China Backs Pakistan Efforts To Ease Regional Tensions

According to reports, the executions were carried out secretly without prior notice to, or a final visit from, their families.

Mizan News Agency, the judiciary’s media outlet, confirmed the executions. The two prisoners were hanged early on Monday, March 30, at Ghezel Hesar prison in Karaj.

Akbar Daneshvar-Kar, 60, and Mohammad Taghavi Sangdehi, 59, were sentenced to death in 2024 by Tehran’s Revolutionary Court on charges of rebellion through alleged membership of the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organisation also known as People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran.

Mizan and other judiciary-affiliated media accused the two men of serious offences, including direct involvement in terrorist activities, manufacturing explosive launchers, forming illegal groups and links with opposition networks aimed at undermining national security.

The Hengaw human rights organisation said the Islamic Republic had extracted confessions from the prisoners under pressure and intense interrogation in connection with these charges.

It said that in its first spring offensive on Sunday evening, March 29, it attacked a Taliban border unit in Baharak district of Badakhshan province, killing four members.

According to the AFF, three other Taliban fighters were wounded in the attack.

The Taliban have not commented on the Afghanistan Freedom Front’s claim.

The Afghanistan Freedom Front had suspended its attacks against the Taliban during the month of Ramadan.

The Front’s attack in Badakhshan comes as the Taliban, about two weeks ago, deployed their governor of Helmand, Amanuddin Mansoor, to Badakhshan.

Amanuddin Mansoor, a Badakhshani Taliban commander, said in a speech that people are asking him how long the Taliban government will last.

The Taliban are concerned that the presence of opposition forces in the north could be strengthened by gaining regional and international support in these provinces.

According to Russian media reports citing officials from the centre, a long-term fuel supply agreement is expected to be signed soon in the city of Kazan.

It is understood that current contracts run for three to six months and are then renewed. In this context, plans are underway to sign a long-term agreement during the Kazan International Economic Forum 2026.

Zamir Kabulov, the Russian president’s special envoy for Afghanistan, has said that Afghanistan is interested in purchasing Russian fuel and that energy exports to the country are on the agenda in ongoing talks.

According to Taliban-run National Television, the victims’ bodies have been handed over to their families.

During the former republic, the Taliban frequently planted mines on roads and farmland without marking them, targeting government and foreign forces.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said that in 2024 at least 564 people, including 434 children, were killed in Afghanistan by landmines and unexploded remnants of war.

The two men, Qadoos Khatibi and Fayaz Ghori, had previously urged the reopening of girls’ schools through posts on Facebook.

According to sources, they were first taken to the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice and later transferred to Taliban intelligence custody.

Khatibi, a university lecturer and social activist in Herat, had posted a video on Friday calling on the Taliban to reopen schools and universities to Afghan girls.

Referring to nearly five years of closures, he said the Taliban had repeatedly cited problems that needed to be resolved but had failed to address them. Without education, development is not possible in any country, he said.

He stressed that the Taliban should honour their commitments and provide access to education for girls.

Meanwhile, Fayaz Ghori wrote on Facebook that he hoped for the day when the doors of education would reopen to girls in Afghanistan.

During nearly five years in power, the Taliban have repeatedly detained critics over protests against their policies, with some reports of torture.

Since returning to power, the Taliban have barred girls above primary school from attending classes and have also closed universities to female students.