Taliban Deploy Heavily Armed Forces Ahead Of Planned Protests In Herat
Local sources told Afghanistan International early on Friday that Taliban forces have been deployed across Herat with heavy weapons since Thursday night.
Local sources told Afghanistan International early on Friday that Taliban forces have been deployed across Herat with heavy weapons since Thursday night.
Images obtained by Afghanistan International show Taliban military vehicles equipped with heavy weaponry positioned throughout the city.
The deployment comes after Herat residents called for demonstrations on Friday to protest the detention of women. Earlier this week, the Taliban violently suppressed protests held on Tuesday.
Magnus Brunner, the European Union’s Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration, has defended the controversial plan to invite Taliban representatives to Brussels.
He said the EU has no choice but to talk to the Taliban if it wants to return rejected Afghan asylum seekers to Afghanistan.
The remarks come amid a wave of criticism across Europe over the invitation, with some critics arguing that it represents a retreat from the EU’s core values and principles.
Brunner stressed that contacts with the Taliban are purely technical and operational and do not in any way amount to recognition of the group’s government.
“It’s no option not to talk to these people in order to improve the situation,” he said. “At least to improve the situation for Europeans, but also for asylum applicants and asylum-seekers.”
According to reports, around 20 of the EU’s 27 member states have signed a joint letter calling for practical mechanisms to deport Afghan nationals who do not qualify for residency, particularly those with criminal records or convictions for serious offences.
In recent years, the EU has shifted its migration policy focus from preventing arrivals to accelerating the return of rejected asylum seekers.
Human Rights Criticism
Human rights organisations and UN experts have strongly criticised the policy. They argue that forcibly returning asylum seekers to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, amid a severe humanitarian crisis, widespread poverty and sweeping restrictions on women and girls, is both unlawful and unethical.
The European Union says Afghan nationals lodged nearly one million asylum applications in member states between 2013 and 2024, with roughly half of them being approved.
Meanwhile, Germany has also begun deporting some Afghan nationals with criminal convictions since 2024.
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.