Local sources in Herat said that Taliban members “shot dead” three young men in this province. According to the sources, Taliban members apparently killed them after accusing them of rape and murder of a pregnant woman and her two children.
Sources said that Taliban members shot these three men on Tuesday afternoon in Zawal area in the south of Herat.
While executing these three people, Taliban didn’t provide details officially, but local sources said that the accused stormed into the house of the murdered woman on Saturday, gang-raped her and then, killed her and her two children.
There is not much information available regarding the trial these accused underwent or what kind of court the Taliban brought them to in less than three days.
Since the takeover of the power by the Taliban, the group has punished a lot of people as they are emphasising on implementing the “Sharia”.
However, the human rights organisations repeatedly criticise that the Taliban does not provide access to a fair trial.
Before this, the Taliban often has been accused of holding drumhead court-martial. Pictures from such courts have been circulated on social media several times and provoked criticism from human rights organisations.
According to a confidential document obtained by Edalat-e Ali (Ali's Justice), a hacktivist group, Tehran had been worried about the consequences of its negotiations with the Taliban before the fall of the former government in August 2021.
The document stated that one of the reasons behind the negotiations with the Taliban was to “determine the position of” Shia groups in Afghanistan.
The document reviewed by Afghanistan International had been issued by the National Security Council of Iran during a meeting of representatives of various Iranian government agencies held on January 9, 2017. In the meeting, the Islamic Republic’s stance was communicated with these agencies after the officials admitted to holding negotiations with the Taliban at Iran’s deputy foreign minister level.
In the document, it had been stated that the Islamic Republic officials were worried about the reaction of the people of Iran and the Shia communities of Afghanistan to Tehran's negotiations with the anti-Shia insurgent group.
Tehran admitted to its negotiations with the Taliban at a senior level after Ali Shamkhani, the Secretary of the National Security Council of Iran visited Kabul in December 2018. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iran announced on December 31, 2018, that a delegation from the Taliban had met Abbas Araghchi, the political deputy of the Iranian Foreign Minister at the time, in Tehran. Photos of the meeting of Javad Zarif, Iran's then foreign minister, with Mullah Baradar and other senior Taliban officials, had also been published.
In the document of the Security Council of Iran, it had been stated that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the propaganda organisation of the Islamic Republic in Iran and Afghanistan had been asked to "curate a public opinion inside Afghanistan, especially for the Shia communities of the country, particularly the Fatemiyoun group, that negotiating with the Taliban didn’t mean that it was legitimising the group in Afghanistan”.
According to the document, officials of the Islamic Republic present during the meeting had expressed concerns about the presence of non-Shia refugees in Iran and stressed that having not deported these Sunni refugees in 2017 was an "irresponsible act" of the government of Iran.
The document stated that Iranian officials present at the meeting of the National Security Council believed that if the Taliban would take control of Afghanistan and be considered a legitimate group, the relations between the Afghan Sunni refugees in Iran and the Taliban would be dangerous. Therefore, in the meeting, it had been emphasised that “in media policies the Taliban should not be given importance as it would be in the interest and security of the Islamic Republic”.
In this document, it has been stated that in order to sway the public opinion inside Iran in favour of the government, it should be conveyed that the negotiations with the Taliban contribute to the "national interests and security" of the Islamic Republic.
Following the bloody border skirmish with the Taliban and the group's refusal to comply with Iran's demands, many people and domestic media outlets of Iran have criticised the Islamic Republic's policy and optimistic approach towards the Taliban and consider these policies as a failure.
In the document, it has been further emphasised that the Islamic Republic has started negotiations with the Taliban to "support peace and security in Afghanistan". However, before the fall of Kabul, the American and Afghan authorities had accused the Islamic Republic of providing "weapons and military equipment" to the Taliban.
Taliban’s Ministry of Refugees announced that 531 Afghan refugees returned to the country from Pakistan. The ministry on Tuesday in a tweet wrote that these individuals entered Afghanistan through Spin Boldak border of Kandahar province on June 11 and 12.
Taliban ministry added that these people have been introduced to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) to receive assistance.
After the takeover of power by the Taliban in Afghanistan, thousands of Afghans migrated to Iran and Pakistan due to the fear of reprisal from the group as well as poverty and unemployment.
Over the past few months, the Taliban reported voluntary and forced return of migrants from these countries.
On the other hand, Pakistani police arrested hundreds of Afghan refugees due to not having legal residence documents in the past two weeks.
Voice of Khorasan, an ISIS magazine, warned the Taliban that the Islamic State’s fighters are present across, what the magazine termed as, “Khorasan” and the Taliban will face “tough days” ahead.
The new volume of the magazine published on June 11 and in Pashto, called the Taliban “militants”.
In recent weeks, ISIS-K’s attacks on the Taliban have increased.
Last week, in two separate suicide attacks in Badakhshan province, two senior Taliban members have been killed. On Tuesday, June 6, the Taliban confirmed that in an attack, Nisar Ahmad Ahmadi, the deputy governor of the group for Badakhshan had been killed with his driver, and six others were injured.
