UN Women has expressed concern that women and girls are bearing the greatest cost of the ongoing tensions between the Taliban and Pakistan. The UN agency stressed that women and girls urgently need support to access healthcare, food and shelter.
In a post on X on Thursday, June 11, UN Women voiced concern over the worsening humanitarian consequences of the conflict and its impact on women and girls.
According to UNAMA, Pakistan’s recent airstrikes inside Afghanistan killed 13 civilians and wounded 10 others. The UN mission said women and children were among the casualties.
While the Taliban accuses Pakistan of violating Afghanistan’s airspace and bombing several locations in the provinces of Khost, Paktika and Kunar, Islamabad has dismissed reports of 13 civilian deaths as propaganda warfare.
Adam Boehler, the US president’s special envoy for hostage affairs, said the imprisonment of former Taliban commander Haji Najibullah sends a clear message to hostage-takers and supporters of terrorism.
Boehler stressed that hostage-taking is not a tool of negotiation but a criminal act.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, the office of the special envoy said those who kidnap American citizens and cause suffering to their families will eventually face the consequences of their actions.
He added that the conviction demonstrates the United States’ commitment to pursuing such crimes and seeking justice for victims.
Haji Najibullah, a Taliban commander involved in the abduction of American journalist David Rohde and his two companions, was sentenced to 42 years in prison by a court in New York on Tuesday.
He was convicted for his role in the 2008 kidnapping of Rohde and his two companions.
Prosecutors said the aim of the hostage-taking was to obtain ransom payments and secure the release of Taliban prisoners held by the United States.
They said the hostages were forced to record proof-of-life videos during their captivity.
According to prosecutors, Taliban fighters appeared in the videos threatening the captives with automatic weapons and demanding that they urge their families and the US government to meet the Taliban’s demands.
Published information indicates that Najibullah served as a Taliban commander in Maidan Wardak province from 2007 and also acted as an unofficial spokesman for the group.
He was arrested while travelling in Ukraine in October 2020 and later extradited to the United States for trial.
Boehler has travelled to Kabul and met Taliban officials as part of efforts to secure the release of American citizens.
Referring to the release of Dennis Coyle from Taliban custody earlier this year, Boehler said in March that the policy of taking hostages to gain concessions from the United States was dead. “No trades. No money. Hostage diplomacy is dead.”, he said.
Abdul Rahman Qanet, the Taliban’s deputy minister for mines, met Jeffrey Grieco, president of the Afghanistan-US Joint Chamber of Commerce, in Kabul.
The Taliban’s Ministry of Mines said the two sides discussed attracting investment to Afghanistan’s mining sector and expanding economic cooperation.
In a statement issued on Thursday, the ministry said Grieco expressed his readiness to support efforts to attract and expand investment in Afghanistan’s mining industry.
According to the statement, the Taliban deputy minister for policy welcomed the interest and said the necessary facilities would be provided, within existing laws and procedures, for reputable foreign companies seeking to invest in the sector.
The Taliban official described Afghanistan’s mineral resources as one of the country’s most important assets for economic growth, job creation and attracting both domestic and foreign investment.
The meeting is one of the few engagements between Taliban officials and an American party focused primarily on economic and investment issues.
The United States has not recognised the Taliban government, and contacts between the two sides in recent years have largely centred on political and security matters, as well as the release of American citizens and detainees.
Russia has called for the resumption of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO)-Afghanistan Contact Group. Bakhtiyor Khakimov, Russia’s representative to the SCO, said Moscow believes reactivating the group is necessary.
According to Russian state media, Khakimov stressed that the SCO-Afghanistan Contact Group, which began operating in 2007, should resume its work.
He explained that the group’s activities are complicated by its co-chairing structure, which involves the deputy foreign minister of the SCO’s rotating chair country and a representative of Afghanistan. However, because the Taliban administration has not been recognised by all SCO member states, progress on the issue has been gradual.
Khakimov referred to special consultations held last year in Dushanbe at the initiative of Tajikistan, saying one of the outcomes was an agreement on the need to examine the possibility of restarting the Contact Group.
