Page 8 - Taliban

Timeline: 21-year-long effort by India to set up port in Chabahar

Monday's agreement is expected to finally realise efforts by India to gain a strategic foothold in the region

Pak, US discuss regional security threat posed by IS group, local Taliban

Pakistani and US officials have held their latest talks in Washington on how to expand cooperation in tackling the threat posed to regional security by an affiliate of the Islamic State group and the Pakistani Taliban, Pakistan's foreign ministry said Monday. A joint statement said Pakistani diplomat Haider Shah and the State Department's coordinator for counterterrorism, Ambassador Elizabeth Richard, chaired the weekend talks. The talks occurred amid a surge in militants attacks by the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, and an Afghan branch of the Islamic State group. The TTP is an ally of the Afghan Taliban that seized power in Afghanistan in 2021. Pakistan's military recently said a suicide bombing that killed five Chinese engineers and a Pakistani driver in March was planned in Afghanistan and that the bomber was an Afghan citizen. Kabul has denied the charge.

'Attack controlled from Afghanistan': Pak on death of 5 Chinese engineers

An attack on a convoy in the Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on March 26 led to the death of five Chinese engineers

Over 23 million Afghans in dire need of humanitarian aid in 2024: UNAMA

Despite a decline in violence, Afghanistan continues to grapple with significant humanitarian challenges, as emphasised by UNAMA

iPhones to currency exchange: Some biz making money out of Taliban rule

Phones, Islamic books and currency exchange. Some businesses are making money out of Taliban rule

Gunman kills 6 inside Shiite mosque in western Afghanistan, says Taliban

A gunman stormed a mosque in western Afghanistan, opening fire and killing six people as they were praying, a Taliban official said Tuesday. Local media reports and a former president of Afghanistan said the mosque was targeted because it was a place of worship for members of the country's Shiite Muslim minority. According to Abdul Mateen Qani, a spokesman for the Taliban Interior Ministry, the attack happened on Monday night in the district of Guzara in Herat province. He said in a post on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, that an investigation was underway. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, which also wounded another worshipper, and the attacker fled the scene. Local media reported that the mosque's imam was among those killed. I strongly condemn the attack on the Imam Zaman Mosque, former Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on X. I consider this terrorist act against all religious and human standards. The Islamic State group's affiliate in ...

Taliban working to attract tourists to Afghanistan despite challenges

Around 30 men are crammed into a Kabul classroom, part of the debut student cohort at a Taliban-run institute training tourism and hospitality professionals. It's a motley crew. One student is a model. Another is 17 and has no job history. The students vary in age, education level and professional experience. They're all men Afghan women are banned from studying beyond sixth grade and they don't know anything about tourism or hospitality. But they are all eager to promote a different side of Afghanistan. And the Taliban are happy to help. Afghanistan's rulers are pariahs on the global stage, largely because of their restrictions on women and girls. The economy is struggling, infrastructure is poor, and poverty is rife. And yet, foreigners are visiting the country, encouraged by the sharp drop in violence, increased flight connections with hubs like Dubai, and the bragging rights that come with vacationing in an unusual destination. The numbers aren't huge they never were but ..

Process underway to 'appoint' special representative for Afghanistan: UN

The Taliban regime opposes the appointment of a new special representative for Afghanistan and believes that with the presence of UNAMA, this is an unnecessary move, reported Khaama Press

Cenbank under Taliban control 'prohibits' online currency exchange

The prohibition of online currency exchanges has been put in place under the Taliban's supervisory and security administration, according to Khaama Press

Suicide bomber attacks bank in Afghanistan, 3 killed and 12 other injured

A suicide bomber carried out an attack on Thursday at a private bank in Kandahar city in southern Afghanistan, killing at least three people and injuring 12 others, officials said. All of the victims were people who had gathered at the branch of New Kabul Bank to collect their monthly salaries, said Inamullah Samangani, head of the government's Kandahar Information and Culture Department. Abdul Mateen Qani, spokesman for the Taliban Interior Ministry, also confirmed the attack but couldn't provide more details. He said it was being investigated. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing. The Islamic State group's affiliate, a major Taliban rival, has conducted previous attacks on schools, hospitals, mosques and Shiite areas throughout the country. Kandahar city is a spiritual and political centre for Afghanistan's rulers because the Taliban's supreme leader, Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, is based there and his decisions on major issues are implemented by authorities

Pak targets suspected Taliban hideouts in Afghanistan, tensions rise

Pakistani airstrikes targeted multiple suspected hideouts of Pakistani Taliban inside Afghanistan early Monday, two days after insurgents killed seven soldiers in a suicide bombing and coordinated attacks in the northwest, two security officials said. There was no immediate comment by Pakistan's military, and the Taliban government in Afghanistan denounced the strikes, which are likely to further increase tension between the neighboring countries. Two Pakistani security and intelligence officials said the airstrikes were carried out in Khost and Paktika provinces bordering Pakistan. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media on the record. The officials provided no further details, and it was unclear whether jets went deep inside Afghanistan. The Pakistani Taliban also confirmed Monday's strikes in a statement. Chief Afghan Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement that Pakistan's airstrikes in Barmal disti

Pakistan carries out airstrike in Afghanistan Taliban retaliates

Pakistan carried out airstrikes in Afghanistan on March 18, killing eight people. Watch the video to know more.

