AFGHANISTAN WEEKLY UPDATE ( 27th Jan – 2nd Feb)

27 January 2025

1. China announced that it has banned imports of sheep, goats and livestock products from Afghanistan, Palestine, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh.  
    
2. The United Nations mission in Afghanistan accused the Resistance Front and the Freedom Front of claiming responsibility for attacks that harmed civilians in the last two months of 2024.  
    
3. Afghanistan International sources reported that Abbas Stanikzai, the Taliban’s deputy foreign minister, has left Afghanistan after being issued a travel ban and arrested by Haibatullah Akhundzada.  
    
4. The spokesman for the Taliban Ministry of Higher Education announced that the group has no agreement with Pakistan or other countries to provide scholarships to girls. Ziaullah Hashimi wrote in X: “Reports about the Taliban’s conditional agreement with Pakistan for scholarships to Afghan girls are not true.”  
    
5. The Afghan Journalists Center condemned the Taliban’s arrest and imprisonment of Afghan journalist and filmmaker Rahim Saeedi and called for his immediate and unconditional release.  
    
6. Local sources in Balkh say that the Taliban have arrested a former soldier in the province.  
    
7. The National Resistance Front of Afghanistan has issued a press release stating that its forces attacked the Taliban in the vicinity of the 10th security district of Shahr-e-Naw, Kabul.  
    
8. The Taliban’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has announced that Mohammad Naeem, the former Taliban ambassador to Qatar, has been appointed as the ministry’s deputy finance and administration minister by order of the group’s leader.  
    
9. During his visit to Kabul, Iranian Foreign Minister Seyyed Abbas Araqchi met with Taliban officials and also spoke with a number of members of the Afghan Shiite Ulema Council.  
    
10. Local Taliban officials in Herat say that Abdullah Youf, the head of the TAPI project in Afghanistan, has announced the acceleration of the pipeline laying process for the project in a meeting with Noor Ahmad Islamjar, the governor of the group.  
     
11. During his visit to Kabul and meeting with Taliban officials, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi announced that there are some concerns from Afghanistan that need to be resolved.  
     
12. Local sources in Takhar say that the Taliban have relocated hundreds of non-native fighters to the area after killing a Chinese citizen on the Khwaja Bahauddin-Dasht Qala road.  
     
13. US Vice President JD Vance has announced that Afghan refugees will not be allowed to enter the country without the necessary checks.  
     
14. Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly has announced the release of David Lavery, a veteran of the country, from a Taliban prison.  
     
15. Local Taliban officials in Paktia say that a child died and five others were injured in a landmine explosion in the province.  
     
16. Local sources in Paktika say that the Taliban have banned journalists from photographing living creatures in the province.  
     
17. The British government has refused to accept Afghan refugees who are in limbo in Pakistan.  
     
18. Local sources in Takhar say that the Taliban have arrested the brother of Noor Mohammad Hakimi, the provincial police chief under the previous government, for the second time.  
     
19. The Taliban Ministry of Higher Education says that no agreement has been reached with the Pakistani government to provide scholarships to Afghan girls.  
     
20. Local sources in Nuristan say that three children in the province have lost their lives due to measles.  
     
21. As the polio vaccination campaign begins in the country, children in four districts of Ghazni province have been deprived of receiving the vaccine.  
     
22. The Afghan Journalists Center has called the three-year prison sentence handed down by the Taliban to Sayed Rahim Saeedi, a producer of YouTube channel programs, unfair and called for his immediate release.  

     

28 January 2025

1. Local sources told Afghanistan International that some Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) members, along with their families, have been relocated to different areas of Kandahar.  
    
2. The Afghan Women’s Political Participation Network, welcomed the request for an arrest warrant for Haibatullah Akhundzada, the leader, and Abdul Hakim Haqqani, the head of the Taliban Supreme Court, by the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, has also called for the issuance of warrants for other officials of the group.  
    
3. Local sources in Helmand say that the Taliban have arrested three people on charges of collaborating with the Resistance Front in the province.  
    
4. Alireza Bekdali, Iran’s ambassador to Kabul, says that the visit of Seyyed Abbas Araqchi, the country’s Foreign Minister, to Afghanistan does not mean formal recognition of the Taliban.  
    
5. Following the increase in the dollar’s value against the Afghan currency, the Central Bank of Afghanistan under Taliban rule says it will auction 27 million US dollars.  
    
6. After the publication of a report by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) regarding the Taliban’s restrictions on women’s movement, the group’s Ministry of Encouraging Good and Preventing Evil has rejected the report.  
    
7. The National Union of French Journalists has held a protest rally in front of the Nantes court in support of Afghan journalists living in Pakistan and Iran.  
    
