

Health workers in the gynaecological department of Faryab, Samangan, and Jawzjan hospitals have said, "In the past year, the Taliban have brought in 48 women to these hospitals for treatment at night times, who were subjected to physical torture and sexual assault. They were bleeding profusely."

The Daily added that the Taliban did not allow the doctors in charge to register these female victims at the hospitals.

Apparently, the local Taliban authorities in these provinces force women prisoners to submit to their sexual demands under pressure and torture.

The Taliban officials have not filed a criminal case against these women and kept them in prison. Also, they did not allow the families of the prisoners to visit them.

Sexual assaults by Taliban members have led to unwanted pregnancies of imprisoned women too. A doctor told the Daily, "At least 13 female prisoners who had been raped in prison by the Taliban were transferred to the obstetrics and gynaecology department of this hospital at night for abortion."

According to him, most of these women had abortions in the first three months of pregnancy and had been taken back to prison.

The newspaper quoted the victims as saying that some of these women had been released from the Taliban prison after paying bribes.

Afghan Refugees Consume 10-Fold More Than Iran’s Water Rights, Says Iranian Lawmaker

May 16, 2023, 09:05 GMT+1

Mahmoud Ahmadi Bighash, an Iranian lawmaker, compared Iran’s water rights from Helmand river to the needs of Afghan refugees in Iran. Bighash said that Taliban should know that 10 million Afghan refugees consume ten times more water than Iran’s water rights from Helmand River.

Ahmadi Bighash, who is a member of the national security and foreign policy commission of the Iranian parliament, questioned the Iranian president’s diplomatic skills and said, “Raisi, where is the art of powerful and effective diplomacy?”

The Iranian lawmaker has reacted to the recent order of Ebrahim Raisi, Iran’s president, who instructed the country’s foreign ministry to seriously pursue Iran’s claim of water rights from Afghanistan’s Helmand River.

The Iranian lawmaker emphasised that the Taliban should provide water of the Helmand River to match the level of consumption of what he called “ten million Afghan refugees in Iran”.

Iran has announced that the issue of water rights from Helmand River is a top priority of its foreign policy.

Hassan Kazemi Qomi, Charge d'Affaires of the Iranian embassy in Kabul, said in an interview on Sunday with an Iranian TV that the Taliban must implement the water treaty between Afghanistan and Iran.