16 December 2024
- Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur says 22,000 to 24,000 members of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which he calls “Pakistani terrorists,” have safe havens in Afghanistan.
- US President-elect Donald Trump says he wanted his country to leave Afghanistan with “dignity and strength” and that if he were still in power, the Taliban would not be able to hold a military parade with the remaining American equipment.
- As the photo ban has spread across Afghanistan, Taliban political and administrative deputies have posted news of their meetings without photos or videos in the past few days.
- The United Nations has warned that millions of Afghan families are facing food shortages during the winter.
- The European Union announced that it has allocated €19.8 million to the Aga Khan Foundation for a €22 million project in Afghanistan.
- Local sources in Takhar say that the Taliban in Khwaja Bahauddin district have been collecting money from residents by threatening and pressuring them under the pretext of repairing and gravelling the road beyond Kokcha.
- Following the Taliban’s extensive restrictions on the lives of the country’s citizens, they have approved a new plan called “Unacceptable customs and practices that are against Sharia.”
- The World Food Program (WFP) says that as winter arrives in Afghanistan, millions of Afghans are facing food shortages.
- Geng Shuang, China’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, has called for the release of frozen Afghan funds by Western countries.
- The Taliban Ministry of Public Works says that the Kabul-Ghor highway has been closed to traffic due to snowfall.
- Local Taliban officials in Herat say that Amir Khan Muttaqi, the group’s acting foreign minister, and Rashid Muradov, Turkmenistan’s foreign minister, have visited the TAPI project’s practical work site in Herat.
- The European Union has announced the allocation of 19.8 million euros in financial assistance to Afghanistan to promote inclusive and sustainable economic growth and reduce dependence on humanitarian aid.
- The Taliban Supreme Court says it has publicly flogged a person in the Chabaran district of Paktika province.
- Following snowfall, severe cold, and freezing temperatures in Herat, currency exchange and oil and gas markets in the province have been closed.
- Thomas Nicholson, the European Union Special Representative for Afghanistan, has announced the end of his five-day visit to the country and said that he left Kabul with human rights and political, and economic concerns.
- The Taliban Foreign Ministry says that Deputy Minister Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai has discussed with Chatterton Dixon, Chargé d’Affaires of the British Embassy in Afghanistan, about establishing consular services in London and Europe.
- The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) says it has dug two million trenches in Afghanistan this year.
- The Taliban-run Electricity Supply Company (Barshna) says that a delegation headed by the company’s CEO and including representatives from the group’s Ministries of Finance and Foreign Affairs has travelled to Uzbekistan.
- The Director General of the Consular Section at the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, in a meeting with Nazifullah Salarzai, the Afghan Ambassador to the country, says that this department is the only legal authority for authenticating, approving and issuing documents for Afghans.
-
Following the ban on girls from health institutes, Amnesty International has called on the Taliban to end gender-based harassment and oppression of women immediately
- The National Freedom Party of Afghanistan, led by Rahmatullah Nabil, former head of the National Directorate of Security, has issued a statement announcing that the party is not part of the new political coalition called the “National Assembly for the Salvation of Afghanistan.”
17 December 2024
- The Taliban-run Breshna Directorate has announced that the contract to import electricity from Uzbekistan to Afghanistan has been extended until the end of 2025.
- The Russian parliament on Tuesday passed a law that allows the country’s Supreme Court to remove the Taliban and other groups previously designated by Moscow as terrorist organizations from its list of banned groups.
- The Taliban Ministry of Publicity has ordered media outlets and YouTubers to refrain from producing and broadcasting humorous programs.
- US President Donald Trump once again blamed the disastrous withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan on the failed policies of the Biden administration.
- Mullah Mohammad Yaqub Mujahid, the Taliban’s Minister of Defense, in a meeting with social media users and media officials of the group, emphasized that they should work harder to preserve the system.
- A group of human rights activists and justice advocates reacted to the holding of a funeral ceremony for Khalilur Rahman Haqqani, the former Taliban Minister of Refugees and Repatriates, in Frankfurt, Germany, calling it a disrespect for the blood of thousands of innocent people in Afghanistan.
- The World Food Program (WFP) in Afghanistan says it needs $718 million for the next six months to help those in need.
- While the Taliban have banned painting and photographing living things, Abdullah Sarhadi, the Taliban governor in Bamyan, has welcomed his painting.
