Terrorist Groups Operating From Afghanistan Require Action, Says Pakistan PM

Public hearings of the People’s Tribunal for Women of Afghanistan were held last year in Madrid, Spain, beginning on 8 October and concluding on 10 October. Prosecutors presented an indictment, while Afghan women and girls testified as victims of Taliban rule.

Speaking on Thursday at an event marking the first anniversary of the tribunal, Calvet said it was a civil society initiative created from within society and centred on people rather than governments.

She said the tribunal nevertheless followed the formal structure of a court, including prosecutors, judges, witnesses and the issuing of a judgement.

According to Calvet, the tribunal’s panel of judges and experts came from a range of professional backgrounds, including law, psychology, journalism and Islamic law.

She added that gender-based violence was examined as a criminal matter rather than a cultural issue.

Calvet said the hearings were held in Madrid and the tribunal heard testimony from 24 Afghan women living both inside and outside Afghanistan.

She said organisers sought to include women from different ethnic groups and social backgrounds to make the process as inclusive as possible.

The tribunal judge also stressed that some witnesses faced security risks. Although the Taliban did not participate in the hearings, she said the group was monitoring the proceedings, creating risks for some of those who testified.

Calvet said initiatives of this kind were important for advocacy and for strengthening confidence in the law at a time when concerns were growing over the state of international law.

She said developments in Afghanistan amounted to a system of laws, decrees and structures that systematically targeted women and girls.

Calvet added that Afghan women had also used the term “gender apartheid” during the Taliban’s first period in power in the 1990s, saying the situation was not a new phenomenon.

She reiterated that the tribunal treated gender-based violence as a criminal matter rather than a cultural issue.

The tribunal says its aim is to draw global attention to the targeted repression of Afghan women and girls under Taliban rule, document crimes against humanity, particularly gender-based discrimination and persecution, and increase international pressure to hold the Taliban accountable.

Iranian Energy Minister Abbas Aliabadi met Nooruddin Azizi, the Taliban’s minister of industry and commerce, on Wednesday, 7 October, after attending the Imam Abu Hanifa International Exhibition in Kabul.

The Taliban’s Ministry of Industry and Commerce said in a statement that the two discussed Iranian electricity exports to Afghanistan, the supply of equipment needed for power plants and desalination facilities, expanded economic relations and joint investments.

According to the statement, the talks included increasing Iran’s electricity exports to Afghanistan to about 2,000 megawatts and exporting equipment required for Afghanistan’s power generation sector.

Aliabadi also invited Azizi to attend Iran’s water and electricity exhibition, which is due to be held in the coming months. Azizi welcomed the invitation and stressed his support for expanding joint economic and trade cooperation between the two countries.

Iran currently exports about 100 to 150 megawatts of electricity to Afghanistan, with much of the supply distributed in the country’s western provinces. Iranian officials have previously said exports could rise to about 2,000 megawatts if the necessary infrastructure and capacity are developed.

However, Iranian electricity exports to Afghanistan have not always been stable in recent years, with supplies reduced or completely halted on some occasions.

Tehran and the Taliban have increased contacts in recent months over economic, trade and energy cooperation. Expanding trade, joint investment, energy exports and the supply of equipment needed in Afghanistan have been among the main areas of cooperation.

Alongside his meeting with the Taliban’s industry and commerce minister, Aliabadi also met Mohammad Younus Akhundzada, the Taliban’s minister of water and energy. They discussed cooperation in energy production, transmission and distribution, as well as investment opportunities in Afghanistan’s energy sector.

Iran is discussing increased electricity exports to Afghanistan while facing power shortages of its own. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has previously spoken about the country’s energy situation and the need to manage consumption and expand electricity generation capacity.

Taliban police released a video on Wednesday, 7 October, saying the four men, residents of Panjshir and Kapisa, had been arrested in three different areas of Kabul with military equipment and explosives.

The police claimed the detainees had been involved in multiple crimes and had recently planned to use explosives to target the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, or UNAMA, and its staff.

The video also showed purported confessions by the detainees, with the Taliban claiming they had admitted to the alleged offences.

The National Resistance Front of Afghanistan rejected the allegations. In a statement on Wednesday, the group said those shown in the Taliban video identifying themselves as NRF members were Taliban intelligence operatives and described the footage as part of a conspiratorial strategy of defamation and intelligence propaganda.

The NRF said the purpose of releasing the video was to create distrust between the group and the international community.

It also said that under its military principles and guidelines, attacks on civilians and domestic or foreign civilian institutions are prohibited, and that its operations target only the Taliban and groups allied with it.

The NRF called on UNAMA, the UN political mission in Kabul, to independently investigate and question the detainees, saying it was prepared to respond to any evidence or concerns that might emerge.

