Vienna Meeting Doomed to Fail, Taliban Official Says In Veiled Remarks

The two groups claimed that seven Taliban fighters were killed in these attacks.

On Monday, the National Resistance Front wrote on X that they had attacked a Taliban outpost in the Saray Laghman area in Kabul's ninth security district, resulting in the deaths of two Taliban members and injuring one.

The Afghanistan Freedom Front also posted a video on X stating that their attack on a Taliban checkpoint at the Alauddin intersection killed five Taliban members and wounded two others.

Independent sources have not yet confirmed the figures reported by these two anti-Taliban groups.

Several Kabul residents told Afghanistan International that they heard two loud explosions in the Darul Aman and Karte Naw areas of Kabul on Monday evening.

The ministry stated that it has begun the process of registering citizens' mobile phones by distributing forms among the public.

Abdul Mateen Qani, Taliban’s spokesperson for the Ministry of Interior, wrote on X social media platform on Monday, that registering mobile phones "has been undertaken to protect and secure citizens' mobile phones”.

Qani wrote, "The process of registering people's mobile phones and distributing forms for this purpose has been ongoing for a year now."

The spokesperson for the Taliban’s Ministry of Interior stated that the group plans to implement mobile phone registration across all regions of the country in the future.

Although the Taliban has claimed that this process is aimed at protecting people's phones and has so far recovered 704 stolen phones through this method, critics argue that registering mobile phones could provide the Taliban with greater control over citizens.

Previously, the United States’ State Department had stated that 16 out of 90 female prisoners in three northern provinces became pregnant after being raped by the Taliban members.

The Spectator reported that the United Nations is set to investigate sexual assaults on women in Taliban prisons.

Reports of sexual violence and assault by the Taliban on female prisoners in Afghanistan have raised concerns for the State Department and Richard Bennett, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan.

Bennett said, "In general, I am aware of serious ill treatment of detainees, not only sexual but beatings, threats, extortion."

He also added that a team of UN staff is investigating the sexual assault and mistreatment of Afghan women by the Taliban.

The special rapporteur on human rights also said another concern is that some prisons may be operated outside the jurisdiction of the prison administration, managed by Taliban intelligence and personally by their commanders, limiting researchers' access to real information.

Additionally, some women who have experienced Taliban prisons have repeatedly spoken of mistreatment, torture, and sexual violence by the Taliban against women in prisons.

Previously, the George W. Bush Institute released a report on the situation in Afghanistan titled "Captured State," which mentioned issues such as the Taliban acquiring wives through force and manipulating families' desperation to settle debts or bolster support from loyalists.

This comes as the US State Department, in its annual report on the state of human rights in Afghanistan, said that at least 16 out of 90 female prisoners in Jowzjan, Faryab, and Samangan became pregnant after being raped by Taliban members.

State Department also noted that the Taliban have not implemented any mechanisms to support women who are victims of sexual assault.

According to Dawn, these clashes began on Saturday evening in three border areas in the Lower Dir of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

So far, the Pakistani military has not commented on the clashes.

Dawn reported, citing local residents, that there had been no exchange of fire or shooting in the Lower Dir district on Monday.

According to the report, after two days of fighting, the militants retreated to Afghanistan.

The Pakistani media wrote that both sides suffered casualties in these clashes, however, the details of the casualties are not clear.

It also reported that on Monday, local elders, politicians, and intellectuals held a jirga to discuss a permanent solution for maintaining law and order in the region.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Vienna conference on Monday, Nazary called on the international community to "abandon the failed policy of appeasement" and support the Vienna conference. Meanwhile, Rangin Dadfar Spanta, former National Security Advisor of Afghanistan, described the Taliban as a "disaster" at the fourth Vienna Conference for a democratic Afghanistan.

Spanta urged opposition groups to unite to save Afghanistan from this "disaster”. Former Afghan Justice Minister Fazl Ahmad Manawi, speaking on the sidelines of the Vienna conference, told Afghanistan International that the diversity of Afghanistan is represented at this meeting.

Manawi added that the UN's unilateral engagement with the Taliban at the Doha meeting has increased people's concerns.