8. Reliable sources say that the Taliban Ministry of Information and Culture, on the orders of the group’s leader, will not issue any permits to establish a new television station.  
    
9. Following the release of news that Abbas Stanikzai had left the country before being arrested on the orders of the Taliban leader, he said that he had no disagreement with Haibatullah Akhundzada and had gone to rest.  
    
10. Amnesty International says the Taliban have denied access to healthcare and medicine to filmmaker and Anar Media director Said Rahim Saeedi, who is being held in Pul-e-Charkhi prison despite his critical health conditions.  
     
11. New US Defense Secretary Pete Hegsett stressed Washington’s support for its Afghan partners on his first day on the job.  
     
12. The Taliban-controlled Central Bank announced that it will once again auction $27 million in the foreign exchange market.  
     
13. The UN refugee agency has called the forced deportation of Afghan refugees from Tajikistan illegal and called for it to stop.  
     
14. The Taliban’s Ministry of Empowerment has dismissed recent concerns by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) about women’s rights and freedom of expression in Afghanistan as baseless, saying the UNAMA’s criticism is based on a Western perspective.  
     
15. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs warned that the number of malnourished children in Afghanistan is expected to reach 3.5 million by 2025.  
     
16. The United States has suspended funding for educational, charitable, and human rights programs in Afghanistan.  
     
17. Kazakhstan’s energy ministry said state-owned Kazakhgaz is in talks to join TAPI, the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project.  
     
18. The National Resistance Front on Tuesday called a recent report by the United Nations Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) on civilian casualties during Resistance Front attacks “inaccurate” and containing information that was “biased and based on Taliban sources.”  
     
19. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in a phone call with Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani on Tuesday, appreciated the country’s role in the release of two American citizens from Taliban prison.  

     

29 January 2025

1. Afghan refugees in Islamabad, Pakistan, say that the country’s police have intensified their arrests of asylum seekers after a pause of several days.  
    
2. The Express Tribune newspaper quoted a Pakistani official as saying that the Taliban government has relocated the families of some members of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) from border areas to other parts of Afghanistan.  
    
3. The Afghan Liberation Front has claimed to have attacked a Taliban military convoy in Kapisa. According to the Freedom Front, three Taliban fighters were killed and three others were wounded in the attack.  
    
4. The Afghan Liberation Front has claimed responsibility for the Kunduz explosion and claimed to have killed four Taliban fighters in the incident.  
    
5. The National Resistance Front of Afghanistan, in response to the report of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), has called it biased and dependent on Taliban sources.  
    
6. Residents of Herat City have reported the interruption of electricity imported from Turkmenistan in the province.  
    
7. Local sources in Takhar report the arrest of an electronic ID employee by Taliban intelligence.  
    
8. Sources in Kunduz say that the Taliban have banned institutions from biometrically registering women to receive aid in the province.  
    
9. British Deputy Foreign Secretary Hamish Falconer says he has hosted a meeting on humanitarian aid for Afghanistan with the participation of officials from the World Food Program and the United Nations Population Fund.  
    
10. The former French ambassador to Afghanistan says that the Taliban has turned Afghanistan into an “Islamic North Korea.”  
     
11. The Collective Security Treaty Organization announced on Wednesday, February 10, that, with the cooperation of member states, they had discovered and seized more than two tons of narcotics in two separate operations in 2024.  
     
12. The Taliban have arrested Abdul Aziz Shuja, a third cleric critical of the group, in Kabul, sources told Afghanistan International.  
     
13. Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry, responding to the US President’s remarks about withdrawing the country’s remaining weapons from Afghanistan, said that these weapons pose a serious threat to Pakistan’s security.  
     
14. Former Afghan Foreign Minister Hanif Atmar has warned of the consequences of Donald Trump’s decision to suspend US foreign aid, saying the move would have catastrophic consequences for the Afghan people, adding that millions of people depend on this vital aid.  
     
15. Local sources in Paktia say that following the US’s suspension of financial assistance to Afghanistan, the Organization for Research and Community Development (ORCD) in the province has suspended its activities.  
     
16. Following the increase in the value of the dollar against the Afghani, Taliban leader Haibatullah Akhundzada has ordered that all transactions be conducted in Afghanis.  
     
17. The Taliban Supreme Court says it has flogged three people, including a woman, on charges of extramarital affairs in Nangarhar province.  
     
18. Local sources in Panjshir say that the Taliban have flogged two people, including a woman, on charges of having an extramarital affair in this province.  
     
19. Sources in Takhar say that local Taliban officials in the province are giving aid distributed by relief organizations to their fighters.  
     
