Prospect of International Recognition of Taliban Decreasing, Says Iranian Diplomat

The Gallup surveys has been conducted in July and August 2022 and showed that 98 percent of Afghans rated their life so poorly that they were considered as suffering.

According to Gallup surveys, Afghan participants said that after the return of the Taliban to power in 2021, people’s lives have become worse than at any time in the last ten years.

Although the Taliban officials have repeatedly talked about improvements in the life of Afghans due to better security situation, however, Afghans’ feelings about the quality of life in Afghanistan have also worsened since the beginning of the Taliban reign in Afghanistan in 2021.

According to the Gallup surveys, in 2021, 94 percent of Afghans had described their life as extremely bad.

Gallup added that Afghanistan has ranked as the least positive country in the world every year since 2017, apart from 2020 when Gallup could not survey the country because of the pandemic.

According to the 2018 Gallup survey, the violence caused by the insurgency and war in Afghanistan and poverty had a devastating impact on the lives of the Afghan people during which 36 percent of Afghans said that they don’t remember to have smiled or laughed in the previous day when the survey was conducted.

The Taliban have reacted to reports of international organisations and have rejected these reports as foreign propaganda.

In a statement on Tuesday, the court said that these prisoners were released from prisons all over Afghanistan ahead of Eid al-Adha.

The statement added that the prison terms of 479 other prisoners were also reduced based on the Taliban leader’s decree.

The Taliban’s Supreme Court, however, did not explain the crimes of these prisoners.

Earlier, the Taliban Prisons Authority announced that more than 17,500 people have been prisoners of the group across Afghanistan.

After the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021, there have been reports of torture and human rights violations in the group’s prison.

An eyewitness told Afghanistan International that the man was killed by Taliban members in Eliaskhel village of Char Asiab district.

The source added that the farmer had previously paid tithe to another group of Taliban members and had a "receipt" for the payment in hand, but the Taliban members who killed him insisted that he had to pay tithe again, however, the farmer had refused to pay the tithe twice.

According to this eyewitness, the tenacity of this farmer angered the Taliban members and resulted in his killing by the group members.

The eyewitness added that the people protested against the murder of this farmer, carried his body to the Char Asiab district headquarters, and then closed the Kabul-Logar highway for two hours for traffic.

The protesters demanded the arrest and punishment of the perpetrators for shooting this farmer.

Several drivers on the Kabul-Logar highway also confirmed to Afghanistan International that the Kabul-Logar highway was closed to traffic for several hours.

The Taliban have not yet officially commented on the killing of this farmer in Kabul.

According to Radan, drug cultivation in Afghanistan has increased by 32 percent which is alarming.

On Monday, the police chief of Iran addressed a conference on countering narcotics and said that along with opium production, the increase in the production of industrial substances is another dangerous trend that indicates the rise of challenges in counter-narcotics efforts.

According to Iran's state-run news agencies, Radan urged all countries to cooperate in the fight against narcotics and offered Iran’s experience in anti-drugs efforts.

The Chief of Police of Iran, in the meantime, said that recently Pakistan has performed better in the fight against drugs.

Earlier, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, in a new report announced that Afghanistan produced about 80% of the world's opium in 2022. The report stated that Afghanistan has become one of the major producers of methamphetamine in the region too.

The sources added that the border skirmish took place in the Angor Ada area of Barmal district of Paktika province.

The area is located close to the Durand line near the joint borders between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

According to local sources, four other members of the Taliban were also injured during this border skirmish.

So far, the reason behind the border skirmish between the Taliban and Pakistani border forces is not clear and officials from both sides have not commented on the issue.

Some sources said that Pakistani forces have also suffered casualties during the border skirmish.

This is not the first time that Taliban and Pakistani border guards have clashed in the border areas. Earlier, the Taliban forces have also clashed with Pakistani border guards in the border areas of Kunar, Nangarhar, Paktika, and Kandahar provinces.