AFGHANISTAN WEEKLY UPDATE (2nd Dec – 8th Dec)

2 December 2024

1. Tim Brecht; The representative of the state of Tennessee in the US House of Representatives announced that Amrullah Saleh; The vice president of Ashraf Ghani’s government in Afghanistan has invited him to visit Washington to discuss the situation in Afghanistan with American officials.  

    

2. Iranian media have reported that the country’s army has started an extraordinary military exercise in Khorasan Razavi province on the border with Afghanistan. Based on these reports, the Iranian army’s exercise was held in close coordination and cooperation with the Taliban.  
    
3. Shahbaz Sharif; The Prime Minister of Pakistan has claimed that before this Pakistani goods were widely smuggled to Afghanistan, but now with the help of the army, it has been stopped and has reached zero.  
    
4. Sources in Kabul said that the Taliban have arrested two civil society activists, Najib Watanyar and Ezzatullah Rahimi. Although the reason for the arrest of these two civil society activists is not yet clear, they had participated in a petition for women in Kabul about a month ago.  
    
5. Khalid Hanafi, the Minister of Prosperity and Prohibition of the Taliban, has resumed his provincial trips to monitor and implement the Prosperity Law. On his latest trip to Helmand province, he asked religious scholars to convey the contents of this law to the people through the pulpit.  
    
6. The Taliban police in Badakhshan province have said that they have arrested more than 100 farmers on the charge of poppy cultivation in several villages of this province and brought them to court.      
    
7. The United Nations Security Council has announced that it will hold a meeting on Afghanistan this month. This organization announced the holding of this meeting in a newsletter on Monday, 12 August, but did not give details about its exact date.  
    
8. Local Taliban officials in Badakhshan say that they have arrested and imprisoned 100 people in this province on charges of opium cultivation.  
    
9. The Islamic Development Bank and the King Salman Humanitarian Aid Center have signed an agreement worth three million dollars to support the fight against polio in Afghanistan and to strengthen the health system in the country.  
    
10. On the eve of December 3, International Day of Disabled Persons, the International Committee of the Red Cross says that this year it has provided rehabilitation services for more than 11,000 children with cerebral palsy in Afghanistan.  
     
11. Tim Burchett, a member of the United States House of Representatives, has invited Amrullah Saleh, former Vice President of Afghanistan, to travel to Washington to discuss the situation in the country.  
     
12. The Independent Coalition of Afghan Women’s Protest Movements has called on global organizations and international courts to take practical steps to end the deprivations of women under Taliban rule.  
     
13. Local sources in Takhar say that the Taliban have transferred Hamed Qarlaq, a social activist, to Takhar’s central prison, where he has been tortured and beaten.  
     
14. Local sources in Nangarhar say that a member of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) was killed by unknown armed men in this province.  
     
15. After Saad Mohseni, the owner of Mobi Group, demanded that the world interact with the Taliban, Afghan journalists in exile say that Mohseni should stop lobbying for the Taliban.  
     
16. Zhao Xing, the Chinese ambassador in Kabul, said that his country will begin the aid shipment of nearly 14 million dollars to Afghanistan at the end of this month.  
     
17. Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban spokesman, says that the practical work of the TAPI project has started and is ongoing in Afghanistan.  
     
18. The 28th expert meeting of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) has started in Mashhad, Iran, without the presence of the Taliban.  
     

19. The foreign ministers of CSTO member countries have expressed their concern about the activities of terrorist groups and security threats in Afghanistan.  

     

3 December 2024

1. Local sources in Kunar say that three members of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, including a senior commander, were killed and two other members of the group were wounded in the province.  
    
2. Askar Jalalian, Deputy Minister for Human Rights and International Affairs of the Iranian Ministry of Justice, says that eight thousand foreign citizens are imprisoned in this country, most of whom are Afghans.  
    
3. The National Resistance Front of Afghanistan has claimed to have killed a Taliban fighter in an attack on the group in Herat.  
    
4. Some human rights activists representing Afghan women met with Richard Bennett, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights, Thomas Nicholson, the European Union Special Representative for Afghanistan, and officials from the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands.  
    
5. Local Taliban officials in Faryab say that a person threw a hand grenade at a residential house due to personal enmity, injuring two women and a man.  
    
