Welcome to The Azadi Briefing, an RFE/RL newsletter that unpacks the key issues in Afghanistan. To subscribe, click here.

I'm Abubakar Siddique, a senior correspondent with RFE/RL's Radio Azadi. Here's what I've been tracking and what I'm keeping an eye on in the days ahead.

The Key Issue

The Taliban has carried out another execution as it continues to implement strict Islamic punishments the group sees as central to its drive to enforce Shari'a law.

Under the concept of qisas, or retributive justice, a man was publicly killed in the eastern province of Laghman on June 20 for allegedly killing five members of a single family.

The killing of the man -- identified only as Ajmal, a resident of Guldara, near Kabul -- was the second retributive execution carried out by the Taliban in the past seven months. The group has sought to recreate its infamously brutal emirate of the 1990s, when such punishments turned its government into an international pariah.

In November, Taliban Supreme Leader Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada ordered the return to qisas and hudood punishments, which essentially allow "eye-for-an-eye" retribution and corporal punishments for offenses considered to be in violation of the boundaries set by God. Since then, hundreds across the country have been publicly flogged, stoned, or had body parts amputated for crimes such as theft and adultery.

These punishments, however, have met strong criticism and skepticism from both human rights watchdogs and Afghans. Islamic scholars have questioned whether the Taliban has met the stringent conditions required by Islamic law in implementing such harsh punishments.

Why It's Important: The Taliban has defied international criticism in implementing capital and corporal punishments, which its leaders see as a key benchmark of their commitment to impose Islamic Shari'a law.

But in the absence of an overall governance framework capable of addressing the economic, social, and political challenges and grievances of Afghans, such punishments alienate the Taliban from the people it rules and the international community alike.

The Taliban's failure to establish a professional judiciary makes selling the implementation of qisas and hudood punishments as a symbol of justice difficult. The Taliban's courts are comprised of Taliban members or pro-Taliban clerics, most of whom are not formally trained for the roles.

Meanwhile, international human rights watchdogs, the United Nations, and the wider international community have opposed the use of capital and corporal punishments by the Taliban. Some campaigners advocate for international sanctions to remain in place as long as the Taliban metes out these punishments.

What's Next: The Taliban is unlikely to give up on Islamic punishments. But the rapid rise of executions, stonings, amputations, and other penalties will continue to overshadow the group's second stint in power.

For Afghans, these punishments underscore the Taliban's excesses and oppression. At the same time, the world will see them as symbols of the group's cruelty and misrule.

Given that the Taliban is unlikely to reform, some Afghans are bracing for mounting instances of capital and corporal punishments as the group fails to address the continuing economic and humanitarian crises in Afghanistan.

The Week's Best Stories

Afghanistan's Taliban rulers are trying to control thousands of rural classrooms. These are part of the Community Based Education program funded by Western donors through the UN and international NGOs. The Taliban's efforts have left the future of more than 500,000 Afghan children enrolled in these education centers hanging in the balance.

What To Keep An Eye On

In a briefing to the UN Security Council, the UN envoy to Afghanistan warned that the Taliban's restrictions on Afghan women and girls have made it "nearly impossible" for the international community to recognize the ruling group's government.

On June 21, Roza Otunbaeva, the head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), told the UNSC that the restrictions against Afghan women "cost the Taliban both domestic and international legitimacy."

Since returning to power in 2021, the Taliban has banned women from education and employment, effectively denied them any public role in society, and imposed strict limitations on their mobility and appearance.

Why It's Important: The damming assessment will dampen the Taliban's hopes that its isolated hard-line government will soon be recognized. The group has gradually extended its control over Afghan diplomatic missions in neighboring countries as it continues to press for recognition.

Yet no country or international organization has recognized the Taliban government.

Otunbaeva's statement lays out that the Taliban's only path to international recognition starts with rescinding its harsh restrictions on Afghan women.

While the Taliban had promised more moderate policies in the years leading up to its return to power, its leaders have doubled down on the recreation of a totalitarian clerical regime since seizing power.

Until next time,

Abubakar Siddique

If you enjoyed this briefing and don't want to miss the next edition, subscribe here. It will be sent to your inbox every Friday.

Eight-year-old Halima was devastated to learn that after overcoming numerous obstacles to her education under Taliban rule, her path to learning had been blocked with the closure of her private school.

"We all went home crying," she told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi of the day she and her fellow students learned that their classes in Afghanistan's southern Kandahar Province had been terminated.

"Our schools were closed first by the coronavirus [pandemic], then there was fighting, and now they have been shut again," she said. "We just want to study."

The rural classroom where she studied was a lifeline for learning basic mathematics, Afghan languages, science, and Islamic studies despite the ruling Taliban's efforts to restrict girls' and women's access to education.

But on April 16, classes ended when the hardline Islamist authorities announced that the school, among Afghanistan's thousands of Community-Based Education (CBE) centers, would be closed following unspecified "complaints from locals."

Unrest and poverty in Kandahar and neighboring Helmand Province made the two regions a focal point for the development of CBE centers over the past three decades, with funding coming primarily from Western donors via the United Nations and international nongovernmental organizations.

Countrywide, more than 500,000 Afghan children currently attend CBE centers, which were established in cooperation with the communities in which they were based and are often held in private homes, mosques, or large tents.

Aid groups pay teachers' salaries, provide educational materials, and offer the same curriculum taught in Afghan state schools. The centers, typically made up of a single classroom catering for up to 50 students, half of them girls, also filled an education void in remote areas where there were no state schools.

But since mid-April, nearly 1,600 CBE centers in Kandahar Province have been closed, depriving 50,000 students of an education. Similar numbers have been recorded in neighboring Helmand Province in a nationwide trend.

'It's Heartbreaking'

The termination of classes at Halima's school and others like it appears to show that the narrow window for learning in remote areas is being closed as the Taliban looks to impose full control over how children are educated.

Munir Ahmad, who ran a literacy class inside his mudbrick home in Dand, a rural district in Kandahar Province, said he was forced to close his doors to students in April.

"It is heartbreaking to lose these classes because they serve children in remote areas where there are no other education opportunities," he told Radio Azadi.

The Taliban, approaching two years in power, has not commented on whether it has ordered the school closures. But aid workers, rights campaigners, and education experts suggest that the hardline group is trying to ensure that young students receive an Islamic education even though the CBE centers follow the state model.

This, in turn, has led to concerns that the Taliban either intends to permanently shut down the schools or use them as venues to spread its extremist worldview and ideology.

"It is alarming," said Heather Barr, associate director of the women's rights division at Human Rights Watch. "The Taliban will likely change these schools in a way that is harmful to students, particularly girls."

Education has been a main target of the Taliban's extremist policies since it seized power in August 2021 and took steps to root out secular education.

Teenage girls were promptly banned from attending school despite the Taliban's promises to the international community, which has listed the Taliban's stance on girls' and women's education as a key obstacle to officially recognizing its government.

'Jihadi Madrasahs'

Since taking power, the Taliban has consistently enforced strict gender segregation and replaced professional educators with clerics.

Last year, Taliban supreme leader Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada appointed key loyalists Mawlawi Habibullah Agha and Nida Mohmmad Nadim to lead the education and higher education ministries, respectively.

SEE ALSO:

The Taliban Higher Education Minister Who Is Against Female Education

The two have diligently worked to expand the ban on women’s education and attempted to turn schools into a tool for indoctrination by tweaking the curriculum, critics say. In some cases, modern schools have been converted into madrasahs.

In December, the Taliban upped the ante by prohibiting women from receiving a university education.

And in the latest move, a Taliban official said this month that its government had established "jihadi madrasahs" in at least five provinces. Many Islamist militant groups, including the Taliban, emerged from such religious schools in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan in the 1980s.

Wazhma Tokhi, an Afghan human rights activist with a particular focus on women's rights and education in Afghanistan, suggests that the recent school closures can be seen as another example of the group’s determination to root out secular education.

"They want to turn the schools into madrasahs," Tokhi said.

The UN agency for children, UNICEF, which funds many CBE centers, says it is now holding discussions with the Taliban over "timelines and practicalities" for possibly handing them over to Afghan NGOs, many of which receive outside funding and have some protection from the Taliban.

Tokhi sees disastrous consequences if the Taliban assumes direct control over CBE centers.

"Our future is destroyed," she said.

