Taliban Intensifies Crackdown On Independent Media, Says Rights Group

Speaking to Hurriyat Radio on Saturday, Badakhshan Taliban governor Mohammad Ismail Ghaznavi dismissed the significance of local commander Juma Khan Fateh, saying: “Juma Khan Fateh’s status is not such that he could pose a threat to the system.”

Ghaznavi described Fateh as an “ordinary individual” and a “former district governor”, adding that the Taliban had more than 28 district governors like him in Badakhshan. He said: “We had no ill intent towards Fateh, nor was he a threat to the system. He was simply one of the district governors in Badakhshan.”

Senior Taliban Delegation Travelled to Badakhshan

Although local Taliban officials have portrayed the dispute as a routine administrative misunderstanding, local sources say the disagreement became serious enough to require the intervention of the Taliban’s most senior military leaders from Kabul.

Among those who travelled to Badakhshan were Taliban Defence Minister Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob Mujahid, Taliban army chief Fasihuddin Fitrat and Helmand governor Qari Amanuddin Mansour to help resolve the dispute and prevent an armed confrontation.

Their presence highlighted concerns within the Taliban leadership about the risk of growing divisions between local commanders and officials sent from Kabul.

Fateh's Transfer to Faizabad

The Badakhshan governor described Fateh’s transfer to Faizabad as a routine administrative matter, saying: “He is part of this system. We instructed him to come, he came, and there is no issue now.”

However, informed sources say Fateh was transferred to the provincial capital only after a delegation from Kabul intervened and provided him with security guarantees. He later returned to the Darwaz region under those assurances.

With its 28 districts, Badakhshan is one of the Taliban’s most complex provinces in terms of geography and demographics. The recent dispute has once again highlighted the group’s internal challenges in northern Afghanistan.

Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper reported that local officials at the Hamza Baba transit point in Landi Kotal said daily returns of Afghans had exceeded 10,000 after the government ordered all Afghan nationals to leave the country by July 10. According to the officials, the figure is nearly three times higher than in May and June.

Concern Over Women and Girls

Qaiser Khan Afridi, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Pakistan, thanked Pakistan for hosting Afghan refugees for decades but stressed that no refugee should be returned to a country where their life or freedom would be at risk.

He said UNHCR was particularly concerned about women forced to return to a country where their human rights faced serious threats.

Afridi urged the Pakistani government to ensure that any returns of Afghan nationals were carried out on a voluntary, safe and dignified basis.

Fear of Arrest Drives Increase in Returns

Border officials in Landi Kotal and Torkham said fears of arrest and deportation had prompted thousands of Afghans, both documented and undocumented, to head towards the border crossings. They said the number of returnees was expected to rise further as Pakistan fully implements its deportation campaign.

According to UN figures, around 2.56 million Afghan nationals have returned to Afghanistan since Pakistan launched its campaign to expel undocumented foreigners in November 2023. Of those, about 260,000 were deported by Pakistan’s immigration authorities for lacking valid documents. Around 900,000 Afghan refugees and asylum seekers remain in Pakistan.

Call to Exempt Vulnerable Groups

UNHCR has called on Pakistan to exempt Afghans with urgent international protection needs from deportation. These include female heads of household, girls and women studying in Pakistani educational institutions, ethnic and religious minorities, human rights defenders, journalists, civil society activists, artists and members of the LGBTQ community.

Meanwhile, Pakistani local authorities said the deportation of Afghan nationals was continuing in an organised manner across different areas, including Lower Mohmand, under government supervision. Officials said that, in one recent case, several Afghan families were returned to Afghanistan after their identities were verified and exit documents were issued.

Speaking during an online event marking the 10th anniversary of the death of former jihadi commander Sayed Hussain Anwari, Massoud said narratives portraying the Taliban’s opponents as divided and fragmented were part of an effort to spread hopelessness among the Afghan people and the international community.

The National Resistance Front leader urged anti-Taliban groups and movements to remain alert to what he described as divisive narratives. He said: “We are not fragmented. We are united, cohesive and committed to shared principles and values.”

Referring to the public support enjoyed by several anti-Taliban figures, Massoud said that if free and genuine elections were held and people were able to vote freely, the Taliban would not be able to defeat established political figures with broad public backing.

