Officials from the Taliban’s 219 Omar-e-Salis Division have confirmed an attack by opposition forces in Zebak district of Badakhshan, saying five opposition fighters were killed and several others wounded.
Taliban officials said the clashes involved forces from the 15th Border Brigade but gave no details about casualties among their own ranks.
Officials told Hurriyat Radio, a Taliban-affiliated outlet, that the opposition fighters had allegedly intended to enter Badakhshan from Pakistan to carry out destructive activities.
Taliban sources also claimed that the fighters had bases in Pakistan’s Chitral region and planned to enter Zebak district of Badakhshan through the Shah Salim route.
The sources rejected reports that Mullah Abdul Jamil Rahmani, commander of the Taliban’s 15th Border Brigade, had been killed, saying he was alive and well.
No group or movement has so far claimed responsibility for the attack on Taliban forces.
Sources say both Taliban forces and the attackers suffered casualties in the fighting.
Sources told Afghanistan International on Friday that clashes were still continuing in the Topkhana area of Zebak district in Badakhshan. The fighting began around midday on Thursday.
Sources told Afghanistan International on Friday that fighting between Taliban forces and armed opponents is continuing in Zebak district of Badakhshan, where the Taliban reportedly failed to retake positions lost overnight.
According to the sources, the Taliban launched a large-scale assault last night to recapture positions in the Topkhana area of Zebak district, but the attack was repelled by opposition forces.
Anti-Taliban fighters had earlier attacked several Taliban posts in the Topkhana area and, according to the sources, seized several positions. The Taliban then launched a clearing operation.
The sources said dozens of anti-Taliban fighters are involved in the clashes. No group or movement has officially claimed responsibility for the attack.
Sources said three local Taliban commanders were killed in the fighting.
Faridullah Wahdat, commander of one of the Taliban’s border post units, was among those killed. Afghanistan International has also received an image of his body.
At the same time, sources said the anti-Taliban forces also suffered casualties, although no details are available about their losses.
The Taliban has not yet commented on casualties among its forces or on the continuing clashes in Zebak district.
The fighting in the Topkhana area began around midday on Thursday. Sources had earlier told Afghanistan International that anti-Taliban forces attacked several Taliban posts and that the group sent a large number of reinforcements to the area.
The Taliban deployed commandos by helicopter and sent additional forces overland to the site of the clashes. Sources said some wounded Taliban fighters were flown by helicopter to Faizabad city.
Sources said the Taliban shut down telecommunications towers in the area after opposition forces attacked its positions.
Unlike previous sporadic clashes, forces from both sides are now directly engaged on several fronts. Sources say anti-Taliban fighters are positioned in the highlands of Zebak district.
The fighting comes days after the newly formed Sepah-e Mihan Front attacked Yaftali Sufla district in Badakhshan.
On 17 July, fighters from the front briefly took control of the district administration building, police headquarters and Taliban intelligence office in Yaftal, and raised their flag over the district administration building.
The Pakistani military rejected Amnesty International’s report on an air strike on a treatment centre in Kabul that killed civilians, accusing the Taliban of using hospitals and medical facilities as blind spots for terrorist activity.
The Pakistani military on Thursday, 23 July, described Amnesty International’s report as baseless.
Amnesty International said on Wednesday that a Pakistani air strike on the Omid Treatment and Rehabilitation Centre in Kabul on 16 March 2026, which killed at least 269 civilians, should be investigated as a possible war crime.
The organisation said it had found no evidence supporting the Pakistani military’s claim that the centre was being used to store weapons, ammunition or for other military purposes.
Pakistan Rejects Amnesty’s Findings and Questions UNAMA’s Access
The Pakistani military questioned the credibility of investigations conducted by Amnesty International and the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).
It said claims that a 2,000-bed facility containing more than 4,000 patients, attendants and staff had been struck were inconsistent with conditions on the ground.
The military told Afghanistan International that if an incident of such scale and with such a high casualty toll had taken place, hundreds of videos and images should have emerged from patients and residents using mobile phones or CCTV cameras.
It said the absence of even a single piece of footage or image from the site was the strongest evidence against Amnesty International’s account.
The military also argued that Amnesty International’s review of only 60 photographs and 11 interviews was statistically unreliable for a facility of that size.
It further said Amnesty International’s report relied on UNAMA findings, while claiming that UNAMA’s work had been severely restricted by Taliban-imposed limitations.
Pakistan Accuses Amnesty’s South Asia Office of Indian Influence
The Pakistani military described Isabelle Lassee’s role as acting deputy regional director for South Asia at Amnesty International as a deceptive manoeuvre and alleged that the office was effectively led by Smriti Singh, an Indian national.
