AFGHANISTAN WEEKLY UPDATE (17th Feb – 23rd Feb)

17 February 2025

1. The BBC World Service reported that the British Ministry of Defense has confirmed for the first time that the country’s Special Forces Command has rejected a request to resettle more than 2,000 Afghan commandos.
2. The Taliban-controlled Central Bank of Afghanistan announced that it would release another $20 million into the market.
3. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Ambassador met with the Taliban Foreign Minister on Monday regarding the OIC Summit resolutions on Afghanistan.
4. Reliable sources told Afghanistan International that Sirajuddin Haqqani has not returned to Afghanistan after about a month, while a Taliban spokesman said 14 days ago that Haqqani had returned to the country after completing his trip.
5. Sources in Kabul say that the Taliban have arrested Sayed Alam Hashemi, a poet and cultural activist, from the province.
6. Dan Crenshaw, the Republican representative of Texas in the US House of Representatives, has emphasized that former US colleagues should be evacuated from Afghanistan.
7. The National Resistance Front of Afghanistan has claimed to have killed two Taliban fighters in Kapisa province.
8. Gholam Hossein Mozaffari, the governor of Iran’s Khorasan Razavi Province, has announced that the country has exported more than two billion dollars to Afghanistan this year.
9. The second brainstorming session of Iranian, Afghan, and Russian thinkers titled “Perspectives on Regional Security” was held at Allameh Tabatabaei University.
10. The National Resistance Front has claimed that it killed three Taliban fighters and wounded another in an attack on them in Kunduz province.

18 February 2025

1. A letter from the Taliban embassy in Pakistan, published by “Taliban Leaks”, shows that the Taliban ambassador said that Pakistan is certain that American weapons were used in attacks from Afghan soil.
2. Yasin Zia, leader of the Freedom Front, said at the Vienna meeting that some Taliban elements have cooperated with the Hague court in requesting an arrest warrant for Haibatullah Akhundzada, the leader of the Taliban, and Abdul Hakim Haqqani, the head of the group’s Supreme Court.
3. Local sources contacted Afghanistan International on Tuesday evening and reported an explosion in Kunduz city. The explosion was caused by a “hand grenade thrown at a Taliban checkpoint.”
4. Official security sources told Afghanistan International that Taliban and Pakistani border forces clashed for three hours on Tuesday. The incident took place at a border point between the Yaqubi village of Nangarhar and the Mohmand Khwazi district of Pakistan.
5. Afghanistan International has obtained documents showing that a Taliban primary court in Kabul has sentenced former Afghan parliamentarian Allah Gul Mujahid to 18 years in prison and his son to one year.
6. Reuters reported, citing informed sources, that officials at the US State Department’s Office of Afghan Relocation and Resettlement have been told to prepare for closure in April of this year.
7. Amir Khan Muttaqi, Taliban Foreign Minister, in a meeting with Tariq Ali Bakhit, Deputy Secretary-General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, said that what is published in the media is different from the objective realities in Afghanistan under the group’s control.
8. The Afghan Liberation Front has claimed that it killed two Taliban fighters and wounded three others following an attack on them in Kunduz province.
9. Ismail Baghaei, spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, says that the problem of his country’s rights with the Taliban has not been resolved.
10. Local sources in Takhar say that unknown gunmen have killed a member of the Taliban intelligence service in the province.
11. The Afghan Liberation Front has claimed responsibility for killing a Taliban intelligence member in the Dasht-e-Qala district of Takhar province.
12. Local sources say that a Taliban military court in Kabul has sentenced Arif Musleh, the former government security director in the Rokha district of Panjshir province, to five years in prison.
13. A coalition of more than 30 human rights organizations has announced that Massoud Jalal, the former Minister of Women’s Affairs of Afghanistan, and her daughter Hasna Jalal received the Geneva Summit International Women’s Rights Prize in 2025.
14. Local Taliban officials in Nimroz province have announced that they have burned 508 kilograms of women’s hair in the Chahar Burjak district of the province.

