Taliban Tightens Restrictions On Former President Karzai, Say Sources

Stéphane Dujarric said at a press briefing on Tuesday, 21 July, that the floods had caused extensive damage to homes, public buildings and commercial properties.

The UN spokesman also said aid operations had begun, with mobile health teams deployed to flood-affected areas, medical facilities placed on alert, and food, medical supplies and other emergency assistance mobilised for those affected.

According to the United Nations, the immediate needs of affected communities include emergency shelter, food, healthcare, essential items and psychosocial support.

The Taliban said a day earlier that the death toll from the Nuristan floods had risen to 23. According to Taliban officials, the bodies of 15 victims had been recovered, more than 100 people remained missing, and 80 others had been injured.

Sources told Afghanistan International earlier that more than 40 people had been killed in the Nuristan floods.

Taliban officials have also said search-and-rescue operations and damage assessments are continuing, and that casualty and damage figures may change.

Dobrindt said in Berlin on Monday that deporting offenders to countries such as Afghanistan was necessary and unavoidable and that the government would not retreat from the policy.

He stressed that society has the right to expect criminal asylum seekers to be deported.

According to Deutsche Welle, the remarks came after a 22-year-old student was killed in a knife attack in the city of Trier. Police arrested a 22-year-old Afghan national on suspicion of carrying out the attack.

Initial investigations indicate that the suspect had mental health problems and had previously received treatment at a psychiatric facility.

Referring to the case, Germany’s interior minister said some people with mental disorders also commit serious crimes and that society cannot simply accept such situations.

Responding to calls to consider defendants’ mental health, Dobrindt said Germany could not be expected to take responsibility for all people worldwide suffering from mental illness or trauma.

Contacts With the Taliban Over Deportations Continue

Since taking office as interior minister, Dobrindt has pushed for tougher migration policies and the deportation of convicted asylum seekers.

The German government has established technical contacts with Taliban officials to facilitate the deportation of Afghan nationals.

Berlin previously approved the work of two Taliban consular staff at Afghanistan’s diplomatic missions in Germany and has said four more employees are expected to be sent to the country soon.

Germany has stressed that this cooperation does not amount to recognition of the Taliban and is intended only to provide consular services to Afghan citizens and facilitate the deportation of convicted asylum seekers.

The protesters told Afghanistan International that mining workshops belonging to low-income individuals have been shut for about a month, while sites linked to powerful figures continue to operate.

They alleged that those workshops had obtained permission to extract minerals by paying bribes to the Taliban. According to the protesters, the situation has left hundreds of families facing serious financial hardship.

Hibatullah Akhundzada, the Taliban leader, has issued a decree banning what the group calls illegal mining.

One worker, who asked not to be named because of security concerns, told Afghanistan International that the Taliban had collected three months’ worth of operating fees from workers before mining began, even though the payment was supposed to be made only after extraction and the discovery of gold.

According to information from sources, protesters who gathered on Tuesday outside the Taliban’s mining department building in Badakhshan were threatened with weapons, while some were beaten.

Workers said they struggled to enter the building to make their concerns heard, but none of the Taliban officials responded to their demands and some treated them badly.

One protesting worker said that whenever workers approach Taliban officials to seek solutions to their problems, no attention is paid to their living conditions, and their grievances are not addressed.

The exact number of protesters is not known, but images received by Afghanistan International show dozens of workers taking part in the gathering. The Taliban has not yet commented on the protest.

Disputes over gold mining in Takhar and Badakhshan have intensified in recent months and have, in some cases, led to clashes between local residents and Taliban forces.

According to the sources, a joint 10-member team made up of representatives from the Taliban’s intelligence service, police command, governor’s office, statistics authority and Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice has begun tracking former government security personnel based on the compiled lists.

The sources said the Taliban contacts former security personnel by phone to verify their current place of residence and activities. The lists include their names, fathers’ names, original and current addresses, phone numbers and employment records.

One former security officer in Kandahar told Afghanistan International: “The purpose of this measure is to determine where former security personnel are now and what they are doing.”

Another former security officer whose name appears on one of the lists and who was contacted said: “Most of the information in these lists relates to former National Police and Local Police forces affiliated with the former government’s National Directorate of Security.”

A Taliban source in Kandahar confirmed to Afghanistan International that the lists contain information on 900 former security personnel in Zhari district, 700 in Shah Wali Kot, 700 in Panjwayi, 300 in Maiwand and 800 in Dand Wa Patan district.

According to the source, information on former security personnel in other districts has also been collected, but details have not been released.

The source, who is involved in the monitoring process, said the Taliban’s aim is to keep information on former security personnel up to date and ensure that they do not pose a threat to the group.

Two sources had previously told Afghanistan International that the Taliban’s intelligence service held a meeting on Saturday in Kandahar with a number of former security personnel from the province.

According to one source, former security personnel at the meeting were warned to limit travel outside Kandahar city or inform the Taliban’s intelligence authorities before travelling.

The ministry said in a statement that the opium was seized during an operation in Darayim district of Badakhshan.

It added that the cases of the two detainees had been referred to the Taliban’s judicial authorities for further investigation.

Badakhshan, in north-eastern Afghanistan, is considered a key route for drug trafficking because of its geography and long border with Tajikistan.

Despite the Taliban’s ban on poppy cultivation, reports by international organisations and local sources indicate that drug cultivation and trafficking continue in parts of Afghanistan, including Badakhshan.

In recent years, the Taliban has launched campaigns to destroy poppy fields. In some areas, these efforts have faced resistance from farmers and have at times led to tensions between Taliban forces and local residents.

Badakhshan’s security challenges are not limited to narcotics.

The province has valuable mineral deposits, including gold and lapis lazuli, and has long been contested over control of natural resources.

In recent years, illegal mining and competition over natural resources, alongside local disputes and tensions among some Taliban commanders, have added to the province’s security complexities.