The Afghanistan team’s status for the 2024 Paris Olympics was put in question by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) over growing frustration with the Taliban for blocking access to sport for women and girls. The IOC said on June 21 that it “continues to be extremely concerned” about the sports situation in Afghanistan. Noting its “right to take any further measures,” the IOC cautioned that “specific details” for the Afghan team’s participation have not yet been decided, hinting at potential consequences. An IOC official said there had been some written guarantees, but the progress so far “remains insufficient.” To read the original story from AP, click here.

The Amnesty International rights group has appealed "urgently" to Pakistan to stop "arbitrarily arresting and harassing" Afghan refugees, many of whom are running from ill-treatment by Taliban militants in their own country. "“It is deeply concerning that the situation of Afghan refugees in Pakistan is not receiving due international attention," Dinushika Dissanayake, Amnesty’s deputy regional director for South Asia, said in a June 20 statement marking UN World Refugee Day. Amnesty said that, since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, many who fled to Pakistan have been subjected to "waves of arbitrary detentions, arrests, and the threat of deportation."

In February 2020, Afghan citizen Ali Mahdi Hussein arrived in the southern Russian resort town of Mineralniye Vody, known for its health spas, at the invitation of a relative.

During his stay, the militant Taliban continued its territorial advances against government forces at home. Before he was due to depart for home, Hussein requested – and received – temporary asylum in Russia.

When he sought to extend his asylum at the end of 2022, more than a year after the Taliban toppled the Western-backed government and imposed its repressive form of authority over Afghanistan, he was in for an unpleasant surprise.

The branch of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Stavropol region, where Mineralniye Vody is located, turned him down. Afghan law under the Taliban provides for the protection of core civil rights, it said.

Furthermore, it claimed Hussein was not in a high-risk group category.

Hussein’s case was not an exception, advocates for Afghans in Russia say. They say that Russian authorities, especially in its southern regions, have been turning down a greater number of Afghan requests for temporary asylum, despite the dire political and economic situation in the Asian nation.

"The Ministry of Internal Affairs usually extended the permission to stay in Russia – first for three months, then for a year, and so on. There was practically no need to go to court [to appeal] because there were few refusals,” said Ebadulla Masumi, the head of an Afghan community group in Stavropol.

But that trend has now rotated 180 degrees -- and it’s unclear why, Masumi said.

“In 2023, they began to deny everyone [asylum extensions] without explanation. There has not been a single positive decision during this time. I don't know what has changed – the law or the policy of the state," he said.

Moscow doesn’t publish the number of rejected asylum cases, but does publish those approved. From 2007 to 2011, Russia gave temporary asylum to more than 1,000 Afghans per year on average, more than to refugees from any other country. Temporary asylum is granted for one year and can be extended if the political situation in the home country does not change.

From 2020 to 2022, amid restricted travel due to the COVID pandemic, Russia granted on average only 600 requests for temporary political asylum to Afghans.

The suspected increase in Afghan asylum rejections comes amid growing repression by the Russian state, which has clamped down harder than ever on all forms of dissent following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

That war has also triggered a large influx of Ukrainians to southern Russia, thousands of whom have applied for asylum.

Russian authorities may be rejecting Afghan asylum seekers amid concern they will seek monetary assistance, Andrei Serenko, the head of the Center for the Study of Afghan Politics, told RFE/RL.

He said Russian authorities are using the resources set aside for such issues on Ukrainians. Russia granted nearly 9,000 Ukrainians and 732 Afghans temporary asylum in 2022, government data shows.

"You can say they were just unlucky -- they got here at the wrong time,” Serenko said of the Afghan refugees who have been seeking asylum recently.

Ali Akbarzadeh, 22, who was turned down for asylum and deported, said Russian authorities showed little interest in Afghan requests for temporary refuge.

"It took a long time and they didn't pay much attention to Afghans and their asylum applications," he told RFE/RL.

Taliban Turbulence

Many Afghan asylum seekers in Russia have said they could face persecution, and even death, if they are sent back to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. RFE/RL could not verify individual claims.

Some of them worked for the deposed government or had relatives who did. The Taliban has allegedly targeted former members of the government for repression.

Hussein Navid and Habiba Nabizadi arrived in Pyatigorsk, another resort town in the Stavropol region, in September 2022 on a tourist visa with their two young children.

They soon applied for temporary asylum but had their request turned down. Nabizadi had worked for the National Directorate of Security (NDS), the intelligence agency of the former government of Afghanistan, and was a member of a prominent women’s organization.

In their application for asylum, her family said they feared for their lives if they went back, in part due to her previous work.

In many of the asylum rejections, Russian officials contend the Afghan citizens are exaggerating the threats to their lives at home and claim their real motivations for staying are economic.

Information about what has happened to Afghan refugees sent home by foreign countries since the Taliban takeover is hard to come by, but the overall lack of human rights and civil rights protections is well-documented.

Some Afghan refugees who worked with the former Afghan security forces have been detained by the Taliban following their deportation from Iran, but their subsequent fate is unknown.

The Taliban took power in Afghanistan in August 2021 after the United States pulled out its troops, resulting in the near collapse of government forces. The militants allegedly killed dozens of former Afghan officials, security forces, and people who worked with the international military contingent, despite their promise of a general amnesty.

They quickly imposed their strict interpretation of Islamic law, or Shari'a, on citizens, including severe restrictions on women and girls.

Their repressive rule, along with the economic collapse their seizure of power triggered, led to a mass exodus of citizens seeking refuge in neighboring countries and countries farther afield, including Russia.

Like many other countries, Russia officially considers the Taliban a terrorist organization. Nonetheless, Russian officials regularly hold meetings with the militants in Moscow as the Kremlin seeks to project global influence and power and undercut U.S. clout.

President Vladimir Putin announced in October 2021 that Russia would "move" toward excluding the Taliban from his government’s list of terrorist organizations, but Moscow has yet to do so.

Russia is far from alone in rejecting Afghans seeking refuge, and the numbers are much larger in some countries that border Afghanistan. Iran and Pakistan have been deporting large numbers of Afghans. Last week alone, Tehran forced around 20,000 undocumented Afghan refugees and migrants out of the country.

Turkey has also deported thousands of Afghans who have arrived via Iran.

Tajikistan, which shares a long border with Afghanistan, has also forced some of the thousands of Afghan refugees arriving there to return home, but official figures are not available.

Written by Todd Prince based on reporting by RFE/RL North Caucasus Service correspondent Andrei Krasno. RFE/RL’s Radio Farda contributed to this report.

Farzad Amiri joined the hundreds of thousands of Afghans who flocked to neighboring Iran after the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in 2021.

Amiri found work at a supermarket in the city of Shiraz, the capital of the southwestern province of Fars, where he resides with his family of eight.

But last week, Amiri, the sole breadwinner for his family, lost his job after the authorities in Fars enforced new job restrictions on foreigners.

A May 9 order issued by the Chamber of Guilds in Fars to the heads of unions in the province said that members should "strictly" refrain from hiring foreigners as salespeople and shop assistants. Businesses that violate the new rules, which came into effect on June 5, could face "heavy fines" and closure, it added.

"After the order was issued, my employer told me that I could no longer work there. As a result, I have been unemployed for the past week," Amiri, a father-of-two, told RFE/RL's Radio Azadi.

He said "a large number" of local businesses had been forced to fire their Afghan employees.

"After so much effort to reach Iran and with all the difficulties we've endured, I have no idea how I'm going to feed my family," added Amiri, a native of Afghanistan's western city of Herat. "I can't even go back to Afghanistan because I sold everything we had there."

It is unclear how many Afghans have been affected by the order in Fars, which reportedly has one of the largest Afghan communities inside Iran.

The new rules in Fars are the latest restrictions imposed on members of Iran's large Afghan community, many of whom have complained of widespread discrimination and abuse.

An estimated 3 million Afghans, many of them undocumented refugees and migrants, live in Iran. Over 1 million Afghan have arrived in Iran following the Taliban takeover, although Tehran has deported more than half of the recent arrivals.

Afghans in the Islamic republic said they have come under growing pressure from the authorities amid rising tensions between Iran and the Taliban.

'Insulting And Unjust'

Since the order in Fars was issued, local media reports said foreigners in the province can only take on hard labor jobs in construction and farming.

A video published online on June 6 showed Mehdi Dehghan Khalili, a local official in the city of Kawar in Fars, warning shop owners that they would be fined if they employed foreigners.

Khalili said 25 shops had so far been closed in Kawar, and special patrols were deployed in the city to enforce the new order.

