346 Afghan Families Deported From Iran & Pakistan, Claims Taliban
Bakhtar News Agency, a Taliban-controlled media outlet, reported that 346 Afghan refugee families were deported from Iran and Pakistan in a single day.
Bakhtar News Agency, a Taliban-controlled media outlet, reported that 346 Afghan refugee families were deported from Iran and Pakistan in a single day.
The media outlet wrote that 36 families from Pakistan and 310 families from Iran have returned to Afghanistan.
Bakhtar News Agency, wrote on Tuesday, October 8, that Afghan refugee families have returned to Afghanistan from the Torkham, Spin Boldak, Pul-e-Abrisham and Islam Qala crossings.
On October 3, the outlet had also reported the deportation of 299 Afghan families from Iran and Pakistan and their return to Afghanistan.
This comes as the trend of deportation of Afghan refugees from Iran and Pakistan has increased sharply in recent months. Afghan immigrants in these two countries face many challenges. Iran's police chief said recently that by the end of this year, two million undocumented Afghan refugees will be "deported" from Iran.
The Taliban's Ministry of Justice announced that it had confiscated 259,469 acres of usurped land in 23 provinces of Afghanistan from September to October this year.
The ministry said that it had confiscated more than 14,746 acres of land in Maidan Wardak province alone.
According to the Taliban's statement, between September 6 and October 4, 2024, 34,018 acres of land have been registered as "emirates" in Ghor, Maidan Wardak, Takhar, Logar, Nuristan, Badghis, and Panjshir provinces alone.
According to the statement published on Tuesday, another 567,782 acres of land in 33 provinces of Afghanistan are under review by the group's Land Grabbing Prevention Commission.
The Taliban's Ministry of Justice said that the confiscated lands are “Taliban government’s land” and have been handed over to the relevant departments of the group.
The statement did not specify which department owned the lands or who had usurped them.
The Taliban have emphasised that the investigation, identification and confiscation of such lands are continuing throughout the country.
After the Taliban's return to power, there have been reports of the group usurping citizens' lands, but the Taliban deny these accusations.
A female employee of a clinic in Badakhshan's Jurm district was kidnapped last week and murdered after being raped, local sources told Afghanistan International.
A local source accused a Taliban member of kidnapping and killing the woman after she rejected his marriage proposal.
Nooria worked as a cleaner in this clinic and had lost her husband. Sources said that she had refused to remarry her husband's brother, which angered the alleged accused. According to them, this person is a member of the Taliban group.
Local sources claimed that Nooria’s brother-in-law kidnapped her from her home on September 30 and murdered her after raping her.
The health worker’s body was found near her home on October 7 after about a week.
Local Taliban officials in Badakhshan have not yet commented on the incident.
Following a deadly attack on a Taliban base in the village of Mohammad Baig Khel in Panjshir province, Taliban intelligence forces have arrested a number of local residents and launched house-to-house search operations in the province.
Local sources in Dara district told Afghanistan International that after the attack on Friday evening, October 4, the Taliban's intelligence put severe pressure on the residents of the area.
According to sources, the Taliban's intelligence agency had arrested some local people, some of whom were released through the mediation of influential people. However, sources say that six people, including the principal of Mirza Shahid School and a tribal elder of Tundkho village, are still in Taliban custody.
According to sources, these people were arrested by the Taliban from their homes in the past 48 hours and transferred to an unknown location.
According to sources, "After the attack on the Taliban base, Dara district is completely surrounded by the Taliban. House-to-house search operations are continuing, and the roads leading to the district have been blocked."
The Taliban’s operations happened after an attack in the Dara e Abdullah Khel in which a number of Taliban forces were killed and wounded. The National Resistance Front claimed responsibility for the attack and announced the number of Taliban casualties at 13 dead and two wounded.
"The attack was carried out at 6:25pm on Friday by the brave forces of the National Resistance Front against the Taliban in the village of Mohammad Baig Khel, Panjshir," the statement said.