19 February 2025

1. The Taliban-run Bakhtar News Agency says that 142 Afghan families have returned to the country from Pakistan and Iran in the past 24 hours.
2. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says that Taliban interventions in the past month have led to the suspension of 56 humanitarian projects in the country.
3. The International Organization for Migration says that from the first to the end of January this year, more than 18,000 Afghans have returned to Afghanistan from the cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi.
4. The Afghan Liberation Front has claimed responsibility for last night’s explosion in Kunduz and said that three Taliban fighters were killed in the incident.
5. Pakistani Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar discussed terrorism in Afghanistan with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. During his meeting with Antonio Guterres in New York, he sought the UN’s support in combating terrorism in Afghanistan.
6. Security sources in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa reported a clash between Pakistani forces and the Taliban on the Afghan border. According to the sources, a Pakistani border guard was killed in the clash and the Taliban suffered heavy casualties.
7. A former Foreign Office employee who was fired for leaking information about the UK’s withdrawal from Afghanistan has won an “unfair dismissal” case against the ministry.
8. Japan’s Foreign Ministry says that officials in a meeting with the Taliban delegation in Tokyo have urged the group to respect human rights. The head of the Middle East and African Affairs Bureau of the Japanese Foreign Ministry has urged the Taliban delegation to strengthen an inclusive political process.

20 February 2025

1. A research institute investigating the ISIS financial network has stated that the group, especially the Khorasan branch, enjoys financial support from all over the world.
2. Wang Qi, deputy executive director of the Chinese Red Cross, announced that the country will provide $100,000 in cash and $100,000 in aid packages to the Taliban administration.
3. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said Afghanistan remains one of the world’s most contaminated countries with mines and explosives. The organization said it is working with the Taliban-controlled Afghan Red Crescent Society to raise awareness about the dangers of explosive remnants of war.
4. Badruddin Haqqani, the Taliban ambassador to Abu Dhabi, said on Thursday that he had attended the International Defense Exhibition in Abu Dhabi “at the invitation of the UAE Minister of Defense.”
5. Turkish police on Thursday arrested Abdul Malik, a member of the Khorasan branch of ISIS, on charges of planning attacks on Jewish schools and synagogues in Istanbul. Police say Abdul Malik is a citizen of Uzbekistan.
6. Mirwais Azizi, owner of Azizi Bank, announced that he will build a $500 million medical city in Kabul’s eighth district. He said the city will include a cancer hospital, a medical university, a maternity hospital, an orphanage, a dormitory, and a city for doctors.
7. With US funding frozen, the International Rescue Committee has announced it will lay off thousands of staff worldwide.
8. The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has announced that it will hold a meeting on Afghanistan next week.
9. The International Committee of the Red Cross has announced that Afghanistan is one of the countries with the highest levels of contamination by mines and explosive remnants of war.
10. The Taliban have announced that they do not commit to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
11. The World Health Organization has announced that the Japanese government has donated $500,000 to the Afghan health sector.
12. Sources in the Taliban Ministry of Education have confirmed that the group, in a bill, has designated the uniforms of male students and school teachers as shirts and tunics along with a turban (langi) and a white hat.
13. The European Union Delegation to Afghanistan has emphasized its commitment to ensuring justice for all people.
14. The Afghan Liberation Front has claimed responsibility for yesterday’s explosion in Mazar-e-Sharif and claimed that two Taliban fighters were killed in the incident.
15. JD Vance, Vice President of US President Donald Trump, has criticized Washington’s development projects in Afghanistan, saying, “Why should US taxpayer money be spent on building toilets in Afghanistan?”

21 February 2025

1. The Iranian Human Rights Organization announced in its annual report that the Salami Republic executed at least 80 Afghan citizens in 2024. The organization said that the current figure is three times the number of Afghans executed in Iran in 2023.
2. Bloomberg News reported that India may accept a Taliban representative at the ambassadorial level in the Afghan embassy in Delhi to counter China’s influence in Afghanistan. The report named Najib Shaheen, son of Suhail Shaheen, the Taliban ambassador to Qatar, as a possible Taliban candidate to take over the embassy.
3. Nasir Ahmad Andisha, Afghanistan’s representative to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, said in response to the Taliban’s announcement to withdraw from the Rome Statute that the group had no authority to make such a decision.
4. Ahmad Massoud, leader of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan, says he is ready to talk to the Taliban if they accept the principles of elections, peace, and justice.
5. Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar has once again called on the Taliban to fulfil their commitments to prevent the use of Afghan soil to carry out “terrorist” acts against Pakistan.
6. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says that the Taliban do not have full control over all parts of Afghanistan’s territory, and this has created opportunities for terrorist groups.
7. Following reports of escalating internal tensions within the Taliban, Abdul Kabir, the Taliban’s Minister of Refugees, said at a conference in Kabul that no one can become the Taliban leader.
8. In response to the Taliban’s decision to withdraw Afghanistan from the Rome Statute, Human Rights Watch has said that there is a possibility of issuing new requests for the arrest of some other Taliban leaders.
9. Iranian media have reported that 200 Afghan citizens have been arrested on Qeshm Island for illegal residence.
10. Michael McCaul, former chairman of the US House of Representatives Foreign Relations Committee, has called on the US State Department to fulfil Washington’s promises to its Afghan allies. Michael McCaul has called on the US State Department to pay attention to the US’s Afghan allies.
11. Ismail Irgashev, Uzbekistan’s special representative in Kabul, and Christopher Dugan, Canadian ambassador in Tashkent, discussed the situation in Afghanistan.
12. The National Resistance Front of Afghanistan has claimed that it killed two Taliban fighters and wounded three others following an attack on the group in Kapisa province.

