
Uzbekistan Reopens Termez–Hairatan Crossing After Four-Year Closure
Uzbek media, citing the country’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry, reported on Wednesday that the Termez–Hairatan border crossing has reopened after four years.

Uzbek media, citing the country’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry, reported on Wednesday that the Termez–Hairatan border crossing has reopened after four years.

The Taliban governor’s spokesperson in Khost said on Tuesday that two sons of a man executed earlier that day have also been sentenced to death. Their executions, he said, have been postponed because the heir of the victims is not currently in Afghanistan.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that Moscow believes dialogue with the Taliban must continue, stressing that Afghanistan remains critically important for regional stability. He also noted that Russian border guards are stationed in Tajikistan.

The Taliban governor’s spokesperson in Khost said on Tuesday that an estimated 80,000 people gathered at a stadium in the provincial centre to watch the public execution of a man convicted of premeditated murder. The Taliban had urged the public a day earlier to attend.

A senior Taliban official has claimed that no actor inside Afghanistan is able to “speak” except the Taliban, asserting that the group now has “complete control” over the country and that the press is the only sphere not yet fully subdued.

A senior Taliban official has said that “malicious elements” operating in a neighbouring country against the Taliban must be neutralised, insisting that defending the group is the duty of all Afghans.

The Taliban’s Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi expressed regret over the killing of Chinese citizens along the Afghanistan–Tajikistan border during a phone call with Tajik Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Muhriddin.

The Taliban’s Supreme Court said on Tuesday that a man convicted of murder was executed in a stadium in central Khost province, with local residents present. The man, identified as Mangal, was a resident of Khost.

The Afghanistan Freedom Front (AFF) says its fighters attacked the Taliban’s Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice headquarters in Maimana, the capital of Faryab province, on Sunday evening.

The Taliban media office in Khost province has announced that a man sentenced to death will be publicly executed on Tuesday in the provincial stadium. The United Nations has previously urged the Taliban to halt the use of capital punishment in Afghanistan.

Sources have confirmed to Afghanistan International that a Taliban delegation travelled to Saudi Arabia for talks with Pakistani officials, but the negotiations ended without any breakthrough.

Tajikistan’s presidential press office said on Monday that two attacks launched from Afghan territory over the past week have killed five people and injured five others.

A former senior British officer has alleged that UK special forces committed “war crimes” in Afghanistan by carrying out the extrajudicial killing of detainees. He said that senior military officials were aware of the incidents but concealed them.

Pakistani religious leader Fazlur Rehman, head of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F), said on Sunday that Pakistan’s long-standing policy toward Afghanistan has failed. He stressed that Islamabad has been unable to turn Kabul into a friend.

The Afghanistan Freedom Front says its fighters launched a rocket attack on Taliban forces in Badakhshan, killing three fighters and wounding two others.

Ishaq Dar, Pakistan’s foreign minister, says that during his most recent visit to Kabul, Taliban foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi informed him that a number of members of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) had been arrested.

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has released photos of several Afghan nationals accused of terrorism-related activity and criminal offences, saying they “rewarded American generosity with violence.”

Abdul Rahman Lakanwal, the Afghan national accused of shooting two members of the US National Guard near the White House, had struggled for years with psychological collapse, unemployment and prolonged isolation.

The Taliban in Ruyi Du Ab district of Samangan province have flogged a woman and a man 30 times after accusing them of “running away from home and moral corruption,” and sentenced them to between one and two years in prison.

Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said he had provided detailed explanations to 27 European countries regarding Islamabad’s recent confrontation with the Taliban.

Pakistan Army spokesperson Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said the country makes no distinction between terrorist organisations and considers all militants a threat, adding that in Pakistan’s view “the only good terrorist is a dead terrorist.”