The Taliban's Foreign Ministry announced that Amir Khan Muttaqi, the group's foreign minister, met with Roza Otunbayeva, the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative for Afghanistan.
The ministry said in a statement on Wednesday that Otunbayeva praised the Taliban's economic efforts and said that she would discuss the group's achievements at UN meetings.
Zia Ahmad Takal, the Taliban's deputy foreign ministry spokesman, also quoted Otunbayeva as saying that for the first time in the past year, development aid to Afghanistan has increased.
He quoted the head of UNAMA as saying, "This is a very positive development and will have a positive impact on the Afghan economy."
Amir Khan Muttaqi, the Taliban's foreign minister, has also said that Afghanistan is on the path of growth after the establishment of stability.
UNAMA has not yet commented on the meeting or Roza Otunbayeva's remarks.
Sources confirmed to Afghanistan International that unidentified gunmen killed a Chinese citizen in Khwaja Bahauddin district of Takhar on Tuesday evening, January 21.
According to sources, the translator and the driver of this person fled the scene of the accident and went to the Taliban outpost.
Local Taliban officials confirmed the death of the Chinese citizen.
A spokesman for the Taliban's police command in Takhar said that the Chinese citizen's name was "Li".
Mohammad Akbar Haqqan, a spokesman for the Taliban's security command in Takhar province, wrote in a statement that the Chinese citizen "was traveling with his interpreter last night without informing the Chinese officials and security officials from the office in an unknown direction, and unfortunately he was killed by unidentified people on the way to Dasht-e-Qala in Takhar province".
Local sources said that the incident took place in the Katkajar area of Khwaja Bahauddin district, on the border with Dasht-e-Qala district.
The Taliban official said that the translator of the Chinese citizen was not injured in the incident.
The Taliban said that they had launched an investigation into the matter.
Sources told Afghanistan International that the Taliban intelligence agency has interrogated the Chinese citizen's driver and translator.
According to sources, the Chinese citizen worked in the mining sector.
A research institution called the Panjshir Studies Centre has published the findings of its survey of the residents of Panjshir province.
The organisation said that 90% of the survey respondents believe that the Taliban are "looting" the mines of Panjshir and that the people of the province do not benefit from their revenues.
According to the report, residents of Panjshir have said that the mines of this province are extracted by traders and their revenues are handed over to the Taliban government.
The report states that the Taliban has also issued work permits to 1,700 miners and received 10,000 afghanis from each licence. It is said that 550 miners are currently working in Panjshir.
According to the report, the Taliban has sold 43,000 carats of Panjshir emeralds in 32 auctions, and the proceeds have reached the Taliban administration in the centre worth 78 million afghanis.
The Panjshir Studies Centre said that miners in Panjshir reported that the Taliban had been extorting 2,000 afghanis from them every month.
The report also said that the Taliban also sells explosives needed for mining "exclusively" and at high rates.
The Panjshir Studies Centre said that in this survey, it spoke to 250 men and women across Panjshir and asked them five major questions. The survey was said to have been conducted over a period of two months.
‘Non-implementation of development projects in Panjshir’
According to the survey, 98% of the participants said that the Taliban government has not implemented any development projects in Panjshir.
According to the report, two percent of respondents hope for the construction of a road from Panjshir to Badakhshan.
At the same time, 60 percent of respondents said that some small projects, such as cleaning agricultural and drinking water canals, have been implemented by charities.
The Panjshir Studies Centre said that 97 participants said in response to a question that they had not seen any "positive performance" from the Taliban government.
‘Taliban meetings under guise of people's support for group's government’
The report of the Panjshir Studies Centre states that the residents of Panjshir claimed that the Taliban government regularly holds programmes and gatherings in Panjshir under the title of "supporting the emirate system".
The report states that no criticism of the Taliban government is raised in these meetings, and if anyone does so, they will be threatened.
The Panjshir Studies Centre said that in the past year alone, Mohammad Agha Hakim, the Taliban's governor in Panjshir, has held 23 meetings under the title of "Supporting the Emirate System" in different districts of the province.
According to the report, these meetings are held at "exorbitant costs", and the Taliban ask the speakers to praise the group's government.
The Panjshir Studies Centre also said that the Taliban "abused students" in schools and asked them to sing dozens of poems and songs in praise of the Taliban's governor in Panjshir and the group's government.
The Taliban government has not yet responded to the findings of the survey.
