Pakistan Security Issues Unrelated To Afghanistan, Says Taliban Spokesperson

According to the group's statement, the Taliban administered 35 lashes to each person and sentenced them to one year of imprisonment.

The Supreme Court of the Taliban in the statement added that the primary court of Kabul's fourth zone punished two individuals for adultery on the seventeenth day of Ramadan.

The Taliban did not disclose the identity of these individuals.

Since regaining control of Afghanistan, the Taliban has resumed physical punishments such as flogging, amputation, and execution.

Recently, the Afghan National Radio Television, under Taliban control, broadcast a message attributed to Hibatullah Akhundzada, the leader of the Taliban, emphasising on the implementation of Sharia law, including physical punishment and stoning of women.

Human rights activists accuse the Taliban of hypocrisy in applying punishments and claim that the group does not enforce Sharia law on its own members.

The channel was active in attracting audiences from Tajikistan.

RIA Novosti wrote on Wednesday, "Our investigation into one individual showed that the audience of this channel was being recruited for terrorist attacks. Similarly, we discovered that individuals involved in the Crocus Hall attack were recruited through the Voice of Khorasan channel."

The agency noted that the Voice of Khorasan channel is now inaccessible in Russia and Tajikistan, and appears to have been removed.

Telegram is a popular network among ISIS and other extremist groups in Central Asia, as it is less stringent about the dissemination of propaganda and violent content compared to other social media platforms like Meta.

Citing RIA Novosti, a Russian Federal Security Service official accused the US and British intelligence of creating the channel, a claim Russian officials have repeatedly made in connection with the ISIS attack in recent days.

US officials have stated that they are monitoring ISIS Khorasan activities and had shared information related to the March 22 concert hall attack in Moscow with the Russian government earlier, which Russian officials, including the President, did not take seriously.

Meanwhile, RIA Novosti reported, citing a judicial official in Saint Petersburg, that a Tajik citizen was fined and expelled from Russia for membership with an ISIS Telegram group.

ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack on the concert hall, which resulted in at least 143 fatalities.

On Wednesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry stated that ISIS' planning and execution of this attack are implausible, accusing Ukraine and Western countries of being involved in the attack.

According to the NRF, Sediqullah, the commander of the bodyguards of the Taliban's governor in Ghor, along with one of his guards, had been killed in the NRF operations.

In a statement, NRF reported that the attack on this Taliban commander occurred on March 26 in the districts of Tala Wa Barfak district of Baghlan province.

Earlier, NRF had stated that in an attack on a Taliban inspection post in the second police district of Kabul city, three Taliban members had been killed and two others were injured.

The Taliban has not commented on these two attacks yet.

On March 26, the front had also stated that in two separate attacks in Ghor and Kabul, its forces killed three Taliban members and injured four others.

The Taliban, citing Paul Klouman Bekken, Norway's charge d’Affaires in Afghanistan, wrote that ISIS has been suppressed in Afghanistan and has lost its power.

This media outlet affiliated with the Taliban, quoting Bekken, reported that Norway does not support the group's adversaries.

However, amidst the Taliban's control in Afghanistan, political and military opponents of the group have initiated their resistance efforts, occasionally convening meetings in various countries to discuss the Afghan situation, while guerrilla attacks persist in some provinces.

The Taliban, citing a foreign official, made this statement even though just a few days ago, an ISIS branch operating from Afghanistan executed a deadly attack in Moscow, resulting in 139 casualties.

The active presence of ISIS in Afghanistan and its orchestration of attacks from Afghan territory against neighbouring countries have raised significant global and regional concerns.

Earlier, the United Nations Security Council called the presence of ISIS in Afghanistan a major threat to the region. Additionally, the Chief of the Joint Staff of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation warned that the growing presence of ISIS in northern Afghanistan poses a primary threat to stability in Central Asia.

Nevertheless, during a meeting with the Norwegian ambassador, Abdul Kabir, the Taliban's deputy prime minister for political affairs highlighted the group's "balanced policy" and expressed support for "positive interaction with all parties”.

This Taliban official also mentioned the employment of "thousands of women" in government and private sectors. This is while for the past two and a half years, the group has deprived women and girls of education and prohibited women's employment, even with non-governmental organisations.

These female activists who protested against the Taliban warned that the group might "stone" her on charges of burning a picture of the group’s leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada.

They also said that Seddiqi does not have access to a lawyer or family visitors in prison.

This women's movement called the "Window of Hope," based in Pakistan, criticised human rights activists for their indifference toward Seddiqi’s fate, and said that the Taliban leader recently emphasised "stoning and flogging women in public under the pretext of enforcing Sharia law”.

These women highlighted that the Taliban deprive Afghan citizens, especially women, of their rights, and actively suppress, detain, and torture women activists. They underscored that the group has effectively established "gender apartheid" in Afghanistan through systematic gender discrimination.

In a statement, they emphasised that the Taliban are unfamiliar with the human rights values and will not align with the people of Afghanistan and the international community.

These women said that the international community, including the United States, provides financial support to the Taliban. According to the movement, Afghan women have tragically become "victims of wrong policies of the international community and gender apartheid”.

This movement urged the international community and human rights organisations to exert pressure on the Taliban for the release of Manizha Seddiqi from their prison.

Taliban intelligence detained Seddiqi on October 9, 2023, and subsequently transferred her to Pul-e-Charkhi prison.