Local media reported that Abdul Wahid Hamas, Taliban’s spokesperson for the Ghor province’s governor, announced that the group had publicly flogged an individual on charges of "moral corruption" in the province.
According to sources, the individual received 39 lashes on Friday in Dowlat Yar district.
The spokesperson did not provide details regarding the gender of the accused or the specific nature of the accusation.
Since the takeover of power in August 2021, the Taliban has reinstated physical punishments, despite widespread protests from human rights defenders both within and outside Afghanistan. The group says that their punishment is based on Sharia.
Husain Haqqani, former Pakistani ambassador to the United States has said that the Taliban has become a threat to Pakistan's national security.
In a brief note on X social media platform, Haqqani referred to the evolution of Pakistan's policy towards the Taliban from 2001 to 2024.
The former Pakistani diplomat said that Islamabad had stated in 2001 that Pakistan does not support the Taliban. Later, Pakistani politicians said, "We are hedging against Indian influence by supporting the good Taliban."
Haqqani added that following the Taliban's victory, Pakistani authorities said, “Taliban have broken the shackles of slavery by forcing the US out.” He pointed to a speech by Imran Khan, the former Prime Minister of Pakistan, who stated on August 16, 2021, one day after the Taliban entered Kabul, that Afghans had broken the shackles of slavery.
According to him, now in 2024, Pakistan believes that the Taliban has become a threat to the security of the country.
These statements come amid further deterioration in relations between the Taliban and Islamabad following Pakistan's airstrikes in the provinces of Khost and Paktika on March 18.
Following the attacks along the border in Paktia province, clashes erupted between the Taliban and Pakistani border guards. In response, the Taliban's Defence Ministry released an image of Mullah Yaqoob, the Taliban's defence minister, dressed in military attire.
The Taliban, through an official letter from the group’s 201 Khalid bin Walid Corps, has issued a warning to its members about a potential attack from the National Resistance Front (NRF) during Ramadan.
The letter specifically points to a plot to poison the food of Taliban fighters during Iftar, which is the evening meal which one consumes when fasting ends.
Dated Thursday and endorsed by the coordination commander of the 201 Khalid bin Walid Corps in Nangarhar, this communication was directed to the leadership of the corps' third infantry brigade.
Information shared with Afghanistan International highlights the Taliban's apprehensions regarding the National Resistance Front's strategy to leverage toxic substances against their forces throughout Afghanistan.
Further details from the letter reveal that an NRF member based in Tajikistan has reportedly called upon their comrades to engage in the poisoning scheme targeting the Taliban.
Originating from the Taliban's 201 Corps intelligence division, the directive calls for heightened vigilance within the brigade's ranks, urging commanders to steer clear of food offerings from unverified sources.
Till date, the National Resistance Front has not issued a response to these warnings of the Taliban.
Roberta Metsola, President of the European Parliament, emphasised to Afghanistan International that the European Union must remain vigilant about Afghanistan's situation, particularly regarding the violations of women's rights by the Taliban.
Metsola unequivocally condemned the gender apartheid prevailing in Afghanistan. Her remarks came in the wake of discussions with European Union leaders in Brussels on Thursday.
Metsola was responding to questions from Musadiq Parsa, a journalist with Afghanistan International.
Describing the plight of Afghan women as a stark form of gender apartheid, Metsola expressed her condemnation and recounted encounters with courageous Afghan women who sought refuge in Portugal to escape the Taliban's oppression.
She underscored the EU's responsibility to ensure that the dire circumstances in Afghanistan, especially the severe breach of women's rights by the Taliban, are not overshadowed by other global crises.
Human rights advocates have long characterised the Taliban's systematic curtailing of Afghan women's fundamental rights as gender apartheid, advocating for its formal acknowledgments.
Throughout their dominion over Afghanistan, extending beyond two and a half years, the Taliban have systematically stripped women of essential liberties, spanning education, employment, sports, travel, and the freedom to engage in public life, through comprehensive restrictions and prohibitions.
Advocates for women's rights assert that beyond recognising gender apartheid, there should be international legal action against the Taliban for their role as perpetrators of women's rights violations. Yet, concrete measures for the official recognition and accountability of gender apartheid in Afghanistan and globally remain to be enacted.
In Ghor, unidentified assailants have carried out the murder of a well-known Taliban judge and his young daughter, according to local reports.
Mawlawi Abdul Rahman, the spokesperson for the Taliban's police force in Ghor, confirmed the incident, revealing that the victim was Mohammad Juma Amini. Amini held the positions of a civil court judge and head of the appellate court in the region.
Till date, the attack remains unclaimed, with no individual or group stepping forward to accept responsibility.
The reports suggest that Amini's daughter was not even 10 years old at the time of the attack.
Furthermore, recent accounts from Ghor residents have surfaced, stating that in the Pasaband district, two additional Taliban members were murdered with axes and hatchets by unknown attackers.
Al-Mirsaad, a Taliban-affiliated media outlet, claimed that the Pakistani intelligence orchestrated the suicide attack on Friday in Kandahar city, and has been carried out by ISIS.
It wrote that the explosion is a message from Pakistan to the Taliban, which portrays how they can use ISIS to create instability in Afghanistan.
Sources from Mirwais Hospital in Kandahar province informed Afghanistan International that in this explosion at least 21 people had been killed, and 50 others got injured.
Agence France-Presse (AFP) also reported that the explosion’s death toll reached 20.
However, the Taliban's Interior Ministry on Friday confirmed that the explosion left three dead and 12 injured.
Al-Mirsaad, affiliated with the Taliban's intelligence, accused Pakistan and ISI of orchestrating Friday’s attack in Kandahar. It stated that the attack is part of Pakistan's military and proxy strategy in Afghanistan.
Earlier, the Taliban had stated that ISIS in Afghanistan had been suppressed and posed no threat to the group.
Al-Mirsaad has predicted that Pakistan would likely take additional actions in the near future to sow instability in Afghanistan, and urged Taliban forces to be ready to counter this development.