20. The Taliban Education Department in Herat has announced that a piece of land donated by a resident of the province has been allocated for a religious school.  
     
21. Local sources in Kunduz report an explosion in the province.  
     
22. Following increased insecurity, the Taliban Ministry of Defense has ordered fighters affiliated with the ministry to avoid visiting banks to receive their salaries “as much as possible.”  

30 January 2025

1. Sources say Taliban members arrested two brothers, who were soldiers of the former government, on Wednesday while they were working on the road between the Shahran and Miramur districts of Daikundi province.   
    
2. Afghan refugees in Islamabad, Pakistan, say that the country’s police have intensified their arrests of asylum seekers after a pause of several days.  
    
3. In response to a report by Afghanistan International that government employees had been withheld from their salaries for three months, the Taliban spokesman announced that the group’s Ministry of Finance would pay the salaries of all government employees during the current month of February.  
    
4. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations announced that it planted more than 1.5 million pistachio seedlings in Badghis Province, Afghanistan, from 2021 to 2023.  
    
5. Pakistan’s UN envoy announced that he had held talks with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and representatives of the 10 elected members of the Security Council on peace and the situation in Afghanistan.  
    
6. The Taliban dismissed concerns that remaining American weapons in Afghanistan could fall into the hands of insurgents as baseless.  
    
7. Three reliable sources told Afghanistan International that they saw Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai, the Taliban’s deputy foreign minister for politics, in the United Arab Emirates city of Sharjah. He left Kabul within a few steps of being arrested.  
    
8. Former Secretary General of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Bulat Nurgaliyev warned of the threats posed by terrorist groups in Afghanistan. He called on the SCO to address these threats as a priority at its upcoming summit.  
    
9. Hossein Ali Shahidi, a member of the Isfahan Provincial Chamber of Commerce, says that Iran is trying to build infrastructure in Afghanistan, and in return, the Taliban will hand over mines to the Islamic Republic.  
    
10. Andrei Serdyukov, the head of the Collective Security Treaty Organization’s Joint Staff, called Afghanistan a threat to the organization’s member states.  
     
11. The family of Mahmud Hassan, a cleric critical of Hebatullah Akhundzada, told Afghanistan International that the cleric is being severely tortured in Taliban custody and his health is in critical condition.  
     
12. The German Parliament’s (Bundestag) investigative commission, releasing its final report on the country’s 20-year military mission in Afghanistan, said that while it is not necessary to reopen the German embassy in Kabul, it is important for Berlin to be present on the scene with its personnel.  
     
13. Abbas Stanikzai, in an audiotape obtained by Afghanistan International, says that the rule of Haibatullah is not permanent, rulers leave but the homeland remains.  
     
14. The head of the Norwegian Refugee Council says that the international community has turned its back on the people of Afghanistan after the Taliban returned to power.  
     
15. The United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced that it has arrested an Afghan immigrant on suspicion of terrorist acts in San Diego, California.  
     
16. The son of the Taliban deputy governor in Badghis is one of three militants killed in an operation by Pakistani troops in the Kulachi area of ​​Dera Ismail Khan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, security sources said.  
     
17. Following Afghanistan International’s reports about the collapse of the Afghan currency and the Taliban’s violent efforts to prevent its further depreciation, the Taliban’s Ministry of Finance held a high-level meeting.  
     
18. The Taliban Supreme Court says it has flogged two people, including a woman, in Kapisa province.  
     
19. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says that 39 per cent of families are facing water shortages due to the drying up of financial resources.  
     
20. Local sources in Takhar say that after arresting some former soldiers, the Taliban have begun the process of collecting smartphones from their relatives and family members in the province.  
     
21. Many Afghan refugees living in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, say that dozens of refugees have been transferred to camps for deportation by the country’s police.  
     
22. The Women’s Movement for Freedom has condemned the suspension of the refugee admission program to the United States.  
     
23. Local sources in Kandahar say that the Taliban will hold a large meeting in the coming days in the province with the presence of Haibatullah Akhundzada, the group’s leader.  

31 January 2025

1. Former CIA agent Sarah Adam says that al-Qaeda and ISIS are fully active in the border areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan and are now a greater threat than at any time in the past 20 years.  
    
2. A high-level delegation from Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) will meet with former Afghan officials and jihadist figures in Istanbul on Saturday.  
    
3. Tim Burchett, a US Congressman from Tennessee, says that Imran Rahimi, a person with close ties to the Taliban’s intelligence agency and access to their senior commanders, is currently in the United States.  
    
