Taliban Executes Man in Laghman Province

On World Refugee Day (June 20), the rights watchdog called on the Pakistani government to urgently stop arbitrary arrests and harassment of Afghan refugees and asylum seekers.

Amnesty stressed that these individuals are already fearful of their lives as many are fleeing persecution by the Taliban following the group’s takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021 and they are facing more problems in Pakistan.

“It is deeply concerning that the situation of Afghan refugees in Pakistan is not receiving due international attention. Being unable to return home or stay permanently in Pakistan, they are caught in an impossible situation from which there is no escape. Their ambiguous legal status and arduous processes for asylum or third country relocation have made them even more vulnerable,” said Dinushika Dissanayake, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for South Asia.

The report highlighted how there have been considerable delays in the registration process and many with expired visas as most do not hold Proof of Registration (PoR) cards, the identity document entitling Afghan refugees to remain regularly in Pakistan.

Through interviews with Afghan refugees in Pakistan, media monitoring and review of official documents, Amnesty emphasised that Afghan refugees have also raised serious concerns about harassment by Pakistani police and officials.

The rights organisation stated that the threats and harassment the Afghan refugees suffer from have been amplified amid delays of the third-country relocation processes and expired visas as it makes them legally vulnerable.

It reported police harassment of Afghan refugees and extortion of money from them from across Pakistan, including in Sindh, Karachi, Peshawar, Chaman, and Quetta, among others.

The report also added that Afghans without documents to prove their legal status are unable to secure formal employment and often end up working in low-wage jobs where they are vulnerable to exploitation.

Without a PoR card or visa, it is also difficult to get SIM cards or set up bank accounts, which prevents Afghans from receiving money from their relatives, the report stated.

Despite contacting human rights groups in Pakistan, recently detained Afghan refugees said they were provided no legal protections while in police custody. In addition, Afghans often struggle to access healthcare and education for their children, as some schools refuse to enroll them due to ambiguities surrounding their legal status. For women and girls, it is especially difficult to enroll in schools in Pakistan due to gender discrimination.

Amnesty International urged the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) to expedite registration and reviews of applications from Afghans seeking refugee status in Pakistan.

It also called on third countries offering relocation to Afghans abroad to expedite the issuance of visas.

After the fall of Kabul to the Taliban on August 15, 2021, waves of Afghan refugees traveled to Pakistan and Iran to travel from these two countries to one of the Western countries using resettlement programs and humanitarian visas.

About a week ago, Shuja had also announced the deportation of another 19,000 Afghans to Afghanistan.

The commander of the Iranian border guards in Khorasan Razavi said that these Afghans had illegally entered Iran.

After the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, many Afghan citizens have taken refuge in Iran due to economic reasons, or due to fear of detention, and torture by the group in Afghanistan.

Abdul Wahid Rayan, director of the Taliban-controlled Bakhtar News Agency, said on Twitter that Akhundzada discussed the Taliban’s recognition with the provincial directors of information and culture of the group about a week ago in Kandahar.

According to Rayan, Akhundzada has told Taliban officials, “The world's charter was to recognise the ruler of Kabul, but today, when the Islamic Emirate rules all over the country, along with the infidels, even Islamic countries do not recognise it [Taliban government]."

The international community has not recognised the Taliban government due to gender and ethnic discrimination, human rights violations, and terror groups’ activities in Afghanistan.

The Taliban leader has stressed that some people, who he has not named, sacrifice everything for democracy, but has urged the Taliban not to abide to what he has called “pressure of the West”.

The Taliban leader has also said that “the United States and the United Nations have taken the world hostage” and elaborated that “the world can’t act without their orders”.

In what the director of Bakhtar News Agency has attributed to Akhundzada, the Taliban leader has emphasised that the group should consider Sharia in their "engagements". Although the issue of engagement has not been clarified, it seems that the Taliban leader meant engagement with the international community.

The Taliban leader has also pointed to the group’s members and said that they must pursue their goals so as not to suffer the fate of the Mujahideen after the victory over the Soviet Union forces in the 1980s. He emphasised that Taliban members should not engage in forbidden actions and must reign over Afghanistan according to Quran and Sunnah.

