By Sarah Zaman VOA News July 1, 2024 DOHA, QATAR — The third round of U.N.-led talks to explore engagement with Afghanistan ended Monday without the Taliban making any reform pledges or winning concessions from the international community. A few international organizations and special envoys for Afghanistan from nearly two dozen countries met with Taliban officials inRead More...

Afghanistan International: At the end of the first day of the UN meeting in Doha, which included Taliban representatives, the Afghanistan Freedom Front (AFF) reported an attack on the Taliban in Kabul. According to the AFF, this “guerrilla operation” targeted a Taliban checkpoint in Bagh-e Bala area, resulting in the deaths of three Taliban membersRead More...

8am: The Hasht-e Subh Daily has obtained information indicating that the Taliban are constructing a well-equipped base with residential houses for the al-Qaeda network in the Malekuddin area of Nawa district, Ghazni province. Additionally, they are building three settlements for the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in the Dasht-e Bagh-e Attar area of Qarabagh district, Dasht-e KabuliRead More...

Al Jazeera: Pakistan is set to start the second phase of a controversial plan to send undocumented Afghan refugees back to their country. Beginning Sunday, authorities are likely to expel more than 800,000 Afghans from the country, after about 541,000 were forced to leave in the first phase in November last year. Click here toRead More...



Khaama: It emphasizes that the Taliban failed to protect places of worship in Afghanistan over the past year. The State Department’s annual report also mentions the declining Sikh and Hindu populations, attacks on Shia mosques, and assaults on Hazaras. It cites historical events, including the killing of a Salafi cleric in Kapisa in 2023, promptingRead More...

Afghanistan International: Abdul Hamid Khorasani, a Tajik commander of the Taliban, says that the behaviour of the “Emirate’s leadership” towards non-Pashtun Taliban members is like that of “prisoners of war, slaves, and servants”. Khorasani stated, “This is not an Islamic Emirate, but rather an ethnic Emirate of the Kandahari and Zadran tribes.” According to him,Read More...



Afghanistan International: The Afghanistan Freedom Front (AFF) claims to have killed three Taliban members in an attack on a Taliban military outpost in Panjshir province. Local sources in Panjshir confirmed the attack to Afghanistan International, stating that it resulted from an explosion. Click here to read more (external link).

Afghanistan International: Security and diplomatic sources have informed Afghanistan International that the Taliban are planning to relocate members of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) from border areas to other provinces in Afghanistan. This decision comes after months of negotiations between the Taliban, Pakistan, and China. Click here to read more (external link).

Afghanistan International: Iranian presidential candidate Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf stated that all of Iran’s serious social issues originate from the eastern part of the country. He added, “We must build a wall on the eastern border with Pakistan and Afghanistan to ensure its security.” Ghalibaf attributed some of the crimes and social issues in Iran toRead More...

Ayaz Gul VOA News June 21, 2024 ISLAMABAD — A quarterly report on the situation in Afghanistan by the United Nations has documented a surge in attacks by armed groups fighting Taliban rule. It also noted “persistent” internal tensions among de facto Afghan leaders. The U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, or UNAMA, released the assessment Friday,Read More...

RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi Abubakar Siddique June 20, 2024 Leading Afghan women’s rights activists have sounded the alarm ahead of a major international conference on Afghanistan hosted by the United Nations. Rights campaigners have slammed the world body for inviting the Taliban to the June 30-July 1 event in Qatar, a move that they say providesRead More...

Afghanistan International: Sources have informed Afghanistan International that Salahuddin Rabbani, the leader of a faction of the Jamiat-e-Islami party and former Foreign Minister of Afghanistan, has traveled to Tehran to meet with Iranian officials. This marks Rabbani’s first visit to Iran since the fall of the Republic order in Afghanistan. Additionally, sources revealed that theRead More...

