The Taliban’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry has announced a significant increase in coal exports, revealing that approximately 654,000 tonnes of coal were exported over the past eight months to Pakistan, China, Iran, India, and Türkiye.
The total value of these exports reportedly exceeds $605 million.
In November 2023, the Taliban administration stated that 1,000 tonnes of coal are extracted daily in northern Afghanistan and sold to traders.
However, critics have denounced the unregulated and excessive extraction of coal, along with its low-cost export, as a form of “plundering” Afghanistan’s valuable underground resources.
Mehdi Bakhshi, the Prosecutor General of Kerman, Iran, has announced that 1,788 undocumented Afghan migrants have been arrested and deported from the province over the past three days.
Bakhshi underscored that employing undocumented Afghans in Kerman is deemed a “crime.” The deportations were carried out as part of a plan titled “Enhancing Social Security,” which aims to bolster public safety, according to a report by the IRNA news agency on Sunday.
The judicial official reiterated that residency in Iran must be obtained through legal means, warning that violators would face punitive action and deportation.
While Iran receives international assistance, particularly from the United Nations, for hosting Afghan migrants, Iranian officials assert that the aid is insufficient. They have called for increased foreign funding to address the growing burden.
In recent months, Iran has intensified the deportation of Afghan migrants, with reports suggesting that thousands of Afghans are expelled from the country every week. According to Afghanistan International, some Afghans with valid visas and residency permits have also been detained and deported by Iranian authorities.
Iran has announced plans to deport two million Afghan migrants by the end of the current year, marking a significant escalation in its immigration enforcement efforts.
Hamdullah Fitrat, deputy spokesperson of the Taliban, has called for the lifting of international sanctions against the group. He stated that the continuation of sanctions against the Taliban “violates the rights of Afghans.”
On the previous day, members of the United Nations Security Council unanimously voted to extend the mission of the committee overseeing sanctions on the Taliban for another 14 months.
According to the Bakhtar News Agency, under Taliban control, Hamdullah Fitrat said on Saturday that the continuation of sanctions against the Taliban is “contrary to the principles of human rights.” He added that the Taliban seeks positive engagement with the United Nations.
On Friday, the Security Council, with the unanimous agreement of its 15 members, passed a resolution to extend the 1988 sanctions against the Taliban. As a result, the Taliban will remain subject to UN sanctions for over another year.
In Friday’s session of the Security Council, the sanctions against the Taliban—including the freezing of assets, travel bans, and targeted arms embargoes—were reaffirmed.
Reliable sources in Kabul have informed Afghanistan International that the Taliban’s intelligence agency has arrested two employees of the Ministry of Refugees on charges of involvement in the assassination of Khalil-ur-Rahman Haqqani, the Taliban’s Minister of Refugees.
No further details regarding the identities of the arrested individuals have been disclosed.
It remains unclear what roles the detainees held within the ministry and whether they were employees from Afghanistan’s previous government or recruited by the Taliban.
Sources revealed on Saturday, December 14, that the attacker waited for hours within the Ministry of Refugees compound, targeting Khalil Haqqani before detonating the explosives he was carrying.
According to these sources, Haqqani often met visitors to the ministry in person. The suicide bomber reportedly detonated the explosives upon approaching Haqqani at close range.
The attack, which occurred on Wednesday, December 11, claimed the lives of Khalil-ur-Rahman Haqqani and at least six others.
The Taliban is yet to provide any information about the arrests or clarify whether additional individuals beyond the two ministry employees have been detained in connection with the incident.
ISIS has claimed responsibility for the assassination. Taliban officials reported that the attacker had hidden the explosives in a plastered arm.
The US Department of Justice announced that it has sentenced Abdul Sattar Barakzai, 59, to 30 years in prison for “participating in narcoterrorism for the benefit of the Taliban and the Haqqani Network.”
Barakzai is also charged with importing heroin into New York and forging documents. He was found guilty after a two-week trial that ended in August.
According to court documents and evidence presented at the trial, the US Treasury Department sanctioned Barakzai in June 2012 for storing and transferring money to the Taliban.
The Treasury Department said that Barakzai “provided thousands of dollars to the Taliban to support their activities in Afghanistan and the war against coalition forces”.
In this announcement, the US Department of Justice referred to the Haqqani Network as "one of the violent Taliban groups" and accused Barakzai of financing the network.
According to a statement from the US Department of Justice, beginning in January 2018, Barakzai attempted to import large quantities of heroin into the United States; paid the Taliban to support his heroin trafficking; and attempted to provide financial support to the Haqqani Network, a violent Taliban faction. Barakzai participated in face-to-face meetings, recorded phone calls, and electronic communications with five individuals he believed were affiliated with an international drug trafficking organisation.
“Gathering Evidence”
In August 2018, Barakzai sold 10 kilograms of heroin to an undercover US Drug Enforcement Administration agent in Afghanistan. He told the agent at the time that the heroin would be brought into the United States for sale in New York. Barakzai also told the undercover US agent that the Taliban would be involved in the production and transportation of the heroin.
According to an official statement from the Ministry of Justice, Barakzai was arrested abroad and then transferred to the United States.
It is not known in which country the US detained him.
After his arrest, Barakzai ordered his family in Afghanistan to kidnap witnesses to his crimes and threaten them into silence.
According to a statement from the US Department of Justice, in recorded calls in February and March 2019, Barakzai had asked his brothers to kidnap the witness and threaten him with death to prevent him from providing information.
In addition to the 30 years in prison, Barakzai was sentenced to five years of supervised release. In addition, he lost the assets he earned from drug trafficking.
he leader of the Hezb-e-Islami party traveled to Paktia to attend the funeral of Khalil-ur-Rahman Haqqani, the Taliban's Minister of Refugees.
Sirajuddin Haqqani posted pictures of himself with Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and wrote that the Hezb-e-Islami leader had expressed his condolences and sympathy following the killing of his uncle.
n images released on Friday, December 13, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, leader of the Hezb-e-Islami Afghanistan, is seen next to Sirajuddin Haqqani, the Taliban's interior minister.
These images were simultaneously released by Sirajuddin Haqqani, the Taliban's Minister of Interior; Abdul Matin Qane, the group's spokesman for the Ministry of Interior, and Habib-ur-Rahman Hekmatyar, the son of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.
The leader of the Hezb-e-Islami Afghanistan has gone to Paktia to attend the funeral of Khalil-ur- Rehman Haqqani, at a time when many Taliban leaders are said to be on bad terms with him due to his past positions and actions.
After 2001, the Hezb-e-Islami, led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, fought alongside the Taliban against the republican regime in Afghanistan, and like the Taliban, members of this party even carried out suicide attacks. Until, in 2017, after the signing of the peace agreement, he came out of hiding and came to Kabul.
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar was optimistic about the Taliban regaining control of Afghanistan, but gradually became critical of the group's performance. The Taliban had previously accused him of usurping government land.
With the resumption of Taliban rule in Afghanistan and the ban on political parties in the country, the activities of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's party have also been banned.