Taliban | Pakistan

The United Nations called on the Taliban authorities on Sunday to lift its ban on Afghan women working in its offices, saying the restriction puts “life-saving services” at risk. Since the Taliban regained power in 2021, Afghan women have been barred from doing most jobs, visiting parks and beauty salons, and attending school beyond the age of 12. In September, the Taliban authorities began prohibiting women staff members from entering UN offices. “We call for the ban on Afghan women staff and contractors from entering United Nations premises to be reversed, and for their safe access to offices and the field,” Susan Ferguson, the special representative of the UN’s women’s agency in Afghanistan, said in a statement. “The longer these restrictions remain in place, the greater the risk to these life-saving services,” Ferguson said, adding that they violated the UN’s principles of human rights and equality. The statement did not say how many staff were affected, but UN sources indicated that several hundred women...

A final report by a US watchdog has confirmed that billions of dollars’ worth of American-supplied weapons, military equipment, and security infrastructure left behind during the 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan now form the backbone of the Taliban’s security apparatus. Parallel findings from UN monitoring teams and a Washington Post investigation indicate that some of these weapons have already filtered to the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), strengthening a group responsible for escalating attacks inside Pakistan. The 137-page report, released this week by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), recounts the scale of the two-decade American project to rebuild Afghanistan. Congress, it notes, provided roughly $144.7 billion between 2002 and 2021 to reconstruct the country and to support a democratic transition — “yet ultimately delivered neither.” Recent UN assessments reinforce the regional implications of that failure. A UN panel reported that the Afghan Taliban contin...

SYDNEY: Australia imposed financial sanctions and travel bans on four officials in Afghanistan’s Taliban government on Saturday over what it said was a deteriorating human rights situation in the country, especially for women and girls. Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the officials were involved “in the oppression of women and girls and in undermining good governance or the rule of law” in Afghanistan. Australia was one of several nations which pulled troops out of Afghanistan in Aug 2021, after being part of a Nato-led international force that trained Afghan security forces and fought the Taliban for two decades after Western-backed forces ousted them from power in 2001. The Taliban, since regaining power in Afghanistan, have been criticised for deeply restricting the rights and freedom of women and girls through bans on education and work. The Taliban government says it respects women’s rights, in line with its interpretation of Islamic law and local custom. Wong, the Australian foreign ministe...

FO blames Taliban for Turkish delegation delay

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan Army on Tuesday rejected Taliban accusations that its forces carried out over-night airstrikes inside Afghanistan’s Khost province, after an explosion killed 10 civilians, including nine children.

Zabiullah Mujahid, the spokesman for the Taliban government in Afghanistan, claimed on Tuesday that Pakistan had carried out overnight strikes in the neighbouring country. In a post on social media platform X, he said that Pakistan had “bombed” Khost province, and carried out air strikes in Kunar and Paktika provinces. No official statement has been issued by Pakistan thus far. The strike was reported the same day a deadly suicide attack on the Federal Constabulary headquarters saw three personnel embrace martyrdom and 12 sustain injuries. Pakistan’s bilateral relations with Afghanistan have come under strain in recent times as the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) remains the main point of contention between the two countries. Pakistan has demanded that the rulers in Kabul take action to stop cross-border terrorism, but the Afghan Taliban deny Islamabad’s allegations of terrorists being allowed to use Afghan soil to carry out attacks in Pakistan. During a process of dialogue, which followed border clashes bet...

Pakistan and the European Union (EU) on Saturday urged the Taliban administration to take “serious and practical” steps to eliminate terrorism, stressing that peace in Afghanistan is essential for regional stability.

The Foreign Office (FO) has warned that terrorist attacks on Pakistan have increased since the Taliban assumed power in Afghanistan.

Defence minister says any terrorist attack or suicide bombing inside Pakistan shall give Taliban bitter taste of misadventures Info minister says dialogue failed as Taliban resorted to blame game.

Istanbul talks collapse as Taliban remain intransigent

• Former ISI chief claims it was his own countrymen, not Pakistan, that handed Afghan envoy Mullah Zaeef over to the Americans • Retired Gen Ehsanul Haq says Zaeef insisted on remaining in Islamabad, despite warnings from Pakistani officials ISLAMABAD: Over 20 years after his now-infamous handover to American forces following their invasion of Afghan­istan, a former Pakistani spymaster has claimed that it was his own countrymen, and not Pakistan, that handed over former Taliban ambassador Abdus Salam Zaeef to the US. The claim, which comes in the midst of an escalating fracas with a resurgent Taliban in Kabul, was made by retired Gen Ehsanul Haq, who took over the reins of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) following the September 11, 2001 attacks. For years, it was believed that Zaeef — who was the Afghan Taliban regime’s envoy to Islam­abad at the time of the 9/11 atta­cks — was handed over to the Americans in violation of international law. In his book, My Life With The Taliban, the former envoy had asserte...

Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said on Monday that the ceasefire agreement between Islamabad and Kabul was linked to the Afghan Taliban’s ability to rein in terrorists attacking Pakistan from neighbouring soil. The two countries agreed to a ceasefire in Doha at the weekend after days of border clashes that killed dozens, the worst such violence since the Taliban seized power in Kabul in 2021. Ground fighting between the one-time allies and Pakistani airstrikes across their contested 2,600-kilometre frontier were triggered after Islamabad demanded that Kabul control terrorists it says operate from safe havens in Afghanistan. “Anything coming from Afghanistan will be [a] violation of this agreement,” Asif said in his office at Parliament in Islamabad. “Everything hinges on this one clause.” The Taliban administration and Afghanistan’s defence ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment. “In the agreement signed by Pakistan, Afghanistan, Turkiye and Qatar, it was clearly spelled out that there wo...

This screengrab shows Taliban posts destroyed after unprovoked firing in Kurram on Tuesday.

Twenty-three Pakistani troops have been martyred and 200 Taliban and affiliated terrorists have been killed in border clashes following an attack from the Afghan side, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement on Sunday. The statement comes after overnight skirmishes between the two sides, which began “on the night of Oct 11/12, 2025, [after] Afghan Taliban and India-sponsored Fitna-al-Khawarij launched an unprovoked attack on Pakistan, along the Pak-Afghan border,” the ISPR statement said. 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. Key developments ISPR says 23 security personnel have been martyred and 29 injured More than 200 Taliban and affiliated terrorists have been neutralised, says military’s media wing 21 hostile positions on the Afghan side of the border were also briefly physically captured and multiple te...

Troops eliminate over 200 Taliban, terrorists 21 Afghan posts captured, destroyed 23 soldiers embrace Shahadat i

Pakistan has issued a stern warning to the Afghan Taliban government, cautioning that any future terrorist attack in Balochistan or Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will trigger direct military strikes on Taliban posts across the border, security sources said on Sunday.

Afghanistan’s Taliban government has welcomed the recent stance by Russia, China, Iran and Pakistan against the establishment of foreign military bases in and around Afghanistan. This position was affirmed in a joint statement released after foreign ministers from the four countries met on the sidelines of the 80th United Nations General Assembly in New York. They emphasised respect for Afghanistan’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity and said re-establishment of foreign military bases is “not conducive to regional peace and security.” According to Hamdullah Fitrat, deputy spokesperson for the Taliban government, his country not only welcomed the stance of the four countries but said that “Afghanistan will not allow its territory to be used against other countries, nor permit armed groups to operate from its soil.” While the joint statement did not refer to any specific country seeking bases in Afghanistan, it follows one by US President Donald Trump where he said Washington was trying to get...

Taliban restricts internet and bans women from higher and medical education, cutting off access to learning

An elderly British couple detained in Afghanistan for almost eight months were released on Friday, the Taliban authorities said, after pressure built to free the pair due to fears over their health. Taliban officials have refused to detail why Peter Reynolds, 80, and his wife Barbara, 76, were arrested in February as they were returning to their home. “We’ve been treated very well. We’re looking forward to seeing our children,” said Barbara, in a red headscarf, standing next to her bearded husband, near a plane on the tarmac of Kabul airport. “We are looking forward to returning to Afghanistan if we can. We are Afghan citizens,” she added, after Qatar-facilitated negotiations for their release. The couple were married in Kabul in 1970, and have spent almost two decades living in Afghanistan, running educational programmes for women and children. They also became official Afghan citizens. When the Taliban returned to power in 2021, the couple remained in Afghanistan against the advice of the British embassy. F...

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has asked Taliban authorities to lift restrictions on Afghan female aid workers, allowing them to travel without male guardians and help women struggling to access care after a powerful earthquake killed 2,200 people in eastern Afghanistan. “A very big issue now is the increasing paucity of female staff in these places,” Dr Mukta Sharma, the deputy representative of WHO’s Afghanistan office, told Reuters. She estimated around 90 per cent of medical staff in the area were male, and the remaining 10pc were often midwives and nurses, rather than doctors, who could treat severe wounds. This was hampering care as women were uncomfortable or afraid to interact with male staff and travel alone to receive care. The September 1 magnitude-6 quake and its aftershocks injured more than 3,600 people and left thousands homeless in a country already dealing with severe aid cuts and a slew of humanitarian crises since the Taliban took over in 2021 as foreign forces left. The Afghan health ...