Source: Guardian
The Taliban will resume executions and the amputation of hands for criminals they convict, in a return to their harsh version of Islamic justice.
According to a senior official – a veteran leader of the hardline Islamist group who was in charge of justice during its previous period in power – executions would not necessarily take place in public as they did before.
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Source: France 24 – The Observers
Photos of Amrullah Saleh, the former vice-president of Afghanistan, sitting in what looks to be a bank have been circulating online since September 20. While Saleh says he’s in hiding in the Panjshir Valley, pro-Taliban accounts and even some Afghan media claim these photos show him at a bank in the United Arab Emirates, after fleeing with “money stolen from Afghans”. But it turns out these photos aren’t recent.
Source: The Intercept
Few lawmakers are as outspoken about the end of the war in Afghanistan as Michael Waltz, a Republican from Florida’s 6th Congressional District.
In recent weeks, Waltz has called on President Joe Biden to “reverse course,” relaunch military operations in the region, and “crush the Taliban offensive by committing American air power” supported by “special forces.” The Florida congressman has warned darkly of an “Al-Qaeda 3.0” and stated that no negotiations should take place with the Taliban “until the situation is stabilized militarily.”
Source: Associated Press
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Who should represent Afghanistan at the United Nations this month? It’s a complex question with plenty of political implications.
The Taliban, the country’s new rulers for a matter of weeks, are challenging the credentials of their country’s former U.N. ambassador and want to speak at the General Assembly’s high-level meeting of world leaders this week, the international body says.
Source: Associated Press
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The ruling emir of Qatar, whose nation has played a pivotal role in Afghanistan in the wake of the U.S. withdrawal, urged world leaders gathered at the United Nations on Tuesday against turning their backs on the country’s Taliban rulers.
Speaking from the podium of the U.N. General Assembly, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani stressed “the necessity of continuing dialogue with Taliban because boycott only leads to polarization and reactions, whereas dialogue could bring in positive results.”
Source: Associated Press
UNITED NATIONS — Pakistan’s foreign minister says Afghanistan’s new Taliban rulers should understand that if they want recognition and assistance in rebuilding the war-battered country “they have to be more sensitive and more receptive to international opinion and norms.”
Shah Mahmood Qureshi said Monday evening that countries are watching to see how things evolve in Afghanistan before considering recognition. He says, “I don’t think anyone is in a rush to recognize at this stage.”
Source: Los Angeles Times
WASHINGTON — Top U.S. national security officials on Tuesday said they were concerned about the threat posed by foreign terrorist groups following American military forces’ chaotic exit last month from Afghanistan.
National Counterterrorism Center Director Christine Abizaid testified before Congress that the Taliban’s reemergence and takeover of Afghanistan could set the stage for terrorist groups to rebuild there. The Taliban sheltered Al Qaeda as the group planned the Sept. 11 attacks.
Source: Politico Europe
ROME — The West’s war in Afghanistan is far from over.
That was the central message from Afghanistan’s ambassador to Italy, Khaled Ahmad Zekriya, during a recent interview at the country’s embassy in Rome.
Western forces may have pulled out of the country, he said, but that has only created a new set of issues that U.S. President Joe Biden and others will now be forced to deal with.
“I’m going to be very clear,” Zekriya said. “Contrary to what Biden says, America’s war has not ended — a very complex war has started.”
Source:Guardian
Mawlawi Mohammad Shebani is officially in charge of policing morals throughout Kandahar, the Taliban heartland of southern Afghanistan.
He is newly appointed head of the provincial office for the promotion of virtue and prevention of vice, a title which strikes fear into many Afghans old enough to remember its previous incarnation under Taliban rule in the 1990s.
Source: Tolo News
Activists said the removal of the ministry is against the Taliban’s promises on women’s rights to work and gain an education.
The announcement of the caretaker cabinet by the Taliban did not include the Ministry of Women Affairs, which operated during the former government. Now its building has been given to the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice.