Taliban | Pakistan

Islamabad - United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres breaking his silence has demanded that the Taliban immediately reverse its ban on Afghan women working for the UN and lift sweeping restrictions on women and girls, warning that the discriminatory policies are violating fundamental rights and obstructing Afghanistan’s.

The Taliban marked five years in power on Saturday, seeking to portray their government as in control even as aid and rights groups warned of escalating crises. Outside the former US embassy in Kabul, armoured Taliban vehicles took part in a parade, displaying flags and banners, and celebrating what the government described as “victory day” from Western domination. Sirajuddin Haqqani, the Taliban’s interior minister, said in a video address that their return to power was the result of “morale, courage” and “divine assistance”. But he also made a rare acknowledgement of “issues and problems that may still exist.” International organisations and the UN say the Taliban have struggled to address the natural and humanitarian crises Afghanistan has faced over the past five years, in part because Afghan women are under severe restrictions. The Taliban have also faced a string of assassinations of key regional officials in the country’s northeast in recent weeks. In late July, the Taliban’s information director in Ba...

• Taliban chief reportedly warned outfit to halt attacks or risk losing support • UN report points to training links involving TTP, BLA, Al Qaeda • ISIL-K attacks decline in Afghanistan, but increase in Pakistan ISLAMABAD: The Afg­han Taliban’s continued support for the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has contributed to a rise in the frequency and lethality of terrorist attacks in Pakistan, even as Kabul has taken some initial steps to rein in the group, according to a UN Security Council-mandated monitoring report. The report also points to growing operational and facilitation linkages among the TTP, Al Qaeda, Islamic State-Khorasan (ISIL-K) and the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA). The 38th report of the UN Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team, covering the period from Dec 16, 2025, to June 9, 2026, said that “cross-border attacks between Pakistan and Afghanistan escalated, provoked by a high number of attacks by Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakis­tan against Pakistan”. Like previous editions, the report was ...

Govt rejects Taliban weapon claim

Sadat says the campaign will first target Taliban fighters, bases and leaders before expanding nationwide

KABUL: A regional br­­a­­nch of the militant Is­­la­­mic State group has clai­med a rare deadly at­­tack on a Taliban official in northeastern Afghanis­tan, a monitoring group said. The head of the inform­ation and culture department in Badakhshan, Zabihullah Amiri, was shot dead on Tuesday while en route to the provincial capital Faizabad. The Islamic State-Kho­rasan (IS-K) group claimed on Wednesday that it had carried out the attack. “The soldiers of the Caliphate targeted a commander from the apostate Taliban militia… with machine guns, killing him along with one of his guards,” it said in a statement quoted by monitoring organisation SITE Intelligence Group. Amiri was a nephew of Amanuddin Mansur, the governor of southern Helmand. Afghanistan’s information and culture ministry said one of the assailants was killed and a second arrested after the “cowardly attack”. The ministry “reminds the enemies of the Islamic government that such cowardly acts will never weaken our firm resolve and steadfast determina...

ISLAMABAD - Large stockpiles of illicit opium accumulated in Afghanistan before the Taliban’s nationwide poppy ban continue to sustain the global heroin trade, delaying any immediate disruption to international drug markets despite a collapse in cultivation, according to the World Drug Report 2026 released by the United Nations Office on.

The Taliban government said on Saturday that Afghans who fled to Qatar, fearing reprisals over their collaboration with US forces, may return home “with full confidence”. The administration of US President Donald Trump, which has made a sweeping crackdown on immigration a signature policy, had given a March 31 deadline to close a camp where more than 1,100 Afghans were staying at a former US base in Qatar. Afghans have been going through the base for processing while seeking to move to the United States, fearing persecution by Taliban authorities for having worked with US forces before they withdrew and the Western-backed government collapsed in 2021. “According to media reports, a number of Afghan nationals who had been awaiting US visas in the State of Qatar have been asked to choose between the repatriation to Afghanistan or resettlement in a third country,” foreign ministry spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi said in a statement posted on X. “Afghanistan constitutes the shared homeland of all Afghans and it invi...

Precision strikes target Taliban depot in Kabul

Taliban reeling under 'Ghazab Lil Haq'

Chief of Defence Forces and Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir on Wednesday said that peace between Pakistan and Afghanistan could only prevail if the Taliban regime “renounced their support for terrorism and terrorist organisations”. According to a statement by Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), CDF Munir made the remarks as he visited Wana in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s South Waziristan to review the prevailing security situation and operational preparedness along the Western border. “He reiterated that peace could only prevail between both sides if the Afghan Taliban renounced their support for terrorism and terrorist organisations,” the statement said. It said that CDF Munir laid a floral wreath at the martyrs’ monument to pay homage to those who had rendered supreme sacrifices in defence of the motherland. “He offered fateha and reaffirmed that the sacrifices of shuhada remain the cornerstone of Pakistan’s security and resilience,” it added. During the visit, CDF Munir was given a comprehensive b...

