By RFE/RL’s Radio Mashaal,
Wasim Sajjad,
Muhammad Zawar and
Will Tizard
April 19, 2025
When the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan in 2021, they quickly banned music, declaring it un-Islamic.
Musicians faced threats, raids, and the destruction of their instruments.
“Our homes were searched for what we had there,” says Faiz Muhammad Sakhki, an Afghan musician now living in Peshawar. “Our instruments were broken down, the instruments that we hid at home. Music is our passion, it is our love, and it is our profession.”
Sakhki and fellow musician Baryali Wali are among many Afghans who have sought refuge in Pakistan since the Taliban takeover.
In cities like Peshawar, they have been able to continue performing Afghan music, even as cultural spaces have shrunk elsewhere.
“Here, we can still work playing Afghan music. These possibilities don’t exist in the West,” Wali says.
But that fragile lifeline is now under threat.
Since April 1, Pakistan has intensified its deportation of Afghan nationals, with over 50,000 already forced to leave.
For musicians, the stakes are especially high.
Returning to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan would leave them facing an uncertain future and an end to their ability to perform or teach music.
Now, with an uncertain legal status in Pakistan and no clear path forward, these musicians are left in limbo — unsure how much longer they can remain or whether the rich traditions they carry can survive displacement once again.
They fear that Afghanistan’s musical heritage — including ancient instruments like the rebab — is at risk.
“If you take any of these [instruments] away, the whole ensemble is lost,” says Sakhki. “It is already disappearing.”
Amu: Afghanistan’s under-19 cricket team officially qualified for the 2026 ICC Men’s Under-19 Cricket World Cup after their final qualifying match against Nepal was washed out by heavy rain on Saturday, the Afghanistan Cricket Board announced. The match, scheduled to begin at 8:15 a.m. Kabul time at Mulpani Cricket Stadium in Kathmandu, was expected to decide the final spot from the Asian qualifying tournament. Both Afghanistan and Nepal had advanced undefeated into the match, and the winner would have secured a place in the global competition. 
Ariana: Russia’s foreign spy service chief, Sergei Naryshkin, has claimed that Western intelligence agencies are looking for ways to help anti-government forces in Afghanistan in hopes of keeping the country in a state of disarray. 
Khaama: Sabera, a young mother, was brutally deported from Pakistan with her 13-day-old baby, now stranded helplessly at Torkham border. Sabera recounted how Pakistani authorities forced her family out without warning. “Because of these heartless people, I had to leave Pakistan with my newborn,” she said, referring to the police who evicted them from their home and sent them toward the border. Her husband, the family’s sole breadwinner, had made a living scavenging for recyclables—a meager but vital source of income. 
Afghanistan International: According to sources speaking to Afghanistan International, the teenager, identified as Mahdi, was shot dead by Taliban forces last Wednesday near the Jaghori district centre. His body was later handed over to his family with instructions to bury him quietly and without funeral prayers. Contrary to these claims, several local sources maintain that Mahdi was merely riding past the district office on a motorcycle when he failed to stop at a Taliban checkpoint. He was shot and killed on the spot, according to eyewitnesses. Photographs seen by Afghanistan International show visible gunshot wounds on his body.