Local sources told Afghanistan International on Thursday, 13 August, that Taliban helicopters bombed positions held by Juma Khan Fateh’s fighters near the centre of Nusay district in Badakhshan.
According to the sources, two Taliban helicopters struck Fateh’s positions in the Jisang area at around 11 am on Thursday.
Jisang is located near the centre of Nusay district.
The helicopters left the area after the attack. There are so far no details about possible casualties.
Local residents said Taliban drones were patrolling the skies over Nusay following the air strikes.
Residents also said fighting between Taliban forces and fighters loyal to Juma Khan Fateh was continuing.
Reports indicate that the Taliban is sending additional forces to Nusay district.
Videos received by Afghanistan International show helicopters flying over the district.
As fighting intensifies between Taliban forces and fighters loyal to Juma Khan Fateh in Badakhshan, local sources say scattered gunfire has been heard in the centre of Nusay district since Thursday morning.
At the same time, residents of Taloqan, the capital of Takhar province, reported seeing a large convoy of Taliban intelligence forces heading towards Badakhshan.
Reports indicate that additional Taliban reinforcements have also been sent to Badakhshan from Kunduz, Balkh and Kabul.
The continuing fighting has made life increasingly difficult for local residents. Reports say roads linking villages in Nusay with the district centre have been completely blocked because of the intensity of the clashes, preventing residents from travelling.
The fighting began on Tuesday evening, 11 August, after Taliban forces attacked positions held by Juma Khan Fateh, a dissident commander of the group, in Nusay district.
Following the attacks, Fateh released an audio message calling on his forces and residents to take up arms against the Taliban.
His dispute with the Taliban, where he previously served as deputy governor of Zabul before being removed, has intensified over mining activities in Badakhshan.
According to reports from the ground, heavy clashes have taken place in several areas of the district.
Forces loyal to Fateh have reportedly captured two Taliban outposts in the Doabi and Sarkoh areas. Shurian, Joy Dara and Shakh Dara, along with large parts of rural Nusay, have also reportedly fallen out of Taliban control, although the district centre remains in the group’s hands.
Both sides have suffered significant casualties in the fighting. Some sources told Afghanistan International that more than seven members of Taliban special forces had been killed and 11 others wounded.
On Fateh’s side, at least two people, including one of his fighters and a mine worker, have been killed and several others wounded.
Because of the growing number of casualties, the Taliban has taken control of all health centres and the district clinic in Nusay and removed civilian patients to treat its wounded fighters.
Taliban intelligence medical teams, accompanied by five ambulances and helicopters, are transporting the dead and wounded, while Faizabad hospital has been placed on alert.
As Taliban helicopters and drones continue flying over the area, the group has also cut Wi-Fi internet access and communications lines across large parts of Nusay district.
Andrei Grozin, head of the Central Asia department at the CIS Institute, said the risk of militant and international terrorist groups infiltrating from Afghanistan remains the main reason for annual military exercises in the region.
According to the Russian newspaper Izvestia, Grozin said in an assessment of the latest Russia-Kyrgyzstan drills that security threats in Central Asia remain high.
He said regional military exercises, whether held under the Collective Security Treaty Organization, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation or through bilateral cooperation, are mainly designed to prepare for potential threats originating from Afghanistan.
The Russian researcher recalled the “Batken events” of 1999 and 2000, when trained militants from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and extremist groups based in Afghanistan attempted to enter Uzbekistan through Kyrgyzstan.
According to Grozin, despite the relatively small number of attackers, they inflicted heavy losses on local forces, forcing Bishkek to seek military assistance from Moscow, Tashkent and Astana.
He said that experience has led regional governments to continue taking seriously the possibility of similar scenarios originating from Afghanistan.
Other security experts have also warned that recent developments along Afghanistan’s northern borders, particularly in Badakhshan province near Tajikistan, indicate that instability in the area persists.
The CIS Institute is based in Moscow and regularly focuses on political, security, economic and social developments in the Central Asian states of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan.
Russia-Kyrgyzstan Joint Military Exercise Begins
The comments come as a new joint military exercise involving Russian and Kyrgyz forces began on 11 August in difficult mountainous terrain and is due to continue until 17 August.
During the drills, forces from the two countries are practising border closures, assaults, the clearance of simulated illegal armed groups and the use of drones to prevent possible infiltration by extremist groups.
The exercise command said the drills were important for strengthening combat coordination and friendly relations between Moscow and Bishkek.
