US To Deport Six Afghans Accused Of Terrorism & Other Crimes

The Associated Press, citing internal emails it obtained, reported that Lakanwal, who arrived in the United States in 2021 with his wife and five young children under the “Operation Allies Welcome” programme, is now charged with first-degree murder.

A community advocate familiar with Lakanwal had emailed the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, a nonprofit that supports refugees, repeatedly last year, warning that Lakanwal appeared to be in severe mental distress. The advocate, who had observed increasingly erratic and confused behaviour, expressed concern that Lakanwal might be at risk of suicide and requested assistance for him.

The advocate told AP he had seen no indication that Lakanwal posed a threat to others.

According to an email from January 2024, “Rahmanullah has not been functional as a person, father and provider since March of last year, 03/2023. He quit his job that month, and his behaviour has changed greatly.”

The emails described Lakanwal spending weeks in a darkened room without speaking to anyone, including his wife and older children. At one point in 2023, the family faced eviction after going months without paying rent.

Another email said family members often sent the youngest sons to deliver messages or phones to Lakanwal’s room because he would not respond to anyone else. When his wife travelled for a week to visit relatives, the children reportedly went without bathing, clean clothes or proper meals, prompting concerns from their school.

The correspondence also noted that Lakanwal would at times leave home and drive long distances without stopping.

Last week, Washington Judge Jeanine Pirro said Lakanwal had driven across the country without pause to reach the US capital and carry out the attack.

Separately, Taliban authorities in Jowzjan province flogged another individual 39 times on a theft charge and handed down a three-month prison sentence.

The Taliban continue to arrest and publicly flog people on a near-daily basis across Afghanistan.

International human rights organisations have described these practices as violations of human dignity and fundamental rights.

The absence of independent judicial and legal institutions in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, along with the lack of access to impartial oversight bodies, remains a major concern for rights groups.

According to Geo News, Dar told reporters in Islamabad that he had informed the European Union of what he described as the “real situation,” including Pakistan’s view that the Taliban had not fulfilled their counterterrorism commitments.

Dar visited Brussels from 19 to 21 November to co-chair the seventh round of the EU–Pakistan Strategic Dialogue. Following the talks, the EU and Pakistan issued a joint statement urging the Taliban to take concrete action to eliminate terrorism in Afghanistan and emphasising that border tensions should be resolved through diplomacy.
EU ambassador Raimundas Karoblis reportedly said Pakistan’s demands for action against Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) were reasonable and rooted in legitimate security concerns.

Pakistan Considered ‘Clean-Up Operation’ in Afghanistan

Dar also said Pakistan had been prepared to launch what he described as a “clean-up operation” inside Afghanistan during the recent escalation with the Taliban, but Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had halted the plan. Dar indicated that, without Sharif’s intervention, Pakistan would have taken punitive action against the Taliban.

He said Islamabad ultimately concluded that it was not appropriate to conduct operations inside Afghanistan, describing such action as equivalent to forcing entry into a neighbour’s home. Dar warned, however, that if the Taliban believed Pakistan was unable to respond, they were mistaken.

According to Dar, Qatar had been aware that Pakistan was preparing to react militarily, which he said prompted Doha to repeatedly request that Islamabad refrain from launching any operation. He said Qatari officials believed Pakistan was on the verge of taking steps that could escalate the situation and had offered to mediate and assume responsibility for helping to resolve the dispute.

Qatar and Turkiye mediated three rounds of talks between Pakistan and the Taliban, although none produced results.

Dar reiterated Pakistan’s position that the Taliban remained a “group” rather than a government and said Islamabad believed the international community shared that assessment. He added that Pakistan retained the ability to respond to the Taliban in any manner it deemed necessary, noting that Pakistan had previously confronted India, a significantly larger power.

He alleged that the Taliban authorities, by supporting groups including al-Qaeda, Uyghur militants and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), had become a source of regional instability.

Chaudhry warned that any country providing weapons to the Taliban would, in effect, be arming terrorism. Although he did not name a specific state, he said the Afghan Taliban had endangered regional security by offering sanctuary to ISIS, al-Qaeda and other groups.

He stressed that Pakistan’s dispute was with what he termed the Taliban regime, not with the people of Afghanistan, and said the Taliban did not represent the Afghan population. He criticised the group’s concentration of power and its complete exclusion of women, who make up half of Afghanistan’s population.

Addressing the tensions along the Afghanistan–Pakistan border, Chaudhry said the frontier was difficult to control because of the lack of functional administration on the Afghan side. He noted that areas such as Tira and Khyber had no visible courts, law-enforcement bodies or signs of state governance.

He pointed out that 29 tribes live divided across the border, with communities spread on both sides, making effective control of movement extremely challenging. He added that a border fence without surveillance and supporting fire held little military value, as it could easily be breached, and said that constructing posts every two to five kilometres and maintaining drone coverage required significant resources.

Responding to Taliban claims that Pakistani militants in Afghanistan were “guests,” he rejected the assertion, saying Pakistan would deal with such individuals according to its own laws.

Earlier, Taliban officials Khairullah Khairkhwa, the governor of Maidan Wardak, and Abdul Manan Omari, the deputy interior minister, had referred to militants from Waziristan as Afghanistan’s “guests.”

Chaudhry also commented on the closure of border crossings, saying trade could not continue in conditions of ongoing violence, and that the suspension of some routes was directly linked to security concerns and the protection of Pakistani citizens.

He reiterated Pakistan’s concern about US-supplied weapons left behind in Afghanistan, noting that American forces had abandoned military equipment worth an estimated $7.2 billion during their withdrawal, which he said posed risks to several countries in the region.

Chaudhry denied Taliban claims that Pakistan carried out attacks inside Afghanistan last week and repeated that Pakistan does not differentiate between terrorist groups.

Saif-ul-Islam Khyber, the ministry’s spokesperson, accused Akbar of engaging in behaviour “contrary to Islamic and moral values” and said he had been referred to a Taliban court.

In the video published on Saturday, Akbar appears to apologise for his activity on TikTok and expresses regret. It remains unclear under what circumstances the recording was made.

Akbar says in the video that his social media activity was “improper” and that he “will no longer insult anyone.”

The Taliban banned TikTok and the online game PUBG in 2022, arguing that the platforms were “misleading young people.” TikTok remains inaccessible in Afghanistan without a VPN.

The Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice has previously released multiple forced confession videos of journalists and social media users and has referred them to Taliban courts.

Since the Taliban seized power in August 2021, freedom of expression in Afghanistan has sharply deteriorated. Media outlets, journalists and ordinary citizens face significant pressure; many newspapers and television stations have closed or drastically reduced operations. Journalists report threats, censorship and the risk of arrest or violence, leading many to self-censor.

Human rights organisations say minorities, women, civil society activists and individuals critical of the Taliban are particularly vulnerable to repression.