Earthquake In Northern Afghanistan Cuts Power Imports From Uzbekistan, Tajikistan

Sharafat Zaman, spokesperson for the Health Ministry, said efforts are underway to transfer the wounded from affected areas to nearby hospitals and health centres.

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said on X that the earthquake caused significant human and material losses in the provinces of Balkh, Samangan, and Baghlan. He did not provide further details but said relevant departments were working to assist affected residents.

Meanwhile, the Taliban’s Ministry of Defence said the Kabul–Mazar-e-Sharif highway, which had been blocked by a landslide in the Tashqurghan area following the quake, has now been reopened to traffic.

According to the sources, several militants were killed during the clash, and the bodies of two were recovered by Pakistani troops.

The sources said one of the slain fighters was identified as Qasim Khan, a resident of Gayan district in Afghanistan’s Paktika province. An Afghan national identity card was reportedly found in his possession.

Pakistani authorities have repeatedly accused members of the Afghan Taliban of fighting alongside anti-government militants in Pakistan, a claim the Taliban have consistently denied.

Since the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan, Pakistan’s border regions, particularly Waziristan, have seen frequent attacks on Pakistani forces. Islamabad usually blames Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) for the assaults, saying many of the attackers cross the border from Afghanistan.

The Taliban have not commented on the latest incident.

Speaking at a meeting in Kabul on Sunday, Agha said: “Our weakness in the face of Pakistan’s air attacks was because we do not have access to the necessary technology.” He claimed, however, that in ground battles, “the Pakistanis were defeated.”

The minister emphasised the importance of modern science and technology for defending what he called the Taliban’s sovereignty. He also alleged that during recent border clashes, Pakistani soldiers “fled their positions.”

Last month, following Pakistan’s airstrikes on Kabul and Paktika, Taliban and Pakistani forces engaged in deadly border fighting. The Taliban claimed that 58 Pakistani soldiers were killed, while Islamabad said it had eliminated more than 200 Taliban fighters.

Mediated by Qatar and Turkiye, defence ministers from both sides later signed a peace agreement in Doha.

Agha previously said that the absence of modern scientific knowledge had allowed the United States to dominate Afghanistan’s airspace. He argued that only through modern education could Afghanistan counter foreign drone patrols.

In his latest remarks, Agha urged the country’s youth to “work harder to acquire modern knowledge and technology.”

His comments come despite the Taliban’s ongoing ban on education for girls beyond grade six, now in place for more than four years. The Taliban have also revised Afghanistan’s school curriculum, removing large sections of modern subjects deemed contrary to their ideology and increasing the focus on religious studies.

Speaking to Iranian media, Naderi called for a regulated and humane approach to managing Afghan migrants. “The correct solution is to regulate, legalise, and gradually manage the presence of foreign nationals in the labour market in a way that both protects the country’s economic interests and respects the human dignity and rights of these individuals,” he said.

His comments come amid a wave of arrests and deportations of Afghan migrants across Iran. Many of those detained were workers taken into custody during security raids and forcibly deported after being transferred to detention camps.

Following the mass deportations, Iranian labour experts warned of a potential workforce shortage.

In October, Mohammadreza Bahrami, director-general for South Asia at Iran’s Foreign Ministry, announced that Tehran would allocate 200,000 work visas for Afghan labourers. He said talks between Iran and the Taliban regarding undocumented Afghan migrants would continue.

Seyed Malek Hosseini, Iran’s deputy labour minister, said on 27 October that more than 1,700 visa applications had been submitted by Afghan workers, with 170 visas already issued. However, he noted that Afghan workers are restricted from certain sectorsy and barred from entering specific cities.

Naderi stressed that Afghan migrants have long been an essential part of Iran’s workforce, particularly in the industrial and construction sectors.

According to Taliban-run media citing the governor’s office, cargo unloading operations take place each day at Herat’s Rozanak station.

Last week, Afghanistan received its first shipment of diesel through the railway, while a second consignment of oil is expected to arrive later this week.

The Taliban said the expansion of trade through the Khaf–Herat railway underscores Afghanistan’s growing role as a vital commercial link between Asia and Europe.