Page 11 - Taliban

Over 4 ,00,000 Afghans return home from Pak following crackdown on migrants

More than 400,000 Afghans returned to their home country following the ongoing crackdown on illegal foreigners in the country, Pakistani authorities said Monday. Zabihullah Mujahid, chief spokesperson of the Taliban-led government in Afghanistan, confirmed the number and told The Associated Press that the majority have been using the border crossings of Torkham and Spin Boldak to return home. An estimated 1.7 million Afghans had been living in Pakistan when authorities announced its nationwide crackdown, saying that anyone without proper documents had to leave the country by October 31 or else get arrested. However, Pakistani officials said the other 1.4 million Afghans registered as refugees need not worry as only people without proper documentation were sought after. In the 1980s, millions of Afghans fled to neighboring Pakistan during the Soviet occupation of their country. The numbers witnessed a spike after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in 2021. Pakistan also introduced

Taliban min attends meet in Pak despite tensions over expulsions of Afghans

A Cabinet minister from Afghanistan's Taliban-led government attended a trade meeting in Pakistan despite tensions over the expulsion of Afghans living in the country illegally, officials said Wednesday. Around 300,000 Afghans have returned home since last month, when Pakistan launched a nationwide crackdown on undocumented foreigners. The crackdown mainly affects about 1.7 million Afghans who fled during the 1979-1989 Soviet occupation of their country and after the Taliban takeover in 2021. The Taliban-led administration in Afghanistan has denounced the crackdown. However, this week the Taliban government sent Commerce and Industry Minister Nooruddin Azizi to Islamabad for a meeting of commerce and trade ministers from Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Pakistan. Aziz met separately with Pakistani officials to discuss trade issues and the expulsion of Afghans. In a statement on X, previously known as Twitter, the Afghan Embassy in Islamabad said the three sides agreed to expand trade, .

Nearly 400,000 refugees returned to Afghanistan from Pak in past two months

The Afghan nationals, who are currently detained in Pakistan, raised concerns about their situation. Afghan nationals said that they are facing severe challenges, TOLO News reported

Over 3,000 migrants return to Afghanistan from Turkey in last 20 days

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has provided monetary support to 3,083 of these persons, with a total aid of 36,996,000 Afghanis, reported Khaama Press

Satisfaction level of Afghan women for freedom lowest in world: Survey

As per the Gallup survey, 17 per cent of women in Afghanistan said that they are treated with respect. The survey also stated that women in Afghanistan live in suffering

Taliban criticises Pak's decision to deport Afghan immigrants from country

Kharoti, in an interview with TOLO News, added that Pakistan should treat Afghan immigrants responsibly and allow them to return to the country of their own volition

Pak decides not to back Taliban after it fails to rein in TTP group: Report

In a major policy shift, Pakistan has decided not to support the Afghan Taliban's case at the international level or extend any other assistance following Kabul's failure to neutralise the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) terror group, according to a media report on Thursday. At the same time, Islamabad will no longer extend any special privileges to the interim Afghan Taliban government in a move that suggests a deterioration in relations between the two neighbours, The Express Tribune newspaper reported. The TTP, which has ideological linkages with the Afghan Taliban and is also known as the Pakistan Taliban, was set up as an umbrella group of several militant outfits in 2007. Its main aim is to impose its strict brand of Islam across Pakistan. Pakistan had hoped that the Afghan Taliban after coming to power would stop the use of their soil against Pakistan by expelling the TTP operatives, but they have apparently refused to do so at the cost of straining ties with ...

Terror cases in Pak up 60% since Taliban took over Afghanistan: PM Kakar

Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar said on Wednesday that terror attacks in Pakistan rose 60 per cent and suicide bombings by 500 per cent after the Taliban came to power in neighbouring Afghanistan, lamenting at Kabul's failure to stop the use of its soil for terrorism. The hardline Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021 bringing to an end the government in Kabul when the army, trained and equipped by the US and allies, melted away with a speed that surprised even the rebels. "After the establishment of the interim Afghan government in August 2021, we had a strong hope that there would be long-term peace in Afghanistan. [] Strict action would be taken against Pakistan-opposing groups, especially the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and they would absolutely not be allowed to use Afghan soil against Pakistan," Kakar said at a press conference in Islamabad. "But unfortunately, after the establishment of the interim Afghan govt, there has been a 60 per cent ...

