Ayaz Gul VOA News January 21, 2025 Islamabad — Taliban authorities in Afghanistan announced Tuesday the release of two American nationals as part of a prisoner exchange for one of their members, who was held in the United States on narcotics-terrorism charges. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kabul identified the freed Afghan as Khan MohammadRead More...

Afghanistan International: A senior Republican senator has said that he is concerned about the group’s attack on the United States as the Islamic State grows in Afghanistan and wars spread around the world. Lindsey Graham stressed, “I’ve never been more worried about attacks on my homeland than I am now.” Click here to read moreRead More...



Ayaz Gul VOA News January 20, 2025 Ayaz Gul  — President-elect Donald Trump says that future financial assistance to Afghanistan will be contingent upon the return of U.S. military equipment by the Taliban leaders currently in power. Trump’s remarks at a Sunday rally in Washington on the eve of his January 20 inauguration have heightened uncertaintyRead More...

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).

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 newRead More...

Afghanistan International: John Kirby, the White House National Security Spokesperson, said that the people of Pakistan continue to be victims of terrorist attacks from the Afghan border. Kirby said that the United States will continue to work with Pakistan on counterterrorism. Kirby said at a news conference on Wednesday that Islamabad has never been aRead More...

Afghanistan International: The Afghanistan Security Watch said there were at least 39 security incidents in Afghanistan in December. It said on Thursday that 25 of the incidents had been confirmed by independent sources. According to the Afghanistan Security Watch, the Afghanistan Freedom Front has organised 12 attacks against the Taliban, while the National Resistance FrontRead More...

Khaama: Trump’s Defense Secretary Nominee Calls U.S. Exit from Afghanistan ‘Disastrous’ Amid Biden’s Defense of Withdrawal. Pete Hegseth, Trump’s nominee for U.S. Secretary of Defense, described the manner of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan as “disastrous” just one day after President Joe Biden strongly defended his decision to end America’s involvement in the country. Hegseth,Read More...

By Anjana Pasricha VOA News January 15, 2025 New Delhi — The first high level diplomatic meeting held between India and the Taliban leadership marked a significant step in rebuilding New Delhi’s influence in Afghanistan, according to analysts. They say New Delhi’s growing engagement with the Taliban is prompted by strategic considerations in the Central Asian countryRead More...

Afghanistan International: Mortaza Behboudi, an Afghan-French journalist who was imprisoned by the Taliban for seven months, told France 2 that the Taliban “pulled out his teeth and tortured him with electric shocks and injected fluids into his body”. He said that he was tortured every day during the first three months of his imprisonment. InRead More...

Amu: Internal divisions within the Taliban have resurfaced, as sources report that the Haqqani faction sought to appoint Ahmad Haqqani, the eldest son of Khalil-ur-Rahman Haqqani, as the new minister of refugees. However, the Taliban’s leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, rejected the request by naming Abdul Kabir, the former deputy chief minister for political affairs, to leadRead More...

Amu: KABUL, Afghanistan — An explosion occurred near the Hanzala Mosque in Kabul’s Shahr-e-Naw neighborhood moments ago, according to local sources. The National Resistance Front has claimed responsibility for the explosion in Kabul’s Shahr-e-Naw neighborhood, alleging that the attack killed two Taliban members, including a commander. In a statement, the group described the attack asRead More...

Al Jazeera: From the 1980s when it backed the mujahideen against the Soviet Union through the first two decades of the 21st century, Pakistan was a primary backer of the Taliban, many of whose leaders found shelter on Pakistani soil. India, by contrast, viewed the group as a Pakistani proxy, shuttering its embassy in KabulRead More...

8am: Over the past two years, the situation of Afghan refugees in Pakistan has increasingly deteriorated, becoming more critical and catastrophic. Thousands of refugees are forcibly deported and subjected to violent and brutal treatment by the Pakistani police. Ignoring the plight of the distressed and those who have sought refuge out of necessity, the PakistaniRead More...