6. Local sources say that Abdul Qayyum Rouhani, the Taliban governor in Khost, severely beat a professor at Sheikh Zayed University and then transferred him to his prison.  
    
7. Christopher Donahue, the last American soldier to leave Afghanistan, has achieved the rank of four-star general with the approval of all members of the country’s Senate.  
    
8. Local sources say that the Taliban have arrested and tortured an employee of the Norwegian Committee for Afghanistan in Kabul.  
    
9. Local sources in Laghman say that the Taliban have removed Mawlawi Habibur Rahman, the deputy police commander of the province, from his post due to aerial firing at his son’s wedding party.      
    
10. On the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, the European Union Delegation to Afghanistan has emphasised its continued support for these people.  
     
11. Robert Dixon, the clerk of the British embassy in Afghanistan, expressed concern over the Taliban’s ban on girls in medical institutes, adding that the group has once again hit women.  
     
12. Richard Bennett, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights for Afghanistan, has stressed the need to pay attention to the rights of millions of people with disabilities in Afghanistan.  
     
13. Nasir Ahmad Fayeq, Afghanistan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, said in response to the Taliban’s ban on girls from health institutions that all the policies of the group conflict with the people of the country.  
     
14. Taliban militants have arrested and tortured an employee of the Norwegian Committee for Afghanistan in Kabul, local sources said on Sunday.  
     
15. On the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, the European Union’s Mission in Afghanistan has stressed its continued support for these people.  

     

4 December 2024

1. The Afghan Freedom Front has announced an attack on the Taliban’s forces in Kabul, saying that five people were killed and two others were wounded in the incident.  
    
2. Media outlets close to the Taliban have reported that a delegation headed by the group’s electricity chief has travelled to Ashgabat to extend an electricity contract imported from Turkmenistan.  
    
3. The World Bank has reported a 14 per cent decline in Afghan exports over the past year, saying Afghanistan’s exports of goods have decreased by 14 per cent.  
    
4. In continuation of humanitarian aid from countries and aid organizations, Austria has announced that it will donate 5 million euros to humanitarian organizations in Afghanistan.  
    
5. The Australian government, while calling Afghanistan dangerous, once again urged its citizens to refrain from travelling to the country.  
    
6. Sources said that Taliban intelligence and propaganda forces raided the private “Arzoo” television channel in Kabul this morning and, in addition to beating and arresting a number of the media’s employees, they also took away important documents, equipment, and materials.  
    
7. Local sources in Ghor say that the Taliban have arrested two men in the province Meanwhile, a Taliban source claims that the two men were arrested on charges of possessing weapons.  
    
8. Amnesty International says that by closing health institutes to girls, the Taliban have destroyed the last educational opportunities, and this action will have irreparable consequences.  
    
9. Following the Taliban’s closure of health institutes to girls, Human Rights Watch says the group should be brought to the International Criminal Court for committing crimes against women.  
    
10. The Taliban-run Breshna Company has announced that Abdul Bari Omar, the company’s CEO, has headed a delegation to Ashgabat to extend the contract for imported electricity from Turkmenistan.  
     
11. Local sources in Herat say that the Taliban have shot a young man in the province on charges of “theft.”      
     
12. The Taliban Supreme Court has announced that the group has “punished” six people in Khost province on charges of illicit relations, theft, and fraud.  
     
13. The Russian Emergencies Ministry has announced the sending of the country’s fifth shipment of humanitarian aid to Afghanistan.  
     
14. Local sources say that armed robbers killed Abdul Hafiz Azimi, the head of supplies at the Kajaki Dam of the Taliban Ministry of Interior, and his wife in Kabul.  
     
15. The European Union has expressed concern over the Taliban’s ban on girls’ education in health institutes and has called for the decision to be revoked.  
     
16. Noor Jalal Jalali, the Taliban’s acting Minister of Public Health, says that traditional medicine in Afghanistan should be standardized and include a modern medicine component.  
     
17. The Coordination Council of Diplomatic and Consular Missions of Afghanistan has strongly condemned the closure of health institutes for girls.  
     
18. The Australian Temporary Mission to Afghanistan has called on the Taliban to immediately reverse their decision to close health institutes for women.  
     
19. The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) says that the Taliban’s decision to close health institutions to girls in Afghanistan will have a detrimental impact on the country’s health system.  
     