The group also warned that such videos could be used to prepare the ground for future attacks that might then be blamed on Taliban opponents. It urged diplomatic missions and international organisations to strengthen their security measures.

It remains unclear under what circumstances the Taliban’s special police obtained the statements from the detainees. The Taliban has also presented no evidence establishing a connection between the men and the National Resistance Front.

The United Nations has previously accused the Taliban of obtaining forced confessions through torture.

In a 2023 report, the UN documented what it described as widespread torture of detainees, particularly during arrest and interrogation. The report said the Taliban had used torture to extract confessions and called on the group to end torture and other cruel treatment.

In an editorial published on Wednesday, 7 October, the newspaper strongly criticised Tehran’s policy towards the Taliban.

It wrote that since the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in 2021, some Iranian politicians and officials had sought to justify the group’s rule and had even praised it for ending the 20-year US presence in Afghanistan.

The editorial described that view as mistaken and alleged that the Taliban returned to power with US support and through an agreement with Washington.

It argued that developments including the rapid collapse of Ashraf Ghani’s government, the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul with little resistance, the withdrawal of US forces and the military equipment left behind at Afghan bases pointed to secret understandings between the United States and the Taliban.

Jomhouri-e Eslami also alleged that the Taliban had maintained relations with the United States since returning to power and benefited from monthly financial assistance from Washington.

The editorial claimed that the Taliban had not taken a critical stance towards US regional policies while also pursuing measures inside Afghanistan that, according to the writer, weakened Iran’s influence and position in the country.

The newspaper accused the Taliban of restricting institutions and groups close to Iran, targeting some ethnic and religious communities and reducing the presence of Shia groups in Afghanistan’s social and political structures in an effort to erode Iran’s traditional sources of influence.

Iran maintains extensive relations with the Taliban. Tehran has handed control of the Afghan embassy to Taliban-appointed diplomats, and Taliban delegations have repeatedly visited Iran in recent years. However, Iran has not formally recognised the Taliban administration.

The editorial also accused the Taliban of adopting a confrontational approach over Iran’s share of water from the Helmand River.

Disputes over Helmand water rights have become one of the main sources of tension between Tehran and the Taliban over the past three years. In 2023, border tensions between Iranian and Taliban forces in Nimroz escalated into an armed clash that left several people dead and wounded.

The writer also accused the Taliban, without providing specific evidence, of infiltrating operatives into Iran, involvement in some attacks and explosions, and organising operations against the group’s opponents in Iranian cities.

Relations between Iran and the Taliban have undergone major shifts over the past three decades. The two sides came close to war in the late 1990s after Iranian diplomats were killed in Mazar-i-Sharif.

After the fall of the Taliban’s first government in 2001, however, channels of communication gradually developed between Tehran and the group.

Disputes over Helmand River water rights, border security, large-scale Afghan migration to Iran and Tehran’s concerns about militant groups operating in Afghanistan remain among the main challenges in relations between the two sides.

Zardari said Pakistan remained committed to fighting terrorism and had made great sacrifices in doing so. He stressed that Afghan territory must not be used to launch attacks against Pakistan or any other country.

The Pakistani president added that while his country remained committed to dialogue and regional cooperation, it would defend its people and territory in accordance with international law.

Pakistan has repeatedly accused the Taliban in recent months of sheltering and allowing armed groups opposed to Islamabad, particularly Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, to operate from Afghanistan.

The Taliban has rejected the allegations and said it would not allow Afghan territory to be used against other countries. Taliban officials have, in turn, accused Pakistan of seeking to destabilise Afghanistan and of supporting Islamic State and anti-Taliban armed groups.

Tensions between Pakistan and the Taliban have increased in recent months. Disputes over the activities of armed groups along the border have led to military clashes and Pakistani air strikes inside Afghanistan.

Guterres awarded Nishan-e-Imtiaz

During the same meeting, Zardari awarded António Guterres the Nishan-e-Imtiaz, one of Pakistan’s highest civilian honours.

Pakistan’s presidency said the award recognised Guterres’s international service, his leadership at the United Nations and his efforts to promote global peace and development.

According to the presidency, this was the first time the Nishan-e-Imtiaz had been awarded to a UN secretary-general. Guterres received the honour at a ceremony at the Presidential Palace in Islamabad.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, several cabinet members and foreign diplomats also attended the ceremony.

Zardari praised Guterres’s role in promoting peace, dialogue and the peaceful resolution of conflicts, and said Pakistan supported the UN chief’s efforts to draw attention to the concerns of developing countries.

Guterres is on an official visit to Pakistan and has discussed terrorism, Afghanistan, the return of Afghan migrants and regional developments with Pakistani officials.