UN special representative calls on Taliban to reverse restrictions on women

The Taliban has restricted media freedoms and banned women from public places like parks and gyms

Most UNSC members demand Taliban rescind decrees oppressing women, girls

More than two-thirds of the U.N. Security Council's members demanded Monday that the Taliban rescind all policies and decrees oppressing and discriminating against women and girls, including banning girls education above the sixth grade and women's right to work and move freely. A statement by 11 of the 15 council members condemned the Taliban's repression of women and girls since they took power in August 2021, and again insisted on their equal participation in public, political, economic, cultural and social life -- especially at all decision-making levels seeking to advance international engagement with Afghanistan's de facto rulers. Guyana's U.N. Ambassador Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett read the statement, surrounding by ambassadors of the 10 other countries, before a closed council meeting on U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' conference with more than 25 envoys to Afghanistan on Feb. 18-19 in Qatar's capital, Doha. Afghan civil society representatives, including women, ...

Taliban has set 'unacceptable' terms for meeting, says UN secy general

The Taliban set unacceptable conditions for attending a UN-sponsored meeting about Afghanistan, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Monday. Taliban demands included the exclusion of Afghan civil society members from the talks in Doha, Qatar, and treatment that amounted to official recognition of the Taliban as the country's legitimate rulers, Guterres said at the conclusion of a two-day meeting in Qatar. The Taliban seized power in 2021, as US and NATO forces withdrew following two decades of war. No country recognises them as Afghanistan's government, and the UN has said that recognition is almost impossible while bans on female education and employment remain in place. The two-day meeting in Doha brought together member states and special envoys. But the Taliban didn't attend because their demands had not been met. I received a letter (from the Taliban) with a set of conditions to be present in this meeting that were not acceptable, Guterres told a news conference. These .

UN deputy secretary-general initiates women-centric talks in Afghanistan

According to The Khaama Press, Wignaraja maintains her role as the Regional Director for Asia-Pacific at the UN Development Office

'Taliban decrees on clothing, guardian leave Afghan women scared to go out'

Afghan women feel scared or unsafe leaving their homes alone because of Taliban decrees and enforcement campaigns on clothing and male guardians, according to a report from the UN mission in Afghanistan. The report, issued Friday, comes days before a UN-convened meeting in the Qatari capital is set to start, with member states and special envoys to Afghanistan to discuss engagement with the Taliban and the country's crises, including the human rights situation. The Taliban which took over Afghanistan in 2021 during the final weeks of US and NATO withdrawal from the country have barred women from most areas of public life and stopped girls from going to school beyond the sixth grade as part of harsh measures they imposed despite initial promises of a more moderate rule. They are also restricting women's access to work, travel and health care if they are unmarried or don't have a male guardian, and arresting those who don't comply with the Taliban's interpretation of hijab, or Islam

Foreign aid drops sharply as Taliban abuses jeopardise Afghan health system

Human Rights Watch said on Monday that Afghanistan's public health system has been hit hard following a sharp reduction in foreign assistance, coupled with serious Taliban abuses against women and girls, jeopardising the right to healthcare of millions of Afghans. In a new report, the New York-based watchdog said this has left the Afghan population increasingly vulnerable to severe malnutrition and illness among other effects of inadequate medical care. The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021 drove millions into poverty and hunger after foreign aid stopped almost overnight. Sanctions against the Taliban rulers, a halt on bank transfers and frozen billions in Afghanistan's currency reserves, have cut off access to global institutions and the outside money that supported the aid-dependent economy before the withdrawal of US and NATO forces. In 2023, the World Food Programme warned that malnutrition rates in Afghanistan were at a record high with half the country suffering

UN expresses concerns over arbitrary detention of women, girls by Taliban

The experts also noted that females were detained in the provinces of Bamyan, Daikundi, Panjshir, Balkh, and Kunduz

US urges Taliban govt to take steps to gain international legitimacy

The spokesman for the US State Department, Matthew Miller, said Washington would continue to call on the 'Taliban' to take steps to gain international legitimacy