4. Four days after the arrest of Mahmud Hassan, the former government’s head of Hajj and Endowments in Panjshir, sources say he is being severely tortured in a Taliban prison.  
    
5. The National Resistance Front of Afghanistan has claimed to have killed a Taliban fighter in Kabul city.  
    
6. After US President Donald Trump’s warning about withdrawing the country’s remaining weapons from the Taliban, Islamabad said that the presence of this equipment in Afghanistan is a serious threat to Pakistan.  
    
7. The Afghan Liberation Front has claimed to have killed four Taliban fighters in an attack on Kunduz.  
    
8. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations says that war, poverty, and overexploitation of trees have caused widespread destruction of pistachio forests in the country.  
    
9. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid has claimed that the salaries of all government employees will be paid.  
    
10. Local sources in Daikundi have reported the arrest of two former soldiers by the Taliban in this province.  
     
11. The Islamabad Institute for Strategic Studies has announced that the withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan has led to renewed militant activities in Pakistan.  
     
12. Local sources in Baghlan have reported the movement of more than 400 Taliban special forces with light and heavy equipment into the province.  
     
13. Pakistani TV channel Sama, in response to criticism about the deportation of Afghan refugees from the country, wrote that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has registered thousands of Afghan refugees without coordinating with Islamabad.  
     
14. The Taliban security command in Laghman says three children were killed in a bomb blast in the Alishang district of the province. According to the Taliban, the children were 10, 11, and 13 years old.  
     
15. Republican Senator Rand Paul says the United States has provided $3.3 billion in aid to Afghanistan since the Taliban’s return to power, some of which has gone to the Taliban.  
     
16. Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry has expressed hope that the process of transferring eligible Afghan refugees to the United States will resume.  
     
17. Republican US Senator Shelley Moore Capito introduced a bill to prevent the Taliban and terrorist organizations from accessing US financial assistance through the United Nations.  
     
18. Analysts at the US Institute of Peace said the request by the International Criminal Court prosecutor to arrest the Taliban leader and judges has revived hope for the pursuit of justice.  
     
19. Russian media reported that Afghanistan purchased 10,000 tons of gas condensate from Russia in January of this year.  
     
20. The Telegraph newspaper reported on Friday, February 12, that the Taliban has created a crisis in maternity hospitals in Afghanistan by imposing restrictions.  
     
21. Afghan Deputy Minister of Economy Abdul Latif Nazari said that the suspension of US aid has led to the closure of 50 international humanitarian organizations spread across 28 provinces of Afghanistan.  
     
22. Latif Nazari, the Taliban’s deputy minister of economy, confirmed that there had been a delay in paying salaries to government employees “due to technical reasons.  
     
23. The Deputy Minister of Interior for Security and Law Enforcement announced that despite the ban on drug cultivation by the Taliban, drug smuggling to Iran continues.  

1 February 2025

1. The US Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) says that ISIS remains a serious threat to the country and the region. According to SIGAR, this statistic represents a 40% increase in attacks by this group compared to 2023.  
    
2. SIGAR, the US Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, said in its new report that the Taliban is fighting against ISIS and its opposition fronts, such as the Resistance Front and the Freedom Front, but is tolerant of terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda and the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).  
    
3. Sama News Pakistan has reported that Badruddin, known as Yousuf, son of Ghulam Muhammad, the deputy governor of the Taliban in Badghis province, was killed by members of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan in Dera Ismail Khan.  
    
4. The US Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) has announced that due to Taliban political interference, there is no financial transparency in the Central Bank of Afghanistan under the control of this group.  
    
5. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said in a meeting with government officials on Thursday that holders of the “Afghan Citizenship Card” or “ACC” should immediately leave Islamabad and Rawalpindi and return to Afghanistan along with undocumented migrants.  
    
6. Sources in Takhar province confirmed to AMU that an explosion occurred moments ago at the entrance gate of the Taliban security command in the province.  
    
7. Rand Paul, a Republican senator from Kentucky, says that the United States has sent $3.3 billion to Afghanistan since the withdrawal of its troops, some of which have gone to the Taliban.  
    
8. Local sources in Nangarhar province say that Pakistani border guards shot and killed an Afghan citizen at the Torkham crossing. 
    
9. Sarah Adam, a former member of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), said that the Al-Qaeda and ISIS networks have an active presence in the border areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan.  
    
10. Elliot Ackerman, a US veteran who served five tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, wrote in a new article for the New York Times that during the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Taliban had compiled a list of US allies to hunt down and kill for cooperating with US forces.  
     
11. Hamdullah Fitrat, deputy spokesman for the Taliban, has rejected the report of the US Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) on ISIS activities in the country.  
     