Richard Bennett, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan, has called for an independent investigation into the killing of 11 people by Taliban security forces in Kabul.
The Taliban said on 1 August that seven people had been killed in Kabul’s eighth police district, describing them as “armed robbers”.
Bennett wrote on X on Monday that reports of people being killed during Taliban security operations in Kabul were concerning.
He referred to the shooting of four people on Monday and the killing of seven others in recent days in the eighth police district, saying the incidents should be investigated urgently and impartially.
He added that the use of lethal force must comply with international human rights law and the principles of necessity and proportionality.
Taliban police said on Monday, 10 August, that four people had been killed in Kabul’s 18th police district.
Khalid Zadran, spokesman for the Taliban police command in Kabul, said the men were “armed” and had entered a house to steal.
According to him, Taliban forces clashed with the men after arriving at the scene.
The Taliban said all four were killed and that two pistols were recovered from them.
Nine days earlier, Taliban forces killed seven other people in the Stanikzai Blocks area of Kabul’s eighth police district.
Zadran said those men were also “armed robbers” and had opened fire on Taliban forces first.
He said one Taliban member was wounded in the clash and that a vehicle and several weapons were seized.
Afghanistan International spoke to relatives of some of those killed. They rejected the Taliban’s account and said their relatives had been shot dead without trial.
According to information received by Afghanistan International, some of those killed were Hazara.
Families Initially Unaware of Their Relatives’ Fate
An informed source told Afghanistan International that the families of the seven people killed on 1 August initially had no information about their relatives’ fate.
According to the source, after the men disappeared, their families separately approached Taliban police stations seeking information.
Taliban police officials initially said they knew nothing about them.
The families were later told to go to the eighth police district because seven people accused of robbery had been killed there.
They later identified their relatives after seeing photographs of the bodies at the forensic medicine department.
The bodies were subsequently handed over to their families.
A relative of one of those killed told Afghanistan International that his family was financially well-off.
In his view, the young man had no reason to resort to theft.
Reactions to the Killings of People Accused of Robbery
The killings have also prompted reactions on social media.
Some users supported the Taliban, while others questioned why the men were not arrested and put on trial.
Referring to the Taliban’s claim that two pistols had been recovered from the four men killed, one user wrote that the main issue was that they had been summarily executed.
The user alleged that they had been shot after being detained.
He added that people should not encourage rulers to kill or deprive others of their rights, warning that anyone could face the same fate in the future.
Following the killing of the seven men in the eighth police district, Fazl Ahmad Manawi, justice minister in Afghanistan’s former regime, also described the incident as a summary execution.
Manawi said that in Islamic jurisprudence and law, the presumption of innocence is a fundamental principle, and no one is considered guilty merely on the basis of an accusation.
He called for an independent investigation into the incident.
This is not the first time the Taliban’s account of people it described as “armed robbers” being killed has been disputed by other sources.
In February 2025, the Taliban described three people killed in Nimroz as “armed robbers”, but local sources said they were not thieves.
On 4 June this year, the Taliban also accused two people killed in Herat of robbery.
An armed group opposed to the Taliban later said the two were its members and had been killed during an attack on a Taliban checkpoint.
UNAMA: Complaints Against Taliban Forces Go Unanswered
UNAMA issued a report on Monday, 10 August, on accountability for Taliban security forces and officials in response to public complaints.
The mission said Taliban security agencies had provided no statistics on the number of complaints about misconduct by their forces or the outcomes of investigations into those complaints.
UNAMA also said it had documented numerous cases in which complaints remained unresolved.
According to the mission, some people refrain from filing complaints against Taliban forces because they fear retaliation and lack confidence in the existing complaint mechanisms.
UNAMA also reported cases in which no investigation or arrest followed serious allegations of human rights violations.
The mission expressed concern as well about some Taliban military courts refusing to accept complaints filed by members of the public against Taliban forces.
Taliban Justice Minister Abdul Hakim Sharaei has rejected allegations of “systematic discrimination” and attempts to forcibly displace Hazaras, saying land recovery is a legal matter unrelated to ethnicity or religion.
He said implementing court rulings in such cases was a religious duty of the commission tasked with preventing land usurpation.
Sharaei said decisions on disputed land between the commission and individuals fall within the jurisdiction of the special court dealing with cases of allegedly usurped state land.
Speaking at a meeting with charity officials in Kabul on Tuesday, 11 August, he said that once a court ruling is issued on such land, the commission is legally and religiously obliged to enforce it.
