Pakistan's Attacks Have Not Gone Unanswered, Says Taliban Army Chief

Speaking at a press conference on Monday, Fitrat described the Pakistani government as brutal and said: “It is deeply painful that Pakistan bombs civilians’ homes under the pretext of the presence of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).”

He also claimed that Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and other armed groups opposed to Pakistan were not present in Afghanistan, adding that the Taliban did not allow any armed group to operate from Afghan territory.

Pakistan has repeatedly accused the Taliban of sheltering and supporting the TTP, an allegation the Taliban has consistently denied. Taliban officials say Islamabad should address its security challenges within its own borders rather than blaming Afghanistan for TTP attacks.

In recent months, as tensions between the two sides have escalated, Pakistan has carried out several air strikes along the border and inside Afghan territory. The United Nations has confirmed that dozens of civilians were killed in some of those attacks.

Pakistan says the strikes were precise and targeted, aimed at TTP hideouts and other armed groups hostile to the country.

Following the strikes, the Taliban has repeatedly claimed to have responded. In recent months, it has said it used drones to target Pakistani military positions. Pakistan’s military has acknowledged that drones entered its airspace from Afghanistan on some occasions but has not reported any casualties or damage resulting from the alleged attacks.

Hanafi said malicious groups were targeting the Taliban’s Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice because of what he described as its enforcement of Islamic law.

In mid-June, the ministry’s morality police launched an operation in Herat to detain women accused of failing to comply with the Taliban’s dress code. After dozens of women were detained, residents of the Jebrail area of Herat took to the streets on 9 June to protest the arrests.

The Taliban suppressed the demonstrations, and at least two teenage boys were killed. Following the protests, the group also launched a widespread campaign of arrests against demonstrators.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) also confirmed the arrests of women in Herat. In a statement, it said the Taliban had detained at least 30 women on 27 and 28 May for allegedly failing to comply with the hijab requirement and had verbally threatened hundreds more.

The arrests drew widespread condemnation from human rights organisations and international bodies both inside and outside Afghanistan.

On Monday, the Taliban’s Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice published further excerpts from Hanafi’s speech in Herat.

In one part of his remarks, Hanafi said the media should be used as a platform under the current circumstances and urged media managers to apply the ministry’s morality law themselves before promoting it through their outlets.

The Taliban minister also claimed that human rights in Afghanistan were protected in accordance with Islamic principles. He said the international community should instead focus on countries where, according to him, human rights were being violated and people were deprived of even the most basic rights, including the right to life.

Downplaying the arrests of women and girls in Herat, Hanafi questioned why the deliberate killing of thousands of women and children elsewhere received less attention than the enforcement of the Taliban’s hijab rules. He claimed the issue of hijab was being distorted and exploited for political purposes.

The meeting, attended mainly by female representatives from the OIC’s 57 member states, is nearing the end of its second day in Islamabad.

Sources earlier told Afghanistan International that the OIC had asked the Taliban administration to send an authorised female official to the meeting. However, the Taliban had no woman in a senior position who could attend. Mujahid did not explain why the group had no representative at the conference.

In an audio message broadcast by the local Ariana News network, Mujahid claimed that women’s rights in Afghanistan were guaranteed “under Islamic law”.

Without naming any organisation, he said the Taliban administration could not grant women rights recommended by other bodies if those rights had “no place in Islam”, reflected Western culture or raised religious objections.

Mujahid said on Monday that the Taliban administration was made up of “a group of Islamic scholars” who understood Islamic rights better than others. “We assure you that our sisters in Afghanistan enjoy their rights under Islamic law,” he said.

He added that the Taliban supported OIC initiatives wherever they were carried out.

The ninth two-day ministerial conference on women in OIC member states opened in Islamabad on Sunday. It brought together 190 delegates, most of them women, from 57 countries, but no Taliban representative attended.

The conference agenda states that participants will also discuss the crisis in Afghanistan and restrictions on women’s and girls’ education.

The Taliban claims to protect women’s rights, although Afghanistan is currently the only country in the world where girls and women are barred from education beyond the sixth grade. The Taliban’s morality law also severely restricts women’s presence in public and describes their voices as something that must be concealed.

Women are also barred from most employment, apart from limited roles in education and healthcare.

The Taliban’s restrictions on Afghan women have repeatedly been condemned by the OIC and other international organisations, which have called for the protection of women’s fundamental rights in Afghanistan.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei said the visit was aimed at discussing consular cooperation, migration issues and expanding people-to-people ties between the two countries.

Although Iran maintains close political and trade relations with the Taliban, it has not formally recognised the group's administration.

Baghaei also said Iran had not linked its cooperation with Afghanistan to recognising the Taliban government. He described recognition as a political and legal process and said Tehran would make a decision once it reached its own conclusion, but cooperation between the two countries would continue regardless.

The Iran-Afghanistan Joint Consular Commission is a bilateral mechanism for addressing consular issues between the two countries. Its agenda includes migration, consular services, visas, identity documents, prisoner transfers and other matters affecting citizens of both countries.

According to the sources, Fitrat and his delegation have been holding talks with Fateh in Faizabad since Sunday in an effort to convince him to travel to Kabul.

Fateh returned to the Darwaz region on Friday after meeting Taliban officials in Faizabad. Sources said that after spending one night at his base in Nusay district, he travelled with Fitrat to Wurduj district before returning to Faizabad.

Fateh had earlier agreed to travel to Faizabad after receiving security guarantees from Fitrat. Following the talks, Taliban-affiliated media claimed he had returned to Darwaz after reaffirming his loyalty to the group.

It remains unclear why the Taliban delegation wants to bring Fateh to Kabul. However, the Taliban leadership had previously offered him a post as deputy head of the intelligence directorate in the capital, an offer he declined.