Women Arrested By Taliban For Begging Raped, Killed In Afghan Jails, Reports The Guardian

Baloch said that the number and identity of the detainees will be announced soon by Pakistan’s Ministry of Interior.

At a press conference in Islamabad on Friday, November 29, Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesperson Baloch said that the participation of foreign nationals in political protests in Pakistan is "illegal". She stressed that foreigners should stay away from Pakistan's political affairs.

This is not the first time that Pakistani authorities have reported the arrest of Afghan citizens during protests in the country. Pakistani authorities had also announced the arrest of Afghans during protests by supporters of former Prime Minister Imran Khan in mid-October.

Pakistan's interior minister, Mohsin Naqvi, claimed at the time that Afghans were involved in the PTI protests, and that at least 120 of them had been arrested. However, PTI officials had denied the claim that Afghans were involved in the protests.

Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokesperson has announced the arrest of Afghans in the recent protests while the Pakistani government has recently made living conditions difficult for Afghan refugees in the country. The Pakistani government also announced that Afghan refugees must obtain special permits to live in the country's capital.

Of these, 1,400,000 people have POR residency cards and 800,000 have ECC cards. 600,000 migrants do not have official residency documents.

The Pakistani newspaper Business Recorder on Friday (November 29) quoted the UN refugee agency as saying that 700,000 Afghans who arrived in Pakistan after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan are planning to leave Pakistan for another country.

In November 2023, the Pakistani government forcibly deported undocumented immigrants, a move that has caused economic problems and severe psychological pressure for Afghan returnees. Many of the returnees described these behaviors as "degrading" and spoke of the seizure of their personal property.

On the other hand, according to international organisations, more than 20 million people in Afghanistan are struggling with poverty. Meanwhile, the Taliban's rule has caused many aid organisations to suspend or significantly reduce their activities due to policies that are "anti-human rights and against the rights of women and girls”.

Pakistan's Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi announced on Wednesday, November 27, that after December 31, Afghan citizens will not be allowed to stay in Islamabad without an official permit. The order comes as Afghan refugees claim to be taking part in anti-government protests.

Rustam Shah Mohmand, Pakistan's former ambassador to Kabul, has criticised the new decision of the Pakistani Interior Ministry to expel Afghans from Islamabad, calling it unfair. Afghans have been targeted in Pakistan because of internal political differences, he said.

In response to the request of Western countries for the broad participation of Afghan political and civil institutions, Qomi said that the fight against narcotics should not be politicised.

In an interview with ISNA news agency, Qomi stressed that technical and specialised issues should be separated from political issues and that the issue of combating drugs should not be allowed to become a tool for political pressure.

According to the report, he made these remarks in response to some criticisms from Western representatives, especially the United States and the European Union, who stressed on the need for a broader participation of Afghan political and civil institutions in these meetings.

Hassan Kazemi Qomi also quoted the Russian envoy as saying that he strongly opposed the West's attempt to politicise technical issues and warned that if this process continues, Moscow will not participate in future negotiations.

He added that Russia has stressed that it will not allow the United States to use the Anti-Narcotics Task Force for its own political purposes, arguing that it is a technical and specialised working group and should not be politicised.

The first meeting of the Anti-Narcotics Task Force, which is part of the Doha Process, was held on Thursday, November 28.

UNAMA announced that this task force will provide the ground for coordinated interaction with the Taliban.

It is not yet known whether any of the women, Afghan civil society and Taliban opponents were present in the working group.

The third Doha meeting was attended by the special representatives of countries for Afghanistan on June 30 and July 1. Taliban representatives were invited to the third Doha meeting, but women, civil society, and political opponents of the Taliban were not present.

Domestic media outlets had previously reported that the Foreign Minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran had dismissed Qomi from the position of Iran's special envoy to Afghanistan. According to reports, Alireza Bikdeli has been appointed as the representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran for Afghanistan.

The six countries called on the ICC prosecutor to address the ongoing and systematic violations of the rights of Afghan women and girls.

Chile's Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Thursday (November 28) that "due to the deterioration of the situation and the critical situation of Afghan women and girls, the situation in the country has been referred to the International Criminal Court".

The ICC prosecutor has resumed investigations into Afghanistan in 2022. Previously, the investigation into Afghanistan was halted in 2020 at the request of Afghan authorities.

The signatories of the petition called on the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to pay attention to the situation in Afghanistan, and in particular, the situation of Afghan women and girls, who face continuous and systematic violations of their rights.

The six countries have asked the ICC prosecutor to consider crimes committed against women and girls since the Taliban came to power in 2021 in its investigation.

The referral of this case to the Hague Court shows that the international community is deeply concerned about the human rights situation in Afghanistan.

Calling on the ICC prosecutor to pay attention to the systematic and ongoing violations of the rights of Afghan women and girls could increase political and diplomatic pressure on the Taliban. This is especially true if the ICC's investigation is concluded and evidence of crimes against Afghan women and girls is found. Such an investigation could lead to international condemnation and even more sanctions.

One of the consequences of this action is the possibility of prosecution of Taliban leaders and other officials responsible for human rights violations. If the Hague Court decides to prosecute, serious charges such as war crimes and crimes against humanity will be brought against Taliban officials. This could affect the personal security of Taliban leaders and lead to their further international isolation.

"The situation in Afghanistan is complicated," the Russian president told reporters. “However, we hope that we can develop our relations with Afghanistan," he added.

According to the state-run TASS news agency, Putin stressed that Moscow cannot ignore the fact that the situation in Afghanistan is stabilising. "We have entered into bilateral relations with the current Afghan authorities, and these relations will be further developed," he added.

The Russian president called the situation in the world tense, saying, "What is happening in Ukraine is not the only reason for the current difficulties. Is the situation in Asia good? Should the events on the CIS border with Afghanistan make us optimistic enough to turn our attention elsewhere?"

Recently, the secretary of the Russian National Security Council headed a delegation to Kabul and held talks with senior Taliban officials. The focus of these talks was the expansion of economic and political relations.

The Taliban hopes to reduce its international isolation with Russia's help. Russia and the Taliban are under severe economic and political sanctions from the West: Russia for its military aggression against Ukraine and the Taliban for supporting terrorist groups.

Russian media reported that Taliban’s Deputy Prime Minister Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar said in a meeting with the Russian delegation that the group has tried to create conditions for increasing the export of Afghan goods abroad and attracting foreign investment in Afghanistan.

"As you know, after the Taliban's victory in Afghanistan, the United States and Western countries are putting all kinds of pressure on us. So we expect Russia to help us defuse this pressure," he said.

Abdul Ghani Baradar has assured Russian officials that the Taliban is a reliable economic partner. He said that the Taliban's security institutions have taken measures to ensure security in Afghanistan, as a result of which the ISIS group has been destroyed in Afghanistan and transferred to other countries.

However, Russian and Central Asian officials are concerned about the activities of Uzbek and Tajik terrorist groups. At today's meeting of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation, Russia and the four Central Asian countries approved a plan to strengthen the border between Afghanistan and Tajikistan.

Referring to the multi-year US military presence in Afghanistan, Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu said that the United States should take the lead in rebuilding Afghanistan. He said that the United States, which hastily withdrew its troops from Afghanistan after 20 years, should take responsibility for helping to rebuild the country.

The Taliban quoted Russian officials as saying that Moscow will remove the group from the list of terrorist groups in the near future. However, the Kremlin spokesman said that the country has not made any decision on the matter.