Local sources from Baghlan province report that armed assailants carried out an attack on Tuesday night in the Baghlan-e-Markazi district, killing a pro-Taliban cleric and wounding another individual. The attack was claimed by ISIS.
According to reports received by Afghanistan International, the attack targeted Abdul Razzaq, an imam and religious teacher, while Hamdullah Mohammadi, the district's Friday prayer cleric, sustained critical injuries.
Witnesses describe Abdul Razzaq as a staunch supporter of the Taliban, and his death marks another incident in the ongoing campaign of violence by ISIS against Taliban-affiliated clerics.
This is not the first instance of ISIS targeting pro-Taliban religious figures. In August 2022, ISIS assassinated Mawlawi Rahimullah Haqqani, a prominent Taliban-affiliated scholar, in a deadly attack in Kabul.
Zamir Kabulov, Russia's representative for Afghanistan affairs, announced that Moscow wants to form a bilateral Russia-Taliban working group in the spring of 2025.
Kabulov said that in a situation where the Taliban has not yet been recognised, the group will replace the Intergovernmental Commission for Economic Cooperation.
According to the TASS news agency, Zamir Kabulov said, "Next spring, a bilateral working group will be formed in the field of trade and economic relations, in which case the lack of recognition of the regime will replace the intergovernmental commission on economic, trade and other cooperation."
Earlier, Russia's Supreme Court had recognised the Taliban as a terrorist organisation and banned the group's activities in Russia.
Russia currently has close diplomatic relations with the Taliban, and Moscow has said that removing the Taliban from the list of terrorist organisations is under consideration.
Russian President Vladimir Putin recently signed a law that allows for the temporary suspension of the activities of terrorist organisations in the country. According to this law, Russian judicial institutions are allowed to temporarily and conditionally remove the Taliban's name from the list of terrorist groups.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced on Wednesday that the department has renewed a memorandum of understanding on the transfer of its Afghan colleagues to the United States.
Blinken stressed that the United States will always abide by its commitment to support its partners.
On Wednesday, January 8, Blinken announced on his account on social media platform X the extension of the US State Department's memorandum of understanding with Afghan Evac.
It is a coalition of organisations that assist the United States in the relocation and resettlement of Afghans.
The US Secretary of State said that the United States will continue its vital cooperation with the organisation to transfer people who have been with the United States for 20 years.
The US State Department has announced the extension of the transfer process of its Afghan colleagues while in recent days, Afghan refugees eligible for transfer to the United States have faced arrest and deportation in Pakistan.
In the past few days, a number of Afghan refugees who are waiting to go to Western countries have been detained by Pakistani police. According to reports, Pakistani police have deported a large number of these refugees to Afghanistan after conducting biometric tests at the Haji Camp on the outskirts of Rawalpindi.
Earlier, the US House of Representatives passed a bill to support efforts to transfer Washington's Afghan partners to the United States, and called for the appointment of a coordinator in the US State Department to address these efforts.
According to the text of the 2024 Afghan Relocation Efforts Authorisation Act, which was published on the congressional website, the coordinator will be responsible for "relocating eligible Afghan allies, facilitating the exit from Afghanistan for US citizens and permanent US residents."
In addition, according to the bill, the State Department coordinator will support the efforts of the department and the US government to resettle and relocate Afghans.
The US State Department announced last month that it had relocated 183,000 Afghan citizens, including their local colleagues, to the United States in the past three years.
Bakhtar News Agency, under the control of the Taliban, announced the holding of a meeting on border protection in the presence of Mullah Yaqoob Mujahid, the group's defence minister.
According to the report, the meeting discussed border protection, prevention of smuggling, and protection of Afghanistan's territorial integrity.
The report, published on Wednesday, January 8, said that the protection of Afghanistan's borders was discussed during a meeting of the Central Commission for Security and Clearance Affairs, led by the Taliban's defence minister.
The details of the talks have not yet been announced, but the meeting follows Pakistan's recent airstrike on Paktika province.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid had claimed that at least 46 people, including several women and children, were killed in Pakistani airstrikes in December in Barmal district of Paktika.
After these attacks, tensions on the border increased, and the Afghan Taliban attacked the border posts of Pakistani forces.
The Afghanistan Journalists Centre (AFJC) said on Tuesday that the Taliban's Office for the Promotion of Virtue in Nuristan province has officially banned taking pictures of a living person and publishing it in the province.
According to the centre, Nuristan is the sixth province to announce and implement this ban.
So far, the ban on the publication of live pictures has been officially announced in five provinces, including Kandahar, Takhar, Badghis, Helmand and Nangarhar.
The Afghanistan Journalists Centre (AFJC) has expressed serious concern over the expansion of the restriction and warned of "negative consequences on the work of the media and people's access to information".
The centre said that the Nuristan Office for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice announced in a statement on Monday, January 6, that the order was communicated by Din Mohammad Mostaghni, the head of Nuristan’s Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice Office, in the presence of the governor and other Taliban officials.
Mostaghni said that this order was issued based on Article 17 of the Law on the Promotion of Virtue and must be strictly observed.
According to the statement of the Afghanistan Journalists Centre in Nuristan province, in addition to the provincial representative of the National Radio and Television and the state-run Bakhtar News Agency, there are three private radio stations, Elena, Soleh Sahar, and Paron Ghag.
Local sources told the centre, "The national television does not have a local programme in Nuristan, and before the ban on the publication of live images was announced, its reports were broadcast through the national television in Kabul. In addition, video reports from the provincial section of Bakhtar News Agency were also sent to Kabul."
The report of the Afghanistan Journalists Centre states that after the publication of this order, the governor's office in Nuristan has no longer published pictures of living beings on the organisation's Facebook page and instead uses pictures of office buildings.
The Afghanistan Journalists Centre (AFJC) said that although the ban has been officially announced only in Kandahar, Takhar, Badghis, Helmand, Nangarhar provinces, and recently Nuristan, the centre's findings show that the ban is spreading to other provinces and some local administrations are implementing it.
Pakistan's federal government on Tuesday told the country's Supreme Court that the validity of Afghan migrants’ Proof of Registration (PoR) cards has been extended until July 30, 2025.
The number of Afghans holding this ID card in Pakistan is about 1.3 million.
As the Constitutional Court resumes hearing of petitions against the mass deportation of Afghan refugees from Pakistan on Tuesday, the federal government has assured the country's Supreme Court that the validity of the PoR registration certificate cards has been extended until June 30, 2025, Pakistani newspaper Dawn reported.
Following the Pakistani government's decision to deport Afghan refugees en masse in October 2023, several lawsuits have been filed by the coalition of civil society activists, human rights activists, and former senators.
According to the Dawn newspaper, the federal government has assured the Supreme Court that all Afghan refugees who register themselves in Pakistan, including holders of Afghan Citizen Cards (ACC), will enjoy full legal protection and will not be detained or deported.
According to a July 22, 2024, announcement by Pakistan's Ministry of States and Frontier Regions, the deadline for Certificate of Registration or POR or ICC cards will be extended until June 30, 2025.
According to the Dawn newspaper, the total number of PoR and ACC card holders residing in Pakistan is estimated at 1.3 million and 700,000, respectively.
In recent weeks, following the escalation of tensions between Islamabad and the Taliban in Kabul, Pakistani security forces have launched extensive efforts to arrest and deport Afghan refugees, especially from the capital, Islamabad. In the past few days, many pictures have been published of house-to-house search operations in Islamabad and some other areas.