The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) confirmed that at least three civilians, a man, a woman and a girl, were killed in Monday’s air strikes in Kunar province. Four others were wounded.
UNAMA said that since the beginning of 2026, more than 1,100 civilian casualties, including deaths and injuries, have been recorded in Afghanistan as a result of cross-border armed violence.
The United Nations again stressed the need to comply with international humanitarian law and urged all parties to the conflict to respect those rules in order to prevent civilian casualties.
Pakistan’s government had earlier said that 28 militants were killed in air strikes carried out early on Monday in Afghanistan’s border areas.
A new Institute for Economics and Peace report ranks Afghanistan 157th out of 163 countries on the Positive Peace Index, making it the seventh-lowest ranked country. Afghanistan scored 4.19 out of five.
Below Afghanistan in the ranking are, in order, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Yemen, Chad, the Central African Republic, South Sudan and Somalia.
Denmark tops the index with a score of 1.213, followed by Finland at 1.245 and Sweden at 1.280.
According to the report, Afghanistan was the only South Asian country to deteriorate on the Positive Peace Index between 2015 and 2024.
Afghanistan’s score stood at 4.055 in 2015 and rose to 4.19 by 2024, representing a 3.3% deterioration in its performance on the index.
The decline was mainly attributed to sharp deterioration in indicators related to political freedom and the free flow of information.
According to the report, press freedom in Afghanistan declined by 78.8%, the largest deterioration in any individual indicator among countries in the region.
Information quality also declined by 23.4%, while laws supporting equality among different population groups deteriorated by 25%.
Exclusion based on socio-economic groups worsened by 20.4%, while government effectiveness declined by 13.2%.
The report says press freedom also deteriorated in most other South Asian countries, including by 60% in Bhutan and 45.4% in India.
However, Afghanistan was the only country in the region whose overall Positive Peace score deteriorated between 2015 and 2024.
By contrast, South Asia improved by an average of 2.9% over the period.
Sri Lanka recorded the largest improvement at 6.3%, followed by India at 6%.
Nepal improved by 4.7%, Bhutan by 4.1%, Bangladesh by 3.5% and Pakistan by 0.9%.
The Institute for Economics and Peace says Positive Peace is not limited to the absence of war and conflict but examines the conditions and structures that enable peaceful societies to be created and sustained.
The index considers factors including effective government, the free flow of information, human capital, good relations with neighbouring countries, acceptance of the rights of others and low levels of corruption.
The report is based on an analysis of more than 20,000 datasets and indicators across 163 countries, with the ranking drawing on data up to 2024.
The Institute for Economics and Peace, an independent non-profit organisation, also publishes the Global Peace Index.
However, the Positive Peace Index differs from the Global Peace Index. Positive Peace focuses on the factors and structures that help create and sustain peace, while the Global Peace Index measures how peaceful countries are based on levels of violence, conflict and insecurity.
Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif has claimed that 70 to 80% of those carrying out terrorist attacks and targeting Pakistani troops are Afghans. He also urged Pakistani students not to support Afghan students in the country.
Writing on X on Sunday, 20 September, Asif said Pakistan had provided refuge to Afghans for the past five decades and allowed them to share the country’s limited resources.
He added that after NATO forces withdrew from Afghanistan, Pakistan had hoped its borders would remain secure and countries in the region would live in peace.
The senior Pakistani official claimed that those carrying out terrorist attacks in mosques, schools and markets and attacking military personnel were mostly Afghans.
He also alleged that some of these individuals expressed solidarity with India, which he described as Pakistan’s longstanding and bitter enemy. Taliban officials have consistently rejected such allegations.
Asif said Pakistan’s military and civilian leadership had been in direct and indirect contact with these individuals but claimed that those efforts had failed to reduce what he called Afghan hatred and hostility.
Responding to support expressed by some Pakistani students for Afghan students, Asif said it was not motivated by affection but reflected their political leanings.
Reposting a video of a female student supporting the presence of Afghan students in Pakistan, he said Pakistani students taking such a position were insulting the blood of soldiers and civilians killed in attacks by people coming from Afghanistan.
His comments come after Pakistan this month ordered Afghan medical and dental students to return home.
On 1 September, the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council instructed medical universities and colleges to prepare enrolled Afghan students to return to Afghanistan and to prevent the admission of Afghan students during the current academic year.
However, the order to remove Afghan medical students has for now been suspended.
The Lahore High Court temporarily halted its implementation on 11 September and extended the suspension on 18 September. The case, brought by Afghan students, remains pending.
Pakistan accuses the Taliban of allowing anti-Pakistan armed groups to operate from Afghan territory. The Taliban rejects the allegations.
Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid has condemned Pakistan’s attacks on Kunar and Paktika provinces as crimes and aggression. Writing on X on Monday, 21 September, he said the attacks would receive an appropriate response.
The Taliban spokesperson said Pakistan’s military establishment had carried out the attacks to divert public attention from security failures within the country.
Providing details of the casualties, Mujahid said one woman and two men had been killed in Kunar province, while two women and two men were wounded.
He added that a house and a local shop had been bombed in Paktika province, but the attack had caused no casualties.
The Taliban said the attacks took place early on Monday, 21 September, in Patan village in Kunar’s Nurgal district and in the Rakha and Tor Kandi areas of Paktika’s Barmal district.
Hamdullah Fitrat, the Taliban’s deputy spokesperson, shared images of destroyed houses and said those killed and wounded in the Kunar attack were members of the same family.