Taliban ammo dump pulverised as operation continues unabated

Information minister says 182 Taliban checkposts destroyed; Pakistani forces take control of 31 additional posts

• Qatar, Saudi Arabia lead diplomatic scramble; Iran offers to facilitate talks • Trump ‘refuses’ to intervene because of ‘fondness’ for Pakistan • UN, China, Russia, UK call for immediate ceasefire ISLAMABAD: Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers said on Friday they were willing to negotiate after Pakistan unleashed air strikes on major Afghan cities, killing dozens in the most serious clashes between the allies-turned-foes, which Defence Minister Khawaja Asif described as an “open war”. The Afghan Taliban, who claimed to have launched “retaliatory attacks” over strikes against terrorists’ hideouts last weekend, said on Friday that they were “ready for dialogue”. “Afghanistan… has always preferred to reso­lve issues based on mutual understanding and respect,” the Afghan foreign ministry quoted Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi as telling Qatar’s junior Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulaziz Al-Khalifi by telephone. Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid echoed that sentiment, saying “now also we want to resolve th...

DG ISPR says enemy conducted incursions at 53 locations across 15 sectors; 297 Taliban operatives killed

The Foreign Office (FO) on Friday warned that any further provocation by the Afghan Taliban regime and terrorist groups “will be met with a measured, decisive and befitting response”. The statement came in the aftermath of Pakistan launching Operation Ghazab lil-Haq against the Afghan Taliban after “unprovoked firing” from across the border overnight. In its statement, the FO said that Pakistan’s actions came in response to “repeated terrorist attacks by Fitna-al-Khawarij and Fitna-al-Hindustan against Pakistan emanating from Afghan soil, as well as the latest unwarranted and provocative actions by the Taliban regime”. Fitna al Khawarij is a term the state uses for terrorists belonging to the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), while Fitna al Hindustan is a term designated by the state for terrorist organisations in Balo­chistan. It said that the armed forces carried out “precise operations, inflicting heavy losses on terrorist outfits and targeting their logistical support bases in Afghanistan” on the n...

72 Taliban operatives killed in Op 'Ghazab Lil Haq'; Multiple Afghan posts, arms depot destroyed

The UN Security Council on Thursday unanimously adopted a resolution extending by one year the mandate of the Monitoring Team that supports the 1988 Afghanistan Sanctions Committee, which oversees sanctions imposed on the Taliban. All 15 council members voted in favor of the US-drafted resolution, renewing the Monitoring Team’s mandate until February 17, 2027. The extension comes amid mounting international concern over Afghanistan’s deteriorating security situation, the growing influence of multiple terrorist groups, and the potential for regional destabilisation. Pakistan, which supported the resolution, stressed the ongoing threat posed by Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), ISIL-Khorasan (ISIL-K), Majeed Brigade, and Al-Qaeda. Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN, said these groups “have been responsible for some of the most heinous terrorist attacks against Pakistan,” citing recent attacks that killed 80 people this month alone. “On...

Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai has urged countries around the world to mount pressure on the Taliban and avoid maintaining normal diplomatic relations with the Afghan regime, citing worsening restrictions on women’s rights and girls’ education.

• Report claims Hibatullah Akhundzada ‘spooked’ by possibility of schism between his hardline base in the south, more pragmatic ministers in the capital • Zabihullah Mujahid ‘confirms’ existence of audio recording, but terms BBC claim ‘unfounded’ A STARK message from the Taliban supreme leader, warning of internal threats to the Islamic Emirate, has seemingly laid bare the long-speculated divide bet­ween Kandahar and Kabul, BBC News reported. An audio recording of a speech — delivered by Hibat­ullah Akhundzada at a seminary in Kandahar aro­und a year ago — contains what some are interpreting as confirmation of differences among top Taliban leaders. In the leaked clip, obtained by the BBC, Akhundzada can be heard saying that internal disagreements could eventually bring them all down. According to the investigation by BBC Afghan, two distinct groups have eme­rged within the Afghan Tali­ban, each presenting competing visions for how Afgh­anistan should be governed. One is entirely loyal to the Akhundzada-led Ka...