Senior Iranian Commander Calls Border Clash With Taliban A “US Trap”

Last year, the Taliban had announced that they will build three to 10 religious madrassas in every district.

In this statement, Abdul Jalil Shahidkhil, Taliban’s head of education directorate in Balkh, said that after the takeover of the Taliban, the officials of this group and businessmen have tried to take practical steps towards the construction of religious schools.

After the takeover of power by Taliban in August 2021, the group has started to establish religious madrassas all over Afghanistan.

Taliban named some of these madrassas as “Jihadi Madrassas” wherein in addition to religious studies, military training is also being taught.

Some criticised that Taliban is not only expanding extremism through these madrassas, but also changing them into their militias’ training centers.

After a three-month break, protesters resumed their protests in Makassar city of Indonesia, 10 days ago.

Now, the protests have been extended to several other cities, including Medan and Pekanbaru.

Thousands of Afghan refugees have been protesting in front of the UNHCR office in Indonesia since a year, but according to the refugees, only a few of their cases have been dealt with.

Thousands of Afghan refugees hoping to reach Australia have been living in various cities of Indonesia and have been deprived of their basic rights.

Russia is the only country that has reacted to the clash between Taliban and Iranian forces in the border area in Kang district of Nimroz province.

Iranian and Taliban officials said that at least three people have been killed as the result of the clash, including two Iranian border guards and one Taliban member.

Tasnim News Agency, which is affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, reported that Iran and the Taliban have agreed to dispatch a fact-finding delegation for investigating the factors which resulted into the border clash on Saturday in Nimroz.

This news agency claimed that a security source said that the reason behind the starting of the clash had been the skirmish between Iranian border guards and drug traffickers.

This source said that Taliban were unaware of the matter and opened fire on Iranian forces which caused the clash between the two sides.

The Taliban, without mentioning this issue, accused the Iranian border guards for opening fire toward the group's forces.

The establishment of these outposts assumes significance as in April, Tajikistan’s Committee of National Security had announced that a security force member of this country had been killed in a clash at the Afghanistan border.

National Security Committee of Tajikistan did not announce the identity of the security force member, however, sources told Afghanistan International that it was Kamran Rajabzada, head of border forces of Badakhshan province in Tajikistan, who had been shot dead.

Local sources told Afghanistan International that Rajabzada’s corpse had been handed to his family and buried on April 28.

The establishment of the new two outposts near Afghanistan coincides with the 29th anniversary of the formation of the border forces of Tajikistan.

Tajikistan’s presidency said that the new outposts have been equipped with modern miliary equipment.

On October 14, 2022, Emomali Rahmon, in a meeting with the leaders of Russia and Central Asian countries, had announced that tens of thousands of militants including "suicide bombers" are being trained in Afghanistan. He, then, ordered his country’s security forces that proceedings for confronting with terrorism threats should get increased.

On Saturday, two Iranian border guards had been killed in the clash between Taliban and Iran at the Abrisham border in Nimroz province. Taliban also confirmed that one of their members had been killed.

In his new statement, Iran’s Minister of Interior tried to downplay the clash with the Taliban. According to the Iranian media, Vahidi described the border clash with Taliban as “short”.

According to the Tasnim News Agency, Vahidi said, “An appropriate response has been given to the Afghanistan border guards. There was a short clash and has been resolved. Negotiations were also held with the Taliban side.”

Taliban also said that they didn’t want conflict with Iran and the border situation between the two countries is under control.

Taliban and Iran have provided different explanations about this conflict. Taliban’s spokesperson for Ministry of Interior said that this clash began when the Iranian border guards opened fire at the Taliban check post.

However, Tasnim News Agency, which is affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, on Sunday, wrote that Iranian border guards started shooting when a caravan of drug traffickers entered the country from Afghanistan soil.

Following the recent verbal tensions between the Iranian and Taliban officials over the water rights issue, there were concerns over the rising border clashes. Abolfazl Zohrevand, former ambassador of Iran to Afghanistan, called the military tension between Iran and the Taliban a "very serious war".

He told Entekhab website, “Everything cannot be said in the media, but in general, the Taliban are a destabilizing component in the region. There are worrying trends going on between Iran and Afghanistan.”

At the same time, Qasim Rezaei, successor of Iran’s Commander in Chief and Kioumars Heydari, Commander of the Iranian Army's Ground Forces visited border areas with Afghanistan in Sistan and Baluchistan province of Iran.