Amir Hossein, an Afghan migrant who has lived in Shiraz for over a decade, has called on the local authorities to reverse the order.

"Our Iranian partners have been also affected by the restrictions," he told Radio Azadi. "Let us work. We're refugees."

Similar restrictions have been imposed on foreigners living in the central province of Isfahan.

Mehdi Naderi, an immigration official in Isfahan, said last month that foreigners were only allowed to work manual labor jobs and were banned from working in supermarkets and retail stores.

It was not clear if local officials had imposed similar restrictions in other Iranian provinces where Afghans reside.

Naeem Nazari, head of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, said the measures were "insulting and unjust."

SEE ALSO:

Lost In Transactions: Afghans Living In Iran Left Stranded By Lack Of Access To Bank Cards

Nazari told Afghanistan's Hasht-e Subh daily that "the Iranian government has consistently practiced discrimination and exploited migrants, particularly Afghan migrants, taking advantage of their vulnerabilities."

For decades, Afghans fleeing war and poverty have gone to Iran to earn a living. Tehran has expelled many Afghans -- who are often blamed for insecurity and unemployment -- and periodically threatens those who remain with mass expulsion.

Many Afghans moved to Iran following the decade-long Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and the civil war that followed the Soviet withdrawal in 1989. Others sought refuge in Iran after the Taliban took power in Afghanistan. After the U.S.-led invasion in 2001, some Afghans went to Iran seeking jobs.

Iran claims that it hosts up to 5 million Afghan refugees, with officials complaining they have received little financial help from the international community.

Worsening Bilateral Relations

Afghans who live in Iran said they have been caught in the middle of rising tensions between Tehran and the Taliban.

A heated war of words over cross-border water resources boiled over into deadly clashes last month. Tensions remain high following the deaths of troops from both sides on May 27.

SEE ALSO:

New Videos Put Spotlight On Mistreatment Of Afghan Refugees In Iran

"Many Afghans move to Iran due to economic issues but unfortunately Iran uses them to pressure the rulers in Afghanistan," an Afghan migrant who lives in Fars told Radio Azadi.

"The atmosphere has become tougher for Afghans in Iran," added the Afghan migrant, who did not want to reveal his name for security reasons. "We hope that Iran resolves its issues diplomatically and views Afghan refugees from a humanitarian point of view."

Drought-stricken southeastern Iran is heavily dependent on upriver water flows from Afghanistan. Tehran has called on the Taliban to release more water from the Helmand River, which feeds lakes and wetlands in Iran's southeastern Sistan-Baluchistan Province.

The Taliban has rejected Tehran's claims that it is violating a bilateral water treaty signed in 1973, and said that even if dams were opened there would not be enough water to reach Iran.

In January, Mohammad Sargazi, a lawmaker from Sistan-Baluchistan, said Tehran should consider deporting Afghans refugees if the Taliban does not give Iran its share of water from the Helmand River.

An Iranian security official said on June 11 that nearly 19,000 Afghans were deported in the past two weeks for living illegally in the country.

Welcome back to The Azadi Briefing, an RFE/RL newsletter that unpacks the key issues in Afghanistan. To subscribe, click here.

I'm Mustafa Sarwar, a senior news editor at RFE/RL's Radio Azadi. Here's what I've been tracking and what I'm keeping an eye on in the days ahead.

The Key Issue

The Pakistani authorities have arrested hundreds of Afghans in the capital, Islamabad, and the nearby city of Rawalpindi in recent weeks for allegedly living in the country illegally.

But Afghan migrants who spoke to Radio Azadi said many of the Afghans targeted had valid documents and were unlawfully arrested.

"I've been arrested by the police, and even though I have UNHCR documents, they won't accept them," Arzoo Ahmadi, an Afghan migrant who was briefly detained in Pakistan, told Radio Azadi.

The Taliban-led government in Afghanistan said around 250 Afghans have been arrested in recent weeks. It is unclear how many have been freed or deported.

The Taliban also called on Islamabad to "cease the arrest of Afghan refugees," warning that the detentions could "adversely impact bilateral relations."

Why It's Important: The arrests appear to be part of a broader crackdown on the millions of Afghan refugees and migrants residing in Pakistan.

Late last year, Pakistani law enforcement arrested around 1,500 Afghan refugees and migrants, including women and children, in the southeastern province of Sindh. Some were later freed, while others were deported.

The authorities said the Afghan nationals in Sindh were charged with violating the Foreigners Act, a Pakistani law amended in 2016 that empowers authorities to deport foreigners lacking proper documentation. Courts can also fine or imprison foreigners for violating the law.

Islamabad warned foreigners that they would be deported or imprisoned for up to three years if they failed to renew their visas by the end of 2022.

Over 600,000 Afghans have fled to Pakistan since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021, joining the several million Afghan refugees and migrants already residing in the country for decades.

Some of the new arrivals have remained in Pakistan because of delays in getting visas to Western nations. Most have said they cannot afford the hundreds of dollars needed to renew their Pakistani visas.

Moniza Kakar, a local attorney assisting Afghan refugees in Sindh, said the Pakistani police are stepping up their arrests of Afghans. "Even now, there are more than 200 Afghan prisoners in Sindh prisons," she recently told Radio Azadi.

What's Next: Despite repeated calls by the Taliban, Pakistan has continued to arrest Afghans in recent days. Islamabad has also been criticized by international NGOs for its treatment of Afghans fleeing Taliban persecution and a devastating humanitarian crisis.

Observers have said Pakistan is using the issue of Afghan refugees to put pressure on the Taliban. Islamabad has repeatedly called on the Taliban to expel the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP), an extremist group that is based in Afghanistan. The group has intensified its cross-border attacks on Pakistani security forces since the Afghan Taliban gained power.

The Week's Best Stories

Deadly attacks targeting Taliban officials in Afghanistan's northeastern Badakhshan Province have left residents fearful of even stepping out to go to the mosque. The fresh attacks have raised questions about the Taliban's ability to impose its authority and the potential for Afghanistan's northeast to become a recruiting ground for the Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K) extremist group.

Zhwandoon TV is the latest independent media outlet to come under pressure in Afghanistan, where the Taliban has tried to stamp out any form of dissent. The owner of the private Pashto-language station recently accused the militant group of trying to close down the channel. The Taliban has intensified its crackdown on independent reporters and media outlets over the past year, according to Afghan media watchdogs.

What To Keep An Eye On

An Iranian official in the holy Shi'ite city of Qom has said members of Iran's sizeable community of Afghan refugees and migrants risk being deported if they fail to comply with the country’s hijab law.

Ali Akbar Zarei, an immigration official in Qom, told state TV on June 13 that Afghan nationals would first receive a warning. Repeat offenders, he said, would be cut off from "all social services” and could be forced to leave the country.

Why It's Important: The Iranian authorities have intensified their efforts to enforce the hijab law as more women flout the law.

Iranian women have been emboldened by the monthslong antiestablishment protests that erupted in September following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini soon after she was arrested by Iran’s morality police for improperly wearing the head scarf.

Afghans in Iran told Radio Azadi that scores of their compatriots were arrested for participating in the nationwide protests.

Afghan refugees and migrants have come under growing pressure in Iran after last month’s deadly border clashes between Iranian border guards and Taliban fighters.

That's all from me for now. Don't forget to send me any questions, comments, or tips that you have.

Until next time,

Mustafa Sarwar

If you enjoyed this briefing and don't want to miss the next edition, subscribe here. It will be sent to your inbox every Friday.

Targeted attacks in Afghanistan's northeastern Badakhshan Province have left residents fearful of leaving their homes and the Taliban scrambling to maintain its authority as the Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K) extremist group makes clear that it has not gone away.

The region, once a bastion of resistance to the Taliban, has suffered four attacks targeting Taliban security and government officials claimed by IS-K in just over a year.

Two occurred in the provincial capital, Faizabad, last week: the assassination of Deputy Governor Nisar Ahmad Ahmadi in a car bombing on June 6, and a gruesome explosion at his funeral attended by hundreds of locals and several Taliban officials at the Nabawi Mosque two days later.

At least 19 attendees were killed, including the Taliban's former police chief of northern Baghlan Province, Safiullah Samim, and more than 30 were injured in the mosque attack, which shocked residents and was seen by observers as a "new level" of violence in the region.

