8am: Local sources in Herat report that armed men have attacked a Taliban outpost in the province, killing 14 Taliban members. The attack was carried out on the outpost in Firqa area of Herat city at around 3:00am Thursday morning. In an interview, sources confirmed the number of casualties. Click here to read more (external link).
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Putin
Khaama: Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, warned of the concentration of militant groups on Afghanistan’s borders as well as their attempts to infiltrate Central Asia and set up clandestine terrorist cells. This comes as ISIS terrorist group has claimed responsibility for a recent attack in Iran that killed 11 and injured 27, while the Iranian officials had said that ISIS threats were entirely neutralized. However, with the return of the Taliban in Afghanistan, it appears that these risks have resurfaced in Iran. Click here to read more (external link).
Fair Observer: The Taliban have made their shaky government even shakier by perpetrating violence and cruelty indiscriminately. This has caused public trust in their political leadership to decline. Wrong policies, atrocities, fundamentalist Islamic laws, and curbing of human and women’s rights are all leading to the loss of public trust in the Taliban. Click here to read more (external link).
8am: The blast happened on Tuesday night (October 25th) when a military vehicle carrying Taliban forces was on patrol in the fourth district of Kandahar city. One Taliban member was reportedly killed and another member was injured in this blast. Meanwhile, Afghanistan’s Liberation Front – an anti-Taliban armed group – has claimed responsibility for the blast, saying that three Taliban fighters were killed and two others were wounded in this incident. Click here to read more (external link).
Khaama: Afghanistan was ranked as the “least secure” country in the world by Gallup’s Law and Order Index, which evaluated 120 countries based on their people’s sense of safety. This comes as Afghanistan ranked first as the unhappiest and the most “miserable” country according to Gallup’s Negative Experience Index, based on physical pain, mental disorder, and stress magnified by poverty, anxiety, and unemployment. Click here to read more (external link).
The Emory Wheel: Hazaras are a religious and ethnic minority; Hazara Afghans predominately practice the Shi’a sect of Islam, while most of Afghanistan’s other ethnic groups follow the Sunni sect. As such, Hazaras find themselves excluded from general civil society and are particularly vulnerable to discrimination along ethnic and religious lines. According to Hamkar, many Hazara are excluded from workplaces, particularly in the government. Click here to read more (external link).
Taliban militant (file photo)
Khaama: The fact that similar situations have happened before should be highlighted. The Taliban government forces have been criticized for irresponsible gun use in some of these incidents. A grenade belonging to Taliban members accidentally exploded in the Faryab province of northern Afghanistan last month, killing one person and injuring four others, including women and children. Click here to read more (external link).
Foreign Policy: Members of Afghanistan’s elite National Army Commando Corps, who were abandoned by the United States and Western allies when the country fell to the Taliban last year, say they are being contacted with offers to join the Russian military to fight in Ukraine. Multiple Afghan military and security sources say the U.S.-trained light infantry force, which fought alongside U.S. and other allied special forces for almost 20 years, could make the difference Russia needs on the Ukrainian battlefield. Click here to read more (external link).
8am: On Tuesday, October 25, reliable sources said that the Taliban forcibly displaced around 18 families from the mentioned village, one of the remote areas in Bazarak, the center of Panjshir. Sources added that most of the residents of this village were displaced from the area months ago and only 18 families remained there who are forced to leave the village recently. Click here to read more (external link).