Qosh Tepa Canal Will Lead To Water Crisis in Central Asia, Says European Economist

Shamail Tawana Naseri, leader of the Afghan Women's Movement for Justice and Freedom, told Afghanistan International that the activist had been detained from Dashte Barchi area in western Kabul.

Azada is a member of the Afghan Women's Movement for Justice and Freedom.

According to Naseri, on Thursday, the Taliban intelligence agency informed Parisa Azada's family that she had been detained by the group.

Taliban officials have not commented on the detention of the female activist.

The Afghan Women's Movement for Justice and Freedom was established in January 2022 and since then has repeatedly protested against the policies of the Taliban.

Fereshta Abbasi, the Afghanistan researcher at the Human Rights Watch, demanded the immediate release of this member of the protest movement in Afghanistan.

She wrote on X social media platform that the Taliban should end arbitrary arrests of these women activists and hold their forces accountable.

In recent months, the Taliban also detained three other women rights activists in Kabul.

According to the Pakistani government, 212,225 people entered Afghanistan from the Torkham crossing and 105,000 from the Chaman border crossing.

The process of forced deportation of Afghan immigrants without residency documents from Pakistan continues, despite the criticism of international organisations.

Bilal Karimi, the Taliban’s Deputy Spokesperson, said that over the last two weeks, 12,430 refugee families, including 73,208 people, have returned to the country through Spin Boldak border crossing.

Pakistan ordered immigrants without official residency documents to leave the country voluntarily until November 1. After the deadline, Pakistan's Ministry of Interior started a door-to-door search operation to identify and arrest Afghan immigrants without official documents.

At the same time, Jan Achakzai, the Minister of Information of the Baluchistan province of Pakistan, has once again announced that Afghans can enter Pakistan only with passports and visas. Before this, Afghan travellers could cross the border and enter Pakistan with a national identity card too.

On Wednesday, Amnesty International criticised the behaviour of the Pakistani police towards Afghan immigrants and demanded their release from the detention centers, and urged Pakistan to stop arbitrary detentions of these immigrants. The human rights group said that the mass deportation of Afghans from Pakistan deprives many of them of access to their basic rights.

In a statement, the ministry wrote that these special forces have the "necessary military equipment and devices" to protect the canal.

Over the past few months, the Taliban has focused on the construction of the Qosh Tepa Canal. Some critics of the Taliban said that the Taliban intends to transfer their support base to this northern strategic geographic location.

However, earlier the Ministry of Agriculture of the Taliban called the reports about the distribution of lands around the Qosh Tepa Canal unfounded and said that these land parcels would be distributed only on the orders of the group’s leader.

The Taliban has not officially specified to whom the land parcels around Qosh Tepa Canal will be distributed.

The National Resistance Front (NRF), the main anti-Taliban resistance group, had said last year that the Taliban had started distributing land around the Qosh Tepa Canal.

According to NRF, these lands will be distributed "to terrorists transferred from Pakistan and other non-indigenous people".

The 280-kilometre long and 100-metre wide Qosh Tepa Canal starts from the Kaldar district of Balkh province passes through Jowzjan province and reaches Andkhoi district of Faryab province.

The Qosh Tepa Canal transfers the water of the Amu River to parts of Balkh, Jowzjan, and Faryab provinces, which will irrigate about 700,000 hectares of land.

AFF disclosed details of the offensive on social platform X, stating it occurred in Kandahar's first district.

The Taliban has not yet issued a statement regarding the incident.

This attack follows a recent AFF operation against a Taliban police command in Baghlan City, where two Taliban members were killed.

In a statement, Turk wrote that between September 15 to November 11, more than 327,000 people arrived in Afghanistan from Pakistan.

In his statement on Wednesday, he added that the UN Human Rights Office has received first hand reports that Afghans were subjected to abuse and arbitrary treatment from Pakistani officials while crossing the border into Afghanistan.

In the statement, an Afghan immigrant is quoted as saying, "The local police conducted a night raid at our home. They confiscated cash, jewellery, goats, sheep and other items from our home and took them. They gave us just a few hours to collect the remaining stuff and leave the home by that day at dawn. As we were leaving, a bulldozer began to destroy our home.”

Turk said that arbitrary arrest and detention is against Pakistan's obligations and international laws.

“Many Afghans are arriving with very few financial resources, having been forced to leave their homes and jobs, in addition to being forced to pay bribes or having their possessions seized”, said Turk.

The statement also expressed concern regarding the situation of former security officials, ethnic and religious minorities, women and girls, human rights defenders, civil society activists and media workers who are forced to leave Pakistan.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said that Pakistan must protect people who may face persecution, torture, ill-treatment or other irreparable harm in Afghanistan.

He asked the government of Pakistan to suspend the deportation programme of Afghan immigrants and investigate the complaints related to the violations by the authorities of this country.