He cited former Afghan vice-president Abdul Rashid Dostum as an example, saying: “Is it possible for Marshal Dostum to stand in an election and for a Taliban candidate to receive more votes than him? That is impossible.”

Responding to claims that there is no alternative to the Taliban administration, Massoud said the alternative was not an individual but a national and lawful political process.

According to him, that process would include the formation of a transitional government, the drafting of a constitution, the convening of a Loya Jirga and the holding of free elections to establish a legitimate government accepted by all Afghan citizens.

Afghanistan has faced deep political, security and social crises over the past five years. During this period, anti-Taliban groups and political figures living in exile have repeatedly called for the creation of an alternative political structure and a vision for Afghanistan’s future political system through conferences and political initiatives.

However, those efforts have yet to produce a broad, unified and influential coalition or any practical political alternative to the Taliban.

According to the Centre for Preventive Action’s Global Conflict Tracker, published on July 6, 2026, the Taliban continues to enforce absolute control over Afghanistan through its strict interpretation of Sharia law. The report says terrorist groups, including al-Qaeda, have turned Afghanistan into a base for recruiting, training and deploying militants beyond the country’s borders.

The Council on Foreign Relations also said the Taliban’s ban on girls’ secondary education remains in place, alongside restrictions requiring women to travel with a male guardian and cover their faces in public. According to the report, Afghans continue to face a serious threat from terrorist attacks under Taliban rule.

Rising Tensions With Pakistan

A key section of the report focuses on deteriorating relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan. It says Pakistan has effectively entered into “open war” with the Taliban following air strikes on Taliban military facilities. According to the report, the confrontation marks the most direct military clash between the two sides since the Taliban returned to power in 2021.

Islamabad says the strikes were a response to attacks by the Pakistani Taliban aka Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which Pakistani officials accuse of operating from Afghan territory. The report notes that 2025 was Pakistan’s deadliest year in more than a decade, with conflict-related deaths rising by 74% to more than 3,400.

The report says the conflict intensified in February and March 2026. It states that Pakistan carried out extensive air strikes in Nangarhar and Paktika provinces and that, on March 16, a Pakistani air strike on a hospital in Kabul killed at least 269 civilians. It adds that China has attempted to mediate between the two sides through talks in Urumqi, but no formal agreement has yet been reached.

Terrorist Threats and Humanitarian Crisis

The report also highlights the continued activities of ISIS-K, saying the group remains capable of carrying out attacks both within the region and beyond, including the Moscow shooting attack in March 2024. It also identifies Baloch militant groups as an ongoing security threat to Pakistan.

The Council on Foreign Relations warns that Afghanistan continues to face one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises. In 2025, nearly 23 million people, almost half the population, required humanitarian assistance, while more than 28% of the population suffered from malnutrition.

Sources told Afghanistan International that at least two patrol vehicles belonging to the Taliban’s Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice were present on Herat’s 64-Metre Road, where several women were detained.

According to the sources, the vehicles were filled with detained women, although the exact number remains unclear.

Among many residents of Herat, 64-Metre Road is also known as Juma Bazaar, where new and second-hand household goods are auctioned every Friday.

Images obtained by Afghanistan International show two Taliban vehicles transporting a number of women from the area.

The wave of arrests of women in Herat began in mid-June.

Residents of Jebrail township took to the streets on Tuesday, June 9, to protest the detentions. Demonstrators chanted “Education, Work, Freedom” and “Woman, Life, Freedom”.

Taliban forces dispersed the protest by opening fire and beating demonstrators.

At least two teenage boys were killed, and more than 20 people were injured.

Several protesters were also detained.

Three days later, on Friday, June 12, a group of Herat residents gathered outside the Taliban governor’s office. Protesters again called for an end to the detention of women and demanded the right to education and work.

Before the protest began, the Taliban deployed hundreds of armed personnel and military vehicles across the city. Taliban forces fired on the crowd, dispersed the demonstrators and detained several participants.

The detention of women and the suppression of protests in Herat prompted demonstrations in nearly 30 cities worldwide. Afghans and supporters of women’s rights gathered in parts of Europe, Canada, the United States, Australia and other countries.

Chanting “Education, Work, Freedom”, demonstrators called for an end to the detention of women, a halt to the crackdown on protesters and urged governments not to normalise relations with the Taliban.