Amnesty International has not responded to the allegation.
The Pakistani military alleged that Singh had previously worked with media linked to Indian intelligence and, because of what it described as ties to networks connected to India’s Defence Ministry, used Lassee’s name to publish a commissioned report against Pakistan.
Pakistan accused staff at Amnesty International’s South Asia office of favouring the Indian government’s narrative and said the organisation was whitewashing Taliban bias and crimes.
Isabelle Lassee, Amnesty International’s Acting Regional Director for South Asia, said in a statement that Pakistan’s attack on the treatment facility in Kabul constituted a serious violation of international humanitarian law and called on Pakistan to carry out a transparent, independent and impartial investigation and make the findings public.
She said: “The attack on the Omid Centre constitutes a serious violation of international humanitarian law – possibly amounting to a war crime”. She added that because the site had been known as a medical facility for more than a decade, the strike pointed to a serious failure in Pakistan’s military planning that resulted in significant civilian deaths.
Pakistan Foreign Ministry Responds
Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Tahir Andrabi said at a press briefing on Thursday, 23 July, that no responsible state can remain indifferent to the continued targeting of its civilians and security forces.
Andrabi said all Pakistani military operations carried out in self-defence had been based on necessity and used only as a last resort.
He said the strikes had been directed solely and exclusively at terrorists and their support bases inside Afghanistan.
The spokesman said Pakistan’s response had been proportionate to the level of threat and that the principles of distinction, precaution and proportionality had been carefully observed.
Andrabi urged Amnesty International and the international community to focus their scrutiny on what he described as the Taliban regime’s continued support for terrorist groups.
He said Islamabad wanted the international community to hold the Taliban accountable for failing to meet its obligations under relevant UN Security Council resolutions, the Doha Agreement and other commitments to prevent Afghan territory from being used as a base for terrorism.
He added that Pakistan reserved the right to take all necessary measures to protect its sovereignty, territorial integrity, and the security and safety of its citizens.
Qayum Malang, commander of the Sepah-e Mihan Front, released his first audio message five days after the attack on Yaftal district in Badakhshan, saying he and his fighters were safe.
Malang said on Wednesday, 22 July: “I am in full health. Do not follow the enemy’s propaganda. We are all safe and well.”
He also stressed that the front “has its own plans and objectives” and that its members prefer freedom above everything else.
The newly formed Sepah-e Mihan Front recently launched a surprise attack and seized Yaftali Sufla district, near Faizabad, the capital of Badakhshan province, for several hours.
The attackers entered government buildings, seized some military equipment and raised their flag over several buildings.
The attack brought Qayum Malang into the spotlight. The young commander led the military operation that resulted in the temporary capture of Yaftal.
Following the incident, the Taliban said it had detained several Sepah-e Mihan fighters.
In his first audio message, Malang rejected the claim and said all members of the front were safe and in good health. He urged supporters not to pay attention to Taliban propaganda.
Yaftali Sufla is one of the important districts of Badakhshan province. Its brief capture by an anti-Taliban group has become one of the province’s most significant recent security developments and continues to prompt political reactions and analysis.
Following Sepah-e Mihan’s unprecedented attack on Yaftal, the Taliban assigned its army chief, Fasihuddin Fitrat, to contain the group.
Fitrat travelled from Kabul to Yaftal in Badakhshan and claimed the attackers’ operation had been thwarted and that they had failed to achieve their objectives.
The Taliban army chief said in Badakhshan that authorities had learned in advance of the armed attackers’ plan to target Yaftal district.
He said they had received information early in the morning that the “enemy” planned to create unrest in Yaftal.
Fitrat added that after receiving the information, he travelled from Kabul to Badakhshan and ordered Taliban forces to act. He claimed the Taliban had thwarted the plan and prevented the attackers from achieving their objectives.
Hayatullah Muhajir Farahi, the Taliban’s deputy minister of information and culture, wrote on X on Friday that domestic and foreign enemies should understand the sensitivity of the Taliban’s security forces to any threat against the area.
The Taliban official also said that those who, in his words, obstruct Afghanistan’s economic progress “do not deserve any mercy”.
Sources told Afghanistan International that the Taliban has compiled lists of former security personnel in Kandahar, Helmand and Uruzgan and begun surveilling them, including by phone to verify where they live.
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.
A girl due to enter seventh grade in 2022 is now about 17 or 18. Had things continued normally, she would have finished school and be preparing for the university entrance exam.
But five years of education bans have changed the course of her life. She still has no 12th-grade certificate, and the path to university and many job opportunities remains closed.
