Polio Vaccination Campaign To Begin In Eastern Afghanistan
The Taliban’s Ministry of Public Health says a new polio vaccination campaign will launch on Saturday, 30 August, in parts of eastern Afghanistan.
The Taliban’s Ministry of Public Health says a new polio vaccination campaign will launch on Saturday, 30 August, in parts of eastern Afghanistan.
According to the ministry, the drive will cover the districts of Surkhrod, Behsud, Khogyani and Bati Kot in Nangarhar province, as well as the cities of Jalalabad, Mehtarlam and Asadabad.
Children will receive both oral and injectable vaccines to boost immunity and help prevent the spread of the virus, officials said.
Afghanistan and Pakistan are the only two countries where polio remains endemic. The World Health Organization says reported cases have declined in recent years but the virus continues to circulate in some areas of Afghanistan.
Pakistani security sources allege that Indian intelligence agencies are preparing a “false-flag” operation in Kashmir designed to implicate Pakistan and blame the Haqqani Network.
The sources told Afghanistan International on Monday, 25 August, that the alleged plan involves using Taliban fighters and tribal Pashtuns to frame the Haqqanis. They claimed the operation is being facilitated with the help of the intelligence services of a “third country,” though they did not identify which one.
India has long accused the Haqqani Network of having ties to Pakistan. The group, largely made up of Pashtuns, has historically been linked to Islamabad through family and political connections dating back to the 1980s. Founder Jalaluddin Haqqani organised his activities from Pakistan under the umbrella of Mohammad Yunus Khalis’s Hizb-e-Islami during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
According to the Pakistani sources, some Indian media outlets have already begun publishing narratives in support of what they described as pre-planned operations.
Diplomatic observers warned that such actions could sharply raise tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.
Pakistan has frequently accused New Delhi of staging false-flag attacks to deflect from internal issues and shape international opinion against Islamabad. One security source said that while false-flag operations are not new, the scale of the current preparations suggested “something much more serious.”
The Islamabad High Court has stopped the deportation of 18 Afghan nationals and directed Pakistani authorities to explain the cancellation of their residency cards.
In a written order issued Monday, Chief Justice Sarfraz Dogar instructed the Interior Ministry, the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), the Directorate General of Immigration, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and the police to respond before the next hearing.
The ruling came after the Afghans petitioned the court, arguing that their Proof of Registration (PoR) cards had been revoked earlier this month. Their lawyers said the government cancelled the cards on 4 August and ordered deportations. They added the group belongs to the family of a man named Fazlur Rahman, who applied for Pakistani citizenship in 2008 after meeting all legal requirements, but whose case has never been resolved.
The court barred authorities from taking any forced action against the petitioners and said they must not be expelled until further notice. The case was adjourned until 18 September.
The decision comes as Pakistan intensifies efforts to expel undocumented Afghans. The government first launched deportations in 2023, leading to more than one million Afghans leaving the country. In recent weeks, authorities began a second phase of removals, returning thousands of Afghans to their homeland.
At the same time, Islamabad has suspended visa extensions for Afghan migrants, leaving even those with legal documents unable to renew their stay.
Afghan migrants in Pakistan say their visa extension requests are being rejected without explanation, leaving many in limbo and unable to return home.
Several Afghans in Islamabad told Afghanistan International that after months of waiting, their applications were denied despite submitting all required documents. They said most of the rejected cases involved medical and tourist visas.
Obaidullah, an Afghan who has lived in Pakistan for three years, said he recently received an email notifying him that his visa extension had been refused without reason. He added that since early 2025, when Pakistan reduced visas for Afghans to one month, he had repeatedly applied before expiry, but his latest request was left pending for three months before being denied.
Another migrant, Tabasum Ahmadi, said her medical visa was also rejected. She noted that Afghans in Pakistan face mounting difficulties but many cannot return to Afghanistan due to safety concerns.
The Afghan Council in Islamabad confirmed reports of widespread denials. Its head, Maiwand Alami Afghan, said about 80 percent of medical visa requests and 10 percent of tourist visa requests had recently been turned down. A travel agent also reported that very few Afghan visas were being approved.
Pakistani officials have not commented on this so far.
In recent months, Pakistan has tightened its immigration policy toward Afghans. The government suspended the extension of Afghan visas two months ago and has vowed to expel all undocumented migrants. Authorities have also announced plans to begin deporting 1.4 million Afghans holding “Proof of Registration” cards from 1 September.
A planned gathering of Afghan anti-Taliban figures in Islamabad has been postponed following strong objections from the group, according to a report by the Pakistani daily The Nation.
The newspaper said Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi raised concerns with his Pakistani counterpart, Ishaq Dar, during a meeting in Kabul on 20 August. Sources cited by the paper suggested the Taliban regime was displeased that Afghan opposition members had been invited by the Islamabad-based South Asian Strategic Stability Institute, leading to the delay.
The report added that Muttaqi also voiced his opposition to the meeting on the sidelines of a recent trilateral meeting between the foreign ministers of the Taliban, China and Pakistan, also held in Kabul.
Earlier, two sources told Afghanistan International that the delay was linked to visa issuance problems for participants. One attendee, however, said the meeting was now expected to take place in Pakistan in the final week of September.
According to information obtained by Afghanistan International, invitees to the gathering include Nasir Ahmad Andisha, Afghanistan’s representative in Geneva; Mustafa Mastoor, former economy minister; Fawzia Koofi, women’s rights activist and former MP; Habib-ur-Rahman Hekmatyar; Hossein Yasa, spokesperson of the National Resistance Council for the Salvation of Afghanistan; Zahra Joya, founder of Rukhshana Media; and Mawlawi Abdullah Qarluq, former governor of Takhar.
The conference has already been postponed three times. Initially scheduled for 25–26 June, it was pushed back to 25–26 July, then to 25–26 August, before being postponed again.
The Taliban say they have confiscated more than 1,400 acres of land in Logar province, classifying it as state property.
In a statement on Sunday, 24 August, the Taliban’s Ministry of Justice said the land in Pul-e-Alam, the provincial capital, had been registered as “Emarati” or state-owned land during a meeting of its Committee for Preventing Land Usurpation. The ministry said the case concerning 1,406 acres has been referred to the central commission for a final ruling.
The Taliban have established the Commission for Preventing Land Usurpation and Restoring Seized Lands, tasked with reclaiming what they describe as state property from “land usurpers.” Officials claim large areas in Kabul and other provinces have already been reclassified as government-owned.
No independent body exists in Afghanistan to hear complaints from citizens who allege the Taliban are forcibly seizing private property under the guise of land reclamation.