Senior Taliban leader Suhail Shaheen on Sunday categorically denied that the Pakistani Taliban or the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants are in Afghanistan, adding that banned outfit is present in Pakistan’s tribal areas and hence Islamabad’s responsibility, “not ours.” Pakistan, on the other hand, alleges that the TTP uses Afghan soil to carry out attacks against Pakistan.
The Taliban’s interim Defence Minister Mullah Yaqub has claimed that United States drones were entering the country through Pakistan. While narrating the one-year performance of the ministry alongside the Army Chief Mullah Fasih Uddin at a press conference in Kabul, Yaqub said: “We hadn’t caught all routes of the drones but our intelligence reported that the United States drones were entering through Pakistan.”
A teenage Afghan girl shot dead two Taliban militants and injured several others after they murdered her parents outside their home. The insurgents stormed the house of Qamar Gul, in Tiwara district of Ghor province and killed her parents for supporting the government. Qamar then took took an AK-47 gun the family had and fought off the militants bravely.
The Taliban said they were resuming offensive operations against Afghan security forces, ending the partial truce that preceded the signing of a deal between the insurgents and Washington. It ran for one week ahead of the signing of the historic accord in Doha on Saturday, and continued over the weekend. Under the terms of the deal, foreign forces will quit Afghanistan within 14 months.
Afghan Taliban fighters attacked an outpost in northern Afghanistan killing 10 policemen. The fighting raged across the country despite ongoing talks between Washington and the militant group. The multi-pronged assault took place in Khwaja Alwan district of Baghlan province early Tuesday, said the provincial police spokesman Ahmad Jawed Basharat. He also added that the Taliban also ambushed the police forces sent to reinforce the checkpoint
In a telephonic conversation with Prime Minister Imran Khan, US President Donald Trump thanked the prime minister for Pakistan’s efforts in facilitating the release of two Western hostages. During the phone call, Prime Minister Imran termed the release of the hostages by the Taliban in Afghanistan as a “positive development”, saying Pakistan was happy that the duo was safe and free.
Afghanistan will release two senior Taliban commanders and a leader of the Haqqani militant group in exchange for an American and an Australian professor who were kidnapped in 2016, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s office said on Tuesday. The prisoner swap deal could pave the way for peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban.