After Deadly Kabul Blast, China Urges Citizens Not To Travel To Afghanistan

In a statement released on Tuesday, the court said 16 people in Nangarhar were punished on charges described as “illicit relations, running away from home, and the buying, selling and use of narcotics.” Those individuals received between 10 and 39 lashes.

The statement added that three people in Balkh were also publicly flogged, each receiving 39 lashes.

The Taliban Supreme Court said the corporal punishments were carried out under rulings issued by local courts in both provinces.

Mohammad Wali Haqqani, head of the primary urban court in Balkh, described the floggings as the “implementation and enforcement of Islamic Sharia,” saying the punishments were intended to “eliminate corruption and social disorder.”

The Taliban Supreme Court has previously said that in 2025 the group executed at least six people and flogged 1,118 others.

Public corporal punishment has become a routine practice under Taliban rule. International human rights organisations have repeatedly condemned such punishments as violations of human dignity and called for them to stop. The Taliban, however, continue to defend the measures as part of their interpretation of Islamic law.

Pakistani media reported that Mohammad Sadiq Khan, Pakistan’s special envoy for Afghanistan, and Richard Lindsay, Britain’s special representative, exchanged views on recent regional developments and security challenges.

According to the reports, discussions centered on the rise in cross-border insecurity and its implications for regional stability. Islamabad has repeatedly said that militant attacks inside Pakistan are planned in Afghanistan and carried out on Pakistani territory, an issue that has become a major source of tension between Pakistan and the Taliban in recent months.

The talks came as local sources reported clashes on Monday afternoon between Taliban forces and Pakistani troops in Maruf district of Kandahar province. The sources said the cause of the clash was unclear and that the fighting ended after about half an hour.

The raid took place on Sunday, January 18, and targeted about 80 Afghans who had been deported from Pakistan roughly two months earlier despite holding acceptance commitments from Germany, the sources said.

According to the sources, Taliban agents questioned the residents for several hours and confiscated their electronic devices, including smartphones.

After the Pakistani government deported a number of Afghan migrants covered by Germany’s relocation programme, they were accommodated at a guesthouse in central Kabul. The costs of their stay were being covered by the German government, the sources said.

The group is among dozens of Afghans who, after the fall of Kabul, had been staying at a guesthouse operated by Germany’s development agency, GIZ, in Pakistan and were awaiting transfer to Germany.

Germany’s public broadcaster, ARD, reported that Taliban security forces interrogated some of the Afghans for hours, confined them to their rooms, seized their mobile phones and filmed the interrogations. The report said they were questioned about their reasons for seeking relocation to Germany.

Sources told Afghanistan International that during the interrogations, Taliban officers asked when the Afghans had returned from Pakistan, how long they had stayed there, why they intended to go to Germany and which institution was funding their accommodation. They were also questioned about their previous employment.

The sources added that Taliban forces detained three employees of the guesthouse during the raid. One of them was released on bail on Monday.

As of late Monday night, Kabul time, none of the Afghan asylum seekers had been allowed to leave the guesthouse, the sources said.

Dozens of Afghan nationals who have been accepted for relocation to Germany remain in limbo after months of waiting in Pakistan amid the risk of arrest and deportation. Some have already been deported to Afghanistan by Pakistani police.

The explosion occurred at about 3 p.m. local time on Monday, January 19. Taliban authorities have confirmed that seven people, including one Chinese national, were killed and that 13 others were wounded.

In a statement published by ISIS’s Amaq News Agency, the group said a suicide bomber entered a Chinese restaurant in Shahr-e Naw and detonated explosives among Chinese nationals and their guards.

ISIS-K claimed the attack killed and wounded Chinese citizens, Afghan civilians and Taliban members guarding the site. Without providing evidence, the group said the total number of dead and wounded was 25.

The statement said Chinese nationals were targeted over what the group described as China’s treatment of Uyghur Muslims.

Earlier, Afghanistan International, citing sources, reported that the incident was a suicide attack.

Taliban officials said the Chinese national killed in the blast was a Muslim from China’s Xinjiang region, identified as Abdul Rahman.

Video obtained by Afghanistan International shows the blast destroyed the signboard and parts of the Chinese restaurant China Lanzhou Beef Noodle in the Shahr-e Naw neighbourhood of Kabul.

Hospital officials said at least 20 people were brought to the facility following the blast. The figures are preliminary and cover only cases registered at Emergency Hospital.

Dejan Panic, head of Emergency Hospital Afghanistan, said the wounded included four women and one child. He said several patients were being assessed for surgery with cuts and bruises, adding that seven people were already dead when they arrived at the hospital.

Khalid Zadran, spokesperson for the Taliban police command in Kabul, confirmed that the explosion occurred on Gul Froshi Street and caused casualties. He said the blast took place at a hotel and that seven people, including a Chinese national, were killed. He added that the type of explosion had not yet been determined.

Zadran said the Chinese victim, identified as Abdul Rahman, was a Muslim from China’s Xinjiang region.

Earlier, at least five eyewitnesses told Afghanistan International that Chinese nationals appeared to have been the main target of the attack.

Video obtained by the outlet showed damage to the signboard and parts of the Chinese restaurant China Lanzhou Beef Noodles in the Shahr-e Naw area.

Witnesses said both Chinese nationals and Afghan civilians were injured. Some reported that the explosion may have been carried out by a suicide attacker.

Residents of Kabul reported hearing a powerful blast in Shahr-e Naw on Monday. Images shared with Afghanistan International showed a column of smoke, injured people lying on the ground and civilians fleeing the scene.