US President Joe Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi emphasised on the formation of an inclusive government in Afghanistan. The two leaders also asked the Taliban to respect human rights of all Afghans, including women and girls.
In a joint statement on Thursday, the leaders of the United States and India said that the territory of Afghanistan should never be used to threaten or attack any country, shelter or train terrorists, or plan or finance terrorist attacks.
The President of the United States and the Prime Minister of India committed to continue close consultations on the situation in Afghanistan. They also discussed the necessity of continuing humanitarian aid to Afghanistan.
The Prime Minister of India is on a visit to the United States and has met with a number of officials of this country, including the US President Joe Biden.
Feridun Sinirlioğlu, the UN Special Coordinator, met the Taliban’s interior and foreign ministers in Kabul on Thursday. Apparently, Sinirlioğlu asked the two Taliban senior officials to "take the UN's concerns seriously”.
The Office of the UN Special Coordinator for Afghanistan has not yet released a statement about Thursday's meeting with the Taliban's interior and foreign ministers.
However, according to the Taliban's Ministry of Interior, during his meeting with Haqqani, Sinirlioglu emphasised on "the fundamental rights of the Afghan people" and told the Taliban official that "they must take concerns of the United Nations seriously”.
Meanwhile, Roza Otunbayeva, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, had addressed the Security Council and in an unprecedented manner criticised the Taliban government on Wednesday, describing it as "unpopular", ethnocentric”, and patriarchal.
She stressed that the Taliban will not be recognised without respecting the rights of Afghan women.
However, during the meeting with the UN Special Coordinator, the Taliban's interior minister spoke about the achievements of the Taliban in the fight against ISIS and drugs. Haqqani has called the concerns of neighbouring countries of Afghanistan about ISIS threats as an "exaggeration" and "propaganda in favour of ISIS".
Despite the Taliban's emphasis on suppressing ISIS in Afghanistan, the country’s neighbours, who enjoy good ties with the Taliban, are not convinced by these statements of the Taliban and have warned about the danger of ISIS and the spread of instability to neighbouring countries and the region.
Amir Saeid Iravani, Iran’s permanent representative to the United Nations on Wednesday, expressed concerns about the presence of ISIS and Al-Qaeda, and the expansion of drug production in Afghanistan.
Iravani had addressed the UN Security Council and said that the neighbouring countries of Afghanistan and the region feel threatened by the terror and drug issues.
The Taliban’s foreign minister, however, spoke about the group’s expectations from the UN Special Coordinator’s report and asked him to consider the "sensitivities and realities" of Afghanistan in his report on the situation in the country.
Amir Khan Muttaqi, the Taliban’s foreign minister, claimed that the group has "ensured women's rights within the framework of Islam" despite the criticism of the UN member states about the ban on women’s right to work and education during Wednesday’s Security Council meeting.
Muttaqi has called the international sanctions against the Taliban "collective punishments and orders of foreigners". Referring to what he called the "achievements of the Taliban without external support", the group’s foreign minister told the UN Special Coordinator that the countries of the world should fulfil their "responsibilities" towards Afghanistan.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan declined to negotiate with the Tahreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), following the Afghan Taliban’s offer to mediate between the TTP and Islamabad.
Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, spokesperson of the Foreign Ministry of Pakistan, said, “Pakistan will not negotiate with individuals who are responsible for the killing of Pakistani civilians and law enforcement officials.”
Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban spokesperson, in an interview with TOLOnews, had said that the Taliban will mediate between the TTP and Pakistan, if Islamabad asks them.
Mujahid stressed that mediation between the two is in the interest of the region.
Baloch also stressed on the recent statements of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the foreign minister of this country, regarding negotiations with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan.
In an interview with the Washington Post in January, Zardari had said that Pakistan's leadership will not negotiate with terrorist organisations that do not respect the constitution and other laws of the country.
In April, the spokesperson of the Pakistan Army criticised the country’s previous government's initiative to talk with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan.
