Sources in Parwan’s Salang district say Taliban forces were targeted in an explosion on Tuesday afternoon, 22 September. According to the sources, several Taliban members and a civilian were killed in the blast.
Three sources in Parwan told Afghanistan International that the explosion occurred at around 2pm as newly deployed Taliban forces were taking up positions at a checkpoint in Deh Yak village in Salang district.
No group had claimed responsibility for the incident at the time of publication.
According to the sources, four Taliban members and one civilian were killed in the explosion. The sources said the Taliban had taken the civilian with them from the area to help transport equipment to the checkpoint.
The nature of the explosion remains unclear, and Taliban officials have not commented on the incident.
A resident of Deh Yak village in Salang district said Taliban forces arrived in the area following the explosion and began conducting house-to-house search operations.
Abdullah Khenjani, spokesperson for the National Resistance Front (NRF), said Saleh Mohammad Registani’s return to the battlefield was “calculated”.
Khenjani told Afghanistan International that Registani’s presence was part of a broader plan to begin a new phase of operations on the ground.
In an interview with Afghanistan International on Tuesday, Khenjani stressed that Registani’s return to the foothills of the Hindu Kush as the NRF’s operational commander was not a temporary move, but part of an ongoing process.
He expressed hope that the presence of the NRF’s operational commander would bring “fresh energy” to the group’s forces and boost the morale of Taliban opponents.
The NRF announced on Monday, in a video, that Rigistani had returned to Afghanistan and was in the foothills of the Hindu Kush.
In the video, Rigistani said that “the resistance continues” and that other fronts were also fighting the Taliban in different parts of the country.
Following the release of the video, several political and military figures opposed to the Taliban welcomed his return.
The NRF spokesperson rejected reports of divisions among armed groups opposed to the Taliban, saying there were no differences among the military fronts fighting the group. According to Khenjani, the NRF is coordinating with prominent anti-Taliban groups and there are no obstacles or problems in relations and coordination among them.
Khenjani added that the NRF had sought in recent years to change the perception that resistance depended on foreign support. He said Taliban opponents did not need to coordinate with regional countries or foreign intelligence agencies to operate inside Afghanistan, nor did they require permission from any party to enter or leave their own country.
He stressed that Afghans should not wait for support from countries in the East or Western world. According to Khenjani, Afghans have the “capacity, courage and willingness to make sacrifices” for their own future and should rely on their own capabilities.
Asked about the potential impact of Rigistani’s return, the NRF spokesman said the group assessed that the Taliban was facing multiple layers of domestic and external pressure. According to him, the Taliban is seeking to address some regional challenges through mediation and dialogue, while exerting widespread pressure on people inside Afghanistan and increasing its military presence, particularly in Panjshir.
Khenjani added that the NRF believed the current situation would not remain stable and that the Taliban was aware of its vulnerabilities and the challenges ahead. He said the first step towards defeating the Taliban was the group’s “psychological defeat”, claiming that it faced internal divisions, corruption and growing public discontent.
The NRF spokesperson also said some Taliban members had established contacts with regional countries and certain figures opposed to the group, but declined to provide further details.
Referring to what he described as the Taliban’s “violations of citizens’ rights, land seizures, intrusions into homes and removal of cultural symbols”, Khenjani said such grievances were accumulating in society and would eventually find a way to manifest themselves.
The NRF spokesperson urged Afghans not to remain neutral in the face of developments in the country and called on them to support Taliban opponents. He said Afghanistan had faced international isolation under Taliban rule and that the group had failed to address the problems facing the population.
Khenjani said the Taliban had not directly responded to Rigistani’s return. He said the Taliban had previously denied the presence of opposition fronts, but was now increasingly arguing that these groups lacked clear objectives — a claim that, according to Khenjani, was inconsistent with Rigistani’s stated positions and goals.
In the interview, the NRF spokesperson accused the Taliban of spending significant resources on efforts to create divisions among opposition fronts and wage psychological warfare against them. He stressed, however, that Taliban opponents would continue their struggle.
The Taliban Foreign Ministry said it summoned Pakistan’s chargé d’affaires in Kabul following Pakistani air strikes on Kunar and Paktika provinces.
The ministry said the Taliban handed the Pakistani chargé d’affaires a formal protest note over what it called the violation of Afghanistan’s airspace and attacks on civilian areas in Kunar and Paktika.
In a statement on Monday, the Taliban Foreign Ministry described the Pakistani military strikes as a clear violation of Afghanistan’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity and strongly condemned them.
The Taliban also rejected Pakistan’s claim that recent security incidents in the country originated from Afghan territory.
It said making such claims and using them to justify military action was an attempt to distort the facts and mislead public opinion.
The Taliban Foreign Ministry urged Pakistan to focus on its own responsibilities and identify and address the real causes of its security and political problems, rather than blaming other countries and linking domestic problems to external actors.
Pakistan carried out air strikes early on Monday, 21 September, in Nurgal district of Kunar and Barmal district of Paktika.
The Taliban says three civilians were killed and four others wounded in the Kunar strikes. It said a house and a shop were damaged in Paktika, but there were no casualties.
Pakistan’s Information and Broadcasting Ministry said 28 militants, including several suicide bombers, were killed in strikes on three positions belonging to armed groups.
The ministry said one of the targets was a training centre for suicide bombers.
Meanwhile, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) confirmed that at least three civilians, a man, a woman and a girl, were killed in the air strikes in Kunar, while four others were wounded.
Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid also described the strikes as a “crime and aggression” and said the Taliban would give an appropriate response.
UNAMA said that since the beginning of 2026, it has recorded more than 1,100 civilian casualties, including deaths and injuries, in Afghanistan as a result of cross-border armed violence.
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.