NRF Leader Meets Head of Faction, A Just Russia, At Russian Parliament

During a meeting with the Taliban’s deputy prime minister Mawlawi Abdul Kabir on Monday, the delegation said that the Taliban’s measures in the fight against narcotics have had positive impacts on Iran.

Previously, the Iranian authorities had criticised the increase in the production of drugs under the rule of the Taliban in Afghanistan.

The Taliban’s Prime Minister's office has shared the statement in which they quoted Iranian MPs as praising the group’s counternarcotics measures on social media platform X, and the Iranian embassy in Kabul has shared the same statement of the Taliban.

It seems that the authorities of the Islamic Republic have contradictory views about the Taliban and the narcotics issues. Not long ago, Eskandar Momeni, the Secretary General of Drugs Control Headquarters in Iran, had said that the production and trafficking of drugs in Afghanistan has increased nearly 50 times in two decades.

Momeni added that Afghanistan ranks first in drug production and second in industrial drug production in the world.

Momeni said that despite the promises of the Taliban to stop the production of narcotics, the cultivation and production of drugs have increased in Afghanistan.

After the takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, the Taliban imposed a ban on poppy cultivation and touted its reduction as an achievement of the group. However, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime announced in a report that Afghanistan produced 80% of the world's opium in 2022.

According to Mujahid, the Taliban leader has appointed these former governors of the group to new positions.

Before this, Qudratullah had been the governor of Logar; Zia ur-Rahman Madani had been posted in Takhar, and Aminzada was the governor of the group in Parwan province.

Meanwhile, the Taliban leader has also appointed Seyed Mohammad Hanif Ebada, as the police chief of Bamiyan, and Sediqullah Shahin as the police chief of Ghor province.

According to the spokesperson of the Taliban, Mawlawi Ziaul Haq, the former police chief of the Taliban in Kapisa, has been appointed as the police chief of the group in Takhar, and Mohammad Osman, the former governor of the Taliban for Kunar, has been appointed as the police chief of Taliban in Kapisa province.

The Taliban leader has also appointed Mullah Sirajuddin, the previous police chief of the group in Jawzjan as the new police chief of Faryab province.

Sheikh Saniullah Farahmand, the former head of the Kunduz Ulema Council, has been appointed as the head of the military court of Kunduz, and Sheikh Abdul Waris, the previous head of the Kunduz court, has been appointed as the head of the Taliban military court in Balkh province.

The Taliban has not reacted to the NRF statement.

NRF stated that on Sunday night, the forces of the front attacked the Taliban bases in Shakardara district of Kabul Province and killed two Taliban members and injured four others.

According to the NRF, the first attack had been carried out on a Taliban intelligence patrol vehicle near Kandak Hussainkot in Siab Qoli village in Shakardara district of Kabul province, in which one Taliban member was killed and two others were injured.

The second attack was on a Taliban base located at the eastern gate of Taloqan city, which killed one Taliban member and wounded two others.

At the same time, the third guerrilla attack by the forces of the National Resistance Front was carried out on the police headquarters and the center of Farkhar district of Takhar province, in which, according to this front, "several Taliban members were injured”.

The National Resistance Front said that its fourth attack was carried out through an explosion which targeted a military vehicle in district 19 of Kabul city, as a result of which two Taliban members were injured and their military equipment was destroyed.

Afghanistan International cannot independently confirm these attacks and the casualty figures. In the past few weeks, the armed groups against the Taliban have reported numerous attacks on Taliban targets, which shows their military mobilisation.

On Monday, Bakhtar reported that during the meeting Taliban officials discussed how to divert water from Panjshir to Kabul and emphasised on speeding up the work for this project.

The Taliban cabinet has approved the formation of a water regulation committee, which among other objectives, has the mission to implement the project of diversion of water from the Panjshir River to Kabul.

Taliban has stressed that Afghanistan’s capital city is recently facing a water shortage.

Earlier, Attaullah Omari, the Minister of Agriculture of the Taliban, announced that the underground water level in Kabul is also declining sharply.

The Taliban had said that they want to reduce the water shortage in Kabul by diverting water from the Panjshir river.

Sources said that Taliban members opened fire at the convoy as they were playing music in the vehicles.

Sources said on Monday that the dead man was a student of Nangarhar University's Faculty of Agriculture.

The local Taliban authorities in Laghman have not yet reacted to the shootout at the wedding convoy.

Earlier in 2021, the Taliban officials had opened fire at two wedding ceremonies in Jalalabad city for playing music, as a result of which three people were killed and several others were injured.

After this incident, the Taliban said that the members of the group were not the perpetrators of the murder, but that unknown armed persons had misused the name of the Taliban.

After returning to power in August 2021, the Taliban has banned music broadcasts across Afghanistan. In the latest case, the Taliban's Ministry of Vice and Virtue announced on Saturday, that the officials of the ministry, while monitoring wedding parties in Parwan province prevented playing of music there, which the group considers as forbidden.