Pakistan's central bank said the country's exports to Afghanistan fell by 88.34% in the first three months of the current fiscal year, dropping from $161 million to around $19 million. Imports from Afghanistan also declined by more than 94%.
A plane carrying 40 Afghan nationals convicted of various crimes arrived in Kabul from Germany on Wednesday, 28 October. Most of the deportees were transferred directly from prison to the airport before being flown to Afghanistan.
A day after clashes between Taliban and Pakistani forces in Paktika, the Taliban's Defence Ministry said Pakistani forces had used drones to target its security facilities in Angoor Adda, Barmal district, triggering fighting between the two sides.
Local sources told Afghanistan International that Tajik border guards opened fire on armed smugglers from Takhar's Chah Ab district as they crossed into Tajikistan. At least three people were reportedly killed in the shooting, which took place in a border forest.
Hedayatullah Badri, the Taliban's mines minister, said at the opening of Kabul's first mining exhibition that 350 mining contracts were active across Afghanistan, including 44 for large-scale mines. He also claimed that more than 100,000 people worked in the mining sector.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned that the repression of women's and girls' rights in Afghanistan was intensifying, with severe restrictions imposed on them. He also stressed the importance of supporting local women-led organisations in the country.
Pakistani officials said the army destroyed several Taliban border posts after a shell struck a house in Angoor Adda, South Waziristan, killing one civilian. Five other members of the family were wounded, according to the officials.
Spain's representative to the UN Security Council announced that Madrid will host a meeting on 23 November to bring together Afghan women's organisations and activists and support their fight against institutionalised gender apartheid in Afghanistan.
Tammy Bruce, deputy US ambassador to the United Nations, told the Security Council that the Taliban had systematically dismantled decades of progress on women's rights and participation in Afghanistan over the past five years.
Abdullah Khenjani, spokesman for Afghanistan's National Resistance Front (NRF), said he had met several UN Security Council members in New York. He claimed an overwhelming majority of countries had decided that Afghanistan's UN seat would never be handed over to the Taliban.
Local sources told Afghanistan International on Tuesday that Taliban and Pakistani forces had clashed in the Angoor Adda area of Barmal district in Paktika province. They said Pakistani forces attacked Taliban fighters attempting to return to former border posts.
The Taliban's Interior Ministry says satellite imagery has identified 26,800 hectares of land used for drug cultivation across Afghanistan in 2026, with the crops subsequently destroyed.
The Taliban's Interior Ministry spokesperson said most narcotics, including traditional and synthetic drugs, were being smuggled into Afghanistan from Pakistan across the border.
The Taliban's Justice Ministry said its leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, had ordered the transfer of juvenile rehabilitation centres across Afghanistan from the prison administration to the ministry. The process of transferring responsibility has begun.
Elisenda Calvet, a judge at the People's Tribunal for Women of Afghanistan, has warned that European governments' diplomatic engagement with the Taliban could legitimise the group.
UN Women Deputy Executive Director Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda expressed concern over restrictions imposed on women and girls in Afghanistan during a meeting on women, peace and security, warning that the country faces the world's worst women's rights crisis.
The founder of an Italian aid organisation said she established a secret school for girls in Afghanistan after the Taliban returned to power, only to discover two years later that daughters of some Taliban members were among its pupils.
Several sources told Afghanistan International that the Taliban has recently begun reshuffling civilian and military officials across Badakhshan province. The changes have so far affected police commanders, district governors and intelligence chiefs.
Pakistan has urged the international community to hold the Taliban accountable for failing to meet counterterrorism commitments. On Monday, 26 October, its Foreign Ministry rejected Taliban claims of civilian casualties in Pakistani strikes on Afghanistan.
A recently circulated video shows a man identifying himself as a member of the Pakistani Taliban approaching Sirajuddin Haqqani, the Taliban's interior minister, and whispering something in his ear.
The Afghanistan Freedom Front (AFF) said on Monday, 26 October, that its forces had attacked a vehicle carrying Taliban members on the Kabul-North highway in Qarabagh district.
Sediqullah Khalid, deputy governor of Afghanistan's Taliban-controlled central bank, announced that all restrictions on bank accounts would be lifted by the end of the current Afghan solar year. Account holders reportedly continue to face withdrawal limits.