Taliban Publicly Flogs Seven People In Khost & Faryab On Various Charges
The Taliban’s Supreme Court has publicly flogged six people in Khost and one person in Faryab on various charges.
The Taliban’s Supreme Court has publicly flogged six people in Khost and one person in Faryab on various charges.
The Taliban’s court in Khost sentenced the defendants to 35 to 39 lashes and sentenced them to imprisonment for one to two years.
This court wrote in a newsletter on Wednesday, that it has given the four accused 35 lashes and sentenced each of them to one year of imprisonment. Two other defendants have been sentenced to 35 to 39 lashes and one to two years in prison.
This court has accused six people in Khost province of "illegitimate relations, deception and bribery".
In a separate newsletter, the Supreme Court of the Taliban wrote that in Pashtunkot district of Faryab province, it punished a person with 39 lashes and sentenced him to three years of imprisonment.
The Taliban said that all the accused were punished publicly in the presence of the officials of this group and the local people.
In an interview with Ukrinform newspaper, the former ambassador of Estonia to Afghanistan, Harri Tiido said that Russia has significant political and economic interests in Afghanistan, including the use of lithium mines.
Tiido added that Russia's goal in Afghanistan is "to create an ally to confront the West”.
He, who was previously the country's ambassador to Afghanistan and Poland, told this newspaper, "Russia's political interests in Afghanistan include increasing the number of countries it can cooperate with against the West."
He said that among the Taliban, a group seeks better relations with the West, especially America, and another group wants to distance itself from the West and be close to regional powers.
About Russia's economic interests, Tiido said that Moscow should use Afghanistan's territory to transfer its gas to Pakistan and India. Also, Russia is eyeing Afghanistan's important lithium reserves.
He said that whoever controls the lithium mines actually controls the development of the technology.
According to Tiido, the West is facing a shortage of lithium, if Russia gets access to Afghanistan's lithium reserves, it will have more opportunities to dominate or penetrate the global lithium market.
Recently, the Taliban quoted Russian officials as saying that Moscow will remove this group from its list of terrorist groups in the near future. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the country said that removing the Taliban from the blacklist will help to develop relations between Russia and the Taliban.
The Afghanistan Freedom Front (AFF) announced that on Tuesday evening, it targeted the convoy of intelligence forces of the Taliban in Khair Khana area of Kabul.
This front published a video and claimed that five Taliban members were killed in this attack.
This front added that the Taliban forces planned to evict women interns in the midwifery and nursing departments from the Khair Khana hospital.
This front claimed that at least two other Taliban members were wounded in this attack, including Mawlawi Mubasher, one of the senior leaders of the Taliban’s Ministry of Promotion of Vitrute and Prevention of Vice.
According to the announcement, "From now on, the so-called Taliban who persecute women and justify the exclusion of women and girls from work and education will be among the legitimate operational targets of this front."
The Taliban has not yet commented on this incident.
A report based on the findings of the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analysis said that the completion of the Qosh Tapa canal could reduce the amount of water to neighbouring countries by a fifth.
Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan have expressed concern over the completion of the project due to its reliance on Amu Darya.
In its report, the research institute wrote that "the challenges [of Qosh Tepe] are very serious, while countries are facing uncertainties”.
The report, published by BBC World, addresses concerns about the pace of construction of the project and doubts about sufficient expertise in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan to carry out such a major project.
The environmental organisation Rivers Without Borders, after analysing satellite imagery, also reported that there appeared to have been a significant spill from the canal.
However, Zabihullah Amiri, the project's chief engineer, believes that concerns about the canal's high consumption of water from the Amu River are unfounded. "We can say that this is not a big problem and it will not affect the stability of water resources in other areas," he told the BBC.
The project to build the Qush Tappa Canal was first proposed in the 1970s with the aim of greening Afghanistan's arid north, but it was postponed due to decades of conflict in the country.
The previous Afghan government blamed the Taliban's activity for the slow implementation of the project, but the Taliban has now proudly made it one of their priorities and hope that it will be operational by 2028.
