Afghanistan International: In an open letter addressed to the special rapporteurs of the UN Human Rights Council, the activists said the Taliban administration has pursued policies that deliberately marginalise and suppress the use of Persian, one of Afghanistan’s two official languages. The letter raised concerns about what it described as linguistic and structural discrimination, accusing
Amu: Abdul Mateen Qani, spokesman for the Taliban-run interior ministry, said three local residents and one employee of a mining company were killed in fighting in Chah Ab district. Five others were wounded, he said. Qani said the Taliban deputy governor for Takhar had travelled to the area to investigate the incident. Mining operations at
8am: For more than four years, the Taliban have systematically erased Persian words and expressions from schools, universities, and even city streets. In recent days, images shared on social media have revealed a new phase of this effort. Taliban authorities have removed urban signboards in Kabul, rearranged text, replaced Persian with Pashto, and gone so
Afghanistan International: The United Nations Security Council says the Taliban have dismissed thousands of their Tajik and Uzbek fighters, particularly in provinces with large Tajik and Uzbek populations. It follows a 20 percent reduction in the group’s security forces. Click here to read more (external link).
8am: The Taliban started replacing their Tajik-origin fighters with Pashtun-origin ones after militants from the group killed five Chinese citizens in Tajikistan. Sources reveal that the group decided to transfer and disarm some Tajik-origin fighters. At the same time, they stripped local Taliban members of duties like collecting mine revenues and distributing land for extraction.
8am: According to the sources, armed Kuchi tribesmen, accompanied by Taliban members, entered the village and opened fire on a family, injuring several others. The victim of the shooting has been identified as Nowroz. Sources also claim that similar attacks by armed Kuchi groups over the past two decades have led to the displacement of
Amu: The provincial skew underscores what critics describe as the Taliban’s insular and exclusionary approach to governance. Cabinet roles are overwhelmingly filled by ethnic Pashtuns from the south and southeast, while much of the country — including major provinces such as Kabul, Nangarhar, Herat, and Balkh — are entirely absent from the cabinet’s makeup. Women,
8am: Marshal Abdul Rashid Dostum, former First Vice President, reacted to the removal of the Uzbek language from the Jawzjan University plaque, stating that this act has further revealed the discriminatory nature of the Taliban. According to him, such measures are an insult to the identity and culture of the country’s Turkic communities and inflict
8am: For more than a century, since the reign of Abdur Rahman Khan, Afghan politics has revolved around a recurring pattern: to preserve stability, the center of power co-opts part of the ethnic elite while sidelining the rest. I call this the “Abdur Rahman Scenario”: concentration at the center, concession at the margins, and the
Afghanistan International: Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has described recent remarks by the Taliban’s spokesperson as “malicious and misleading,” saying the Taliban regime is responsible for the continued oppression of ethnic groups, women, and minorities in Afghanistan. Asif said the Taliban does not represent Afghanistan and is plagued by internal divisions and factionalism. Click here