20. The Afghan Freedom Front, in a press release, wrote that it attacked on Wednesday evening, December 4, in the Qala-e-Khajaha area of ​​Bagram district, Parwan province.  
     
21. Rahmatullah Nabil, the former head of the National Security Directorate, in response to the closure of health institutes to girls, says that the Taliban are sowing the seeds of anger and awakening among the people through their actions.  
     
22. The Afghan Journalists Center says the Taliban have closed the office of Arezo TV in Kabul and arrested seven of its employees.      
     
23. Qatari and British officials have discussed bilateral cooperation in the fields of health, education, and humanitarian aid for Afghanistan. 

5 December 2024

1. France has condemned the Taliban’s recent move to close girls’ health institutes, calling the decision unjustified.  
    
2. Continuing its response to the Taliban’s ban on girls from health institutes, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation says the group should make its decisions based on “women’s rights in Islam.”  
    
3. Following the Taliban’s closure of health institutes for girls in Afghanistan, Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, spokesperson for the Pakistani Foreign Ministry, says that Islamabad’s position on the rights of women and girls is clear.  
    
4. Local sources in Herat say that Taliban fighters disrupted the girls’ protest program in the province and prevented their march.  
    
5. Amnesty International has called on the international community to take concerted and stronger action to establish a robust mechanism to hold the Taliban accountable for human rights violations.      
    
6. Local sources in Daikundi say that the Taliban Education Department in this province has taken an exam from the group’s illiterate fighters to distribute 12th-grade graduation certificates.  
    
7. The National Resistance Front of Afghanistan has claimed to have killed a Taliban fighter in Farah province.  
    
8. Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, spokesperson for the Pakistani Foreign Ministry, says that they will encourage the Taliban to take action against “terrorist groups and entities that threaten the security of this country.”  
    
9. The European Union has announced a contribution of 15 million euros, equivalent to 15.8 million US dollars, to the activities of the World Food Program in Afghanistan.  
    
10. The National Resistance Front (NRF) claimed to have killed one Taliban fighter and wounded another in an attack on Taliban militants in Kunduz province.  
     
11. Following the closure of girls’ health institutes by the Taliban, the Women’s Council of the Resistance Front has condemned it and called for the group to be tried.  
     
12. Michael McCaul, Chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee, has set the date for the questioning session of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken regarding the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan for Wednesday next week.  
     
13. The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) has announced that 14.8 million Afghans need urgent assistance in the coming winter.  
     
14. The Human Rights Defenders Forum has announced that the Taliban’s decision to ban girls from attending medical educational institutions will increase maternal and infant mortality in the country.  
     
15. The European Union announced that it has contributed 15 million euros (15.8 million US dollars) to the World Food Program’s activities in Afghanistan.  
     
16. Richard Bennett, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Afghanistan, has reacted to the Taliban’s ban on girls from attending medical institutes, saying he is “appalled.” He added that the Taliban are violating the rights of women and girls in the areas of health, education, and work.  
     
17. In an implicit response to the Taliban’s closure of medical institutes for girls, the Pakistani Foreign Ministry criticized the decision and declared that “education according to Islamic precepts” is the inherent right of every man and woman.  
     
18. A media advocacy organization called “Freedom of Expression House” condemned the Taliban’s closure of the Arezo TV office in Kabul and the arrest of the media’s employees, and called on the Taliban to immediately release the Arezo TV employees.  
     
19. The Taliban’s Ministry of Encouraging Good and Preventing Evil has defended the decision to close Arzoo TV, saying that the decision was made to “preserve Islamic values, prevent abuse of the media, and strengthen social order.”  
     
20. Pakistani media reported that Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif has reappointed Muhammad Sadiq, Pakistan’s diplomat and special representative for Afghanistan affairs between 2020 and 2022, to this position.  
     
21. The Taliban Ministry of Refugees announced that in recent days, Pakistani police have arrested 800 Afghan refugees on charges of participating in demonstrations by supporters of the Tehreek-e-Insaf party.  
     
22. As winter approaches and humanitarian aid from countries dwindles, the United Nations World Food Program has announced that 14.8 million Afghans are in urgent need of assistance in the coming winter.  
     
23. As tensions and criticisms of Pakistani officials against the Afghan Taliban increase, the country’s media has reported that China has proposed a meeting of the foreign ministers of the three countries to reduce tensions between the Taliban and Pakistan.  