The National Resistance Front described the attack as one of the deadliest attacks for the Taliban in recent months. However, the Taliban claimed that the explosion of a gas balloon resulted to injuries of six of their forces.
On October 7, the Taliban government wrote in a statement that the United States "invaded Afghanistan with great cruelty and terror" on this day. Twenty-three years ago, the US-led counterterrorism coalition invaded Afghanistan in response to the 9/11 attacks.
The Taliban said in a statement on Monday, that thousands of Afghans were killed, wounded and homeless following the "occupation" of Afghanistan by the United States.
The statement also said that the US invasion of Afghanistan caused severe damage to the country's economy, and that the US "kept its puppet slaves dominating the Afghans".
During their first rule in the 1990s, the Taliban implemented strict rules similar to those of their current administration in Afghanistan.
At the time, the group sheltered then-al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, and after the 9/11 attacks, the United States invaded Afghanistan at the head of a counterterrorism operation.
The invasion of Afghanistan by the United States and its allies led to the overthrow of the Taliban regime at the time, the formation of a transitional government, and the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.
The Taliban fought against the government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and foreign forces for 20 years, and thousands of civilians were killed in the group's attacks on cities.
Nearly 20 years later, in February 2020, the United States signed the Doha Agreement with the Taliban after several rounds of negotiations, which many observers and a number of US officials believe led to the weakening of the former Afghan government.
Following this agreement, foreign forces were withdrawn from Afghanistan.
The Taliban returned to power on August 15, 2021, following the escape of former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. According to international organisations, the human rights situation in the country has gradually deteriorated after the Taliban's victory. The Taliban has been accused of establishing gender apartheid in Afghanistan and violating ethnic rights extensively.
The Taliban government wrote in its statement that the Afghans under the leadership of this group defeated "America”.
Pakistan's Foreign Ministry called on the Taliban to respond to the needs and demands of the Afghan people, including the reopening of girls' schools, instead of interfering in the country's internal affairs.
The Taliban had previously asked Islamabad to hold talks with the protesters.
In a statement on Monday, October 7, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry rejected recent statements by the Taliban’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi, calling them "baseless".
The Taliban's Foreign Ministry spokesman on Sunday called on the Pakistani government to negotiate and reach an understanding with the pro-Imran Khan protesters about their "legitimate demands". The Taliban also called on the Pakistani government to deal with the protesters' grievances in a "reasonable" and "realistic" manner.
Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said that the Taliban should focus on resolving their internal problems instead of interfering in Pakistan's internal affairs. "The Taliban should prioritise inclusive [government formation] and respond to the needs and aspirations of their people, including the right of women and girls to education," the ministry statement said.
The ministry stressed that the Taliban has restricted the rights of Afghan women and girls through a misinterpretation of religion.
In the statement, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry once again accused the Taliban of supporting and harbouring terrorist groups and called on the group to fulfil its obligations to the international community.
The Taliban, which has cracked down on dozens of civil movements in Afghanistan over the past three years, on Sunday advised Islamabad not to ignore demonstrations by Imran Khan's supporters because "refusing to negotiate complicates matters".
The Taliban are encouraging the Pakistani government to reach an understanding and negotiate with the protesters, while it itself has violently suppressed dozens of peaceful civil movements in various cities of Afghanistan over the past three years. In the past three years, various cities in Afghanistan have witnessed demonstrations whose voices were not heard by the Taliban.
Most of these demonstrations have been held in response to the ban on women's right to education and work, widespread human rights violations, repression and deprivation of power by ethnic groups, non-payment of pensioners' salaries, and widespread poverty. Over the past three years, the group has imprisoned hundreds of peaceful protesters, civil society activists, journalists, human rights activists, and political opposition figures.
Reports by human rights organisations show that the Taliban has used violence against their opponents in prisons. In the past three years, there have been several reports that show that some opponents of the Taliban have died under torture in the group's prisons.