Afghan farmers lose income of more than $1 bn after Taliban banned poppy

Afghan farmers have lost income of more than USD 1 billion from opium sales after the Taliban outlawed poppy cultivation, according to a report from the UN drugs agency published on Sunday. Afghanistan was the world's biggest opium producer and a major source for heroin in Europe and Asia when the Taliban seized power in August 2021. They pledged to wipe out the country's drug cultivation industry and imposed a formal ban in April 2022, dealing a heavy blow to hundreds of thousands of farmers and day labourers who relied on proceeds from the crop to survive. Opium cultivation crashed by 95 per cent after the ban, the report from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime said. Until 2023, the value of Afghanistan's opiate exports frequently outstripped the value of its legal exports. UN officials said the strong contraction of the opium economy is expected to have far-reaching consequences for the country as opiate exports before the ban accounted for between 9-14 per cent of the national .

Afghan PM appeals Pakistan to not 'expel Afghans in an undignified manner'

"If their (Pakistan) reason is to expel undocumented migrants only, then why are they humiliating the refugees, stealing their property, and destroying their houses?" he added

Pakistan's Mianwali Training Air Base attacked; 3 gunmen killed in response

According to reports, the Islamist terror group Tehreek-e-Jihad has taken responsibility for the attack on the Mianwali Air Force base

Taliban asks nations hosting Afghan refugees not to forcefully deport them

The Taliban spokesperson said Afghans have been forced to migrate to various countries due to the wars over the past 45 years in Afghanistan

UN, int'l community urged to condemn, halt Pakistan deportation of Afghans

The United States, the United Nations and the international community have urged by an Indian diaspora body to condemn and halt deportation of over a million Afghans from Pakistan, and appealed to the IMF to stop its financial aid to Islamabad. Condemning Pakistan's decision in this regard, the Foundation for India and Indian Diaspora Studies (FIIDS) said this is illegal and the international norms. "The Islamic Republic of Pakistan's planned forced deportation of Afghan refugees, who had fled under duress from the brutal Taliban rule, is not only illegal under international law but could also trigger a massive humanitarian crisis," said Khanderao Kand, chief of policy and strategy at FIIDS. "It was always known since the times of Osama Bin Laden that Pakistan worked very closely with the Taliban as it's proxy to have a grip over Afghanistan. Now Pakistan seems frustrated at its weakening control over the Taliban, he said. FIIDS said that Pak is trying to do the exact things to Afg

Pakistan shuts Afghan schools as deadline for deportation approaches

The Pakistani government initiated an extensive crackdown on the estimated 1.7 million Afghans residing in the country without legal status, leaving them until October 31 to leave or face mass arrests

Over 8,000 Afghan refugees forced to return from Pak as deadline nears

The Taliban-led Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation of Afghanistan on Saturday announced that approximately 7,910 Afghan migrants have returned to their country from Pakistan

More than 5,000 Afghan migrants have returned from Pakistan, Iran: Taliban

According to the Taliban-appointed border official in Islam Qala Herat, among these migrants, 3591 people, including families have arrived in China, forcibly and voluntarily

Taliban benefiting from international aid via fraudulent NGOs: US watchdog

The watchdog for US assistance to Afghanistan has warned that the Taliban are benefiting from international aid through the establishment of fraudulent nongovernmental organisations. The Taliban have exerted greater control over national and international NGOs since seizing power in August 2021. They have barred Afghan women from NGO work and sought to push out foreign organisations from the education sector. A report from the US Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, or SIGAR, found that the Taliban benefit from American-funded education programming through the generation of tax revenues and from more nefarious methods like the establishment of fraudulent NGOs and extorting and infiltrating existing NGOs to obtain or direct international donor aid. Taliban spokesmen weren't immediately available for comment on Monday. In May, a SIGAR report highlighted the Taliban's interference with NGO work in Afghanistan. The economy ministry, which supervises the sector, ..

Explosion rocks Takhar province in Afghanistan, investigation underway

Additionally, domestic media outlets have reported hearing ambulances in the area, although more details are awaited about the explosion

Afghanistan: 7 killed, 15 injured in suicide attack at mosque in Baghlan

Reports have claimed that Taliban members arrived at the spot following the explosion

Over 90% of people killed by Afghanistan quake were women and children: UN

More than 90 per cent of the people killed by a 6.3-magnitude earthquake in western Afghanistan last weekend were women and children, U.N. officials reported Thursday. Taliban officials said Saturday's earthquake killed more than 2,000 people of all ages and genders across Herat province. The epicentre was in Zenda Jan district, where 1,294 people died, 1,688 were injured and every home was destroyed, according to U.N. figures. Women and children were more likely to have been at home when the quake struck in the morning, said Siddig Ibrahim, the chief of the UNICEF field office in Herat. When the first earthquake hit, people thought it was an explosion, and they ran into their homes, he said. Hundreds of people, mostly women, remain missing in Zenda Jan. The Afghanistan representative for the United Nations Population Fund, Jaime Nadal, said there would have been no gender dimension to the death toll if the quake had happened at night. At that time of the day, men were out in the