Iranian Senior Security Official Expresses Readiness To Train Taliban Border Guards

According to the sources, Abdul Haq Wasiq, the director of the General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI) has ordered the release of Zia.

The Taliban had arrested this civil activist last month from the Kabul airport.

Hedayatullah Hedayat, deputy director of the Taliban-controlled National Radio and Television of Afghanistan at the time, accused Zia of being a member of the National Resistance Front and said that he was arrested when he "wanted to flee the country”.

Sources close to Zia previously told Afghanistan International that he had a background of work in the Ministry of Interior Affairs but had left the ministry in 2014.

Zia had been working with the Rahmani Foundation in Kabul in recent years. Sources close to the civil activist have denied his membership with anti-Taliban armed resistance groups.

Kardemir has not reacted to the Taliban’s claim of such a proposal too.

The Twitter page of the Taliban Railway Authority has published photos of the visit of the Taliban delegation to Kardemir company, claiming that the company’s senior executives have come up with the offer. The Taliban delegation said that they will present Kardemir’s proposal to the Taliban officials in Kabul.

On Friday, Istanbul hosted the meeting of the Middle East section of the International Union of Railways and a delegation of the Taliban Railway Authority was also among the participants.

The Uzbek president addressed the second meeting of the leaders of Central Asia and the European Union, which was held in Kyrgyzstan.

According to Gazeta daily, Mirziyoyev called on European countries to continue their humanitarian aid to the people of Afghanistan.

He emphasised that for this purpose, Uzbekistan is ready to provide the logistics hub in Termez for aid to Afghanistan.

The President of Uzbekistan suggested that special envoys of relevant countries should continue to consult to build a common approach to address the Afghan issue.

The first meeting of the heads of state of Central Asian countries and the European Union had been held in Kazakhstan in 2022.

The presidents of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, the deputy prime minister of Turkmenistan, and Charles Michel, the president of the European Council, participated at the second meeting of Central Asia and the European Union.

Ahead of the meeting of the heads of these countries, the special representatives of Central Asia and the European Union discussed Afghanistan in Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan.

In the joint statement that was published on Friday at the end of this meeting, the participants emphasised on the formation of an inclusive government, ensuring the rights of Afghan women, and fighting terrorism in Afghanistan.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Uzbekistan announced that during a meeting on Thursday, the Pakistani ambassador said that Uzbekistan's participation in regional projects is highly important.

The road map for the construction of the Uzbekistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan railway line had been signed in Tashkent in 2019 between the then officials of the three countries.

After taking power in Afghanistan in August 2021, the Taliban have also held talks with the Uzbek authorities about this railway project.

Pakistan and Uzbekistan have established close ties with the Taliban, but despite the group’s follow-ups and meetings regarding the construction of the railway, this project has not yet been implemented so far.

On Friday, the women movement released the dance video clip and wrote in a statement, "The women and girls of Afghanistan had been reformed before, but the medieval thinking of the Taliban, has confined them to their homes for more than a year."

The video clip released by this women movement shows Afghan women wearing burqas dancing to a Taliban song.

The Taliban considers burqa for women as "the best example of hijab" in Afghanistan and has imposed their desired form of hijab across the country.

Referring to the achievements of women in the last two decades, the Afghanistan Mighty Women Movement said that the movement has not backed down from its "just and humane demands" in Afghanistan.

The movement stressed that the group dance is a warning to the Taliban that Afghan women will not back down from their position until they achieve "freedom, equality, and justice".

The Taliban consider dance and music to be against "Sharia" and have imposed a complete ban on music and other entertainments, particularly for women in Afghanistan.

In the past twenty months since the group has taken control of Afghanistan, the Taliban has also issued decrees attributed to its leader that restricts women’s social life across the country.