The National Resistance Front (NRF) announced on Tuesday that it had targeted the convoy of Abdul Latif Mansour, the Taliban’s Minister of Energy and Water, in the Khair Khana area of northern Kabul.
According to an NRF statement, the attack resulted in the death of one of the minister’s guards and injuries to two others.
The NRF reported that the incident occurred at approximately 3:30 PM local time near the northern entrance to Kabul, in the Khair Khana area within Police District 17.
The Taliban have yet to issue a statement regarding the incident.
The NRF stressed that no civilians or members of their forces were harmed during the operation.
Several senior Taliban officials, including the Minister of Energy and Water, were reportedly in the area on Tuesday to inaugurate the “Shah wa Arous” dam in the Shakardara district of Kabul.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, has condemned the Taliban’s recent directive threatening to revoke the licences of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that employ women.
Türk described the move as a profound error and called on the Taliban to reverse all policies targeting Afghan women with discrimination.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, Türk voiced deep concern over the Taliban’s Ministry of Economy warning NGOs to cease hiring women, labelling the directive as “entirely wrong.” He urged the Taliban to adopt a different path to ensure Afghanistan’s future prosperity.
Highlighting the dire situation in Afghanistan, Türk noted that more than half the population now lives in poverty. He underlined the vital role played by NGOs in providing life-saving aid to Afghan women, men, and children, warning that the Taliban’s decree would jeopardise access to humanitarian assistance across the country.
Türk called on the Taliban to revoke this “deeply discriminatory decree” and other measures that deny women and girls their fundamental rights, including access to education, employment, healthcare, and freedom of movement.
He further stressed that no nation could achieve sustainable political, economic, or social development while marginalising half its population. Türk urged the Taliban to reconsider their policies for the sake of Afghanistan’s stability and progress.
The directive follows a letter issued by the Taliban’s Ministry of Labour last week, instructing NGOs to comply with a two-year-old decree banning women from employment. Organisations failing to adhere to the ban risk losing their operating licences.
Emomali Rahmon, the President of Tajikistan, met with General Asim Munir, the Director-General of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), in Dushanbe.
The Tajik Presidential Office announced on Monday that their discussions centred on “ensuring peace, stability, and regional security.”
In the statement, President Rahmon expressed satisfaction with the bilateral relations between the two countries, highlighting that, alongside security cooperation, ongoing engagement between Tajik and Pakistani officials is mutually beneficial.
The two leaders emphasised the importance of strengthening collaboration in combating terrorism, extremism, and drug trafficking.
This meeting comes amidst escalating tensions between Pakistan and the Taliban in Afghanistan. In recent days, armed clashes along the shared border have resulted in casualties on both sides.
Tajikistan serves as a host to leaders of the Afghan National Resistance Front and remains one of the few regional countries without formal diplomatic ties with the Taliban. Over the past three years since the Taliban’s return to power, Tajikistan has consistently raised concerns about the presence of terrorist groups in Afghanistan and has been a staunch supporter of the National Resistance Front against the Taliban.
It is not yet clear whether the ISI chief met with the leaders of the National Resistance Front during his visit. Previously, some Pakistani diplomats had warned that if the Taliban failed to curb attacks by the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Pakistan might consider forging ties with groups opposed to the Taliban.
General Asim Munir was recently appointed as the head of Pakistan’s ISI.
Taliban officials have inaugurated the “Shah wa Arous” dam in the Shakardara district of Kabul.
This dam’s construction was finalised during the tenure of the previous government, with water storage operations commencing prior to the Taliban’s takeover in 2021. The project was completed at a cost of $52 million, funded by the national budget of the former Afghan administration.
According to the Taliban’s Ministry of Water and Energy, the dam stands 77 metres tall and has an annual capacity to regulate 30 million cubic metres of water. The “Shah wa Arous” dam is expected to irrigate between 2,700 and 3,500 hectares of agricultural land while also supplying 5 million cubic metres of drinking water.
The dam is equipped with the capacity to generate 1.2 megawatts of electricity. Construction initially began in 2012 but experienced significant delays due to a variety of challenges.
During the inauguration ceremony, Abdul Kabir, the Taliban’s Deputy Prime Minister for Political Affairs, hailed the dam’s completion as a testament to the group’s commitment to Afghanistan’s development.
Mullah Baradar, Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs, underscored water management and energy development as key priorities for the Taliban administration. Furthermore, Abdul Salam Hanafi, the Deputy Prime Minister for Administrative Affairs, praised the project’s completion as a meaningful advancement in Afghanistan’s efforts to manage its water resources.
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) announced that it has provided 475,000 children in Afghanistan with therapeutic food rich in protein, vitamins and minerals this year with the aim of combating malnutrition.
UNICEF said that the therapeutic food was provided through 3,300 service centres.
"Prepared therapeutic food, which is rich in protein, fat, vitamins and minerals, is a powerful solution in the fight against severe acute malnutrition," UNICEF wrote in a note on social media platform X on Monday, January 30.
According to a recent report by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), 343,000 children with acute malnutrition have been admitted to Afghan hospitals for treatment this year.
Earlier, the World Health Organisation (WHO) had announced that food insecurity has become a growing crisis in Afghanistan, and that 2.9 million children under the age of five are currently facing malnutrition.
International organisations said that due to the spread of poverty and hunger, an increasing number of Afghan children are at risk of malnutrition.
Issa Bozorgzadeh, the spokesman for the Islamic Republic's water industry, said that Afghanistan's "unilateral" exploitation of the Harirud River is a violation of Iran's customary rights.
Bozorgzadeh said that the construction of the Pashdan Dam will affect the supply of drinking water to several million people.
Bozorgzadeh said that the construction and impoundment of Pashdan dam in the Harirud border basin causes the reduction of the natural flow of the Harirud border river and the occurrence of social and environmental damages in the downstream areas, especially the problem of serious damage to the drinking water supply of the holy city of Mashhad.
"The residents of the Harirud basin in Iran and Afghanistan have benefited from the natural flow of this transboundary river over the years, and customary and historical rights have been created for both sides," said Bozorgzadeh.
Bozorgzadeh said that the Islamic Republic of Iran has repeatedly expressed its official objection through diplomatic channels to the negative cross-border effects of the unilateral dam construction measures by the Afghan side in the Harirud basin and has called for joint cooperation to assess and mitigate these effects and choose sustainable development instead of destructive development.
Tehran expects the Taliban "to put on its agenda the necessary cooperation and measures regarding the rational and fair use of the water of the Harirud border river upstream in a way that does not harm the historical and customary rights of the downstream areas", the official said.
He said that the Ministry of Energy, along with the Iranian Foreign Ministry, calls for immediate negotiations in this regard and declares its readiness to cooperate with the Taliban in finding joint and acceptable solutions to reduce the cross-border effects of the Pashdan and Salma dams.
The Pashdan Dam is located in Karkh district, 25 kilometres from the city of Herat province, and its construction began in 2011 and was supposed to be completed in three years.
The Taliban's Ministry of Water and Energy recently announced that 80% of the construction work of the Pashdan Dam in Herat has been completed and the dam will be put into operation soon.
According to the ministry, with the completion of this dam, it has the capacity to store 54 million cubic metres of water and produce two megawatts of electricity.