Iranian Technical Team’s Assessment Confirms Lack of Water in Helmand River, Says Taliban

Sources from Kabul told Afghanistan International that the Taliban had been aware of the women’s demonstration in Kabul and still attacked the demonstrators.

However, Afghanistan International received images from the protest site which showed that the female protesters had changed the location of the demonstration and read their resolution in a different area.

They said that they could not raise banners during the demonstration due to security threats from the Taliban.

At the same time, video recordings from Takhar received by Afghanistan International show that a group of women protesters are chanting slogans against the policies of the Taliban.

The female protesters in Takhar chanted “death to oppressors” and “Taliban commit crimes and the US supports them”.

Meanwhile, Afghan Women's Protest Movements in a statement on the occasion of August 15, the anniversary of the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban, have called the Taliban a "terrorist" and "fascist" group.

The movements stressed that the Taliban have restricted people in such a way that they can barely breathe.

However, the Taliban has not provided details about the identity of these people and the charges against them.

According to earlier reports, American and British citizens are among the imprisoned foreigners in Afghanistan.

The release of American prisoners from Taliban prisons had been one of the topics that Thomas West and Rina Amiri, the US envoys for Afghanistan affairs, discussed with Taliban’s Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi during a recent meeting in Doha.

During this meeting, the US representatives demanded "immediate and unconditional" release of American citizens from Taliban prisons.

It is not clear as to how many American citizens are currently imprisoned in Taliban prisons, however, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken had earlier confirmed that about 175 US citizens remain in Afghanistan, some of whom entered Afghanistan after the fall of the government in August 2021.

On the other hand, the Daily Mail had also reported that three British citizens had been detained by the Taliban.

AFF released a video in which an explosion is heard taking place at night.

The video has been shot at night and it is possible for the viewer to recognise the location of the explosion. However, it has been stated in the AFF statement that this attack took place at 23:40pm on Friday in the Taliban garrison in Pol-e-Khomri city.

According to the statement, AFF fighters were not harmed in this attack.

Taliban officials have not yet reacted to this claim.

Local sources too confirmed hearing explosions and shooting in the area on Friday night.

In a statement, AFF added, "This operation, which lasted for 15 minutes, took place at a gathering of Taliban terrorists in district three of Kabul city.”

According to AFF’s statement, no casualties had been inflicted on the front’s fighters and there is a possibility that the casualties of the Taliban will increase.

The Taliban has not yet reacted to the incident.

A reliable source told Afghanistan International that unknown people threw two grenades towards the Taliban outpost and the Taliban fighters opened fire in response.

It also added that over 80% of Afghanistan’s women journalists have had to stop working since August 15, 2021.

RSF stated that the media sector has been decimated in the past two years under the Taliban regime.

It stressed that more than half of the 547 media outlets that were registered in 2021 have since disappeared and of the 150 TV channels, fewer than 70 remain. It said that of the 307 radio stations, only 170 are still broadcasting and the number of news agencies has gone from 31 to 18, according to the Afghan Independent Journalists Association (AIJA).

RSF quoted Zarif Karimi, the director of NAI-Supporting Open Media in Afghanistan as saying that “nationwide the most impacted media outlets are the local ones”.

RSF’s South Asia bureau said, “On their own, these figures showing the extent of the Taliban destruction of the media would sicken anyone but that would be without taking account of the incredible resilience of Afghan journalists who, at home and abroad, battle daily to keep the flame of a free press alive.”

RSF said that the organisation stands at the side of the Afghan journalists and will provide them with emergency assistance and help them build a new free and independent journalism in Afghanistan.

The report also spoke about the challenges while reporting from the ground. It talked about self-censorship, harassment of journalists, arbitrary detentions by the Taliban and also how journalists are forced to comply with the “11 journalism rules” decreed in September 2021 – which, as RSF analysed at the time, opened the way to tyranny and persecution – and with the many other regulations restricting journalistic activity that followed.

The report said that faced by the relentless harassment of media personnel within Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover, many journalists have had to resign themselves to fleeing abroad.

The Assistance Desk at RSF’s international secretariat supported 86 visa applications by Afghan journalists seeking refuge in a third country in 2022. The report stated, “Since January 2023, the organisation has already supported 89 applications of this type. Support for political asylum applications is also continuing, with 36 media professionals assisted in 2022 and 15 since the beginning of 2023.”