Akhundzada also added that the Taliban must hire people based on professionalism rather than friendship and stressed that the group’s members must not use their power for their personal gains.

The Taliban leader has asked the group members “to write the history of Jihad against the British, Soviets, and the United States for future generations in Afghanistan”, because according to Akhundzada their belief and faith would strengthen by following the history.

The Taliban leader has also asked the group’s members not to use “foreign” terms. Earlier, the Taliban Ministry of Higher Education had listed a number of Persian words as foreign terms and ordered a ban against using them.

The Human Rights Council, on Monday, assessed the recently released report of Richard Bennett, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights for Afghanistan.

At the Human Rights Council’s meeting, which was broadcast by Afghanistan International, the Human Rights Council’s member states asked the international community to closely monitor human rights violations in Afghanistan and pressurise the Taliban to change their behaviour against Afghans.

Rina Amiri, the US Special Envoy for Women and Human Rights situation in Afghanistan, called Afghan women’s rights a strategic priority of Washington.

Amiri announced that the US condemns the Taliban's systematic discrimination against girls and women and stands with Afghans for human dignity and human rights.

The representative of France at the Human Rights Council stressed that the Taliban have locked Afghan women and girls at home and in darkness. The French envoy emphasised that the UN Special Rapporteur’s recent report about the human rights situation in Afghanistan shows that an unprecedented level of restrictions has been imposed on Afghan women which is equivalent to a gender apartheid by the Taliban and is considered a “war crime.”

The representative of Spain at the Human Rights Council also demanded an investigation into whether the Taliban's treatment of Afghan women is a "war crime".

The UN Children’s Agency’s representative said that six million children in Afghanistan need support. He added that in addition to the existing humanitarian crisis, human rights violations have made the situation in Afghanistan more complicated. According to the UNICEF representative, women, and girls experience violence now more than ever, and they face forced marriages and domestic violence.

The representative of Qatar at the Human Rights Council also asked the Taliban to lift the restrictions imposed on Afghan women's right to work and education.

The British representative at the Human Rights Council said that the Taliban has deprived girls above grade six from pursuing education for more than 600 days. He asked the Taliban to open schools and let women and girls work and get education.

The representative of Canada stated that Ottawa is worried about the situation of women's rights and the restrictions imposed by the Taliban. He added that gender discrimination is not only an attack on the rights of Afghan women and girls, but also endangers the future of Afghanistan.

Representatives of Finland, Belgium, the European Union, Kyrgyzstan, and South Korea also spoke at the Human Rights Council’s meeting. On behalf of Central Asian countries, the representative of Kyrgyzstan called for the formation of an inclusive government in Afghanistan and expressed concern about the situation of ethnic and religious minorities in Afghanistan.

However, Pakistan has repeatedly said that the Taliban has sheltered TTP members inside Afghanistan.

There are also reports that many Pakistani citizens from North Waziristan have been displaced to the various regions of Afghanistan. Pakistan's security officials said that the members of TTP have settled among the displaced people of North Waziristan in Afghanistan, and from there, these TTP members have been carrying out attacks inside Pakistan.

However, the Taliban’s Ministry of Interior spokesperson denied the presence of members of TTP in Afghanistan and said that only refugees from Pakistan’s Waziristan tribal areas are present in Afghanistan.

Recently, there have been reports of an agreement which has been reached between the Taliban and Pakistan on the settlement of TTP fighters in northern and western Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, the United Nations Security Council in a recent report stated that the relationship between the Taliban and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Taliban and Al-Qaeda remains strong.

The UN report stressed that Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan has been carrying out attacks in Pakistan with the support of the Afghan Taliban.

While the Taliban continues to deny the presence of foreign terror groups inside Afghanistan, these entities pose threats across Afghanistan's borders, and the Islamic State- Khorasan (IS-K) operations inside Afghanistan have been more complex and on the rise.

Meanwhile, the "Voice of Khorasan" magazine published by ISIS, warned the Taliban that the fighters of "Islamic State" are present across what the group termed as Khorasan and that the Taliban will face difficult days ahead.

In recent weeks, ISIS attacks on the Taliban have increased. Last week, two senior Taliban commanders were killed in two separate suicide attacks in Badakhshan province.