Archive

The Taliban have pledged to rebuild a monument to Amir Ali-Shir Nava’i in northern Afghanistan after Uzbekistan raised concern over the statue’s demolition.

China, Pakistan and Afghanistan’s Taliban government have pledged to step up joint efforts against militant groups during high-level talks in Kabul, officials said Wednesday.

Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada has reportedly told cabinet members that women should be barred not only from modern education but also from attending religious schools, sources told Afghanistan International.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, in a meeting with Taliban Prime Minister Mullah Hassan Akhund, expressed hope that the group would “understand and pay special attention” to Beijing’s security concerns.

The Taliban said Wednesday that its foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, has proposed creating a joint technical commission with China to expand economic cooperation.

Civil organisations representing Afghanistan’s Turkic communities say the Taliban have demolished the statue of renowned poet and scholar Alisher Navai in Mazar-e-Sharif.

Coinciding with the fourth anniversary of the Taliban’s return to power, the Afghanistan War Commission in the US Congress released its second report on the United States’ 20-year war in Afghanistan.

At least 71 people, including 17 children, were killed when a passenger bus carrying Afghan migrants deported from Iran collided with a truck and a motorcycle on a highway in western Afghanistan, officials said Tuesday.

Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar will travel to Kabul on Wednesday for trilateral talks with his Chinese and Taliban counterparts focused on counterterrorism and trade.

Former Afghan president Hamid Karzai said the future of Afghanistan’s freedom and independence depends on access to education.

An anti-Taliban group in western Afghanistan claimed responsibility for killing a Taliban security official in Herat city, marking one of the latest armed attacks against the group.

Taliban Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs Abdul Ghani Baradar warned countries with “ill intentions” toward Afghanistan.

On the 106th anniversary of Afghanistan’s independence, Taliban Defence Minister Mullah Yaqub warned that Afghans have repeatedly failed to safeguard their freedom after regaining it on three separate occasions in the past century.

South Africa–based MTN Group said it is under investigation by the US Department of Justice over its past operations in Afghanistan and those of its former subsidiary.

Pakistan Today has reported that the Afghan Taliban are providing regular financial support to Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), including monthly payments of about three million Afghanis (USD 43,000) to the family of the group’s leader, Noor Wali Mehsud.

Hengaw, a human rights organisation, said Monday that Iran has carried out 800 executions in less than eight months, an average of 100 per month, including at least 46 Afghan nationals. No details were released about the identities or charges of those executed.

A former Afghan army commander has accused the Taliban of driving Afghanistan toward collapse through forced displacement, land seizures and the resettlement of outsiders in the country’s north and west.

Hezb-e-Islami leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar has accused the Taliban of pursuing a policy of hostility toward all political groups, warning that Afghanistan lacks national unity under their rule.

The Taliban handed over a leaked list of Afghans who worked with Britain to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard in exchange for a promise to push Tehran to recognise their government, The Telegraph reported.

The Taliban’s economy minister has called on Japan to recognise the group’s administration, arguing it would strengthen political, and economic ties between the two sides.

The UN special representative on Afghan women’s affairs has warned that Afghanistan is facing the world’s most severe women’s rights crisis under Taliban rule.