     

6 December 2024

1. An official Indian delegation led by the Joint Secretary (Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran) at the Ministry of External Affairs, J.P. Singh, visited Afghanistan on November 4-5. The visit included a series of meetings with Afghan ministers and senior officials and focused on several key issues, most notably India’s humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan and how to enhance Afghan business communities’ access to Iran’s Chabahar port.  
    
2. The attacks by the terrorist group Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) on Pakistani security forces and Chinese citizens have been on the rise in recent times. The group is believed to be present in Afghanistan alongside the Pakistani Taliban.  
    
3. UNICEF today launched a $9.9 billion funding appeal to reach 109 million children in 146 countries with life-saving assistance in 2025.  
    
4. The United Nations on Wednesday urged the Taliban authorities to reconsider implementing restrictions on women and girls’ access to medical training in Afghanistan.  
    
5. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has received a referral from six member states regarding the Taliban’s violations of women’s and girls’ rights in Afghanistan, in a move that could open the door to holding the militant group accountable for its crimes. The      
    
6. According to The Block, WikiLeaks founder Assange’s Spartacus project was launched on December 5, and 76,911 files from the Afghan war logs will be minted for free on the Bitcoin blockchain through the Ordinals protocol.  
    
7. The UAE has opened 10 maternity and women’s care centres in 7 provinces of the Republic of Afghanistan as part of the UAE’s Integrated Development Programme in Afghanistan, which aims to enhance basic infrastructure in various development sectors, especially the healthcare sector.  
    
8. Russia Looking For Lithium & Ally Against West In Afghanistan, Says Former Ambassador – In an interview with Ukrinform newspaper, the former ambassador of Estonia to Afghanistan, Harri Tiido said that Russia has significant political and economic interests in Afghanistan, including the use of lithium mines.   
    
9. Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry has said that it is holding talks with the Afghan Taliban on combating the threat of terrorism from Afghan soil.  
    
10. Following the recent statements by the Norwegian Foreign Minister regarding the reduction of diplomatic relations with the Taliban, the group’s Foreign Ministry has expressed “dissatisfaction” with this decision.  
     
11. The United States Embassy in Afghanistan has expressed concern about the increasing rate of forced and early marriages of Afghan girls and called for their protection.  
     
12. The Afghan Journalists Center says that Abdul Raziq Seddiqi, the managing director of Badghis Radio, has been released from Taliban prison after a month.  
     
13. Karim Khan, Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, met with several members of the “Afghan Women’s Coalition for Justice”.  
     
14. Local sources in Faryab say that unknown gunmen shot dead a bodyguard of Nizamuddin Qaisari in the province.      
     
15. US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reina Amiri says the Taliban’s relentless policies and decrees make it clear that the group has no intention of respecting Afghanistan’s international obligations.  
     
16. In response to the Taliban’s ban on girls’ education, a British MP has condemned the decision, saying that banning girls from medical schools is “immoral.”  
     
17. News sources reported that Taliban and Pakistani officials discussed trade relations between the two countries, saying that the Taliban ambassador in Islamabad and a member of the Pakistani Senate discussed trade relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan.  
     
18. The Taliban have expressed “disappointment” over the downgrading of diplomatic relations with Norway, saying: “We hope our decision is not related to the internal affairs of other countries.”  

     

7 December 2024

1. The 22nd Doha Forum began with the participation of leaders and senior officials from about 150 countries. The meeting will discuss current crises in the world, including the situation in Afghanistan.  
    
2. Sadr Jabbarov, the President of Kyrgyzstan, in a statement confirming the removal of the Taliban from the list of terrorist groups, called on European countries and the US government to recognize the Taliban government in Afghanistan and to release Afghanistan’s monetary reserves.  
    
3. Sources in Faryab province in the north of the country report clashes between Taliban forces and ISIS fighters in the Khyber district of the province.  
    
4. Pakistan’s Counter-Terrorism Department announced that the country’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province has witnessed 636 deadly attacks in the past year, in which at least 275 people have been killed.  
    
5. Turkish media reported that police in the country have arrested seven Afghan citizens on charges of human trafficking and harbouring illegal immigrants. In another incident, the Turkish coast guard detained 60 migrants, including 27 Afghan children, from a boat.  
    