WION: Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) commander Abdul Manan, also known as Hakimullah, was killed on Sunday (Jun 16) in Afghanistan’s Kunar province by unknown men. He was associated with the Malakand chapter of TTP. His killing is considered a big setback to the TTP and a major achievement for Islamabad. Manan was accused of carrying outRead More...



Afghanistan International: The Taliban’s Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation reported that 100-120 airplanes pass through Afghan airspace daily. The ministry stated that it charges a transit fee of USD 700 per airplane. This is in contrast to the last years of the previous government, when around 400 airplanes passed through Afghan airspace daily. ClickRead More...

AFP: A gender-balanced team of three men and three women will represent Afghanistan in Paris next month in a symbolic move for the first summer Olympics since the Taliban surged to power. The chief executive of Afghanistan’s national Olympic committee (NOC), Dad Mohammad Payenda Akhtari, told AFP all of the athletes, except the judoka, wereRead More...

By RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi June 18, 2024 Shugufta, an elementary school teacher, earned around $300 per month under the previous Western-backed Afghan government. But after the Taliban seized power in 2021, the extremist group cut the salaries of female government employees by half. Despite her lower income, Shugufta was relieved to work as the countryRead More...

Afghanistan International: Members of the Taliban have shared an audio file of Sheikh Abdul Ali Deobandi on X, in which he declares that teaching women to read and write, even at home, is prohibited. Ziaullah Hashmi, the spokesperson for the Taliban’s Ministry of Higher Education, reposted the file, calling it an “important fatwa”. In theRead More...

AP: Pakistani journalist and author Ahmed Rashid, who has written several books about Afghanistan and the Taliban, said Akhundzada’s appeals for unity were a sign of desperation because he refused to spell out the real issues facing Afghans such as unemployment, economic development, and building a consensus for social reform. “I would not be convincedRead More...

Afghanistan International: At least three sources from Kabul confirmed to Afghanistan International that an explosion occurred around 8PM on Wednesday, June 12, at the Tahia-e Maskan neighbourhood of Kabul. The Afghanistan Freedom Front (AFF) claimed responsibility for the attack, stating that one Taliban member was killed and another was injured in the incident. On Monday,Read More...

By Sarah Zaman VOA News June 14, 2024 ISLAMABAD — “We don’t need development. … We want to live in peace,” a frustrated Abdul Khaliq told VOA over the phone. Khaliq is a resident of Pakistan’s tribal district Kurram, where locals held a consultative gathering, or jirga, earlier this month to discuss rising insecurity. The gathering wasRead More...

Michael Hughes: A number of UNSC members in March of 2023 agreed that the Taliban needed to be held accountable for treatment of women, human rights abuses, and violations of international law. Last July, the Security Council released a disturbing report that shined a bright light on the Taliban-terrorist nexus plaguing Afghanistan. UN member states cited concerns over theRead More...

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty June 13, 2024 Amina was in the seventh grade when the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in 2021. Shortly after their takeover, the militants banned teenage girls from attending school, dashing the 14-year-old’s dreams of completing her education. Months later, Amina’s family in the central province of Maidan Wardak forced herRead More...

Afghanistan International: More than 50 Shia figures from Afghanistan in Europe emphasised on the necessity of “firm resistance” against the Taliban at a meeting in Frankfurt, Germany. These activists said that the Shia community must, if necessary, stand against the oppression of the Taliban, even through armed resistance. This meeting, held on Saturday, June 8,Read More...

Ariana: The Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation said Wednesday that Iran Air International Airlines has launched direct flights to Kabul for the first time. The ministry said in a statement that Iran Air will have flights to Kabul once a week. Click here to read more (external link).

ORF: In the past two and a half years, rapid clampdown on independent institutions like media and free speech has debunked the sham of a ‘reformed Taliban’. Estimates suggest over 450 documented cases of media violations by the Islamic Emirate since its takeover. This includes the murders of three journalists, 219 detentions, and a staggeringRead More...