Earlier, Sergei Shoigu, Secretary of Russia’s Security Council, also called for reviving the organisation’s engagement with Afghanistan and reactivating the Contact Group, noting that most member states support the proposal.
At a previous summit in Tianjin, China, SCO member states issued a joint statement backing international efforts to promote peace and sustainable development in Afghanistan.
In the statement, member countries said that the formation of an inclusive government with broad participation from all ethnic and political groups in Afghan society remains the only path to lasting peace and stability in the country.
The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has confirmed that 13 civilians were killed and 10 others wounded in recent Pakistani airstrikes inside Afghanistan. According to UNAMA, women and children were among the casualties.
In a post on X on Thursday, 11 June, UNAMA said the airstrikes were carried out on the nights of June 9-10 in the eastern Afghan provinces of Khost, Kunar and Paktika.
Earlier, Pakistan’s Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Attaullah Tarar, rejected reports that civilians had been killed in the military’s recent strikes inside Afghanistan.
Before that, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid accused Pakistan of violating Afghanistan’s airspace and bombing several locations in Khost, Paktika and Kunar provinces.
Mujahid said residential homes were targeted in the strikes, which took place early on Wednesday, resulting in the deaths of 13 civilians, including 11 children, one woman and one elderly man. He said 14 other people were injured.
Pakistan’s information minister dismissed the Taliban spokesman’s claims as propaganda warfare, saying the operations were conducted in response to recent deadly attacks against Pakistani forces in tribal areas and were targeted and based on precise intelligence.
Pakistan’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting said the strikes targeted the hideouts and sanctuaries of those responsible for recent terrorist attacks in Pakistan. The statement referred to incidents including the June 9 attack on a security checkpoint in Musa Dara, a vehicle-borne suicide bombing against a military base in North Waziristan on June 2, and an attack on a police station in Bannu, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, on May 9.
Pakistan says it killed 26 members of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in the operation.
Islamabad stressed that its relentless campaign against terrorism would continue until the threat of externally supported terrorism had been eradicated.
The latest Pakistani strikes came about 10 days after Taliban Defence Minister Mullah Yaqoob Mujahid returned from Moscow and declared at Kabul airport that Pakistan would soon no longer dare to carry out attacks inside Afghanistan.
In recent months, Pakistan has launched several strikes in different parts of Afghanistan, including Kabul. These operations have drawn strong condemnation from some Afghan political figures, who have described them as a violation of Afghanistan’s national sovereignty.
Pakistan accuses the Taliban of supporting the TTP and providing the group with safe haven inside Afghanistan. The Taliban deny the allegations.
Several rounds of talks between Pakistan and the Taliban, mediated by countries including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkiye and China, have failed to produce an agreement or ease tensions between the two sides.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan has expressed concern over the Force suppression of protesters in the Jebrail area of Herat.
UNAMA confirmed that at least one teenage boy was killed by Taliban gunfire and several others were injured as a result of beatings.
The UN mission said reports of a second death are still being verified.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, UNAMA said at least 30 women in Herat were detained by the Taliban’s Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice between June 7 and 8 on accusations of violating dress code instructions. According to the UN mission, dozens of other women received verbal warnings.
UNAMA said all those detained were released on June 9 but stressed that the consequences of arbitrary detention have a profound impact on women and their families.
Georgette Gagnon, head of the UN mission in Afghanistan, said that the detention of women in Afghanistan carries a significant social stigma and can expose them to further violence and isolation within their families and communities even after their release.
She stressed that Taliban authorities are obliged under international law to uphold freedom of expression, the right to peaceful assembly, liberty and personal security, and protection from arbitrary detention for all Afghans.
UNAMA reiterated that any action by security forces must comply with international legal standards, including the principles of necessity, proportionality and non-discrimination in the use of force. It added that individuals have the right to express peaceful protest without fear of violence, intimidation or reprisals.
The mission called on Taliban authorities to revoke all policies and practices that restrict the rights and fundamental freedoms of women and girls, including limitations on freedom of movement, freedom of expression, education, employment and participation in public life.