"This kind of situation has not been seen in Faizabad in the past 20 years, we have not experienced anything like it," local resident Mahmud Ghafuri told RFE/RL's Radio Azadi. "We are afraid that the same type of explosion could go off at another mosque at any minute. We are very worried."

Urban Warfare Reaches Badakhshan

After its foundation in Afghanistan in 2015, the IS-K controlled territory in the country's north and east as part of its broader aim of territorial expansion and the formation of a caliphate extending throughout South Asia. But under fire from Afghan and Western forces, as well as the Taliban, the IS-K began withdrawing from its territorial strongholds in 2019 and embarked on a new strategy of urban warfare.

As the Taliban strengthened its hold on the country and advanced on the capital before seizing power, the IS-K carried out one of its most high-profile attacks -- the killing of 170 Afghan civilians and 13 members of the U.S. military at Kabul's international airport in August 2021 as Western forces pulled out of Afghanistan.

Since the Taliban took power that month, the IS-K has targeted Taliban officials, foreign nationals and embassies, Afghanistan's Shi'ite Hazara community, and others it considers incompatible with its own extremist interpretation of Islam. It has also launched cross-border attacks into Uzbekistan and Tajikistan from Afghanistan's north.

"In an earlier phase, IS-K was interested in taking territory and expanding geographical control, however, the group has now transitioned into a strategy of guerrilla warfare and urban terrorism for the time being," Lucas Webber, co-founder and editor of MilitantWire.com, said in written comments. "IS-K's targeting has simplified since the previous government was overthrown and international forces left, leaving the Taliban [and its allies] as the sole armed enemy in Afghanistan."

In April 2022, Faizabad entered the spotlight with the killing of Abdul Fattah, who headed the Taliban's mining department in Badakhshan, and the December assassination of the province's police chief, Abdulhaq Abu Omar. The IS-K claimed responsibility for both bombings.

The Taliban has claimed success in eliminating IS-K cells around the country, and the decline of IS-K "attacks and propaganda output seems to indicate that the organization has been degraded to some extent" compared to its early years, according to Webber. "Several prominent leadership figures have been killed in recent months and the IS-K's internal communications show concern over infiltration of IS-K's online networks and militant cells by the Taliban and foreign intelligence services," he added.

But in a report this month on "The Growing Threat Of The Islamic State In Afghanistan And South Asia," the U.S. Institute of Peace says that the IS-K has shown itself to be flexible in its "ambitions, operations, and ties with other militant groups."

"This flexibility has made it resilient in the face of setbacks both to the Islamic State as a whole and within Afghanistan and Pakistan," the report said. "Since the Taliban takeover in August 2021, [the IS-K] remains a potent force despite hundreds of members having been arrested or killed by the Taliban."

The UN Security Council, in a report published on June 1 regarding the situation in Afghanistan, said that the Taliban was failing to combat terrorism on Afghan soil as agreed in the U.S.-Taliban pact signed in 2020.

Noting that "a range of terrorist groups have greater freedom of maneuver" in Afghanistan under Taliban rule, the Security Council said that while the Taliban had "sought to reduce the profile of these groups and has conducted operations against [the IS-K], in general the Taliban has not delivered on the counterterrorism provisions."

The Security Council said the number of IS-K militants in Afghanistan was "estimated to range from 4,000 to 6,000," including family members. It added that IS-K fighters included Afghans as well as citizens of Pakistan, Iran, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Russia, the Central Asian countries, and a small number of Arab fighters from Syria who traveled to Afghanistan in the past year.

Fertile Recruiting Ground

The recent attacks in Badakhshan have made clear that the region is a focal point for the IS-K and led to concerns by locals that the Taliban's counterterrorism efforts in an area where it is still working to impose its full authority are insufficient.

The Taliban army's chief of staff, Fasihuddin Fitrat, condemned the attacks and called on people to inform security officials about any suspicious activities to help counter the threat posed by IS-K.

Whether the region can be considered a haven for IS-K activities is questionable, but it does offer the group a geographically strategic place to launch operations not only in Afghanistan but in restive areas of neighboring Tajikistan and Pakistan as well.

From Afghanistan's north the IS-K "can easily spread to other sides of the border," Arif Sahar, a London-based counterterrorism expert, told RFE/RL's Radio Azadi. And this, he said, can send a "dangerous signal to Central Asia because these countries are very good centers to boost fundamental Islamic ideologies" like that of the IS-K.

Badakhshan has also emerged as a potentially ripe hub to flip and recruit fighters from militant groups allied with the Afghan Taliban and based in the region, including the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, Al-Qaeda, the Turkistan Islamic Party, and the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP), also known as the Pakistani Taliban.

Ted Callahan, a security adviser formerly based in Badakhshan, says support for the Islamic State extremist group, the parent of the IS-K, was prominent as far back as 2014 "among the foreign fighters who had been displaced by a massive military offensive in Pakistan and made their way up north."

At that time, Callahan told RFE/RL in written comments, the Taliban was "able to brutally suppress any overt displays of affiliation with IS, like raising the IS flag."

But Callahan suggests that the IS-K may have made inroads in Badakhshan. "Maybe the Taliban has alienated the population so much that some Badakhshanis are willing to join IS-K; or maybe some of the curious foreign fighters have thrown off the Taliban's shackles and become full-fledged supporters."

The TTP, which has waged a yearslong insurgency against Islamabad, is an avowed ally of the Taliban in Kabul and is considered to be an enemy of the IS-K. But it previously expressed loyalty to the IS-K and continues to be a source of IS-K recruits.

With the Taliban currently engaged in an effort to remove TTP members from southeastern areas bordering Pakistan, which is keen to eliminate the group's safe havens in Afghanistan, it leaves open the possibility that some could migrate north and join the IS-K.

"[The IS-K] has a history of attracting TTP fighters and has historically been comparatively less hostile to TTP than the Afghan Taliban," Webber said. "It is possible that IS-K sees TTP as more hard-line and riper for recruitment."

Disputed Territory

While not discounting IS-K's claim of responsibility for last week's attacks, Callahan also notes that the group "is usually only too happy to claim credit."

Some in Badakhshan, Callahan says, believe that while the December assassination of police chief Omar was carried out by the IS-K, the most recent attacks that killed Ahmadi and Samim could be the result of internal Taliban disputes.

All three of the Taliban officials were ethnic Tajiks, the predominate group in Badakhshan, Callahan notes. The Taliban, a mostly Pashtun group whose political base is in southern Afghanistan, recruited ethnic Tajik and Uzbek fighters in the country's north during its insurgency from 2001-2021.

"The narrative among certain Badakhshani Tajiks is that senior Tajik Taliban officials are being targeted by a segment of the Pashtun Taliban, although the evidence that IS-K conducted the three separate attacks seems hard to refute," Callahan said.

Ahmadi and Samim were from the same town, suggesting the possibility of a local dispute for influence even among Tajik Taliban members.

Other Afghanistan observers have commented about divisions among Badakhshan's Taliban over control of the region's mining wealth, smuggling, and support of foreign fighters, while mentioning that Omar and Ahmadi were "on the same side" and opposed current provincial Governor Amanuddin Mansur and his predecessor Fitrat, who now heads the Taliban army.

"It does seem like an unusually large number of senior Tajik Taliban officials are dying in northern Afghanistan," Callahan said, adding that the governor of the northern Balkh Province was also killed in March. "But whether it's just IS-K-driven attrition, intra-Taliban feuds, or something else is hard to discern."

Locals who spoke to Radio Azadi appeared to be little concerned about who was responsible for the attacks -- they just want them to stop.

"There is still fear in the city and people cannot go to the mosque for prayers and the shops are closed," said Samiullah Mubariz, a resident of Faizabad.

Officials from Afghanistan's Taliban administration traveled to Norway this week for meetings with civil society and diplomats at a peace forum, Norway’s foreign minister said. The visit came amid a severe humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan following 20 years of war and with many countries pulling back on aid after Taliban orders that stopped many Afghan female humanitarian staff from working. "Norway invited three civil servant-level individuals working for the Afghan de facto authorities in Kabul to this year's Oslo Forum. They met Afghan civil society and representatives from other countries," Norwegian Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt told Reuters. To read the original story by Reuters, click here.

Zhwandoon TV is one of the few independent media outlets still operating under Taliban rule in Afghanistan.

The private Pashto-language station has been forced to comply with severe restrictions imposed on the media, including a ban on broadcasting music and foreign entertainment programs as well as orders for female TV presenters to cover their faces.

