The European Union’s delegation to Afghanistan marked the International Day Against Drug Abuse by reaffirming its support for reducing drug demand and rehabilitating people with drug addiction.
The EU said it stands alongside the Afghan people in efforts to combat narcotics.
In a post on X on Friday, the EU delegation said it supports drug treatment and rehabilitation centres across Afghanistan in cooperation with the World Health Organization, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and other partners.
The EU added that one of the key elements of its efforts is helping children who have been indirectly affected by addiction return to school. It also said it supports programmes aimed at preventing relapse among recovering drug users and promoting alternative livelihoods in Afghanistan.
Earlier, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime warned in its World Drug Report 2026 that the unprecedented decline in opium production in Afghanistan, alongside the spread of synthetic opioids, is reshaping the global drug market.
According to the report, Afghanistan, which produced around 80% of the world’s illicit opium until 2022, has seen opium production fall by 95% since the Taliban imposed a ban on poppy cultivation.
Sources in north-east Afghanistan report increased movements and a military build-up by Juma Khan Fateh, a disgruntled Tajik Taliban commander, in the Darwaz area of Badakhshan province.
Informed sources say he has organised his forces in recent days and held extensive meetings with residents in Nusay district.
According to the sources, since returning to his traditional power base, Fateh has increased his field presence while strengthening the deployment of fighters under his command, suggesting he is preparing for any potential developments.
Kabul's offer rejected
Sources close to Fateh said efforts had been made to open talks and offer him a new position, but the Taliban commander has rejected any return to the power structure.
Two sources who recently met him in person told Afghanistan International that Fateh responded to the proposals by saying: “I am in my own home. I do not want a position. I will stay here. I will not fire the first shot.”
According to the sources, he has nevertheless kept his forces on high alert and remains fully prepared both militarily and logistically.
They added that Fateh believes the mountainous terrain of Badakhshan would make it difficult for Taliban forces based in Kabul to launch a successful operation against his positions.
Juma Khan Fateh, one of the Taliban’s most influential commanders in north-eastern Afghanistan, is known among his supporters as the “Conqueror of Darwaz”. In recent weeks, he was removed from his post as deputy governor of Zabul after a dispute with the Taliban leadership in Kandahar over the management of local resources and gold mines.
Observers believe his dismissal without being assigned another position is part of a broader effort to sideline non-Pashtun commanders within the Taliban’s power structure.
Now, with his return to Badakhshan, increased military activity, strengthened force deployments and rejection of Kabul’s proposals, attention has increasingly focused on the possibility of a confrontation between the dissident commander and the Taliban leadership.
Taliban officials have not commented publicly on the reported developments.
Taliban officials issued no Ashura message this year, while Taliban-run outlets, including Radio Television Afghanistan (RTA) and Bakhtar News Agency, provided no coverage of the ceremonies.
Sources told Afghanistan International that officials from some Shia mosques and religious centres invited Taliban authorities to attend Ashura ceremonies, but they declined the invitations.
The Taliban also prevented former Afghan President Hamid Karzai from attending an Ashura mourning ceremony.
By contrast, the Indian prime minister and Pakistan’s president and prime minister issued Ashura messages describing the occasion as an inspiration for perseverance in the pursuit of justice. India’s prime minister said Imam Hussein’s sacrifice inspired many people to remain steadfast in their search for truth and justice.
Restrictions on Shias Intensify
The Taliban’s actions during Muharram this year were not limited to declining to issue a message or attend ceremonies. Restrictions on cultural, educational and media institutions linked to the Shia community also increased.
In recent days, the Taliban shut down Tamadon TV, one of the few television channels belonging to Afghanistan’s Shia community. Taliban forces also closed the Khatam al-Nabieen religious seminary in Kabul, one of the largest centres of Shia religious education.
Last year, Maulawi Shahabuddin Delawar, a senior Taliban official and the group’s former mines minister, attended and spoke at an Ashura ceremony at the Khatam al-Nabieen seminary. He said Ashura had raised the voice of truth and struggle against oppression.
In recent days, the Taliban’s justice minister also detained dozens of mosque officials and Muharram mourners in his private prison for raising Muharram flags.
On Thursday, the Taliban’s deputy minister of urban development and housing criticised the justice minister’s action.
Ashura Symbols Banned in Cities
Reports from Kabul and several other Afghan cities indicate that the Taliban imposed extensive restrictions this year on the public display of Ashura religious symbols.
According to local sources, Taliban forces prevented people from displaying religious flags and symbols on roads, in markets and in city squares, and removed them in some areas.
Sources in western Kabul said the Taliban had banned vehicles from moving around. On Friday, the Taliban also cut telecommunications networks in several cities, including Kabul, Herat, Mazar-e-Sharif, Ghazni and Bamiyan.
Observers say the tightened restrictions, alongside the closure of Shia cultural and educational centres and limitations on religious activities, reflect an increasingly hard-line Taliban approach towards Afghanistan’s religious and cultural diversity.
The National Resistance Front and Afghanistan Freedom Front, two military and political groups opposed to the Taliban, accused the group of fuelling sectarian tensions by placing pressure on Shias.
The Afghanistan Media Support Organisation also reported on Friday that the Taliban had detained a female journalist and her colleagues in Kabul for covering Ashura ceremonies. The organisation expressed concern over growing restrictions on journalists and media outlets covering the occasion.