If the ban on girls’ education continues, Afghanistan could face shortages of thousands of female teachers, doctors and midwives by 2030, with consequences that will reshape education, the economy and the health system.
This report examines how this deprivation could affect education, health, the economy, the labour market, the generation of professional women, and children raised by mothers denied access to education by 2030.
Hundreds of Thousands of Women and Girls Deprived
Reports by UNESCO and UNICEF, both UN agencies, show that 2.2 million adolescent girls in Afghanistan are currently denied access to secondary education.
UNICEF estimates that every additional year the ban continues will prevent about 250,000 more girls from continuing their education. If the restrictions remain in place, more than two million additional girls could be denied education beyond primary school by 2030.
Mirwais Balkhi, former education minister of Afghanistan, says the continuation of the current situation is deepening both the educational gap between women and men and Afghanistan’s knowledge gap with the rest of the world each year.
According to him, the divide between women and men, and between Afghanistan and the world, is widening.
Balkhi says the exclusion of girls, the declining number of female teachers, limited alternative education and the expansion of ideological instruction have weakened Afghanistan’s academic and educational capacity.
He believes Afghanistan’s education system has undergone a structural collapse, with the Taliban reducing the concept of education largely to basic literacy in reading and writing, while many children fail to acquire even these fundamental skills.
Abdul Ghafoor Arezo, Afghanistan’s former ambassador to Tajikistan, also told Afghanistan International that hostility towards knowledge may not endure indefinitely, but it can hold back a society’s progress for years.
Arezo said that because of Taliban restrictions on women, Afghanistan is heading towards deeper backwardness and greater darkness by 2030, while its civic and academic achievements are being lost.
These warnings come as Afghanistan had been on a very different path before the Taliban returned to power. The number of female university students rose from about 5,000 in 2001 to more than 100,000 by 2021. Many were only months away from graduating.
That progress has now stopped. Even if universities reopen, the generation that was expected to enter the workforce between 2021 and 2030 will no longer exist in the same form. The first signs of this gap are expected to emerge in education and healthcare.
UNESCO has raised concerns extending far beyond the next four years, saying that if the suspension of women’s higher education continues, it could reduce Afghanistan’s economic potential by about $9.6 billion by 2066.
That figure is close to two-thirds of the country’s current gross domestic product.
A recent UNICEF assessment shows that if the restrictions continue, Afghanistan could lose about 20,000 female teachers by 2030 through retirement and migration.
The agency has also warned of the possible loss of 5,400 female health workers. Together, these workers account for nearly a quarter of the female workforce employed in those two sectors in 2021.
Who Will Treat Afghanistan’s Women?
Restrictions on girls’ education have not only emptied classrooms. They have also halted the training of thousands of female doctors, midwives, nurses and other health workers at a time when Afghanistan’s healthcare system needs them more than ever.
In many parts of Afghanistan, particularly rural areas, women seek treatment only at health facilities where female staff are available. As a result, the shortage of female doctors and midwives is not merely an educational issue; it directly affects millions of women’s access to healthcare.
In 2023, the Taliban also stopped women from studying at medical institutes.
Dr Abdul Hakim Tamanna, former head of public health in Herat and a senior public health specialist, says the healthcare crisis will become visible well before 2030.
He says some female health workers will reach retirement age. Others will migrate because of restrictions and difficult living conditions, while some will leave their jobs under growing work pressure.
According to him, the central problem is that no women are being trained to replace them.
Rising Maternal and Infant Deaths
Afghanistan already has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world.
The World Health Organisation says one woman dies during childbirth in Afghanistan every two hours.
UNICEF has warned that a decline in the number of female doctors and midwives could lead to 1,600 additional maternal deaths and more than 3,500 additional infant deaths.
Dr Tamanna says the absence of female health workers deprives women of pregnancy and childbirth services, treatment for illnesses and preventive care.
According to him, rising maternal deaths, infant deaths and disabilities among women also break families apart. A child who loses their mother during childbirth faces greater risks related to nutrition, health, education and family support.
He describes the outlook for Afghanistan’s health system in 2030, if the current situation continues, as a humanitarian catastrophe and says the long-term cost of illness, death and disability among women could reach tens of billions of dollars.
The World Health Organisation says nearly half of all deaths in Afghanistan are caused by non-communicable diseases, and their share is expected to increase by 2030.
Despite this, the Taliban does not allow women to study midwifery or nursing. The UN Population Fund has estimated that if the ban on girls’ education continues, Afghanistan could face a shortage of about 18,000 midwives and more than 7,000 female doctors by 2030.
This shortage would reduce the health system’s capacity to provide services to millions of women.