Now, the owner of Zhwandoon TV has accused the Taliban of attempting to shut down the Kabul-based station. "They want to annihilate our station," Mohammad Ismael Yoon told a press conference in Kabul on June 5.

The offices of Zhwandoon TV are located on government land. Then-President Hamid Karzai granted Yoon a 30-year lease for a nominal annual fee, allowing him to launch the station in 2008.

But Yoon said the Taliban has demanded that Zhwandoon TV either vacate the one-hectare of land or sign a new lease agreement that would dramatically increase the rent.

Yoon, a university professor and author, said the Taliban has intensified its efforts to close down the station since he publicly criticized the militants last month.

Yoon told a group of Taliban leaders on May 26 that their severe restrictions on female education were unjust. "No Islamic countries have completely banned women's education because of their interpretation of Islamic Shari'a law," he said.

Soon after seizing power in 2021, the Taliban banned girls above the sixth grade from attending school. In December, the hard-line Islamist group banned women from going to university. The decisions triggered international condemnation.

In his press conference on June 5, Yoon doubled down on his criticism of the Taliban, saying its draconian policies had forced thousands of educated Afghans to flee the country.

"They think that they have conquered and enslaved the Afghan people and they can order them to do anything," he said.

Yoon said that Najibullah Haqqani, the Taliban's minister of telecommunications and information technology, has demanded that he pay $16,000 per month in rent, an exorbitant figure for a station that has lost much of its advertising revenue. Yoon said Haqqani has also ordered him to pay a lump sum of several million dollars.

"I told the telecommunications minister that he can cancel the contract in light of recognized legal principles but not by force," Yoon said during his press conference.

SEE ALSO:

The Azadi Briefing: Taliban Attempts To Ease Its International Isolation

In a statement, the Taliban said Yoon's lease agreement with the previous government was illegal. It also said that Yoon had "challenged the policies of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, which was uncalled for and inappropriate," referring to the official name of the Taliban's unrecognized government.

Yoon is a self-proclaimed Pashtun nationalist who has been accused in the past of provoking ethnic tensions in Afghanistan. His critics have also labelled him a Taliban sympathizer.

Yoon said the Taliban, a predominately Pashtun group, is attempting to silence secular figures like him because it sees them as ideological competitors. Yoon made Zhwandoon TV a center for Pashtun literary figures and published and promoted their work.

"In the Taliban's internal deliberations, some have argued that without shutting our station, they cannot defeat the nationalist ideology," he said.

While not a leading station in Afghanistan, Zhwandoon's news bulletins, current affairs talk shows, and documentaries have carved out a loyal audience among Pashtun communities inside the country and among the diaspora.

Widening Crackdown

Independent media watchdogs said the Taliban's pressure on Zhwandoon TV is part of an attempt to stamp out any form of dissent.

"If Zhwandoon TV is closed, similar excuses can be invented to shut others," said Zia Bumia, the head of the South Asia Free Media Association in Afghanistan. "[It will] force Afghan journalists and media organizations to adopt self-censorship as a new normal."

SEE ALSO:

Taliban's Order For Taxi Drivers To Change Color Of Vehicles Sparks Anger In Afghanistan

The Taliban has intensified its crackdown on independent reporters and media outlets, according to Afghan media watchdogs.

In its annual report issued on May 3, the Afghanistan Journalist Center said cases of arbitrary arrests and detention, threats, and intimidation of journalists rose by around 60 percent in the past year. During that time, one journalist was killed and 21 wounded in attacks targeting media workers.

Afghan media advocacy group NAI said around half of Afghanistan's estimated 600 media outlets have closed since the Taliban seized power. Around two-thirds of reporters have lost their jobs in that time, according to NAI.

Female media workers have been disproportionately affected. The Taliban's restrictions on women's right to work has left many women journalists unable to carry out their jobs.

An Austrian man is being held in Afghanistan after he traveled to the country earlier this year, the Austrian Foreign Ministry said on June 13. The ministry confirmed in an emailed response to a query about the case that the man went to Afghanistan in May and was arrested there. It noted that Austria has long warned against travel to Afghanistan. It didn't identify the man or give further details, citing data protection issues. The Austrian daily Der Standard, which first reported on the case, said the man is a veteran far-right extremist in his 80s. To read the original story by AP, click here.

The Taliban's religious police have called again on wedding hall owners in Kabul to refrain from playing music and activities that contradict its Islamic rulings for weddings or similar events. Owners of the halls have been told to strictly adhere to the rulings set by the government, authorities said on June 11. Last year, the Taliban advised business owners to avoid music, but the ruling wasn't enforced everywhere. The Taliban considers music to be against the teachings of Islam. Following the Taliban's return to power in August 2021, many artists and musicians left Afghanistan and sought asylum in Western countries.

The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for an explosion inside a mosque during a funeral service for a Taliban official in the northern Afghanistan province of Badakhshan. Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K) claimed responsibility in a statement on June 9. The blast occurred on June 8 and killed at least 19 people, including the former Taliban security commander in the city of Baghlan, and wounded 38 others. The funeral was for the Taliban's provincial deputy governor, Nissar Ahmad Ahmadi, who was killed along with his driver in a suicide car bombing three days earlier. IS-K also claimed responsibility for that attack. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Radio Azadi, click here.

Welcome to The Azadi Briefing, an RFE/RL newsletter that unpacks the key issues in Afghanistan. To subscribe, click here.

I'm Abubakar Siddique, a senior correspondent at RFE/RL's Radio Azadi. Here's what I've been tracking and what I'm keeping an eye on in the days ahead.

The Key Issue

The Taliban appears to have sharply reduced opium cultivation in Afghanistan, the world's largest producer of the illicit drug.

In April 2022, the militant group banned the cultivation, production, and trafficking of all illicit narcotics.

Annual opium cultivation has dropped by as much as 80 percent compared to last year, according to new research by David Mansfield, a leading expert on Afghanistan's drugs trade who worked with Alcis, a British firm specializing in satellite analysis.

Mansfield said the Taliban had "exceeded expectations and reduced poppy cultivation to levels not seen since 2001," when the militant group was ousted from power by the U.S.-led invasion.

Around 80 percent of the opium produced in Afghanistan comes from the southern province of Helmand. Mansfield said satellite imagery appeared to show that in Helmand "poppy cultivation has fallen from more than 120,000 hectares in 2022 to less than 1,000 hectares in 2023."

Why It's Important: Ending Afghanistan's status as one of the world's biggest producers of narcotics has been a priority for neighboring countries and the international community for years.

After 2001, the United States spent some $8 billion in a bid to eradicate the opium trade in Afghanistan. Washington destroyed poppy fields, offered alternative crops to farmers, conducted air strikes, and raided suspected labs. But the strategy largely failed.

For years, the Taliban earned hundreds of millions of dollars from taxing poppy farmers and trafficking narcotics to neighboring countries, from where they ended up in Europe and North America, experts have said.

Since regaining power, the Taliban appears to be succeeding where foreign powers have failed. In 2000, during its first stint in power, the Taliban implemented a similar ban.

Tom West, the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan, tweeted that reports documenting a significant decrease in poppy cultivation "are credible and important."

Michael McCaul, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, in a tweet criticized West for praising a group he said, "actively oppress Afghan women and girls, execute them in public, take Americans hostage, provide terrorist safe havens to Al-Qaeda, and are not recognized as a legitimate government by the United States." It appears that he later deleted the tweet.

What's Next: The complete eradication of the drug industry in Afghanistan still appears to be far off.

Even as opium production appears to have decreased, Afghanistan has become a major supplier of crystal meth in recent years.

The militant group is likely to face intense pushback from poppy farmers in southern Afghanistan if it fails to provide them with alternative livelihoods and crops. The Taliban's cash-strapped and isolated government could lose popularity in a region of Afghanistan that has historically provided most of its leaders and fighters.

The Week's Best Stories

International donors and aid agencies have suspended their operations in three provinces in Afghanistan after accusing the Taliban of attempting to divert or manipulate aid distribution. The move has deprived hundreds of thousands of people of crucial assistance as the country grapples with the world's largest humanitarian crisis.

China and Afghanistan's Taliban rulers appear keen on deepening their relationship, with the sides expanding trade links and pushing for deeper cooperation on security. But experts say the relationship is limited and largely transactional.

What To Keep An Eye On

In a new report, global rights watchdog Amnesty International accused the Taliban of committing the war crime of collective punishment against civilians in Afghanistan's northern province of Panjshir.