Jean-Louis Denis, a Belgian Islamist preacher, who was sentenced to five years in prison in 2016 for recruiting young people for jihad, has traveled to Afghanistan.
His visit to Afghanistan has raised concerns about his possible links to jihadist groups operating in the region.
French television channel TF1 reported that the Belgian Islamist preacher had recently announced in a video that he had traveled to Afghanistan after serving his sentence in Belgium.
He also stated that his goal is to live "according to the principles of Sharia" and "show the true face of Afghanistan".
In the video, which was posted on YouTube, Jean-Louis Denis said that he went to Kunduz. He said he lives near an orphanage and plans to support it with a project.
Denis also claimed that he did not come to Afghanistan to participate in jihad, but rather to implement a project in the field of sustainable agriculture.
Although the Belgian Islamist preacher has said that he does not seek jihad in Afghanistan, he has previously praised the Taliban for "beheading infidels" in his remarks.
Jean-Louis Denis was released in December 2018 after serving his sentence in prison. He was expelled from Benin (a West African country) in 2022 for extremist activities and links to jihadist groups.
Noting that Denis adhered to extremist ideologies even after serving his sentence, the report wrote that his approach may only be a cover for his activities to join jihadist groups and expand their influence.
Denis was involved in recruiting and organising the travel of dozens recruits from European countries to war zones such as Syria.
One of the people facilitated by Jean-Louis Denis was Najim al-Ashrawi, the suicide bomber of the March 22, 2016 attack in Brussels.
While security experts warn of the rise of jihadist groups in Afghanistan, US officials have also expressed concern about the increasing threat of ISIS in Afghanistan.
Senior Republican Senator Lindsey Graham has said in a recent statement that he is concerned about the group's attack on the United States as ISIS' presence in Afghanistan increases and wars spread around the world.
A report by independent international organisations shows that ISIS continues to recruit and expand its influence in Afghanistan. According to the UN Security Council report, ISIS has even infiltrated the Taliban's security institutions.
Following the visit of the Taliban's interior minister and intelligence chief to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a security source in Kabul told Afghanistan International that Abu Dhabi is mediating between the Taliban and Pakistan.
The source said that Taliban officials are also likely to meet with the ISI chief.
The Taliban on Tuesday announced that the group’s Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani and the group's intelligence chief, Abdul Haq Wasiq, had made an unannounced visit to the United Arab Emirates.
During the visit, senior Taliban security officials met with Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the head of state of the United Arab Emirates, in Abu Dhabi.
According to the security source, the purpose of the visit was to mediate between the Taliban and Pakistan. Taliban officials are also likely to hold talks with the ISI chief during the visit.
Recently, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan met with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and other senior officials during his visit to Pakistan.
The Taliban's relations with Pakistan have been severely strained after Pakistani warplanes attacked eastern Afghanistan. Both sides accuse each other of supporting their armed opposition groups. Pakistan accuses the Taliban of supporting and arming TTP militants. The Taliban has also accused Pakistan of supporting ISIS and claimed that ISIS bases are located in Pakistan's Balochistan.
Pakistan has so far refused to negotiate directly with the Afghan Taliban on Pakistani insurgents, but the increase in militant attacks has inflicted heavy casualties on its military.
According to reports, the rate of security incidents in the country has increased by 90% since 2020. Many observers have linked Pakistan's insecurity to developments in Afghanistan, especially since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in 2021.
Following the escalation of tensions, a group of politicians from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa met with Pakistani army chief Asim Munir last week and called for dialogue and interaction with the Taliban. Pakistan's army chief has also emphasised that the only difference between the country and the Taliban is the issue of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Earlier, some sources said that Islamabad had asked China to pressure the Taliban to stop supporting the TTP.
The Pakistan Army's Public Relations Office announced that it has handed over the body of an Afghan militant who was killed in a clash with Pakistani security forces in Zhob, Balochistan, to the Taliban.
The Pakistani military has identified the militant as Mohammad Khan Ahmadkhel, 48, an Afghan citizen.
Mohammad Khan Ahmadkhel, a native of Wazakhwa District of Paktika Province, was killed on January 11 after a clash with Pakistani security forces, the Pakistani military's public relations said on Tuesday, January 21.
"This incident is irrefutable evidence of the involvement of Afghan citizens in terrorist activities in Pakistan," the Pakistani military statement said.
Pakistani officials once again called on the Taliban to fulfil their commitments to prevent the use of Afghan soil to carry out "terrorist" acts against Pakistan.