- The Taliban’s Ministry of Urban Development and Housing has announced that, at the request of the group’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it will build a town for foreign diplomats in Kabul.
- Local sources in Badakhshan say that Taliban fighters have shot dead a 14-year-old Ismaili boy in Badakhshan.
- The Taliban Supreme Court says it has flogged five people on charges of “adultery” and “illicit relations” at the Parwan Provincial Stadium.
- The Japanese government has announced that it has allocated $27.5 million to provide humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan.
- Local sources in Nimroz say that 25 drug addicts have died in the province over the past 15 days.
- The Taliban Central Bank says it has burned 840 million and 650 thousand Afghanis worth of counterfeit banknotes.
- Robert Dixon, Chargé d’Affaires of the British Embassy in Afghanistan, condemned the closure of health institutes for girls during his recent visit to Kabul and meeting with Taliban officials.
- The Taliban-run National Examinations Office says it will hold the exit exam for medical graduates on January 27 of this year without the presence of women.
- Local sources say that Taliban members “sworn” residents of the Nijrab district of Kapisa province to report the amount of their grain and other agricultural products to the group “accurately”.
- The Russian parliament has passed a law that allows courts to suspend bans on groups designated by Moscow as terrorist organizations.
- The Swiss Foreign Ministry has announced that a meeting of the Group of 7 special representatives on Afghanistan has been held in Geneva.
- The Taliban-run Afghanistan Electricity Company (Barshna) says that the contract for importing electricity from Uzbekistan to the country has been extended until the end of 2025.
- Sources in Herat say that the Taliban security command in the province has asked all of its “units and units” to obtain electronic identity cards by the end of the fiscal year 2024.
- Habibullah Agha, the Taliban’s acting Minister of Education, has told students at a school in Kandahar province to prepare themselves according to “Sharia” and like the Taliban.
18 December 2024
- The National Resistance Front claims that it killed a Taliban fighter and wounded two other Taliban fighters in an attack on them in Parwan province.
- The Taliban Ministry of Justice announced that it has confiscated about 20,376 acres of government land in the past month.
- The International Organization for Migration announced that more than 1.2 million Afghan refugees returned to Afghanistan from Pakistan and Iran in 2024.
- A few days after the assassination of Khalilur Rahman Haqqani, former Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s Taliban Minister of Refugees travelled to Paktia to offer condolences to Sirajuddin Haqqani.
- Following the assassination of Khalil Haqqani, the Taliban leader has asked Abdul Ahad Taleb, the commander of his special forces, Mullah Shirin, the governor of Kandahar, and Yousuf Wafa, the governor of Balkh, to pay attention to their security.
- At a time when the Pakistani army and government are in tension with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the Taliban ambassador in Islamabad met with Asad Qaiser, a leader of the party and former speaker of the House of Representatives of Pakistan.
- Michael Semple, a former European Union diplomat in Afghanistan, said the differences among Taliban leaders, especially over how to engage with the world, were “quite serious.”
- The leader of the Islamist group Tahrir al-Sham, which recently seized power in Damascus, says he does not want to establish a Taliban-style government in Syria.
- The UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights, Richard Bennett, says it is the collective responsibility of the world to challenge the repressive Taliban government and hold it accountable.
- The human rights organization Hengaw has reported that Iran has executed six people, including an Afghan citizen.
- Matthew Miller, a spokesman for the US State Department, responded to a question about US engagement with terrorist groups at a press conference on Tuesday, implicitly describing the Taliban as “terrorists” and emphasizing that the US is engaging with the Taliban “to advance its interests.”
- The Swedish government, publishing a summary of a report from the country’s multi-party inquiry committee on Sweden’s engagement with Afghanistan, has said that there are “few” hopeful signs in the current situation in Afghanistan.
- The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says that 22.9 million people in Afghanistan will need humanitarian assistance next year.
- Mandana Tisheyar, research assistant at Allameh Tabatabaei University, says that according to statistics from the country’s Ministry of Science for 1402 (2023), more than 60,000 Afghan students are studying in Iran.
- The Taliban’s citadel has refrained from posting images of living creatures on social media in the past two days.
- Local sources say that Colonel Rahmaddel Hanafi, one of the bodyguards of former President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani, has committed suicide in Kabul due to the arrest of his wife by the Taliban.
- Matthew Miller, spokesman for the United States Department of State, says that his country has engaged with the Taliban based on its interests.