Since the Taliban seized power in August 2021, Panjshir has been the scene of low-level resistance to the militant group.

Amnesty's June 8 report said that the Taliban had targeted civilians with torture and unlawful killings, while it subjected detained members of the National Resistance Front to extrajudicial executions.

Agnes Callamard, Amnesty's secretary-general, said the Taliban engaged in extrajudicial killings, torture, hostage-taking, unlawful detention, and torching of civilian homes. "This conduct in sum amounts to collective punishment -- in itself, a war crime," she said.

Why It's Important: Amnesty's report, which is based on interviews with victims and witnesses in Panjshir and an analysis of open-source material, is yet another example of the grave human rights abuses allegedly committed by the Taliban.

The Taliban is unlikely to act on the recommendations of the report, which called on the hard-line group to investigate the alleged abuses and prosecute and punish the perpetrators.

The Taliban is likely to continue using brute force to silence its opponents and critics, including members of the former government and security forces, activists, journalists, and those from religious minorities.

Until next time,

Abubakar Siddique

If you enjoyed this briefing and don't want to miss the next edition, subscribe here. It will be sent to your inbox every Friday.

Ghulam Haider has depended on food and cash handouts from international aid agencies in order to survive.

He is among the millions of people who have received lifesaving aid in Afghanistan, where the Taliban's takeover in 2021 worsened a devastating humanitarian crisis and triggered an economic collapse.

But tens of thousands of Afghans have been forced to fend for themselves after aid agencies, including the UN's World Food Program (WFP), recently suspended their operations in several provinces.

The move came amid U.S. fears that funds it provided to UN aid agencies that are distributing aid in Afghanistan were ending up in the hands of the Taliban. Afghans and aid workers have accused the militant group of interfering in the delivery of foreign assistance.

The suspension of aid operations in the provinces of Ghor, Uruzgan, and parts of Ghazni appears to be already pushing more people toward starvation.

"People are miserable," Haider, a resident of Ghor, in Afghanistan's remote central highlands, told RFE/RL's Radio Azadi. "People here are destitute."

He said the WFP suspended its delivery of food, cash, and other assistance in April. "There has been no help for a month," Haider said. "People are in trouble."

Wahidullah Amani, a spokesman for the WFP in Afghanistan, said the UN food agency stopped distributing food aid, including meals to schools, in late April. Amani estimated that nearly 500,000 people in Ghor now faced food insecurity.

"Families who expected to receive food aid will now be deprived of assistance until these interventions by the local authorities are resolved," Amani told Radio Azadi.

The United Nations estimates that two-thirds of Afghanistan's 40 million people, or more than 28 million, need humanitarian assistance this year. At least 6 million of them are on the brink of starvation.

Hikmat Laali, an activist in Ghor, said the humanitarian situation in Ghor was rapidly deteriorating. "The poorest are in dire straits," he told Radio Azadi. "Their miseries will increase if the people continue to be deprived of food aid."

Locals in Ghor have accused Taliban militants of confiscating food, money, and other assistance they received from NGOs. Observers have also accused the Taliban of trying to channel aid to its own fighters or communities that support the group.

"People were left with little food during the winter and had little fuel," Mohammad Hassan Hakimi, an activist in Ghor, told Radio Azadi.

'Funding For The Taliban'

Last month, the United States said its NGO partners had suspended aid in several Afghan provinces following "evidence of continued attempts by the Taliban" to divert assistance.

"We do not provide funding for the Taliban," Matthew Miller, a U.S. State Department spokesman, told journalists in Washington on May 24. "We require all of our partners that we work with to have safeguards in place to assure the assistance reaches those who need it."

Miller said that the WFP had halted operations in two districts of the southeastern province of Ghazni from January to April because local Taliban officials attempted to direct the delivery of aid.

He added that an aid organization that received funding from Washington suspended its activities in the southern province of Uruzgan in April "after the Taliban issued demands to provide transportation support to Taliban representatives and otherwise interfered in staff recruitment processes."

Miller's comments came after John Sopko, the U.S. special inspector-general for Afghanistan reconstruction (SIGAR), a government watchdog, said that "it is clear from our work that the Taliban is using various methods to divert U.S. aid dollars."

"Unfortunately, as I sit here today, I cannot assure this committee or the American taxpayer we are not currently funding the Taliban," Sopko told the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Accountability on April 19. "Nor can I assure you that the Taliban are not diverting the money we are sending for the intended recipients, which are the poor Afghan people."

Sopko added that the "Taliban generate income from U.S. aid by imposing customs charges on shipments coming into the country and charging taxes and fees directly on NGOs."

'Devastating Impact'

Philippe Kropf, the head of communications at WFP, said the United Nations briefly halted aid distribution in Ghor in January. Weeks later, the agency resumed its operations after Taliban assurances that its fighters would not interfere in the delivery of aid. But continued Taliban meddling, he said, forced the WFP to suspend its activities.

Kropf said the WFP did not channel funds or food aid through the militant group. "Our operations are guided by the humanitarian principles of neutrality, impartiality, humanity, and independence," he said, adding that the WFP assists people directly through its vetted partners based on independent needs assessments.

"Any instance where interference with WFP assistance is detected that cannot be resolved locally will result in the suspension of deliveries," he said.

The Taliban has rejected allegations that it is interfering in aid deliveries. Chief Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the Taliban's Economy Ministry had formed joint operational procedures with agencies to ensure that aid distribution is transparent.

"If any problems are detected, the government will have to intervene to address those," he told Radio Azadi. "But such issues are rare."

The Taliban's ban on Afghan women working for local and foreign NGOs has also adversely affected the delivery of humanitarian aid in Afghanistan.

That decision in December led major international humanitarian organizations to halt or reduce their operations, including emergency food distribution, health services, and education. In April, the ban was expanded to include the United Nations.

SEE ALSO:

'Every Midwife Is Afraid': Worrying Signs Over Maternal Deaths In Afghanistan

On June 5, the United Nations revised its annual aid budget for Afghanistan from $4.6 billion to $3.2 billion this year, citing reduced funding from international donors. It said in a statement that a "changing operating context" in the wake of the Taliban's ban on female aid workers had contributed to the revised plan.

Kropf said the lack of funding had prompted the WFP to cut emergency assistance to some 8 million highly vulnerable Afghans this year.

"Such cutbacks in humanitarian food assistance will have a devastating impact on women, young children, and the elderly in particular," he said.

An explosion has torn through a mosque in the northern Afghan province of Badakhshan during a funeral service for a Taliban official, killing at least 19 people, including the former Taliban security commander in the city of Baghlan, and wounding 38 others.

Moazuddin Ahmadi, the head of information and culture of Badakhshan Province, told RFE/RL's Radio Azadi that the explosion took place on June 8 in the city of Faizabad during the ceremony for a Taliban deputy governor, Nissar Ahmad Ahmadi, who himself was killed along with his driver in a suicide car bomb attack three days earlier.

"In this incident...the former police commander in Baghlan, was martyred," he said.

He later issued an appeal for local citizens to donate blood to help treat the victims.

No individuals or groups have taken responsibility for the attack, though the Khorasan Province branch of Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility for the attack on Ahmadi on June 6.

The United Nations mission to Afghanistan (UNAMA) said the attack was "deeply disturbing."

"UNAMA unequivocally condemns this and a recent spate of appalling and indiscriminate attacks that have shown a total disregard for civilian lives," it said in a tweet.

Islamic State-Khorasan has been the key rival of the Taliban-led government since the group seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021. It recently increased its attacks, targeting both Taliban patrols and members of Afghanistan’s Shi’ite minority.

Taliban forces have responded by carrying out military operations this month against the IS group in several provinces of Afghanistan.

The UN Security Council warned in March about an increase in the number of militants and the threat of IS in Afghanistan.

The U.S. Central Command has estimated that 2,250 IS militants are in Afghanistan. It has also said that it is possible they would target American assets and those of their allies.

Sources in Tajikistan's government entities told RFE/RL on June 8 that dozens of armed Afghan citizens, including former Afghan military personnel, have been apprehended by Tajik law enforcement and security troops in the Central Asian nation's southern Khatlon region. Speaking on condition of anonymity, one of the Tajik officials said the detained Afghan nationals had been transferred to Dushanbe. The authorities of the tightly controlled former Soviet republic have yet to confirm the situation. After the Taliban took over Afghanistan in 2021, hundreds of Afghan citizens fled to other countries via neighboring Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Tajik Service, click here.