6. The Taliban-run Breshna Power Company has announced that the contract to purchase electricity from Turkmenistan to Afghanistan has been extended until 2025.  
    
7. Several political figures from the former government and those opposed to the Taliban have announced the creation of a new coalition.  
    
8. The Taliban Supreme Court says it has publicly flogged five people, including a woman, in Kapisa province.  
    
9. The National Resistance Front of Afghanistan has claimed to have killed a Taliban fighter in Farah province.  
    
10. The Taliban’s Deputy Prime Minister’s Office for Economic Affairs has called the World Bank’s recent report on Afghanistan’s economic situation “far from reality.”  
     
11. Local sources in Samangan say that the butchered body of a man has been handed over to his family after being detained by Taliban fighters.  
     
12. Sources said that three Taliban fighters and one ISIS member were killed in clashes between the Taliban and the ISIS group in the newly established Khyber district of Faryab province.  
     
13. Pakistan said Saturday that a predawn assault on a security post and intelligence-driven counterinsurgency raids in its northwestern province bordering Afghanistan killed at least six troops and 22 militants.  
     
14. The Afghan government’s Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs has issued more than 65,000 work permits over the past eight months, spokesman for the Ministry Samiullah Ebrahimi said.  
     
15. The U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan reported on Friday, December 6, alarming increases in forced and early marriages among Afghan girls, coinciding with the closure of schools.  
     
16. On Saturday, the Taliban-controlled Bakhtar News Agency announced the return of 102 refugee families from Pakistan and Iran to Afghanistan.  
     
17. The British government expressed concern over the Taliban government’s decision to suspend teaching medicine, dentistry and nursing to women in Afghanistan, considering it a violation of basic human rights.  
     
18. Mr. Sardar Ahmad Shakib, Chargé d’Affaires of the Embassy of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan to Pakistan, met with Mr. Awazbek Atahanoev, Ambassador of Kyrgyzstan to Pakistan.  
     
19. The King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center distributed 350 shelter bags in the city of Zaranj, the centre of Nimroz Province in Afghanistan, benefiting 350 families, 2,100 individuals, as part of the shelter project for those returning from Pakistan to Afghanistan and those affected by the floods for the year 2024 AD.  

     

8 December 2024

1. The Taliban have announced that they will build 14 mosques on the Kabul-Herat route at a cost of more than 467 million Afghanis.  
    
2. In response to the ban on girls’ education in medical institutes in Afghanistan, Karen Decker, the US Chargé d’Affaires for Afghanistan, has warned about the Taliban’s decisions and stated that closing medical institutes will destroy the future of Afghanistan.  
    
3. In his latest statements, the Taliban’s interior minister, Sirajuddin Haqqani, has implicitly criticized the policies and strictures of the group’s leader, Haibatullah Akhundzada, and said that he should not think that if anyone disobeys him, the sky will fall to the ground.  
    
4. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says that the Taliban group is not on the United Nations blacklist as a “terrorist organization” and only the names of some of the group’s leaders are on the list individually.  
    
5. The National Resistance Front has claimed that it killed two Taliban fighters in an attack on them in Herat province.  
    
6. Following the devaluation of the Afghan currency against the dollar, the Taliban Central Bank is auctioning $16 million.      
    
7. Local sources say that the Taliban in Laghman province have encouraged some youth to support the group’s regime.      
    
8. During a special ceremony, several women in Britain expressed concern about the widespread violation of the rights of Afghan women by the Taliban and called for awareness of their situation in Afghanistan.  
    
9. Local sources in Nimroz say that employees of the Taliban Health Commission in this province are extorting money from health centre officials.  
    
10. The Taliban-run Breshna Company says that electricity imported from Iran to Afghanistan has been cut off due to a technical problem.  
     
11. The Taliban Foreign Ministry has welcomed the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s government and said it congratulates the Tahrir al-Sham Committee and the Syrian people on eliminating “the main factor of war and instability.”  
     
12. Local sources reported that the Taliban have sealed off several residential houses in Kabul city.  
     
13. Local sources in Nangarhar say that the Taliban celebrated the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s government in the city of Jalalabad, the capital of the province.  
     
14. Kyrgyzstan’s President Sadyr Japarov in an interview with Turkish news outlet TRT Avaz, urged the leaders of European countries and the United States to acknowledge the Afghan people’s dire living conditions and recognize the Islamic Emirate. 

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