Will Not Abandon Defence of Afghan Women’s Rights, Says UN Deputy Secretary-General

According to refugee accounts, Pakistani police have conducted widespread raids aimed at detaining Afghans, with officers allegedly entering homes where Afghan refugees reside and arresting individuals—even those holding valid residency visas—before transferring them to undisclosed locations.

Local sources told Afghanistan International that many Afghans in Pakistan, after their visas expire, initiate the re-registration process to renew their documents. Under this procedure, the Ministry of the Interior’s visa system grants a one-month grace period and issues a confirmation document indicating that the visa renewal process is underway.

Previously, this confirmation was recognised as a valid legal permit and generally accepted by the police. However, in recent days, law enforcement officials have reportedly disregarded these papers, detaining even those who possess them. Witnesses state that some of those detained are being deported via the Torkham border, placing Afghan refugees in an increasingly precarious situation.

The intensified police operations have instilled fear and anxiety among Afghan migrants, many of whom live under constant threat of arrest and deportation. In response, Afghan refugees have called on the United Nations and the international community to take urgent action to address their deteriorating circumstances in Pakistan.

Stanekzai called on Trump to reopen the US embassy in Kabul and abide by the Doha agreement.

Stanekzai said on Saturday, January 4, at the graduation ceremony of 500 students of religious schools held at the Loya Jirga tent in Kabul, "The enemy does not always remain the enemy."

"We fought the Soviets in the past and they destroyed millions of people, but now we have good relations with Russia," he added.

Stanekzai also said, "We also fought with the United States for 20 years, but now we want to establish good relations with this country."

The Taliban official stressed that the Taliban's friendship with the United States is conditional on the United States adhering to the Doha Agreement and refraining from interfering in Afghanistan's internal affairs.

Stanekzai stressed on the need to lift Western sanctions against Afghanistan and called for the release of blocked financial resources and the removal of the names of Taliban officials from the blacklist.

He also called on the United States to reopen its embassy in Afghanistan.

In another part of his speech, the Taliban's deputy foreign minister criticised the way of governance in Islamic countries, saying, "In Egypt, Islamic movements have been fighting for 90 years, but they have not yet been able to build a Sharia system and an Islamic government. We also see our neighbours, in the East and West, that they have fought in the name of Islam for decades, but they have not been able to build a system like us."

Afghan refugees and human rights activists have particularly criticised the United Nations and foreign embassies in Pakistan for failing to prevent the "anti-human rights actions" of the country's police.

"We did not come to Islamabad for fun and entertainment, we have taken refuge here to save our lives," Ahmad (pseudonym), an Afghan refugee, told Afghanistan International.

"Around the world, women and children are given a lot of attention, but we don't know why Afghans are being treated so inhumanely today," said Sarah, an Afghan woman refugee.

According to sources, most of the recently detained migrants are those whose visas have expired and they have been applying for new visas.

Although they are given documents to legally pursue visas after applying for new visas, police have refused to accept their documents and have imprisoned or deported many of them after being forcibly detained.

The recent arrests have raised concerns among asylum seekers who have submitted asylum applications to the US and other Western embassies awaiting admissions.

The refugees have called on the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and Western countries to put pressure on the Pakistani government to release detainees and stop the process of detaining Afghan refugees.

Ansarullah uses the ISIS flag, but is loyal to the Taliban and al-Qaeda, Nazari said.

The official of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan also posted a video on his account on the social media platform X in which Tajik fighters can be seen praising Mullah Omar, the founder of the Taliban.

The head of the NRF's foreign relations said that the fight against terrorism in Afghanistan requires a united stance, because "ISIS, the Taliban, and al-Qaeda" are two sides of the same coin.

He stated that the Taliban claims that they do not export terrorism outside Afghanistan by attributing their attacks to ISIS. He noted that the international community, especially the United States, should be aware of this tactic of the Taliban and know that Afghanistan under the "occupation of the Taliban" is still a hotbed of terrorism.

This official of the National Resistance Front claimed that foreign terrorists are currently being trained in Afghanistan and are planning attacks abroad with Afghan passports. He also said that "Tajik terrorists" who claimed to be members of ISIS and were identified in Los Angeles and Philadelphia at the beginning of 2024 were trained in Afghanistan and supported by the Taliban.

The official of the NRF claimed that Ansarullah, a group opposed to the government of Tajikistan, is supported by the Taliban in Afghanistan, while Abdul Kabir, the Taliban's political deputy prime minister, had announced on Friday the expansion of the group's political relations with Tajikistan.

Abdul Kabir had said that the Afghan embassy in Tajikistan has not been handed over to the group so far, but trade relations between the two sides are ongoing and political relations have progressed.

Sanchooli said on Saturday, January 4, that they were identified and arrested in line with the implementation of the plan to promote social security.

He told the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) that these people were arrested during a police operation in Saravan over the last 72 hours.

The Islamic Republic's official announced the detention of undocumented immigrants at a time when the Islamic Republic has made living conditions extremely difficult for undocumented immigrants and significantly increased the deportation of this group of migrants.

Earlier, an official of the Islamic Republic had said that more than 4,000 undocumented Afghan refugees are returned to Afghanistan every day from the Dogharoun border alone.

Officials in the Islamic Republic have announced that they will deport two million Afghan refugees by the end of this year.