The deputy governor of Afghanistan's northern Badakhshan Province was killed by a car bomb on June 6, the provincial spokesman said. "Nissar Ahmad Ahmadi, with his driver, has been killed and six civilians were injured," said the head of the provincial information office, Mahzudeen Ahmadi. It was not clear who was behind the attack, which was the first known major blast in Afghanistan in several weeks. The Taliban administration has been carrying out raids against members of Islamic State, which has had claimed several major attacks in urban centers, including Kabul. To read the original story by Reuters, click here.

The United Nations and humanitarian agencies have revised the budget for Afghanistan's aid plan for 2023 to $3.2 billion, down from $4.6 billion earlier in the year, the UN humanitarian office said on June 5.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a statement that a "changing operating context" in the wake of Taliban administration restrictions on female aid workers had contributed to the revised plan.

Taliban authorities have issued several orders barring many Afghan female NGO and United Nations employees from work, which aid agencies have warned would severely hamper delivery in the religiously conservative nation.

To read the original story by Reuters, click here.

Nearly 80 girls were poisoned and hospitalized in two separate attacks at their primary schools in Sar-e Pul Province in northern Afghanistan, a local education official said on June 4. It is thought to be the first time this kind of assault has happened since the Taliban swept to power in August 2021 and began their crackdown on the rights and freedoms of Afghan women and girls. Girls are banned from education beyond sixth grade. The education official said the person who orchestrated the poisoning had a personal grudge but did not elaborate. To read the original story by AP, click here.

China has played a visible role in Afghanistan since the Taliban seized power in 2021.

Beijing is among only a handful of countries to maintain a diplomatic presence in Kabul, where the Chinese ambassador regularly meets with Taliban officials.

There has also been a surge in Chinese traders visiting Afghanistan to explore business opportunities and ink deals.

The Taliban, meanwhile, has boasted of Beijing's interest in expanding trade and investing billions of dollars in Afghanistan's mining sector.

Last month, the hard-line Islamist group also announced the resumption of direct flights between Afghanistan and China after a three-year gap, saying it would help strengthen bilateral relations.

Despite the appearance that China and the Taliban are becoming allies, experts say the relationship is limited and largely transactional.

Experts say Beijing's primary concern in Afghanistan is the threat posed by members of the Turkestan Islamic Party (TIP) -- an Uyghur extremist group that Beijing blames for unrest in its western province of Xinjiang and refers to by its former name, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM).

The Taliban has been accused of sheltering Uyghur militants and done little to alleviate China's security concerns.

Policymakers in Beijing also continue to worry about instability spreading from Afghanistan into South and Central Asia, where China has significant economic and political interests.

Meanwhile, Beijing has provided only limited development assistance to Afghanistan and large mining projects backed by Chinese companies have failed to get off the ground.

"China is not a 'friend' of the Taliban and can be relied on only to pursue its national interest," said Barnett Rubin, an academic and former adviser to the U.S. State Department on Afghanistan. "China's economic engagement with Afghanistan is as much if not more about national defense than profit-seeking."

'Terrorist Forces'

During its rule in the 1990s, the Taliban allowed Uyghur groups to operate in Afghanistan and is believed to still have links with them.

Since the Taliban regained power, the Taliban has relocated Uyghur fighters from the northeastern province of Badakhshan, which is located along Afghanistan's 76-kilometer border with China, in a bid to allay Beijing's fears.

But China has demanded that the Taliban cut any ties with the militants and hand them over to Beijing. The exact number of Uyghur fighters based in Afghanistan is unknown, although experts believe they number in the hundreds.

"China's top priority in Afghanistan by far is to persuade the Taliban to turn these militants over to China," Rubin said.

If the Taliban refuses, then Beijing expects the group to keep the activities of the Uyghur militants "under strict surveillance and control," Rubin added.

In April, China's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Beijing "hopes that Afghanistan will fulfill its commitment in earnest and take more effective measures to crack down on all terrorist forces."

Rubin says Beijing's fears that Uyghur militants have been integrated into the Taliban's "military and terrorist structures" explain why China is eager to increase its diplomatic and economic engagement with the Taliban.

"Chinese interests in the Afghan economy are likely about trying to incentivize the Taliban to cooperate on counterterrorism," he said.

Economic Incentives

For the cash-strapped Taliban government, which remains internationally unrecognized, securing investment and economic assistance is seen as a top priority as it seeks domestic and international legitimacy.

The Taliban takeover triggered an economic collapse and aggravated a major humanitarian crisis, with international donors cutting crucial financial assistance to Afghanistan.

"Afghanistan's economic catastrophe overshadows all other problems in the country," said Hameed Hakimi, an Afghanistan expert at the Washington-based Atlantic Council think tank. "If the Taliban can demonstrate that they can deliver on the economy, their popularity and support will expand considerably."

Beijing has faced criticism for its infrastructure projects in developing countries around the world, which Western officials have described as exploitative. But that has not put off the Taliban, which has actively sought Chinese investment in Afghanistan's vast untapped mineral resources.

In April, the Taliban claimed that a Chinese firm was interested in investing $10 billion in lithium extraction, a project that it said would employ more than 120,000 Afghans.

"Afghans are looking forward to exploiting their lithium and other mining deposits for their benefit," Shahabuddin Delawar, the Taliban's minister for mining, said that month.

In January, the Taliban signed an oil-extraction contract with a Chinese firm. Under the deal, China's Xinjiang Central Asia Petroleum and Gas Co is expected to invest up to $150 million during the first year. After three years, the amount is expected to increase to $540 million. The Taliban claims the project will provide around 3,000 local jobs.

But experts do not expect Beijing to invest heavily in Afghanistan, which lacks infrastructure and roads. Despite a dramatic increase in violence, the country is also still the scene of sporadic attacks by the Islamic State-Khorasan extremist group.

"The Taliban benefit from maintaining a relationship with the Chinese government and would also like to use it both as an insurance and leverage against Western nations," Hakimi said.

Welcome back to The Azadi Briefing, an RFE/RL newsletter that unpacks the key issues in Afghanistan. To subscribe, click here.

I'm Mustafa Sarwar, a senior news editor at RFE/RL's Radio Azadi. Here's what I've been tracking and what I'm keeping an eye on in the days ahead.

The Key Issue

The Taliban's reclusive leader held a secret meeting with the Qatari prime minister in Afghanistan last month, according to media reports.

It was believed to be the first meeting between Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada and a foreign leader since the Taliban seized power in 2021.

Taliban and Qatari officials have not commented on the reported meeting, which is believed to have taken place in the southern city of Kandahar, the de facto capital under the militant group’s rule.

Why It's Important: It is unclear what Akhundzada and Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani discussed.

But the talks were seen as part of renewed efforts by the Taliban to ease its international isolation. The Taliban-led government remains unrecognized and has been hit by international sanctions.

The hard-line Islamist group’s restrictions on female education and employment as well as its human rights abuses have made it an international pariah.

Heather Barr of Human Rights Watch, however, said the Taliban’s reported willingness to engage with the international community is not new.

"I don't think it's a new willingness -- just new to see Akhundzada. The Taliban have always been keen, since [August 2021], to press their demands -- for engagement, aid, recognition, congratulations. Parallel to these talks, their crackdown on women/girls has steadily continued & deepened," Barr said on Twitter.

What's Next: It is unclear what effect the meeting will have. Akhundzada has so far been unwilling to reverse Taliban policies that have provoked widespread outrage inside and outside Afghanistan.

It appears unlikely that the international community will recognize the Taliban and resume crucial development assistance to Afghanistan until the group creates a broad-based government and ends its repression of women and girls.

The Week's Best Stories

Tensions remain high following the deadly clashes between Iranian and Taliban border troops over cross-border water supplies. But while both Tehran and the Taliban are doubling down on their water rights, they are leaving the door open for a diplomatic resolution.

The Taliban-led government in Afghanistan has ordered all taxi drivers in the capital, Kabul, to change the color of their vehicles to turquoise, infuriating many cabbies. Officials say the new color code will reduce kidnappings and other crimes.

What To Keep An Eye On

Taliban fighters and Iranian border guards exchanged heavy gunfire on May 27, leading to casualties on both sides.

The clashes occurred across the shared border between southeastern Iran and southwestern Afghanistan, with each side accusing the other of firing first.