- The Taliban Supreme Court says it has flogged eight people in Paktia Province on charges of murder, theft, kidnapping, and “illicit relations.”
- Local sources in Nangarhar say that the Taliban have dismissed 42 university professors in the province from their duties due to their membership in religious movements including Hizb ut-Tahrir, Jamiat Islah, Salafis, and Wahhabis.
- Local sources reported the arrest of an employee of the former government’s National Directorate of Security by the Taliban in Panjshir.
- On the occasion of World Refugee Day, the European Union says it stands with Afghan refugees, displaced people, and returnees.
- The human rights organization “Hengao” has reported that Iran has executed six people, including Abdul Bari Pakuhi, an Afghan citizen.
- Local sources in Nangarhar say that the Taliban Education Department in the province has forced school students to wear white hats and grow beards.
- The Taliban began the process of evaluating Sharia professors at central zone universities under the title of “specialised evaluation.”
-
As winter approaches, several prisoners in Takhar say that the Taliban have not provided any fuel to heat prison cells in the province this season.
19 December 2024
- The National Resistance Front claims to have killed a Taliban fighter and wounded another Taliban fighter following an attack on the group in Kunduz province.
- The US Embassy in Afghanistan has announced that it stands with the media in their fight for justice and dignity.
- The Italian Embassy in Afghanistan announced the provision of a 3.5 million euro aid package for internally displaced persons and returnees in Afghanistan.
- Local sources in Badghis report two separate attacks on Taliban military bases in the province.
- The Afghan Liberation Front has claimed that it killed three Taliban fighters and wounded two others following an attack on the group in Kabul.
- Following two explosions in Parwan province, the Afghan Liberation Front has claimed to have killed four Taliban fighters in the Bagram and Jabal al-Sarraj districts of the province and wounded five others.
- Following deadly traffic incidents on the Kabul-Kandahar highway in Ghazni province, the International Committee of the Red Cross has provided medical assistance to the injured.
- The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Afghanistan (OCHA) says that $2.42 billion is needed to reach Afghans in need in the new year.
- The US Secretary of State says that Tahrir al-Sham, which controls Damascus, must fulfil its promises to form an inclusive government and learn from the isolation of the Taliban.
- Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid announced that 52 people were killed and 65 others were injured in two deadly traffic accidents on the Kabul-Kandahar highway.
- The Taliban’s Ministry of Justice announced the signing of three new laws by the group’s leader, Haibatullah Akhundzada. The Taliban said the laws include distributing land to returning refugees, leasing government land, and regulating privileges and facilities for returning industrialists and businessmen.
- Fazal Mahmoud Fazli, head of the former government affairs department, criticized the statements of Ahmad Sharia, leader of the Tahrir al-Sham, about Afghanistan.
- The Russian president says Moscow went to Syria 10 years ago to prevent the creation of a terrorist zone like Afghanistan. “We achieved our goals [in Syria],” Vladimir Putin said at his annual news conference on Thursday, December 10.
- The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Afghanistan says that by 2025, some 22.9 million Afghans will need humanitarian assistance to survive.
- Italy donates €3.5 million to the International Organization for Migration to support Afghan returnees and vulnerable migrants.
- Reporters Without Borders says the Taliban closed at least 12 state and private media outlets in 2024. The organization called the closure of media outlets unacceptable and called for the immediate release of journalists from Taliban prisons.
- Local sources in Kabul and Parwan told Afghanistan International on Thursday that several explosions had occurred.
- The Oslo Forum published in its annual report a summary of the talks between Taliban officials and representatives of civil society and countries in Norway.
- Kazakhstan’s Deputy Minister of Transport said that Kazakh companies plan to supply railway rails and other products related to the Afghan railway sector.
- The Afghan Freedom Front said Thursday evening that it had attacked a “gathering of Taliban forces at the entrance gate of Kabul’s sixth security district.”
-
The Afghan Freedom Front said four Taliban members, including a commander, were killed in an attack by its forces on Thursday evening in front of the entrance to Bagram Airfield.
20 December 2024
- Even as the Taliban leader has closed medical institutions to girls, the group’s military chief of staff said at a meeting in Kabul that Afghanistan needs both male and female doctors.
- The UN High Commissioner for Refugees says the Islamic Republic has deported many Afghan refugees with valid residency documents over the past year.
