50% of Zahedan Makki Mosque Students, Teachers Are Foreigners & Afghans

According to Nazari, Iran will use this railway line to increase exports and trade with China and Central Asian countries.

He stressed that the Iranian government plans to launch a passenger train on the Khaf-Herat railway route too.

Nazari said that this line connects Afghanistan to the southern ports of Iran and accelerates the transit between Afghanistan and open waters through Iran.

He added that Afghanistan will have access to Turkey and Western countries through the development of this railway.

Nazari added that Iran expects an increase in its exports to Afghanistan after the inauguration of the railway line.

This railway line was opened on Tuesday morning, in the presence of officials of the Islamic Republic and the Taliban.

The Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid conveyed a message of "brotherhood" to the Islamic Republic of Iran at the opening ceremony of this railway line and said, "We are brothers to you, brothers cooperate more, they have more rights.”

This Taliban official also expressed hope to expand cooperation with the Islamic Republic.

According to the Taliban statement, these people were detained in the Qargha area of Kabul city. The Taliban have sentenced them to three months in prison.

According to the Taliban’s supreme court, these people had been flogged in the presence of the group’s officials and the public.

Shortly after taking over Afghanistan in August 2021, the Taliban started rolling out corporal punishment for Afghan citizens.

Human rights groups have expressed concerns that under the Taliban reign, those detained have no access to due processes.

These groups have condemned the corporal punishment of Afghan citizens.

The Taliban’s Ministry of Interior has issued the letter to the group’s police chiefs across 34 provinces of Afghanistan and warned about “suicide attacks” by ISIS.

On Tuesday, Abdul Matin Qane, the Taliban’s interior ministry spokesperson, confirmed that the letter had been issued by the ministry, but refused to provide further information about the potential threats against senior Taliban officials.

In the letter, the Taliban's Ministry of Interior said that ISIS wants to carry out suicide and hand grenade attacks against Taliban governors, police chiefs, and other civil officials inside their "homes and offices".

Several high-ranking Taliban officials, including Mullah Yaqoob, the group’s defence minister, have been on the Hajj pilgrimage.

Earlier, a letter from the Taliban's Ministry of Interior had been circulating on social media, in which it had been stressed that a group connected to the ISIS wants to enter Afghanistan from Pakistan.

However, the Taliban have repeatedly tried to neglect the security threats posed by ISIS across Afghanistan. Taliban intelligence sources told Afghanistan International that currently, the Taliban considers ISIS a bigger threat than any other armed opposition groups in Afghanistan.

In 2023, ISIS has proved capable of killing senior Taliban officials, including the group’s former governor of Balkh, and Badakhshan provinces.

In the last 20 years, the Taliban used similar tactics to the ISIS to kill officials and political leaders of the previous government.

Haqqani added that the group will not allow any confrontation between the two educational institutions.

According to Haqqani, after 45 years, now there is an opportunity for solidarity and unity between madrassas, schools, and universities in Afghanistan.

Neda Mohammad Nadeem, the Taliban’s Minister of Higher Education, also asked university lecturers and teachers to compete in innovation and scientific research.

While the two senior Taliban officials talk about university education, the group has transformed schools and educational centers in different provinces of Afghanistan into madrassas and several teachers have been fired and mullahs or people sympathetic to the Taliban have been appointed instead of them.

The Haqqani Network changed the famous “Habibia” school in Khost province, which had 7,000 students, into “Al-Jihad Madrassa”.

Recently, the Taliban has removed teacher training units from the structure of Afghanistan’s Ministry of Education, which has caused unemployment of more than 4,000 employees, of these educational units in Afghanistan.

According to Taliban officials, this company has asked for security for its staff in Afghanistan.

Mutiullah Sahibzada, deputy director of the Food and Drug Authority, said that the Taliban facilitates an investment environment and security has been guaranteed across Afghanistan.

Sahibzada asked the Chinese company to increase its investment in the medicine sector in Afghanistan and focus more on the production of medicines that have not been produced in Afghanistan before.

After the Taliban’s return to power in 2021 in Afghanistan, the group has repeatedly announced the investment of Chinese companies, especially in the mining sector of the country.

In 2022, the Taliban signed an oil extraction contract with a Chinese company in northern Afghanistan for 25 years.

Aynak copper mine in Logar province has also been contracted with a Chinese company, but the mining operations have not kicked off at the mining site yet.