Taliban officials said one Afghan border guard was killed, and several people were wounded. Iranian media said that up to three Iranian border guards were killed.

Since then, the sides have exchanged threats and reportedly sent reinforcements along the shared 900-kilometer border.

Why It's Important: The deadly clashes come amid a growing dispute over cross-border water resources.

Iran has accused the Taliban of violating a water treaty signed between Kabul and Tehran in 1973, a claim that the militant group rejects.

Disputes over water resources are likely to increase as both countries grapple with severe drought.

In the 1990s, during the Taliban’s first stint in power, the group was on the brink of war with Iran. But observers say the dispute over water resources is unlikely to lead to a conflict, with both sides calling for dialogue to help resolve their differences.

That's all from me for now. Don't forget to send me any questions, comments, or tips that you have.

Until next time,

Mustafa Sarwar

If you enjoyed this briefing and don't want to miss the next edition, subscribe here. It will be sent to your inbox every Friday.

Water has exposed cracks in the Taliban's fragile relationship with Tehran, with both sides exchanging pointed barbs over scarce supplies before coming to deadly blows along the Afghan-Iranian border.

Tensions remain high following the deaths of troops from both sides on May 27, with Taliban and Iranian officials digging in on their positions with increased military activity and fresh warnings.

But while disputes over water security are expected to intensify between the two drought-stricken countries, both sides appear to be keeping the door open for dialogue on the issue while boosting cooperation in other areas of mutual concern.

The deadly firefight took place across the shared border between southeastern Iran and southwestern Afghanistan, with each side accusing the other of firing first. Social media footage showed Taliban heavy weaponry streaming to the border in the Kang district of Nimroz Province, where officials said one Taliban border guard was killed and several people were wounded after an exchange of heavy gunfire.

Iranian media, meanwhile, said up to three Iranian border guards were killed and several people wounded in its southeastern Sistan-Baluchistan Province, where Iran has worked to fortify its border as tensions over water supplies rose over the past two weeks.

Following the incident, the Taliban has continued to push back on Iran's claim that it is not honoring a water treaty ironed out by the two sides in 1973.

"The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan considers dialogue to be a reasonable way for any problem," Taliban Defense Ministry spokesman Enayatullah Khawarazmi said in a statement on May 28, referring to the official name of the Taliban's unrecognized government. "Making excuses for war and negative actions is not in the interest of any of the parties."

Iran has continued its harder line, with national police commander Brigadier-General Ahmadreza Radan saying the same day that "the border forces of the Islamic republic of Iran will decisively respond to any border trespassing and aggression, and the current authorities of Afghanistan must be held accountable for their unmeasured and contrary actions to international principles."

But Iranian officials, too, have expressed the need for a diplomatic solution, with high-ranking security official Mohammad Ismail Kothari describing the dispute as "fighting between children of the same house" while rejecting that Tehran would resort to the "military option."

Big Dam Issues

Water is a precious commodity in both southwestern Afghanistan, one of the country's most productive agricultural areas, and in southeastern Iran, one of several arid areas of the country where water scarcity has fueled public protests.

But with Afghanistan in control of upriver water sources that feed low-lying wetlands and lakes in Iran's southeast, the Taliban finds itself with a rare tool for leverage in its relationship with Tehran.

The problem -- or the solution, depending on which side you consider -- stems from the construction of major dam projects in Afghanistan that in combination with increased drought and other factors have restricted the flow of water to the Sistan Basin.

The border-straddling basin depends on perennial flooding to fill what used to be a vast wildlife oasis and was home to the massive Hamun Lake, which now consists of three smaller seasonal lakes -- Hamun-e Helmand in Iran and Hamun-e Sabari and Hamun-e Puzak in both Afghanistan and Iran.

The longstanding issue of replenishing the basin with water came to the forefront earlier this month following comments by Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and President Ebrahim Raisi.

Amir-Abdollahian, in a call with his Taliban counterpart, Amir Khan Muttaqi, demanded the Afghan authorities open the gates of the inland Kajaki Dam that pools water from the Helmand River "so both the people of Afghanistan and Iran can be hydrated."

Shortly afterward, Raisi upped the ante during a visit to Sistan-Baluchistan on May 18 by warning the "rulers of Afghanistan to immediately give the people of Sistan-Baluchistan their water rights." He added that the Taliban should take his words "seriously" and not say "they were not told."

The Taliban has consistently denied the accusation that it was not complying with the 1973 treaty and said that even if the Kajaki Dam were opened there would not be enough water to reach Iran.

But just two days after Raisi's threats, the Taliban appeared to twist the knife by inaugurating a new irrigation project that involved completing the construction of the Bakhshabad Dam on the Farah River, which feeds the Sistan Basin from the north.

Contentious Water Treaty

According to the 1973 treaty, Afghanistan is committed to sharing water from the Helmand River with Iran at the rate of 26 cubic meters of water per second, or 850 million cubic meters per year.

But the accord also allows for less water to be delivered in cases of low water levels, which have been affected by persistent drought and the construction of new dams in Afghanistan, including the Kamal Khan Dam on the Helmand River that was completed in 2021 shortly before the Taliban seized power in Kabul.

The Taliban's deputy prime minister for economic affairs, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, said on May 22 that Kabul was "committed to the water treaty of 1973 but the drought that exists in Afghanistan and region should not be ignored."

"The pain of the people of Sistan-Baluchistan is our pain," he added. "Our hearts melt for them as much as they melt for the people of Afghanistan, but we also suffer from a shortage of water."

Cooperation on the water issue was previously seen as a sign of deepening ties between Afghanistan's Sunni Taliban rulers and Shi'a-majority Iran. In January 2022, the Taliban released water from the Kamal Khan Dam on the Helmand River in Nimroz Province into the Hamun Lake.

While their sectarian differences once made them enemies, their common interests in opposing Afghanistan's Western-backed government and U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan over the past two decades brought them closer.

Since the Taliban returned to power, the militant group has sought to build economic and security ties with Tehran. While Iran has not recognized the Taliban-led government, it has sought to work with the group on the issues of Afghan refugees in Iran and cross-border drug trafficking. In February, Iran formally handed over the Afghan Embassy in Tehran to the Taliban.

Afghanistan's and Iran's water crises require both countries to show a strong hand on the issue of water supplies, both for domestic consumption and to protect their national interests. But experts suggest the benefits of cooperation outweigh an escalation of the conflict.

"Neither country at this point in time needs a really hostile border," Marvin Weinbaum, director of Afghanistan and Pakistan studies at the Middle East Institute think tank in Washington, told RFE/RL.

"Economically it is an issue for both countries -- there would be no agricultural potential in Helmand Province without the water furnished by the dam. And very little of it gets into Iran. And southeast Iran is as dry as any place on the planet."

Weinbaum said neither the Taliban nor Tehran is going to exhibit weakness on the issue of short-term water shortages. "As the climate heats up, this is only going to grow more acute," he said.

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But for both countries, Weinbaum said, "economic ties are really what matters the most," along with cooperating on other issues of mutual concern such as preventing the Islamic State extremist group from expanding its foothold in the region.

Ironically, just days after Raisi's threats and the inauguration of a new dam project in Afghanistan, the Taliban's Defense Ministry announced it had reached a new agreement on cooperating with Iran on defense and border issues. And on the day of the firefight that left border guards dead on both sides, officials had met earlier to discuss the water dispute.

After the deadly incident, Iranian and Taliban officials held another meeting to investigate the cause of the "tensions."

Path To Resolution

The construction of dams -- which both Iran and Afghanistan engage heavily in -- and their downstream impact stand out among the causes to discuss.

"What really triggers these disputes?" asked Weinbaum. "The intensification of them is obviously building dams, which represent simply a lower flow than they've been accustomed to and are not happy with."

Other observers suggest the decades-old water-sharing agreement that Iran and the Taliban accuse each other of failing to adhere to holds the answer to resolving the dispute.

The 1973 treaty does allow for the delivery of water from the Afghan side to be lower than the agreed-upon levels under certain circumstances, which would appear to include the drought and climate change that the Taliban has said have limited water supplies.

It also commits the two countries to follow a set course "in the event that a difference should develop in the interpretation" of the provisions set out in the treaty: diplomatic negotiations, turning to the "good offices" of a third party to help mediate a solution, and in the event neither step works, arbitration.

With additional reporting by RFE/RL's Radio Farda and Radio Azadi