On Thursday, the Afghanistan Shia Ulema Council said the Taliban had recently detained several officials from Shia mosques and religious centres for displaying Ashura symbols.
The council also expressed concern over the removal of Muharram symbols, the suspension of Tamadon TV and the closure of the Khatam al-Nabieen religious seminary.
Informed sources in Laghman tell Afghanistan International that Taliban intelligence has rearrested Mohammad Azam Bakhtar Farashghani, a former local police commander in Dawlat Shah district.
The sources said Taliban forces beat members of the former official’s family while arresting him.
Local sources told Afghanistan International on Friday, 26 June, that the Taliban transferred Farashghani to an unknown location after his arrest. His family has received no information about his condition or whereabouts.
According to the sources, Taliban intelligence planted explosives, weapons and ammunition near Farashghani’s home on 24 June before raiding the property. They said the former serviceman was arrested on the pretext that the weapons and explosives had been discovered there.
The sources added that the Taliban’s intelligence service is using new methods to arrest former military personnel. They described planting mines, weapons and ammunition near the homes of soldiers and commanders from the former government, and then entrapping them, as among the Taliban’s new methods of carrying out reprisals.
Farashghani had previously been detained by Taliban intelligence and was later released after a period in prison.
The Taliban has not yet officially commented on the former local police commander’s arrest.
The Afghanistan Media Support Organisation says the Taliban detained a female journalist and her colleagues in Kabul for covering Ashura ceremonies, raising concern over growing restrictions on the media.
In a statement on Friday, 26 June, the Afghanistan Media Support Organisation (AMSO) said the Taliban arrested the female journalist for working alongside a “stranger male cameraman” and transferred her and her colleagues to a Kabul police district.
According to the media rights group, they remained in Taliban custody until around the evening and were later released following mediation by media officials and family members.
For security reasons, AMSO did not identify the female journalist, the male cameraman or the media outlet involved.
The organisation described Taliban restrictions on the media as a clear violation of freedom of expression and the right of access to information. It said the Taliban had deliberately prevented coverage of the religious Ashura ceremonies.
The statement said covering religious and cultural events was part of the media’s professional responsibilities.
The Afghanistan Freedom Front (AFF) and the National Resistance Front (NRF) said in separate Ashura messages that Taliban pressure on Shia Muslims is fuelling sectarian tensions and threatening Afghanistan’s religious and cultural diversity.
The two anti-Taliban military and political groups accused the Taliban of imposing restrictions on Shia religious ceremonies and undermining the country’s long-standing religious and cultural pluralism.
In a statement issued on Friday, 26 June, the National Resistance Front said the area stretching from Dasht-e-Barchi in western Kabul to Badakhshan had become “the geography of a contemporary Karbala”.
Without naming the Taliban directly, the NRF said “the swords of oppression and injustice” had been imposed on the Afghan people and were targeting the values of tolerance, equality and mutual acceptance.
The front accused the “enemies of Afghanistan’s dignity” of pursuing a “Yazidi policy” by enforcing discrimination and seeking to eliminate the country’s religious, ethnic and cultural diversity.
In an apparent reference to the Taliban, the statement added: “They want the people to bow to oppression and pledge allegiance to their false claim, but the message of Ashura is to remain steadfast in upholding Imam Hussein’s blood-red legacy and never surrender to the coercion of the takfiris.”
Videos received by Afghanistan International showed that Ashura commemorations were widely observed on Friday in several parts of Herat, including Jebrail, Bakrabad and Andisha Township.
In a separate statement, the Afghanistan Freedom Front said this year’s Ashura took place amid what it described as burdensome Taliban restrictions on mourning ceremonies and the personal conduct of Shia mourners, warning that such measures were fuelling “religious hatred and tension in Afghanistan”.
The group said the removal of Muharram flags and symbols, together with the arrest, intimidation and humiliation of Shia Muslims in recent days, were clear examples of “systematic discrimination and the promotion of religious hatred” against Afghan citizens.
Several prominent Afghan political figures also issued messages marking Ashura, including former President Hamid Karzai, former Foreign Minister Hanif Atmar and former lawmaker Fawzia Koofi.
Karzai said Imam Hussein had launched a profound reform movement by exposing social injustice and calling for change. He said Imam Hussein remained steadfast until his death in order to awaken society and encourage people to take responsibility in the face of wrongdoing, leaving behind the enduring legacy of Karbala.
Atmar described Ashura as one of the most enduring and inspiring events in Islamic history, saying it had permanently embedded the values of freedom, justice, patience, sacrifice and steadfastness in the pursuit of truth within the collective memory of Muslims.
Koofi said Ashura teaches resistance against oppression, authoritarianism and tyranny, as well as the defence of truth. She added that the events of Karbala demonstrate that the voice of truth can never be silenced.
In recent days, the Taliban has imposed extensive restrictions on Muharram mourners in Kabul, Herat and several other cities. Taliban authorities removed Muharram flags and religious symbols from public spaces, while the group’s justice minister detained several Shia community elders over the organisation of mourning ceremonies.
As Ashura commemorations were under way on Friday, local sources and residents in Kabul, Herat, Bamiyan and Ghazni told Afghanistan International that mobile telecommunications services had been cut off since early that morning.
Some residents, however, said Wi-Fi internet services remained available and that only mobile phone networks had been disconnected.