Afghanistan’s Economy Becomes More Male-Dominated
Experts say banning women from education will affect Afghanistan’s economy for years. A country where half the population is denied education and many employment opportunities loses a major share of its productive, innovative and economic potential.
An economics professor at an Afghan university, who asked not to be named because of security concerns, says excluding women from education shrinks Afghanistan’s human capital.
He says educating women is an economic investment. An educated woman can work, increase household income, build a business and contribute to production and services.
According to him, excluding women from education makes families more dependent on the income of a single man. Illness, unemployment, disability or the death of that man can push the entire family into poverty.
World Bank data shows that women’s labour force participation in Afghanistan stood at about 5.1 per cent in 2025, compared with 69.8 per cent for men. Women accounted for only 6.8 per cent of the country’s total workforce.
UN Women says 78 per cent of young Afghan women are neither in education, employment nor skills training. The figure for young men is 20 per cent.
The UN Development Programme estimates that restrictions imposed on women and girls caused nearly $920 million in losses to Afghanistan’s economy between 2024 and 2026, equivalent to about 5.8 per cent of the country’s GDP.
UNICEF has also estimated that the direct annual economic loss caused by restrictions on women’s education and economic participation is at least $84 million.
The economics professor says the situation also reduces employment opportunities for men.
When a school or health centre becomes weak or closes because of the lack of female teachers or health workers, male employees, drivers, guards, shopkeepers and related service companies also lose income.
According to him, Afghanistan’s economy will become even more dependent on foreign aid by 2030.
Mothers’ Deprivation Harms Children’s Opportunities
Years of educational deprivation for girls could also affect the children they will have in the future.
Research by the World Bank, UNESCO and UNICEF shows that a mother’s education is one of the most important factors determining children’s health, nutrition and education.
Women with more education generally seek healthcare earlier, are more likely to send their children to school and invest more in their nutrition and development.
UNICEF analysis shows a strong relationship between mothers’ education and children’s vaccination, healthy height and weight, and access to antenatal care.
The agency has warned that declining levels of education among women could worsen the health of mothers and children.
A former female lecturer at Kabul University who still lives in Afghanistan says that in a household where the mother has no independent income, all expenses depend on a single breadwinner.
Such families are more vulnerable to unemployment, illness, drought and displacement.
She said family poverty can also force a child out of school. In this way, denying education to today’s girl may mean fewer opportunities for tomorrow’s child.
According to her, in poor families, when girls are denied education and employment, pressure for early marriage also increases.
The United Nations estimates that the education ban could increase child marriage by 25 per cent and put about 37 per cent of Afghan girls at risk of marriage before the age of 18.
She said girls excluded from school face the same unanswered question every day: when will they be able to return to a normal life?
A UN Women assessment shows that during the first three months of 2024, about 21 per cent of women surveyed had not had a single social interaction with a woman outside their own family.
This isolation was reported more frequently in urban areas.
Migration Deepens the Shortage of Specialists
Those interviewed by Afghanistan International believe the country is losing two generations at the same time: a new generation of women denied access to specialist education, and part of the existing generation of skilled women and men who are leaving the country.
Dr Tamana says work pressure, restrictions and the absence of a clear future are pushing some educated women to leave Afghanistan.
He says families that can afford to do so are also moving abroad to educate their daughters.
As these families leave, Afghanistan simultaneously loses knowledge, experience, capital and labour.
What Will Afghanistan Look Like in 2030?
Afghanistan in 2030 will still carry the effects of five years of girls being denied education, even if schools and universities reopen before then.
Reopening educational institutions could prevent the crisis from becoming even worse, but it cannot erase the years already lost.
Recovering from those lost years would require a broad programme of remedial education, returning women to universities, urgently training teachers and health workers, and creating employment opportunities.
Basir Ahmad Danishyar, a university lecturer who has since moved to Germany, says that if the current situation continues, Afghanistan will lose a large share of its human capital and academic capacity.
The country will face declining knowledge production, reduced innovation and increasing difficulty in training skilled professionals.
Universities and higher education institutions will face shortages of lecturers, researchers and specialised staff.
Migration will increase, development indicators will deteriorate, and valuable opportunities for sustainable development, particularly in knowledge, research and scientific production, will be lost further.
For many countries, 2030 is expected to be a milestone for assessing global development goals. Countries are working to expand equal access to education, healthcare, technology and employment.
Countries across the region are training increasing numbers of female doctors, engineers, researchers and specialists every year.
Balkhi says that under such circumstances, Afghanistan will be pushed to the scientific margins of the region.
In his view, a system that does not nurture critical thinking, skills and specialised knowledge cannot prepare the human resources required for development.
Every year of delay increases the number of girls who grow beyond school age and take on new family responsibilities.