8am: At the same time, some human traffickers in Nimruz say that Hibatullah Akhundzada, the Taliban Supreme Leader, issued a decree banning human trafficking, but local Taliban officials continue to take money from traffickers. According to them, some Taliban commanders are involved in human trafficking and make huge sums of money through this business. Click here to read more (external link).
Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada
8am: Previously, the Middle East Research Institute (MERI) reported that of the 1,137 senior Taliban officials, 891 were Pashtun, 53 Tajik, 28 Uzbek, and 6 Hazara. According to this research, 40 of the top-tier Taliban Supreme Leaders, including the Supreme Leader, prime minister, and ministers of defense, higher education, education, culture, rural development, labor and social affairs, public utilities, and chief justice, are from Kandahar, and 19 others are from Paktia. Click here to read more (external link).
Afghanistan International: Siraj said that the son of former al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was likely to be in Kandahar or Panjshir. In an interview with a number of reporters, Siraj said that at the level of the Taliban leadership, ethnic and religious differences have increased more than ever, but the al-Qaeda network has played a prominent role in managing this situation. Click here to read more (external link).
Taliban militants (file photo)
Afghanistan International: According to research by Afghanistan International – Pashto, detainees at the Taliban’s intelligence Agency prisons are subjected to 31 different types of torture during their custody. This research is based on interviews with 38 individuals who had been detained and tortured by the agents of the Taliban’s intelligence agency. It also includes data from petitions given to the Taliban’s Administrative Office of Appeals, wherein released detainees documented their imprisonment and the torture they suffered at the hands of the Taliban’s agents. Click here to read more (external link).
FT: When the Taliban took control of Kabul in 2021, Pakistan’s then-prime minister Imran Khan lauded Afghanistan for breaking “the shackles of slavery”. Khan’s spymaster Faiz Hameed was photographed drinking tea with leaders of the Islamist militant group in a Kabul hotel. But with violence surging to a nine-year high, Islamabad’s hope that the new regime would prove a more co-operative ally than their US-backed predecessor has been replaced by concern about security. Click here to read more (external link).
Ariana: Local officials in Panjshir have announced the discovery of over 1,600 emerald mines in the province, with extraction currently underway at 600 sites. Over the past year, the extraction of emeralds from 600 mines in Panjshir has yielded 100,000 carats, valued at approximately $6.9 million. Click here to read more (external link).
Maria Zakharova
Tolo News: The Russian foreign ministry has accused Britain and other NATO member states of concealing war crimes and imposing restrictions on investigating war crimes committed by their forces in Afghanistan. Maria Zakharova, spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry, stated that existing evidence demonstrates brutal actions by NATO member states against Afghan civilians. She said: “I would like to point out what has been secretly halted. Evidence literally shows the most brutal retaliatory actions against civilians, which NATO carried out with impunity during the occupation of Afghanistan from 2001 to 2021. During a closed investigation, a former British special forces officer admitted that the British Special Air Service (SAS) essentially had special authorization to kill Afghans.” Click here to read more (external link).
Afghanistan International: Amnesty International issued a statement on Friday calling for the immediate release of Afghan refugees held by Pakistani police. Pakistani police have detained hundreds of Afghan refugees in the cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad in recent days and deported a number of them. Click here to read more (external link).
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