12. A local source announced yesterday, Wednesday, the death of 10 civilians, all from the same family, in an attack launched by militants in Khost province, eastern Afghanistan.  
     
13. Pakistani security forces raided a militant hideout in a former stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban in the northwest of the country on Thursday, sparking a fierce clash in which two soldiers and six militants were killed, the military said.  
     
14. Local sources in Khost say that following the suspension of US financial assistance, the activities of a number of health centres in Khost province will be suspended.  
     
15. Local sources say that Taliban members killed a young woman and injured her husband during an armed robbery in Parwan.  
     
16. Tim Burchett, a representative from Tennessee in the US Congress, says that Imran Rahimi, a person with close ties to the Taliban’s intelligence department and access to the group’s senior commanders, is currently in the United States.  
     
17. Zalmay Khalilzad, former US envoy for Afghan peace, has said that countries should release American hostages to improve relations with Washington.  
     
18. Local sources in Badakhshan say that individuals affiliated with Juma Khan Fateh, head of the Taliban’s counter-narcotics commission in the province, have forced at least 27 Ismaili residents to convert to Islam.  
     
19. Following the murder of two women in Badghis province, local sources are now saying that the perpetrator of this incident is the local Taliban commander in the province.  
     
20. Russia has revealed the possibility of removing the Taliban from the list of terrorist organizations, as it made some amendments to the legislative laws of the Russian Federation, including the mechanism for suspending the terrorist status of any specific organization in it.  

2 February 2025

1. The Deputy Minister of Economy, in response to rumours about the suspension of government employees’ salaries, said that the Afghan economy is in a normal state and the country’s import and export operations are proceeding as usual.  
    
2. The Afghan Freedom Front says it has killed five Taliban fighters and wounded three others following an attack on them in Takhar province.  
    
3. The New York Times reported that more than three years after the Taliban took power, Afghanistan remains in dire economic straits and politically isolated.  
    
4. The Freedom Front has issued a statement claiming responsibility for the explosion Saturday night at the entrance gate of the Taliban security headquarters in Takhar province.  
    
5. In response to the arrest of religious scholars, teachers, and civil society activists by the Taliban, the Human Rights Defenders Forum has said that these actions not only cause serious damage to the social psyche of the people but also threaten the social atmosphere of the country.  
    
6. The Norwegian People’s Aid Organization said in a statement that the US State Department has ordered the organization to “immediately” suspend all activities related to US financial assistance for a period of 85 days due to Donald Trump’s executive order.  
    
7. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) announced that it has distributed iron tablets to at least 2.5 million girls at risk of anaemia in Afghanistan in 2024.  
    
8. Tim Burchett, a prominent member of the US House of Representatives, has called on Donald Trump to stop sending $40 million a week to the Taliban.  
    
9. The Taliban’s Ministry of Justice says it has secured 5,000 acres of land in Qara Koterma village in Imam Sahib district and another 21 acres in Qala-e-Zal district of Kunduz province for the “Emirati”.  
    
10. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said 55 civilians are killed or injured by explosive devices in Afghanistan every month.  
     
11. The Afghan Liberation Front announced on Sunday, February 14, that its members attacked the entrance gate of the Taliban police headquarters in Takhar yesterday evening.  
     
12. The Halash Human Rights Organization reported that one person was killed and another was injured after the Islamic Republic’s military forces opened fire on a vehicle carrying Afghan refugees on the Saravan-Khas road.  
     
13. Twelve days after Sirajuddin Haqqani’s unexpected visit to the United Arab Emirates, the Taliban interior minister has still not returned to Afghanistan.  
     
14. The Taliban Minister of Mines, during a visit to Helmand and Nimroz provinces, ordered the process of investigating and evaluating lithium and uranium mines in these two provinces to begin.  
     
15. The Iranian ambassador asked the Taliban governor in Bamyan to obtain permission from Taliban leader Haibatullah Akhundzada to open the 120-bed Imam Khomeini Hospital in the province.  
     
16. Anas Haqqani, a member of the Haqqani Network, responded to the first foreign trip of Syrian interim President Ahmed Sharia by publishing a verse from the Quran.  
     
17. Zainul Abedin Abed, the Taliban’s deputy head of environmental protection, condemned US President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement at a press conference in Kabul on Sunday.  
     
18. Iranian Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni has announced that since the beginning of this year, one million and one hundred thousand Afghan refugees have been returned to Afghanistan from this country.  
     
19. Local sources in Bamyan have reported the arrest of a Chinese-American woman and four of her companions by the Taliban in the province.  
     
20. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says that $21.9 million is needed in 2025 to clear mined areas and conduct risk education efforts in Afghanistan.