Uzbekistan Approves Trans-Afghan Railway Feasibility Agreement

Several women told Afghanistan International that they had rented exhibition booths for 6,000 afghanis but were stopped when they arrived to participate. According to them, officials from the Taliban’s morality police were stationed at the entrance and refused to allow women to enter.

One businesswoman said organisers had initially informed them that they could take part, but women were later barred from attending. She said many female handicraft producers rely on such events to sell their products and had now lost that opportunity.

Another woman said she had been denied entry for two consecutive days despite paying the booth rental fee. She added that foreign women were allowed to attend the exhibition, while Afghan women were not.

The exhibition opened on Thursday in the presence of Taliban officials, representatives of domestic companies and delegations from several regional countries, including Iran. Taliban authorities said dozens of local and foreign firms were participating.

The Taliban have not yet commented officially on the reports.

The same exhibition was held in Kabul last year without women’s participation.

Since returning to power in 2021, the Taliban have imposed sweeping restrictions on women in Afghanistan. Girls have been barred from education beyond grade six and from universities, while many women have lost the right to work in government institutions and non-governmental organisations. The group has also imposed limits on women’s travel without a male guardian and on their presence in public spaces, including parks and some recreational facilities.

Writing on X on Friday, Gorka posted a photograph of American detainees and said: “We will not rest until Dennis Coyle and Mahmood Habibi come home.”

The United States’ representative at the UN Security Council has also accused the Taliban of using detainees as leverage. Tammy Bruce said the group must end all forms of hostage-taking and arbitrary detention.

According to Bruce, the Taliban have “openly sought the release of an al-Qaida operative detained in Guantanamo Bay, while paradoxically promising to uphold their counterterrorism commitments”.

The New York Times reported several weeks ago that secret negotiations between the United States and the Taliban over the release of American prisoners had reached a deadlock. The report said US officials and Taliban representatives had held confidential talks in recent months on the possible release of American detainees in Afghanistan.

According to the report, the Taliban are seeking the release of Mohammad Rahim, who has been held at Guantanamo Bay since 2008 and is accused of cooperating with Osama bin Laden within the al-Qaida network.

The United States has repeatedly asked the Taliban to clarify the fate of Mahmood Shah Habibi, an Afghan-American citizen and former head of Afghanistan’s Civil Aviation Authority. The Taliban have denied detaining him.

Washington has offered a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the identification of Habibi’s location and his safe return.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation said Habibi was detained in Afghanistan in 2022, days after the killing of al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, a claim rejected by the Taliban.

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid has said only Dennis Walter Coyle and Polynesis Jackson are in Taliban custody.

US representatives have travelled to Afghanistan several times over the past year in efforts to secure the release of American prisoners.

Andrey Serdyukov, chief of the CSTO Joint Staff, said at a press conference on Thursday that the presence and activities of such groups in Afghanistan threaten regional security and could lead to the spread of terrorism to neighbouring countries.

He described the situation as a serious concern for Central Asian states.

At the same time, Sergei Shoigu, secretary of Russia’s Security Council, described the Tajikistan-Afghanistan border as a key security hotspot for CSTO member states.

Expressing concern about rising threats along the organisation’s western and southern borders, Shoigu said the southern frontier, particularly developments linked to Afghanistan, remains a central focus of the bloc’s security agenda. He added that the situation along the Tajikistan-Afghanistan border is among the organisation’s top security priorities.

The remarks come after reports of 17 armed clashes along the Tajikistan-Afghanistan border last year.

All 15 members of the Security Council unanimously adopted the resolution to continue sanctions under the 1988 regime against the Taliban. Travel-ban exemptions for several Taliban leaders were not renewed.

The draft resolution was prepared by the United States.

The Taliban has repeatedly called on countries to lift international sanctions. However, concerns about the continued presence of militant groups in Afghanistan, restrictions on women’s rights and the absence of an inclusive government led the Security Council to maintain the sanctions regime.

In its latest assessment, the UN Security Council’s Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team said the Taliban supports the activities of militant groups including al-Qaida, the TTP and the East Turkestan Islamic Movement inside Afghanistan.

In the six-month report on global terrorist threats, the monitoring team said al-Qaida continues to benefit from Taliban support and operates in Afghanistan as a provider of training and advisory services, particularly to the TTP.

According to the report, al-Qaida in the Indian Subcontinent remains active in south-eastern Afghanistan. It said the group’s leader, Osama Mahmoud, and his deputy, Yahya Ghauri, are based in Kabul, while its media team operates from Herat.

Speaking at a weekly briefing on Thursday, February 12, Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tahir Andrabi said the report shows the TTP receives “preferential treatment” under Taliban rule and could pose a threat beyond the region.

Andrabi said Islamabad would raise the issue with members of the UN Security Council, adding that the findings reinforce concerns Pakistan has repeatedly shared with the international community.

Pakistan has long argued that militant activity in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan threatens regional stability. The Taliban, however, have consistently rejected such allegations as baseless.