Earlier, reliable sources told Afghanistan International that a new round of talks between Pakistan and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) had begun with the mediation of Waziristan tribal elders.
Sources told Afghanistan International that over the past few weeks, a delegation of Waziristan tribal elders travelled to Afghanistan and met with Noor Wali Mehsud, the TTP leader.
The National Resistance Front (NRF) said that as part of an agreement with Pakistan and other countries, the Taliban wants to turn Afghanistan into another Waziristan by relocating "thousands of terrorists" to the north of the country.
NRF added that the Taliban’s relocation efforts will be the last strike to the peaceful coexistence of ethnic groups in Afghanistan.
In a statement on Thursday, NRF said, “These actions of the Taliban have alarmed neighbouring countries and the region and will destabilise Central Asia, Russia, Iran, and China."
According to NRF, these relocations to the border regions of North-East, North, and West of Afghanistan are destabilising the region and disrupting the political, social, and economic order in the regional countries.
In the statement, NRF stressed that the Taliban has no support base among the people, and therefore, the group has been relocating its allies such as the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement, Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, Jamaat-e-Islami Ansarullah, ISIS, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, Jaish Mohammad, and several other groups led by Al-Qaeda and ISI" to northern Afghanistan to transform the geopolitics of the region.
The National Resistance Front emphasised that resistance against the Taliban is necessary to "prevent the relocation of terrorists and end the occupation" of Afghanistan.
NRF has urged the international community, especially regional countries, to fulfil their responsibility towards Afghanistan and stop engagement with the Taliban.
Earlier, many local sources reported that dozens of families have been transferred to Takhar province from border areas and Pakistan in recent days. Some sources said these were Pakistani citizens, but others said that they were Afghans who had been displaced by war during the previous years.
Last week, the Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed that refugees from North Waziristan region of Pakistan are being transferred to some parts of Afghanistan.
Over the past few days, reports had been published about the agreement between the Taliban and the government of Pakistan regarding the relocation of members of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan to northern Afghanistan.
However, this week, the foreign ministers of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation also asked for the prevention of forced ethnic and religious displacement in Afghanistan.
Taliban has publicly flogged a man in Mata Khan district of Paktika province. In a statement on Thursday, the Taliban’s Supreme Court said that the man had been arrested and punished on charges of "adultery".
According to the Taliban’s Supreme Court, the man had been punished in the presence of the public and the group’s officials.
The Taliban’s statement stressed that this man had been sentenced to two months and twenty days of imprisonment and 25 lashes.
The Taliban has not revealed the identity of the man.
Meanwhile, earlier the Taliban had executed a man in Mehtarlam city of Laghman province on the charge of murder.
The Taliban officials have confirmed that the group has ordered the execution of 175 people and the stoning of 37 people throughout Afghanistan since taking power in the country.
The courts of this group have ordered four people to be buried alive and Sharia laws have been implemented on 103 other people.
Human rights groups have repeatedly called on the Taliban to stop the public punishment of Afghan citizens and have stressed that those accused by the Taliban don’t have access to due procedures and justice.
Vedant Patel, the principal deputy spokesperson of the US Department of State, during a press conference, said that the Taliban stand in the way of their own desires for international legitimacy.
Patel pointed to the Taliban’s restriction on girls’ education and said that by violating women’s and girls’ rights, this group is holding back Afghanistan’s future.
On Wednesday, during a press conference, Patel added that equal access of half of the population of Afghanistan to their rights is a key issue regarding international recognition of the Taliban government.
He emphasised that Washington still has tools to hold the Taliban accountable.
In more the 20 months since taking power in Afghanistan, the Taliban have imposed severe restrictions on women and girls’ activities.
Most regional and global players and organisations have stressed that the recognition of the Taliban should be dependent on the group’s performance and respect towards the rights of all Afghan citizens.
During the press conference on Wednesday, Patel also pointed to the temporary settlement of Afghan refugees in the Philippines and said that the US is committed to the Afghans who have supported the country for two decades.