Taliban Committed Tragedy By Attacking Consulate in Mazar-e-Sharif City, Says Iran’s FM

On the anniversary of the killing of eight Iranian diplomats and one journalist, Zarif stressed that their actions (killing) on August 8, 1998 “is a symbol of connection between media and diplomacy”.

The former foreign minister of Iran delivered a brief message on a Telegram channel of Iranian journalists.

Meanwhile, in a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iran said that after the Taliban’s attack on Mazar-e-Sharif city in 1998, “the Consulate General of the Islamic Republic of Iran was attacked, and diplomats and a journalist of the Islamic Republic of Iran were martyred”.

Taliban entered Mazar-e-Sharif city on August 8, 1998. According to reports, the Taliban fighters killed eight diplomats and one Iranian journalist after entering the Iranian consulate in the city. However, the Taliban has not taken responsibility for this attack.

Twenty-five years after this incident, ministry of foreign affairs of Iran has once again asked for clarification of the killing.

Iran's Foreign Ministry has emphasised that after years of conflict and instability in Afghanistan, Iran seeks the formation of an inclusive government with the participation of all ethnic, religious, and political groups.

In a statement, the Taliban consulate in Karachi added that these Afghan citizens have been transferred to Afghanistan.

The Taliban diplomatic representation in Karachi has not revealed the reasons behind the imprisonment of these Afghan citizens. However, the consulate stressed that negotiations are underway to release the remaining Afghan prisoners.

After the Taliban stopped the distribution of passports in Afghanistan, many Afghans have been forced to enter Pakistan and Iran illegally. These Afghans mostly fled the country due to the Taliban’s restrictive policies.

Pakistani officials have recently said that at least 750,000 Afghans who entered the country have not returned to Afghanistan.

This is even though the Pakistani police have repeatedly arrested Afghan immigrants in this country over the past two years.

Human rights groups said that Pakistani police have deported hundreds of Afghans to Afghanistan despite being at risk of retaliation from the Taliban.

The armed men attacked the former police commander on Monday in front of his house in Sayyad district.

According to sources, the attackers fled the scene after shooting the former police commander.

After the fall of the previous Afghan government, Khalidi had left Afghanistan for Iran and later returned to Afghanistan in coordination with the Taliban’s commission in charge of facilitating the return of former Afghan government officials.

There is still no information about the motive behind the killing of this former police officer, but earlier, reports had indicated revenge killings of former Afghan armed forces by the Taliban.

The Taliban have also said that the former Afghan security forces have been killed due to personal enmity and revenge killing.

During a press conference on Monday, Kanaani added that the water rights issue from Helmand River is a major topic among the Iranian delegation’s discussions with the Taliban.

The spokesman of Iran's Foreign Ministry did not provide more details about the visit of this delegation to Afghanistan. However, Kanaani added, "As two neighbouring countries, there are visits at different levels between us, and these visits are not necessarily revealed to the media."

The visit of the Iranian delegation to Afghanistan takes place even as earlier Kanaani had announced that initial agreements had been reached with the Taliban regarding the water rights issues.

The tension between Iran and Afghanistan over water rights from the Helmand River have increased after Tehran’s criticisms of the Taliban not being committed to the water rights of the country based on the 1973 water treaty between Kabul and Tehran.

Officials of the Islamic Republic, including its president, have repeatedly warned the Taliban about respecting Iran's water rights. Following the escalation of tensions between the two sides, the Taliban despatched military troops to the border of the two countries.

However, COAS warned that Pakistan will spare no effort to dismantle terrorist networks and protect its citizens at all costs.

“Terrorism has no place in Pakistan and the involvement of Afghan nationals in terrorist incidents in Pakistan is detrimental to regional peace, stability and deviation from the Doha Peace Agreement by the interim Afghan Government” COAS reiterated on Monday.

The Pakistan army chief’s statement comes close on the heels of the statements by its deputy foreign minister and even his country’s prime minister of the involvement of Afghans in terrorist activities on its soil.

Pakistan’s Deputy Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Kahar recently claimed that some Afghans were involved in a number of bloody attacks in the country’s cities, while Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has expressed concerns over the “liberty of action available” to terrorists in Afghanistan, urging the Taliban-led interim government to take action to stop “transnational terrorism”.

Pakistan COAS was in Peshawar to meet tribal elders from Newly Merged Districts (NMDs) of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and thanked them for their help in defeating menace of terrorism.

Since the Taliban surged back to power in Afghanistan two years ago, Pakistan has witnessed a dramatic uptick in militant attacks focused on its western border regions, claimed by Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Daesh and other terror outfits.