Pakistan Has Crossed The Line Too Often, Says Taliban Deputy FM

In a report released Thursday, the rights organisation said that since the Taliban’s return to power four years ago, Afghan journalists have faced severe repression and intimidation, with authorities monitoring all media content. Even minor criticism of Taliban officials can lead to arrest or physical abuse, the report said.

Fereshta Abbasi, Human Rights Watch’s Afghanistan researcher, said: “Taliban officials increasingly compel Afghan journalists to produce ‘safe,’ pre-approved stories, and they punish those who step out of line with arbitrary detention and torture. While all Afghan journalists have been affected and many have fled the country, women journalists have been among the hardest hit.”

Torture and Prosecution

According to the report, most arrests carried out by Taliban intelligence are based on accusations of espionage, contact with opposition groups or exiled media, or coverage of ISIS-K or internal Taliban disputes.

The Taliban’s intelligence service and morality police frequently raid media offices and journalists’ homes, confiscate phones and computers, and search contact lists. Some reporters have been detained merely for speaking to foreign media outlets.

Several journalists told HRW that Taliban agents used violence during interrogations. Some said they were beaten so severely that their teeth or facial bones were broken. Others were released only after signing pledges not to work as journalists again. One former detainee said: “Those who were released are still struggling with trauma.”

Forced Self-Censorship

Human Rights Watch said that fear of arrest has led many journalists inside Afghanistan to restrict their reporting to official events such as government projects or diplomatic meetings.

A Kabul-based journalist told the group he had been detained twice for disregarding Taliban orders. The report also said the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice regularly inspects media offices and has banned filming or photographing people, claiming that depictions of living beings are forbidden under Islam.

A journalist in Herat said that after a cultural event, “we were only allowed to publish a photo of the empty hall. No faces could be shown.”

The Taliban have also ordered media outlets to refer to them as the “Islamic Emirate” rather than “the Taliban,” and to publish most reports in Pashto.

Uneven Restrictions

The report noted that censorship levels vary across provinces. Monitoring is strictest in Kandahar, while central and northern regions face differing degrees of pressure.

A reporter told HRW: “You can go to Panjshir, but they’ll follow you. You need to coordinate with local authorities beforehand. If you don’t get permission, you can’t report.”

Coverage of Afghanistan’s borders with Iran or Pakistan also requires direct permission and supervision from Taliban officials, the report said.

Ethnic minority journalists, particularly Hazaras, face harsher treatment. One Hazara journalist recounted being insulted and threatened while in Taliban custody: “A Hazara kid dared to speak against us? We won the war with the Americans, who do you think you are? We can kill you whenever we want.”

HRW said Taliban intelligence agents are especially active in Hazara-majority regions and that Shia religious programming has been banned. One journalist preparing a report on a Shia cleric said Taliban officials threatened he would “die under torture” if the story was published.

Journalists in Exile

The rights group warned that dozens of Afghan journalists living in Pakistan and Türkiye face the risk of deportation. Many have no legal status and fear arrest or forced return to Afghanistan. In Türkiye, most exiled journalists lack work or residence permits and live in precarious conditions.

HRW said returning Afghan journalists would violate the principle of non-refoulement, as they face detention, torture, or death if sent back.

Warning to the International Community

Human Rights Watch warned that without urgent international action, Afghanistan risks becoming what it called a “silent nation.”

The group urged regional and global powers to honor their pledges to protect Afghan journalists, halt all deportations, and press the Taliban to end censorship, arbitrary arrests, and violence against the media.

The report was based on 18 remote interviews with journalists inside Afghanistan and 13 in-person interviews with Afghan journalists and refugee organisations in Türkiye.

The agreement, brokered by Qatar and Türkiye, followed several days of deadly cross-border clashes between Pakistani forces and Taliban fighters along the frontier.

Aside from the killing of a young man in Quetta, claimed by the Pakistani Taliban (TTP), there have been no reports of militant assaults or armed confrontations between Pakistani security forces and insurgent groups over the past three days.

After the ceasefire was signed, Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said the “series of terrorism from Afghanistan to Pakistan will immediately come to an end,” adding that both countries had agreed to respect each other’s territorial integrity.

In a statement released by the Taliban’s Ministry of Defence, the group outlined the main provisions of the Doha agreement, including a ceasefire, mutual respect, restraint from attacks on security forces, civilians, and infrastructure, and a commitment not to support cross-border assaults. Both sides pledged to avoid any hostile actions.

The accord, reached on 19 October through Qatari and Turkish mediation, appears to have temporarily curbed attacks by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan. The relative calm suggests the truce has so far been effective, though analysts caution it may prove short-lived.

Pakistan’s defence minister has warned that the ceasefire’s durability depends on the Afghan Taliban’s ability and willingness to restrain militants operating from Afghan territory.