On Thursday, June 8, during the funeral ceremony of Ahmadi, another explosion took place at the Nabawi mosque of Faizabad city of Badakhshan. In this attack, 11 people, including Safiullah Samim, former police commander of Taliban in Baghlan, had been killed and 30 others got injured. However, sources said that the number of casualties in the attack was higher.
During the past month, the Taliban reported attacks on ISIS-K’s positions in different areas of Afghanistan. Nonetheless, some of the group’s officials claimed that Daesh has been “defeated” and does not have the capability of massive attacks in Afghanistan.
The three-day Oslo Freedom Forum began with the participation of representatives and civil activists of different countries, including prominent Afghan figures and a delegation of Taliban, in Norway.
Following protests to the previous meeting in Oslo in 2022, Norway did not invite senior Taliban leaders to the current meeting.
Participants will discuss, freedom, democracy, digital security, artificial intelligence, Bitcoin, and other acute world issues.
Francis Fukuyama, an American political scientist, and Masih Alinejad, an Iranian human rights activist, are also among the participants of this meeting.
Some of the Afghan intellectuals and politicians such as Jafar Mahdawi, leader of Hizb-e-Millat Afghanistan, are also participating in this meeting.
A source told Afghanistan International that Abdul Qahar Balkhi, Taliban’s foreign ministry spokesperson; Rohullah Omar, head of communication of the group’s defence ministry; Shamsuddin Akhundzada, advisor of the Taliban’s interior ministry; and Shams Rahman, translator of the interior ministry, participated in the Oslo meeting representing the Taliban.
Sources said that the Taliban members will meet with Norway’s foreign ministry officials separately.
Earlier, Mina Rafiq, Afghan women rights activist, protested against the presence of Taliban officials in the Oslo meeting, in front of Norway’s foreign ministry.
Norway previously hosted Amir Khan Muttaqi, foreign minister of the Taliban, and Anas Haqqani a senior member of the group, which faced many reactions from the civil activists and protests in Oslo.
Earlier, the Pakistani media reported the possibility of Hina Rabbani, the minister of state for foreign affairs in Pakistan, and Asif Ali Durrani, the country's special representative for Afghanistan, attending the Oslo meeting.
The Oslo Freedom Forum will continue until June 15.
Credible sources in the Taliban government have confirmed that the group has reached an agreement with Pakistan to relocate members of Tahreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) to northern Afghanistan.
According to the sources, the Taliban will provide land to TTP members in northern Afghanistan and Pakistan will provide them with financial support for resettlement and agricultural tools.
Due to their membership to the TTP and being in opposition of the government of Pakistan, these Pakistani citizens have been living in Afghanistan as refugees and have been settled in camps in border areas in southern and eastern Afghanistan.
A source from the Taliban told Afghanistan International that the new agreement about TTP members has been negotiated between the Taliban and Pakistan’s Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI).
Afghanistan International’s source said that Taliban leader Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada too has supported the new agreement and asked TTP members to stay in peace, with security, and reconciliation in Afghanistan and to refrain from using Afghan soil for attacks.
The source from the Taliban government added that initially, TTP opposed the Taliban’s plan and said that if the members of the group wanted to live peacefully, they could stay in Pakistan and benefit from the privileges given by Islamabad.
Meanwhile, a source of TTP told Afghanistan International that they have been aware of the new deal from media reports, however, he stressed that they have not taken any practical steps based on the new agreement.
However, he stressed, "If Sheikh Hibatullah gives an order, we will not reject it."
According to the TTP source, the leader of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan recently said in a meeting, "We and you are obliged to obey the Emirate [Afghan Taliban]. If we are not ordered to wage Jihad, we won't do it."
According to the TTP source, in this meeting, the leaders of TTP emphasised, "Our movement was formed to defend the emirate; we have pledged allegiance to the emirate; so obedience [to the Taliban's Islamic Emirate] is obligatory."
However, the source added, “The Emirate never told us not to fight in Pakistan. They just said, don't take our Mujahideen with you. One thing is necessary for us, which is Jihad, and the rest must understand. The opinions and thoughts of Sheikh Hibatullah never opposes Jihad.”
On the other hand, Zabihullah Mujahid, the Kandahar-based spokesperson of the Taliban, told local media outlets in Afghanistan that the Taliban has decided to transfer Pakistani refugees, who were displaced to Khost and Kunar provinces due to the war, to areas far from the Durand line.
Following the news of the transfer of these Pakistani citizens to northern Afghanistan, the National Resistance Front (NRF) and some other groups in Afghanistan strongly opposed this plan and considered it to be the basis for the "partition" of Afghanistan.
While the Taliban sources have confirmed their plan to relocate these Pakistani Taliban members potentially to northern Afghanistan, it may fuel more opposition as many believe that it is part of the agenda to transform the ethnic composition of the population of northern Afghanistan.