Sharaei stressed that identifying and recovering land described by the Taliban as having been seized by usurpers or unlawful occupants was a legal process taking place across Afghanistan.
He said linking the process to ethnicity, religion or language was “illogical”.
His remarks came after the Taliban Justice Ministry had earlier declared Omid-e Sabz township in Kabul state property and ordered residents to leave their homes by 6 August.
The decision prompted widespread criticism.
Representatives of Omid-e Sabz travelled to Kandahar after the Taliban moved to seize the township’s land and evict residents, and met Mullah Shirin, the Taliban governor of Kandahar.
Sources said Mullah Shirin had promised to review their request.
The dispute over Omid-e Sabz, where a large proportion of residents are Hazara, has increased tensions between the Hazara community and the Taliban administration.
Reliable sources in Kabul told Afghanistan International on Monday, 10 August, that the Taliban justice minister had insulted and humiliated Madar Ali Karimi, deputy minister of urban development, and Abdul Latif Nazari, deputy economy minister, in his office.
According to the sources, Sharaei called Karimi and Nazari on Sunday night and summoned them to his office at the Justice Ministry on Monday morning.
Karimi and Nazari denied Afghanistan International’s report about tensions during their meeting with the justice minister.
Taliban Borders & Tribal Affairs Minister Noorullah Noori has travelled to Yaftal district of Badakhshan at the order of Prime Minister Hassan Akhund to investigate a deadly clash between Taliban forces and local residents.
In a statement issued on Monday, 10 August, the ministry said Rahmatullah Najib, deputy minister for administrative affairs at the Taliban Interior Ministry, and Mawlawi Mohammad Ali Jan, deputy minister for logistics at the Defence Ministry, accompanied Noori on the visit.
Amanuddin Mansour, the Taliban governor of Helmand who originates from Badakhshan, was also present when the delegation visited Etifaq Bazaar in Yaftal district.
The Taliban Borders and Tribal Affairs Ministry said the purpose of the visit was to investigate the clash between residents and Taliban forces in Yaftal.
Without providing exact figures, the ministry said several military personnel and civilians had been killed or wounded in the incident.
The statement quoted Noori as stressing unity and solidarity during his meeting with Yaftal residents and saying that “ethnic discrimination, regionalism and discrimination” had no place in the Taliban administration.
He also said the Taliban regarded the people of Badakhshan as “a mujahid nation”.
The Taliban delegation promised to investigate the incident and prosecute those responsible.
On Saturday, 1 August, residents of Yaftal district clashed with Taliban forces.
Local sources said the confrontation began after non-local Taliban forces physically searched a woman.
According to the sources, at least four people were killed and seven others, including a woman, were wounded in the clash. One Taliban fighter was also killed and another wounded.
Sources told Afghanistan International that the Taliban delegation, led by the borders minister, met local residents at the main mosque in Etifaq Bazaar on Friday, 7 August.
According to local sources, the delegation promised that those responsible for the shooting would be prosecuted.
However, residents sharply criticised the conduct of Taliban forces and called on Taliban officials to remove non-local fighters from the area as soon as possible.
Sources said the meeting between the Taliban delegation and residents ended without a clear outcome.
Residents also said Noori provided 50,000 afghanis in assistance to each family of those killed and wounded.
Jahan Khan Noori, the Taliban police chief in Yaftal district, has also complained about the treatment of residents by non-local forces and raised the issue seriously with Taliban officials.
He has called for the removal of those forces from the area.
Afghanistan International has also obtained an audio recording of Ehsanullah Kamgar, spokesman for the Taliban police command in Badakhshan, criticising the failure to arrest those responsible for shooting civilians in Yaftal.
“This system exists for the people, and we have a responsibility towards them. As the public relations official, I am required to answer questions,” he said in the recording.
He added: “Everyone is asking why no one has been arrested after several people were killed. Give me an answer so I can answer the people. Which unit is shooting at civilians? They did not come down from the sky to shoot people. They do not have a letter of exemption from the Amir al-Muminin.”
About a week after the incident, there have been no reports of anyone being arrested over the shooting of civilians.
After the centre of Yaftal district fell to forces of the Sepah-e Mihan Front on 17 July, the Taliban deployed non-local forces to the district.
Local residents say restrictions have increased since then, homes have repeatedly been searched, and a number of civilians have been detained.
Yaftal residents say the non-local Taliban forces are unfamiliar with the local language, culture and customs and mistreat residents.