Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, leader of Hizb-e-Islami, on Friday called for establishment of a council whose members would be elected by the people and which would draft a constitution and decide the future governance system. “We never want to join a government which is not formed based on the people’s votes…where the highest authority is not a council that would represent the […]

Officials in Balkh province said plans are underway to establish a trade zone within two months in the border area of Balkh province and Surhandarya province of Uzbekistan. Officials said 120 acres of land would be utilized and the cost would be $75 million. The plan to create a joint trade zone was signed between Afghanistan and Uzbekistan last year […]

Extending travel ban exemptions for leaders of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) is necessary for world’s engagement with the government, China’s ambassador to the United Nations has said. A UN Security Council waiver allowing 13 IEA leaders, including Acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, to travel abroad expired last Friday, after member states failed to agree on a possible […]

Sher Khan customs office of Kunduz province says that the export of coal from Tajikistan to Pakistan via this port has started again and it is loading more than 100 trucks of coal daily. “It has been four days since the coal transit started, I ask the traders to have their tariff and transit documents when requested, and the traders […]

On Thursday, UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, warned of the danger faced by Afghan refugees who continue to be detained and deported from Tajikistan, reiterating that it’s illegal to force those fleeing persecution back to their homeland. In the latest incident, some five Afghans, including a family comprising three children and their mother, were returned home to Afghanistan, despite UNHCR’s […]

Afghanistan’s Taliban government tapped a former Guantanamo Bay detainee to lead the group’s campaign to counter a resistance movement in the country’s Panjshir Province, a spokesman announced yesterday according to MENAFN. That commander, Mullah Abdul Qayyum Zakir, will be in charge of snuffing out resistance efforts in Panjshir and part of Baghlan province. After the Taliban’s return to power in […]

A Pakistani court on Thursday extended former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s pre-arrest bail for one week in a terrorism case over a speech, his lawyer said, shortly after the former premier appeared in court in person amidst tight security. Khan’s lawyer and political aide Babar Awan told Reuters bail had been granted until Sept. 1, after which they will apply […]

India’s Defense Minister Rajnath Singh said Afghanistan should not be used as a launch pad for terror activities in the region, and called for national reconciliation and stability in the country. Speaking at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Defence Ministers’ meeting in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, on Wednesday, he said Afghan territory must not be used to “intimidate or attack any country […]

Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesman of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, said Thursday that Washington’s claim they killed al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahir in Kabul is still only an allegation and that the IEA’s investigation is ongoing. “Zawahiri’s death is still a claim and efforts are going on for this case and his death report is not yet finalized,” said Mujahid. Speaking […]

Conditions for religious freedom in Afghanistan have “drastically deteriorated” since the Taliban seized power last year as the last U.S.-led foreign troops pulled out after 20 years of war, a bipartisan U.S. commission said on Tuesday. The Sunni Muslim extremists’ “harsh enforcement” of their hardline version of Islam “violates the freedom of religion or belief” of a wide range of […]