Trial Extraction From Oilfields in Northern Afghanistan Initiated By Taliban

Jul 8, 2023, 16:10 GMT+1

The Taliban-controlled Bakhtar News Agency reported that extraction from the first Qashqari oil well in Sar-e-Pul province has been initiated on a trial basis.

Shahabuddin Delawar, the Taliban’s minister of Mines and Petroleum, said that these oilfields are one of the most important economic resources of Afghanistan.

Delawar said that the Taliban will utilise the revenue generated from the oil extracted from these fields to implement other projects of the group in Afghanistan.

On April 8, 2022, the Taliban initiated the plan to extract oilfields in Sar-e-Pul province. Zabihullah Mujahid, the group’s spokesperson had said that 200 tonnes of oil would be extracted from the Qashqari mine in Sar-e Pul daily.

There are three oilfields in Sar-e Pul and Faryab provinces with an estimated 87 million barrels of oil reserves.

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Pakistan Releases 26 Afghan Prisoners, Says Taliban

Jul 8, 2023, 11:42 GMT+1

The Taliban’s Ministry of Refugees announced the release of 26 Afghan prisoners from a prison in Quetta city of Pakistan.

The ministry stressed that these people, who had been imprisoned for illegal stay in Pakistan, entered Afghanistan through the Spin Boldak border crossing.

The Taliban's Ministry of Refugees has also said that more than 550 Afghan refugees have returned to Afghanistan from the Spin Boldak border in the past week.

Following the Taliban’s takeover of power in Afghanistan in 2021, many Afghan citizens including human rights activists, journalists, and people at risk, fled to neighbouring countries. Recently, many Afghans who sought refuge in Pakistan "fearing persecution” have faced a wave of "arbitrary arrests and threats of deportation".

Earlier, refugee rights groups asked Islamabad to stop the wave of arrests of these Afghan refugees in Pakistan.

On World Refugee Day this year, Amnesty International called on the government of Pakistan to stop harassing and arbitrary arrests of Afghan refugees and migrants.

Iran Executes Two Afghan Citizens Accused of Attacking Shah Cheragh Shrine in Shiraz

Jul 8, 2023, 10:29 GMT+1

The Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported that Mohammad Ramez Rashidi and Naeem Hashem Ghotali, accused of the 2022 attack on the shrine of Shah Cheragh in Shiraz, have been executed.

On Saturday, IRNA reported that these two defendants had been executed in public before sunrise on July 8, close to where the attack had occurred.

The attack on the shrine of Shah Cheragh took place on October 26, 2022, which left at least 13 dead and 20 injured.

ISIS had taken responsibility for the bloody attack on the shrine in Iran.

The Iranian state-run news agency reported that the two attackers “had a direct role in planning and supporting the main perpetrator of the attack”.

Earlier, Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO) had said that these two Afghan citizens had been sentenced to death in an unfair trail and without any evidence presented against them.

Iran Human Rights in a statement said that the sentences of the two Afghans had no legal basis.

Before this, Iran's Ministry of Intelligence confirmed that the perpetrators of the attack on Shah Cheragh were from Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Azerbaijan.

US House Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Vows To Oppose Taliban’s Recognition

Jul 7, 2023, 15:40 GMT+1

In a stern warning to the Biden administration, chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee, Michael Mccaul said that he will do everything in his power to oppose recognition of the Taliban’s government in Afghanistan.

Mccaul added that US President Joe Biden is attempting to whitewash the Taliban’s and Al-Qaeda’s longstanding ties.

His comments come in the wake of Biden’s remark stating that Al-Qaeda is no longer operating in Afghanistan and that the Taliban had become the US’ national security partner in the region.

Mccaul wrote on his Facebook page, “Al Zawahiri, the leader of al Qaeda, was discovered living comfortably in Kabul in a home owned by a senior Taliban official, and when the US neutralised the Al-Qaeda leader, the Taliban disavowed the strike.”

He stressed that even though the UN and top US generals regularly report Al-Qaeda’s growing capabilities in Afghanistan, the Taliban has been aiding the terror group by sending across funds and providing it a safe haven in Afghanistan.

At the end of a White House press briefing last week, Biden had said, "Remember what I used to say about Afghanistan? I told Al-Qaeda would not be there. I told them to get help from the Taliban. What happened now? Read the press. I was right."

The Taliban had welcomed Biden's comments.

CIA Gifted 2 Russian-Made Helicopters to Taliban, Claims Former Afghan Vice-President

Jul 7, 2023, 13:50 GMT+1

Former Afghan Vice-President Amrullah Saleh has claimed that the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has gifted two Russian-made Mi-17 helicopters to the Taliban.

On Friday, Saleh on Twitter said that these helicopters are now parked in the western part of the Kabul Airport.

Saleh wrote on his Twitter account that these helicopters with code numbers 163 and 165 had been used by the CIA during the previous government.

According to Saleh, before giving it to the Taliban, the CIA had transferred the two helicopters to the United Arab Emirates for maintenance purposes.

Saleh, who lives in exile, stressed that the US gifted these helicopters to the Taliban’s General Directorate of Intelligence as part of the "secret annexes" of the Doha Agreement.

He called the Doha agreement between the US and the Taliban a "deal and conspiracy" and said that the deal meant "recruiting the Taliban" and extremist groups as a geopolitical tool.

The Taliban have not yet commented on these statements of the former Vice President of Afghanistan.

3 Former Members of Afghan Security Forces Killed in Balkh

Jul 7, 2023, 12:37 GMT+1

On Thursday, local sources said that Haji Laal, a former local police commander in Chahar Bolak district of Balkh province had been killed by unknown armed men in Mazar-e-Sharif city.

In a separate incident, two other former members of the Afghan national army and police were killed in Mazar-e-Sharif city on Thursday.

According to the sources, Laal Mohammad had been murdered in front of his house in police district 9 of the city on Thursday evening.

One of his relatives told Afghanistan International that recently, he had returned from Iran with the mediation of a local influential figure in Balkh, after believing in the general amnesty offered by the Taliban.

In another incident, Mirwais, one of the former security forces members, and Mohammad Hazara, a former police officer in the previous government, had been murdered in Police District 6 of Mazar-e-Sharif on Thursday afternoon. According to the sources, Mirwais’ father was also one of the former local commanders in the previous government too.

The reports of killing former members of the Afghan security forces surface on a daily basis, while the United Nations in a recent report had said that the Taliban continues to kill former government employees in Afghanistan.

Human rights groups have repeatedly announced that the Taliban are trying to arrest, torture, and eliminate former security forces of Afghanistan.