Taliban Reshuffle Moves Culture Minister To Provincial Post, Names New Appointees

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the majority of the victims were in Kunar province. In Nangarhar, 12 people were confirmed dead and 255 others wounded, he said. Another 64 people were injured in Laghman and Nuristan provinces. In neighbouring Panjshir, five houses were destroyed, though no casualties were reported.

Mujahid warned that the death toll could rise as rescue teams gain access to remote areas. Entire villages in Kunar have been flattened, he said, and updated figures are still coming in.

The Taliban leadership has ordered government agencies to rush aid to affected areas, mobilising resources for burials and medical treatment. Mujahid also urged international relief organisations to help respond to what he called a “major humanitarian crisis.”

Abdul Aleem Khamosh was convicted by a primary Taliban court in July on charges of insulting the Prophet of Islam and other sacred figures. The trial was held without a defence lawyer, according to relatives and rights groups.

Family members said Taliban officials have now informed Khamosh’s lawyer that he will be allowed to attend the appeal hearing. They added that while prison visits were previously denied, relatives are now occasionally permitted to see him.

Khamosh, a teacher in Janikhil district of Paktika, was arrested earlier this year after reportedly telling students that modern sciences were more important than religious studies. His family denied the blasphemy allegations and called for his immediate release.

Taliban officials from the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice detained him following the classroom remarks and transferred him to prison.

The group’s court announced the defendants were each sentenced to between one and two and a half years in prison and 39 lashes. The punishments, it said, were issued by a primary court in Badakhshan and approved by the Taliban’s Supreme Court before being carried out on Sunday.

According to the statement, the floggings took place in the presence of local Taliban officials.

The Taliban consider corporal punishment part of enforcing Islamic Sharia law. In the past week alone, nearly 20 men and women across Afghanistan have been flogged on various charges.

Abdul Mateen Qani, spokesperson for the Taliban’s Interior Ministry, said 610 people died in Kunar and 12 in Nangarhar. He reported 1,300 injuries in Kunar and 255 in Nangarhar.

The US Geological Survey said the quake hit southeastern Afghanistan early Monday, followed by two aftershocks. The first registered 4.5 magnitude and the second 5.2, both centred in Nangarhar province.

Earthquakes are common in Afghanistan, where poor infrastructure and weak emergency response systems often lead to high casualty figures.

Sarah Adams, who served with the US intelligence agency, said the campaign called “Taliban Housewives” was a response to the Taliban’s new ruling on women’s images in national identity documents. She argued that if Afghan women are denied photos in official records, Taliban wives should not have theirs in passports or marriage certificates.

Earlier this week, reports suggested Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada had issued an oral decree banning photos of women in identity and official documents.

Adams published images of wives of Taliban diplomats posted in Russia, Iran, Kazakhstan and Quetta, Pakistan. She criticised governments for allowing the Taliban to run official missions abroad while Afghan women remain confined at home.

“These women are not innocent bystanders,” she wrote, stressing they travel freely with their husbands while Afghan women are stripped of basic rights. Adams said she would continue releasing photos until the Taliban reversed its restrictions.

On Thursday, the Taliban’s Dar al-Ifta, its religious authority, ruled that including women’s photos in identity cards would be optional. It said photos were mandatory only for Afghan women living abroad, while for those inside Afghanistan the practice was “contrary to Sharia.”

The Taliban-run National Statistics and Information Authority had earlier insisted photos were essential for verifying identity, preventing fraud and meeting international standards. Its proposal to make photos compulsory was reportedly rejected by the Taliban’s leadership.