According to the Taliban's estimates, the construction of this project will cost more than $600 million, and once completed, it will provide fresh water to the three northern provinces of Afghanistan.
The report added that due to climate change and recent droughts, its construction has accelerated.
The Taliban say that the construction of the canal could turn 5,000 square kilometers of dry land into fertile soils. The group claims that this measure could improve food security and livelihoods for hundreds of thousands of people.
Abdul Mobin, a farmer, told BBC World that even if the canal is not completed, the amount of groundwater leaking from it has irrigated enough land for him to cultivate again. "I want to build a house for my family here, because we will have water and we will plant and grow everything we need on this land, from tomatoes to fruits and even oilseeds," he says, hoping to build the canal.
A group of international human rights organisations said that the Taliban has deprived women and girls of basic rights through their discriminatory policies.
The NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security called on the Security Council to recognise the existence of gender apartheid in Afghanistan.
In a report, the Working Group on Women, Peace and Security reviewed the human rights situation in Afghanistan, Congo and Israel/Palestine and published recommendations to the UN Security Council to improve the human rights situation in these countries in December.
These organisations expressed concern over the deterioration of the situation of women's rights in Afghanistan under the control of the Taliban, and wrote that the Taliban continues to implement systematic policies of discrimination and gender segregation with the aim of eliminating women and girls.
These organisations have cited the implementation of the Taliban's Law on the Promotion of Virtue, violence, torture, and arbitrary detention of activists, journalists, protesting women, ethnic minorities, including Hazaras, and LGBTQ individuals, as human rights violations in Afghanistan.
"Women and girls are not safe even at home, as the Taliban has dismantled all systems to combat gender-based violence and forced men to control the behaviour of female members of their families," the report said.
The report also states that 13.3 million people in Afghanistan are in need of services to address gender-based violence, and a third of Afghan women currently face severe food insecurity.
These organisations have called on the UN Security Council to immediately ask the Taliban to repeal all policies that prevent women from fully enjoying their human rights.
The report also emphasises that Afghan women and the full, meaningful and equal participation of women and gender-diverse individuals in all Afghanistan-related meetings should be prioritised.
"Ensure that the UN Special Envoy for Afghanistan and their team have in-depth expertise in human rights and women's rights, and engage regularly and meaningfully with Afghan women and gender-diverse civil society," the report said.
The organisations added that the United Nations should urge the Taliban not to prevent women from working in governmental and non-governmental organisations.
The BBC has released its list of the 100 most inspiring and influential women in the world in 2024.
Athlete Zakia Khudadadi, singer and composer Elaha Soroor, and media and education entrepreneur Hamida Aman from Afghanistan are among this year's 100 most inspiring and influential figures.
The BBC's roster includes five categories of influential figures in the sectors of climate pioneers, culture and education, entertainment and sports, politics and science, health and technology.
In this list, Afghan athlete Zakia Khudadadi has been introduced as one of the 100 most influential figures in the sports and entertainment sector. She made history at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games as the first member of the Paralympic refugee team to win a medal.
According to the BBC, the athlete had been secretly training in taekwondo clubs in her hometown of Herat since the age of 11 and left Afghanistan after the Taliban's return.
Khudadadi told the BBC, "My path to an Olympic medal speaks about the resilience of Afghan women, refugee women and every other woman. By not giving up, we are showing that there is nothing a woman cannot do."
In the entertainment and sports category, singer Elaha Soroor has also been named one of the 100 most influential figures of 2024.
The BBC wrote, "At a time when the voices of women in Afghanistan are being erased from public life, singer Elaha Soroor wrote the anthem Naan, Kar, Azadi! (Bread, Work, Freedom!) to counter this suppression and send a message of encouragement."
In the Culture and Education category, Hamida Aman, a media and education entrepreneur from Afghanistan, has been named one of the BBC's 100 most influential and inspiring figures. She has launched the Begum online academy to create a free educational space for out-of-school girls.
According to the BBC, the platform provided more than 8,500 videos in Dari and Pashto last year, covering curricula for grades 7 to 12.
Every year, the BBC publishes a list of 100 most influential artists, activists, leaders and well-known figures around the world.