- In response to the recent statements by the US Secretary of State, Hamdullah Fitrat, the Taliban’s deputy spokesman, said that the Taliban is not in isolation and that the group currently has diplomatic, political and economic relations with many countries.
- The US Embassy in Afghanistan stressed the need to support the Afghan people on the occasion of International Solidarity Day.
- The Afghanistan Trust Fund says Norway has provided $4.48 million in aid to Afghanistan. On the day, December 20, the fund announced that aid would support internally displaced persons and returning refugees.
- Following two deadly traffic incidents in Ghazni Province, the Afghan Freedom Front says that the Taliban are asking candidates to pray for the journey instead of the driving rules and regulations when taking a driving test.
- Mohammad Qasim Khalid, the Taliban governor in Nimroz, has called on the World Food Program to increase its aid to refugees.
- Local sources in Takhar say that the Taliban have recently begun recruiting Tajik youth in specific areas of the province.
- Local sources in Nangarhar say that the Taliban’s Amr-e-Maruf administration has banned women from using smartphones in Jalalabad markets.
- As the Taliban leader closes the doors of medical educational institutions to girls, Fasihuddin Fitrat, the group’s chief of staff, has said that having both male and female doctors is necessary for Afghanistan.
- Local sources in Parwan say that unknown gunmen shot and killed a Taliban military official in the province.
- Pakistan’s Special Representative for Afghanistan Affairs, Mohammad Sadiq, says he has discussed the situation of Afghan refugees in the country with the representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Islamabad.
- Local sources in Panjshir say that a resident of this province has died under Taliban torture. According to sources, this individual was Ghulam Sakhi, known as “Amir,” and the Taliban handed over his “slaughtered” body to his family in the Deh Sabz district of Kabul.
- The killing of Fitna al-Khawarij TTP commander Rahimullah alias Shahid Umar in Kunar province, Afghanistan, is a significant victory for Pakistan as he was playing a major role in intensifying cross-border terrorist attacks.
- At a time when the Pakistani army and government are in tension with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the Taliban ambassador in Islamabad met with Asad Qaiser, a leader of the party and former speaker of the House of Representatives of Pakistan.
- Following statements by Ali Amin Gandapur, Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, that more than 20,000 members of the Pakistani Taliban are in Afghanistan, the head of the Taliban’s political office in Qatar has reacted to these statements and said that there is no evidence for this claim.
21 December 2024
- The Taliban-controlled Bakhtar News Agency reported that the group’s leader, Haibatullah Akhundzada, has ordered the establishment of special courts to review pension rights.
- Sayed Hassan Rahimizadeh, Director General of the Dogharun-Taybad Border Customs, announced that from the beginning of 1403 to the end of Qas, more than $167 million worth of goods have been exported from Dogharun Customs to Afghanistan.
- Reliable sources told Afghanistan International that the Taliban recently took over the five-star Kabul Serena Hotel from the Aga Khan Development Network.
- Saif Khyber, a spokesman for the Taliban’s Ministry of Publicity, announced that the ministry had arrested at least 550 people in different provinces of Afghanistan on charges of witchcraft in the past three years.
- The head of the Iranian Center for Migrant Affairs announced that according to a new regulation, the movement, settlement, and employment of migrants in some areas has been banned.
- The Taliban’s Ministry of Justice announced that the Committee to Prevent the Usurpation of Government Lands in Parwan has identified approximately 5,000 acres of government land in the Yozbashi area of Bagram.
- The Afghan Liberation Front claimed responsibility for the explosion in Taloqan, the capital of Takhar province.
- The Taliban say that the extraction of gold, ruby, and iron mines in Panjshir province will begin soon.
- The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees says that Iranian authorities plan to deport two million undocumented Afghan refugees by the end of this solar year.
- A Virginia state court has acquitted Haroon Hakimi, a former Afghan writer and diplomat, of sexually assaulting a woman and found the charges against him unfounded.
- On the eve of the second anniversary of the Taliban’s exclusion of girls from universities and the dismissal of women from their positions in international institutions, Reena Amiri, the US Special Representative for Women and Human Rights, has called for comprehensive support.
- Local sources say that the death toll in traffic accidents on the Kabul-Kandahar highway in Ghazni province has increased to 64.
- Taliban leader Haibatullah Akhundzada has issued a new decree ordering the group’s various departments to establish special courts to enforce pensioner rights.
- Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, the Taliban’s deputy foreign minister for politics, said in a meeting with Norway’s special representative for Afghanistan that the group’s political relations with Oslo are “important.”
- On the occasion of Yalda Night, the Golden Needle Literary Association has described the Taliban regime as a “gender apartheid system.”
- The Afghan Women’s Movement for Justice and Freedom has announced in a message on the occasion of Yalda Night that women are standing up to the Taliban’s restrictions.
- Local Taliban officials in Maidan Wardak have reported the death of a child and the injury of seven others following a gas balloon explosion in the province.
- Local sources in Panjshir complain about the continued harassment of residents by the Taliban in this province.
- The Afghan Journalists Center says that seven detained employees of Arezo TV have been released from Taliban custody after two weeks on bail.
- At the same time as health institutes are being closed to girls, Mawlawi Abdul Kabir, the Taliban’s political deputy prime minister, says that the group is committed to developing schools and universities in addition to religious schools.
- Afghan women protesters on Yalda night emphasized the continuation of their struggle against Taliban oppression and injustice.
- The Afghan Liberation Front has claimed responsibility for an attack on the Taliban in Takhar province and claimed to have killed a Taliban fighter in the incident.
- Local sources say that five days after the suicide of Rahmdel Hanafi, one of former President Ashraf Ghani’s bodyguards, the Taliban released his wife from prison.
- The Group of 7 special representatives have expressed concern over the Taliban’s recent decision to ban women and girls from attending health institutes.
22 December 2024
- The armed forces of Pakistan and ordinary civilians keep on suffering at the hands of Islamic terrorism inside Pakistan – and along the border with Afghanistan.
- Afghan security forces have discovered a vast quantity of arms and ammunition from the western Farah province and its neighbouring Helmand, the state-owned Radio and Television of Afghanistan (RTA) reported on Sunday.
- Türkiye on Sunday condemned the “heinous” terrorist attack in northwestern Pakistan near the Afghan border.
- Pakistan’s army chief, General Asim Munir, on Sunday, vowed to hunt down militants waging attacks against security forces and their facilitators, the Pakistani military said, a day after the killing of 16 soldiers in an ambush in the country’s northwest.
- Officials from the Taliban Ministry of Mines and Petroleum have announced the signing of a contract for the Takhar gold mine with a Chinese company.
- Several protesting women living in Kabul, Iran, and Pakistan have celebrated Yalda Night and considered it a protest against Taliban restrictions.
- Greek authorities have announced that the victims of the boat that sank off the coast of the country are all Afghan citizens.
- Local sources in Khost say that a former soldier has committed suicide following continuous torture and harassment by the Taliban in the province.
- Local sources in Paktia say that a Taliban fighter guarding a hospital has shot and killed a man in Paktia.
- The “Polio-Free Afghanistan” organization has announced that a new round of polio vaccinations will begin in the country.
- The United Nations Development Program ( UNDP ) in Afghanistan says it has helped more than 80,000 women entrepreneurs.
- Local sources in Nimroz say that the Taliban have banned movement in the ” Dak ” area of the province.
- The Saudi Arabian embassy in Kabul has announced that it will resume its diplomatic activities in the country.
- Local sources in Takhar province say that the Taliban severely beat up some residents of Warsaj district for not paying “extortion” to the group.
- Sources told the 8 Sobh newspaper that the man was shot dead by the Taliban on the fifth street of the Timeni project in the Fourth Security District of Kabul city.
- The Taliban Ministry of Refugees said in a press release that 12 Afghans who were in Pakistani prisons have been released and returned to Afghanistan.
- Taliban leader Haibatullah Akhundzada ordered the removal of cases from the entire system of those who were registered in the judicial and security institutions of the previous government for collaborating with the Taliban.
- Local sources told Afghanistan International that the Taliban are confiscating land in the Tor Bazaar in the Upper Dara Souf district, a Hazara-dominated region of Samangan.
- A mine clearance organization says Taliban fighters are helping to clear bombs planted by the insurgents during the war against Afghan and international forces in Afghanistan.
- In a speech at a jihadi school in Paktika, Deputy Prime Minister Abdul Kabir referred to widespread poverty in Afghanistan, saying it was a legacy of the previous government.
- Amrullah Saleh wrote that after capturing Kabul on August 16 and 17, 2021, the Taliban killed the wounded security forces of the former government who were being treated in the four-hundred-bed hospital and threw their bodies in a container.
__END__