Islamabad continues to accuse the Taliban of harbouring TTP leaders and fighters who use Afghanistan as a base for attacks inside Pakistan, an allegation the Taliban has repeatedly denied.

The ministry said the deal includes a ceasefire, mutual respect, a pledge to avoid attacks on security forces, civilians and infrastructure, and a commitment not to support assaults against each other.

In a statement issued Friday, the ministry said Taliban Defence Minister Mohammad Yaqoob Mujahid had already explained the full details during a press conference following the signing ceremony in Doha, adding that “any remarks beyond these points are invalid.”

The agreement was signed in Doha between Mujahid and Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif. Following the signing, Asif told Pakistani media that the details of the ceasefire accord with what he described as the “Taliban regime” were confidential and that he could not comment on them.

Asif later said the agreement focuses on three main issues: the return of Afghan refugees, the Taliban's pledge not to support Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and trade cooperation between the two countries.

Neither side has released the full text of the agreement. Qatar’s Foreign Ministry, which mediated the talks, confirmed that both parties had agreed to an immediate ceasefire and said the next round of discussions would take place in Istanbul.

The Taliban has faced criticism for not publishing the agreement’s full text, with opponents accusing it of a lack of transparency. Speaking from Doha in an online press conference, Yaqoob Mujahid said both sides had committed not to back opposition groups or engage in any “hostile actions” against each other, and to prevent their territories from being used for attacks.

Mujahid described the talks as “successful” and announced what he called a “comprehensive and lasting ceasefire” between Afghanistan and Pakistan. To monitor the deal’s implementation and strengthen political and economic ties, a technical committee supervised by Qatar and Türkiye will be formed to develop mechanisms for reducing tensions and resolving disputes.

Qatar’s Foreign Ministry expressed hope that the agreement would ease tensions along the Afghanistan-Pakistan frontier and lay the groundwork for lasting regional peace. However, the use of the term “border” in Qatar’s initial statement sparked controversy, with Taliban critics accusing the group of implicitly recognising the Durand Line as an international boundary.

Qatar’s Foreign Ministry later removed the word “border” from its statement on its website without explanation. During the Doha press conference, Mujahid stressed that the agreement did not include any discussion on the Durand Line, which he referred to as an “imaginary line.”

In a ceremony held at the ministry, officials praised the analysts for what they described as their “support of the system” during the clashes. The event was attended by Sher Ahmad Haqqani, the minister of information and culture; Mohajer Farahi, deputy minister for broadcasting; Mohammad Younis Rashid, deputy minister for youth; and a number of ministry officials and cultural figures.

In a statement released Wednesday, the ministry said dozens of political commentators were recognised for “fulfilling their national and Islamic duty” in defending the Taliban’s position. During the conflict, the honoured analysts publicly endorsed the group’s military response and echoed its stance in the media.

Haqqani said that during the fighting with Pakistan, “the people defended the system with unity and solidarity,” adding that the world witnessed “Afghanistan will allow no one to violate its sovereignty.”

The ministry quoted pro-Taliban analysts as declaring that “defending every inch of the country’s territory is our Islamic and national duty.” They claimed Taliban forces “responded to aggression with courage, in a way unprecedented in the nation’s history.”

During the border clashes, the Taliban tightened censorship of domestic media and suspended broadcasts of Shamshad Radio and Television in Kabul. The group has also prohibited independent experts or opposition figures from appearing on outlets operating under its control.

Rights groups and journalists have repeatedly accused the Taliban of suppressing dissent and restricting press freedom. Over the past four years, several commentators, reporters, and activists have been detained or imprisoned for criticising the administration.

Earlier, the Ministry of Information and Culture issued a list of approved analysts permitted to appear in political programmes, requiring media outlets to book only those individuals.

In its statement, the ministry insisted that “media outlets that uphold Islamic and Afghan values enjoy full freedom of operation,” adding that the Taliban government “supports such media.”

In a report released ahead of the Berlin Climate Security Conference, the relief organisation said that if the current trend persists, Afghanistan could lose up to 10 percent of its gross national income (GNI).

The IRC found that conflict-affected and climate-vulnerable countries such as Afghanistan are bearing the brunt of global funding cuts while receiving the smallest share of climate adaptation financing.

According to the report, development assistance to 17 vulnerable nations including Afghanistan fell by more than 40 percent between 2013 and 2023.

The organisation warned that climate change, through recurring droughts, floods, and unpredictable rainfall patterns, is threatening the livelihoods of millions of Afghans. The overlap between the climate crisis and shrinking financial support, it said, has worsened Afghanistan’s outlook for food security and social stability.

The report also highlighted that conflict-affected and fragile states, which together account for just 11 percent of the world’s population, represent 70 percent of global humanitarian needs. Yet in 2022, these countries received only 12 percent of international climate adaptation funding.

The IRC said that climate finance is increasingly being channelled towards stable and low-risk countries, leaving crisis-hit regions such as Afghanistan largely excluded from vital investment.