22 February 2025

1. The Taliban say that Abdul Ghani Baradar, their deputy prime minister for economic affairs, headed a high-level delegation to Uzbekistan this morning (Saturday, March 24).
2. Mohammad Shibak, the police commander of Helmand, Sistan and Baluchestan, Iran, says that the country’s police have arrested 152 Afghan immigrants, whom Iranian authorities call “illegal aliens.”
3. The Taliban-run Ministry of Energy and Water has announced that it has inaugurated two important electricity projects in Kabul today, Saturday.
4. Local sources say that the Taliban have begun house-to-house inspections in some parts of Kabul since the morning of this Saturday, March 24.
5. Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban’s Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs, met with Jamshid Khajayev, Deputy Prime Minister of Uzbekistan, in Tashkent.
6. The Taliban Ministry of Energy and Water says that the private company “Aufi Bahram” has started work on two electricity projects in Kabul city worth 25.4 million US dollars.
7. The Taliban Ministry of Information and Culture says that licenses have been issued for the re-operation of Radio Begum and Radio Jawaban.
8. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is travelling to Iran to discuss regional and global developments.
9. Amir Sadeq Noori, deputy commander of the northeastern headquarters of the Islamic Republic of Iran Army’s ground forces, has announced that another 100 kilometres of infrastructure for the border closure plan with Afghanistan has been prepared.
10. Shawn VanDiver, head of the US Veterans Coalition and Afghan Evacuation, says that all US allies could be relocated and resettled from the country for less than 10 days of US war in Afghanistan.
11. Republican Senator Tim Burchett has once again emphasized that the “No Taxpayer Money to Terrorists” Act must be passed in both houses of Congress, a law that would prevent the United States from sending cash aid to Afghanistan.
12. A high-ranking Taliban delegation headed by Abdul Ghani Baradar, the group’s deputy prime minister for economic affairs, travelled to Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, for a two-day official visit.
13. The Central Bank of Afghanistan, under Taliban control, has announced that it will auction 20 million US dollars.

23 February 2025

1. Since the beginning of the new year, trips abroad by senior Taliban military and civilian officials have increased; during this period, at least 10 Taliban officials, including six of those on the UN sanctions list, have travelled abroad.
2. Nader Yarahmadi, head of the Iranian Center for Citizens and Refugees Affairs, says the departure of Afghan refugees from Iran is a “general demand” of the country’s society.
3. US President Donald Trump once again emphasized that he will withdraw the remaining US equipment in Afghanistan from the Taliban.
4. Noor Ahmad Agha, the governor of the Central Bank of Afghanistan under Taliban control, met with Timur Ashmetov, the governor of the Central Bank of Uzbekistan, and called for the creation of facilities to transfer money to Afghanistan.
5. Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban’s deputy prime minister for economics, met with Afghan investors and businessmen in Uzbekistan.
6. The United Nations World Food Program, emphasizing its commitment to assisting people in need in Afghanistan, says that access to food is not only a need but also a basic human right.
7. Nader Yarahmadi, Advisor to the Minister of Interior and Head of the Center for Foreign Immigrant Affairs of the Iranian Ministry of Interior, announced at a conference of the Directors General of Iranian Immigrant Affairs that this plan was implemented to identify unauthorized persons and prevent legal problems and will not have any obligations for the Iranian government.
8. The Afghan Liberation Front has claimed responsibility for last night’s explosion at Bagram Airfield in Parwan Province, claiming that three Taliban fighters were killed in the incident.
9. The Afghan Journalists Center says that despite the Taliban issuing licenses to Radio Begum and Radio Jawwan to resume operations, the offices of these media outlets have not yet reopened.