Ayaz Gul VOA News January 12, 2025 ISLAMABAD  — Nobel Peace Prize laurate Malala Yousafzai urged Muslim leaders Sunday not to “legitimize” Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban, accusing them of being the “perpetrators of gender apartheid” and calling for accountability. Yousafzai spoke at the closing session of a Pakistan-hosted international summit on girls’ education in Muslim communities aroundRead More...

After a year of unprecedented trade and breaking ground on high-profile mining projects in 2024, there’s new momentum for Beijing’s growing role in Afghanistan and deepening ties with the Taliban. But can the hard-line group finally calm China’s longstanding security concerns and unleash a wave of much-needed investment?

By RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi and Abubakar Siddique Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty January 12, 2025 Shah Agha is one of more than 100,000 Afghans living with injuries caused by land mines. He lost his leg to a mine during the anti-Soviet war in the 1980s in his native Kunduz Province in northern Afghanistan. In 2015, anotherRead More...



Afghanistan International: Ali Maisam Nazary, the head of foreign relations of the National Resistance Front (NRF) of Afghanistan, says he hopes the new US administration led by Donald Trump will support the resistance to topple the Taliban. Nazary called on Trump to consider the National Resistance Front as a partner of the United States inRead More...

By Farangis Najibullah, Alisher Zarifi and Mullorajab Yusufzoda Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty January 11, 2025 Tamkin Mehrabuddin and her sister were preparing lunch in their home in Tajikistan when police officers knocked on their door. The two Afghan women were ordered to accompany them to a police station in Dushanbe, the Tajik capital. Instead, theyRead More...

Ayaz Gul VOA News January 10, 2025 ISLAMABAD — A high court in Pakistan prohibited authorities Friday from forcibly deporting Afghan musicians and singers until their asylum cases are resolved within the next two months. The ruling comes amid a crackdown on hundreds of thousands of refugees from neighboring Afghanistan who either lack legal permits toRead More...

Ariana: Afghanistan’s passport has been ranked the least powerful in the world, securing the 106th spot on the latest Henley Passport Index. This ranking highlights the severe travel restrictions faced by Afghan citizens, who can only access 26 countries without a visa. At the opposite end of the spectrum, Singapore boasts the world’s most powerfulRead More...

Afghanistan International: Abbas Stanekzai, the Taliban’s deputy foreign minister, said that the group has evidence that ISIS has training centres in Pakistan. He has claimed that the Pakistani army is training ISIS fighters at these shelters. Abbas Stanekzai wrote on the social media platform X on Friday, January 10, that the Pakistani army is supplyingRead More...

Ayaz Gul VOA News January 8, 2025 ISLAMABAD — India pledged Wednesday to collaborate with Taliban-ruled Afghanistan to undertake development projects in the impoverished nation that has endured years of devastating war and natural disasters. The pledge stemmed from a Wednesday meeting in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, between Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri and Taliban ForeignRead More...

8am: Following the Taliban’s announcement that the construction of the Pashdan Dam in Herat is 80% complete and will soon become operational, a wave of criticism emerged from the Islamic Republic of Iran. Eisa Bozorgzadeh, spokesperson for Iran’s water industry, stated that this dam would severely affect the drinking water supply for millions of IraniansRead More...

Afghanistan International: Local sources from Baghlan province report that armed assailants carried out an attack on Tuesday night in the Baghlan-e-Markazi district, killing a pro-Taliban cleric and wounding another individual. The attack was claimed by ISIS. According to reports received by Afghanistan International, the attack targeted Abdul Razzaq, an imam and religious teacher, while HamdullahRead More...

Amu: President-elect Donald Trump sharply criticized the Biden administration on Tuesday, claiming that billions of U.S. dollars are being funneled to “the Taliban Afghanistan”. “It’s not even believable. Billions of dollars, not millions—billions,” Mr. Trump said. “We pay billions of dollars to essentially the Taliban Afghanistan. And that’s given by Biden.” This comes after debateRead More...