Will Not Return To Afghanistan With Such Calls, Hazara Leader Responds To Taliban

Earlier, Uzbekistan had denied exporting low-quality fuel to Afghanistan.

On Thursday, Nasir told the Taliban-controlled Bakhtar news agency that the fuel and gas contained in the tankers sent from Uzbekistan were found to be of poor quality after an inspection conducted by the Fuel and Gas Authority at Hairatan Port.

Uzbekistan’s National Oil and Gas Company in a statement on September 4 announced that the fuel sent to Afghanistan is in accordance with European standards, but the Taliban fails to understand this standard.

It has emphasised that the country's products are in accordance with international standards.

At the same time, Nasir added that 7,308 fuel tankers have been imported to Afghanistan in the last four months.

The report by HRW stated that since taking over the country in August 2021, the Taliban have imposed laws and policies intended to deny women and girls throughout the country their fundamental rights because of their gender.

HRW called for coordinated support by concerned governments to bring the Taliban leaders responsible to justice.

The statement mentioned a Human Rights Watch research on Afghanistan since 2021 which has found that the crime against humanity of persecution targeting women and girls has been imposed through various written or announced decrees.

HRW said that these decrees have placed severe restrictions on freedom of movement, expression, and association.

The global rights body added that Taliban has placed prohibitions on virtually all employment; banned secondary and higher education for females; and permitted arbitrary arrests and violations of the right to liberty.

“The Taliban’s cruel and methodical denial of the basic rights of women and girls to remove them from public life has received global attention,” said Elizabeth Evenson, international justice director at Human Rights Watch.

It urged Taliban authorities to dismantle all forms of repression and discrimination that deny women and girls their fundamental rights.

The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) defines crimes against humanity as a range of prohibited acts committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population, with knowledge of the attack.

Human Rights Watch’s research has found that the Taliban’s treatment of women and girls meets the four requirements for crimes against humanity as set out under the Rome Statute: (1) that the attack is “widespread or systematic”; (2) that the attack is directed against a “civilian population”; (3) that the acts are committed “with knowledge of the attack”; and (4) that the acts are “pursuant to or in furtherance of a State or organizational policy to commit such attack.”

Karzai’s meet with Pakistan's ambassador comes even as there had been reports that the Taliban had imposed new restrictions on the former president.

It seems that after widespread coverage of the newly imposed restrictions of the Taliban on Karzai, he has been able to begin his public meetings with foreign officials.

Sources close to Hamid Karzai told Afghanistan International on Monday that the Taliban did not allow a delegation of the Islamic Republic to meet him in Kabul.

Earlier, the Taliban had imposed restrictions on Karzai's foreign travels too.

The Taliban claimed that these restrictions had been imposed to protect Karzai from ISIS threats.

Khamosh and Rafiq said that they started their hunger strike on September 7.

These two activists added that they have received permission from the Norwegian police to hold a civil protest in front of the Norwegian Parliament until September 12.

They said that their hunger strike is to support women rights activists’ demands in Cologne, Germany.

On September 1, Tamana Zaryab Paryani and many other human rights activists from Afghanistan and Iran went on a hunger strike demanding the recognition of gender apartheid in Afghanistan.

They also demanded that financial aid to the Taliban must stop and political prisoners in Afghanistan must be released.

Many activists inside and outside Afghanistan have shown sympathy and solidarity with these rights activists.

Masooma Ayoubi from Kabul and Sabera Akbari from Islamabad also announced that they will go on a hunger strike joining the activists in Cologne.

Sabera Akbari, an Afghan women's rights activist from Islamabad, told Afghanistan International on Thursday, that at least 10 Afghan women's rights activists have been on hunger strike in Pakistan since the past two days.

She added that these women activists wanted to set up a sit-in tent in Islamabad, but the police did not allow them.

Referring to the hunger strike of Afghan women activists, “Freedom Now” a human rights organisation on Wednesday, said that the Taliban has imposed 64 laws in the past two years which exclude women from the public sphere.

The organisation said that it stands in solidarity with Afghan women who are "bravely fighting for their rights". It also asked the international community to take immediate action in response to the human rights crisis in Afghanistan.

Kirby added that the US handed over military equipment to the Afghan security forces and those forces abandoned the equipment.

Earlier, Anwar ul Haq Kakar, the interim Prime Minister of Pakistan, said that the weapons left by US in Afghanistan are used against Pakistan, China, Iran and other countries in the region.

In a press conference on Tuesday, responding to a Pakistani journalist, Kirby said that the United States had left extremely limited technical equipment and unusable aircraft, including firefighting equipment, in Kabul.

Last year, the Pentagon in a report to the US Congress had said that after the US ended its presence in Afghanistan, military equipment worth approximately USD 7 billion was left in Afghanistan.

The remaining equipment includes air munitions, military vehicles, weapons and communication devices.

Kirby also added that the United States had provided military equipment to the Afghan National Security Forces to increase their capacity so that they could take responsibility for Afghanistan's security.

Kirby further emphasised that it was the Afghan forces who abandoned the military equipment.