China Offers Taliban Tariff-Free Trade

The Taliban intelligence agency had arrested Wafa more than three months ago for no apparent reason.

Wafa's family allege that he was tortured by the Taliban intelligence officials.

Meanwhile, a source from Nangarhar National Radio and Television told Afghanistan International's Pashto section that Aziz Ahmad Wafa had been dismissed from his job by the TV department.

In the past four months, the Taliban has arrested about nine journalists without clear reasons and then released some while others are still in the group's custody.

The Taliban's arbitrary detention and torture of journalists has repeatedly drawn widespread reactions from human rights organisations.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has said that journalists in Afghanistan continue to face arbitrary arrests.

In a separate development, the Afghanistan Freedom Front (AFF) also said that it had attacked a Taliban battalion on the outskirts of Maimana city, the capital of Faryab province.

The Afghanistan Freedom Front said that two Taliban fighters had been killed and two others were wounded in the attack.

A spokesman for the Taliban's police command in Faryab indirectly confirmed the attack in response to reporters. The Maimana explosion was caused by a car tyre burst, he said, and called on journalists to dismiss the "rumours of an attack".

The Afghanistan Freedom Front has also released a video of its attack on the Taliban's base in the city of Maimana. The video shows what appears to be a Taliban stronghold, its gate and the group's flag above it, the passage of vehicles and citizens, as well as the sound of a relatively large explosion.

Attack in Kabul

In Kabul, the National Resistance Front (NRF) announced that its forces attacked a Taliban patrol on Thursday evening, October 24, in which three Taliban members were killed.

The NRF said in a statement that the attack was carried out at 6:30 pm on Thursday in the area of the Kart-e-Naw bakery station, which is related to the 8th security district of Kabul city, on the Taliban's intelligence forces.

The statement said that as a result, the weapons of the Taliban members were also captured by the forces of this front.

Earlier, local sources told Afghanistan International that they heard a loud explosion. According to them, the site of the explosion was Karte-e-Naw.

The Taliban has not yet commented on the attack.

The organisation wrote in its report that the two men were named Ayub Sangar and Abdul Raqib Maliki.

The Hengaw report states that the two men were executed on charges of "premeditated murder”.

The Hengaw Human Rights Organisation wrote that the authorities of the Central Prison in the city of Qom executed these prisoners on Tuesday morning.

On Wednesday, October 23, Hengaw also announced the execution of an Afghan citizen in Iran. The organisation did not provide details about the identity of the Afghan.

So far, the Taliban has not commented on the incident and no detailed information about the perpetrator of the murder has been published.

According to locals, one of Hasna's brothers-in-law, Yaqoob, was also killed during a "family dispute”.

Locals said that the Taliban had arrested Hasna's uncle, Bismillah, on charges of murder, but Bismillah denied involvement in the murder.

Haji Darwish, Hosna's father-in-law, has also been accused of shooting during the family dispute that led to the murder of his son Yaqoob and his daughter-in-law.

Previously, in Afghanistan and the tribal areas, claims about the girl “not being a virgin” have led to catastrophic consequences such as femicide. Experts say that women suffer from anxiety and worry due to these issues.

The virginity of a woman has been a controversial topic and concern for many societies for centuries.

The Taliban hopes that Afghanistan will join this major intercontinental development project.

Abdul Latif Mansour said at the meeting on Wednesday that the Belt and Road Initiative will make Afghanistan an important partner and connect the country to Europe.

According to him, Afghanistan is a country located along Central Asia, South Asia and the Middle East and plays an important land bridge role for regional connectivity.

The Taliban's Ministry of Industry and Commerce said on October 16 that the group's commerce minister during his visit to China tried to gain the consent of countries, especially China, to join Afghanistan's Belt and Road Initiative.

In this meeting, Mansour also referred to the shortage of electricity in the country and expressed hope that this group can significantly develop the Afghan electricity energy market in the coming decades.

"We believe that reliable access to electricity, energy security and balanced energy supply are essential conditions for Afghanistan's economic and social progress," he added.

The Taliban's Minister of Water and Energy also clarified that based on the plans developed, Afghanistan will supply its energy needs from domestic sources.

Afghanistan imports its electricity from neighbouring countries, especially Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

Citizens of Kabul are deeply dissatisfied with the frequent power cuts and have criticised the limited and unreliable access to it.

Abdul Latif Mansour also pointed out during the conference that the opening of the Wakhan corridor can further expand Afghanistan-China relations. He stressed that the starting of this route will open a new window for trade and energy cooperation.

Taliban officials had previously emphasised that the group would rebuild the Silk Road and connect Afghanistan to China through the Wakhan corridor.

The Wakhan Corridor is located in the Pamir Mountains of Badakhshan and connects Afghanistan to China, Tajikistan, and Pakistan from the northeast.

This corridor is the only link between Afghanistan and the Xinjiang or Kashgar region of China.