Pakistani officials have not yet commented on the attacks.
The strikes come amid an escalation in insecurity and deadly clashes inside Pakistan.
Pakistan’s military announced on Sunday that six soldiers, including two officers, had been killed in heavy fighting between security forces and armed militants in Hangu district, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
The Pakistani military described the attackers as members of “Fitna al-Khawarij”, a term Pakistani officials use for Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and affiliated groups. Islamabad also claims that some of these groups receive foreign support.
Meanwhile, sources say the suicide bomber who attacked a police compound in Kohat, Pakistan, on Friday was a resident of Sangin district in Afghanistan’s Helmand province.
Pakistan’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting had previously said in a statement that the perpetrators of the attack on worshippers and police officers in Kohat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, had links to Afghanistan.
Pakistan has repeatedly bombed areas in Afghanistan’s border provinces in the past.
Islamabad says its strikes on Afghan territory target militant bases, particularly those of the Pakistani Taliban, whose members it alleges are being sheltered by the Afghan Taliban.
Iran’s Energy Minister Abbas Aliabadi has told the head of the Taliban’s state-owned companies that Tehran is ready to facilitate the supply of up to 2,000 megawatts of electricity to Afghanistan.
According to a statement from the Taliban’s state-owned companies, Mohammad Ahmad Jan Bilal, the head of the organisation, met Aliabadi during a visit to Iran. The two discussed cooperation in electricity and energy, drinking water supplies and the construction of wastewater treatment facilities.
According to the Taliban’s statement, Iran’s energy minister said his country was ready to cooperate with Afghanistan in the electricity sector and could provide training for Afghan technical personnel and help improve their professional skills in technical and specialised services.
Aliabadi added that Iran was prepared to facilitate the supply of up to 2,000 megawatts of electricity to Afghanistan to meet the country’s energy needs.
The head of the Taliban’s state-owned companies also emphasised expanding cooperation between the two countries in the energy sector, strengthening technical capacity and implementing joint projects.
At the end of his visit, Bilal also toured major water and wastewater treatment facilities in Tehran.
Iran Faces Electricity Shortages
Iran’s offer to supply electricity to Afghanistan comes as the country itself faces electricity shortages and an imbalance between power supply and demand.
Reports this year have highlighted widespread power cuts and restrictions on electricity consumption in various sectors, including industry, across Iran. One research report suggests that Iran’s electricity shortfall during peak demand could exceed 13,000 megawatts.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has repeatedly emphasised the need to manage consumption, improve efficiency and address the country’s energy imbalance in recent months.
In August, he said damage to power plants and disruptions to gas production had increased pressure on Iran’s electricity sector.
Pezeshkian also stressed the need to manage water, electricity and gas consumption in June and called on the public to help reduce energy use.
Despite these challenges, Iran’s energy minister now says Tehran is ready to provide up to 2,000 megawatts of electricity to meet Afghanistan’s needs.
Details of the proposal, including the timetable, the amount of electricity that could be supplied and how it would be transmitted to Afghanistan, have not yet been announced.
Abdul Mateen Qani, spokesperson for the Taliban Interior Ministry, said developments in Iran and tensions between Kabul and Islamabad were among the key issues discussed during meetings between Turkish and Qatari delegations and Taliban officials in Kabul.
İbrahim Kalın, head of Türkiye’s National Intelligence Organisation, and Hamad bin Khamis Al-Kubaisi, Qatar’s deputy national security adviser, visited Afghanistan separately on Tuesday and Wednesday last week and held talks with senior Taliban officials on regional and security developments.
Qani told Al Arabiya that the situation in Iran was one of the main topics discussed during the meetings. He added that a further deterioration in Iran could affect countries across the region, particularly Afghanistan, Qatar and Türkiye.
The Taliban Interior Ministry spokesman also said the parties had emphasised the need for joint cooperation to ensure regional security and stability, particularly in combating terrorism and drug trafficking.
Talks on Tensions With Pakistan
Qani said clashes and tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan were also among the main issues discussed during the meetings. He added that the parties had committed to continuing joint efforts to resolve the dispute and improve relations between Kabul and Islamabad.
In Kabul, Kalın met Abdul Haq Wasiq, the Taliban’s intelligence chief, Mohammad Yaqoob Mujahid, the defence minister, and Sirajuddin Haqqani, the interior minister. The Qatari delegation also held separate meetings with Taliban officials.
The meetings took place amid serious tensions between the Taliban and Pakistan in recent months. Islamabad accuses the Taliban of allowing Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and some armed Baloch groups to operate from Afghan territory. The Taliban has rejected these allegations.
Turkish Intelligence Chief’s Visit to Pakistan
After visiting Afghanistan, Kalın travelled to Pakistan. Pakistani officials did not formally announce the Turkish delegation’s visit, but Turkish media reported on it.
The visit came amid rising security tensions between the Taliban and Pakistan, with attacks by armed groups continuing in Pakistan’s border regions.
In the latest incident, a suicide attack on a mosque inside a police compound in Kohat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, killed at least 31 people. A vehicle packed with explosives entered the police compound, followed by an armed clash between the attackers and security forces.
The Ittehad-ul-Mujahideen group, affiliated with Hafiz Gul Bahadur, claimed responsibility for the attack.
In recent months, Islamabad has repeatedly alleged that armed groups opposed to Pakistan are using Afghan territory to organise and carry out attacks.
The Taliban has rejected the allegation, saying insecurity in Pakistan is an internal matter for that country.
