The harrowing events of August 26, 2021, are seared into Shafiullah Samsor's memory.

Twenty-two years old at the time, Samsor was among the thousands of desperate Afghans who had amassed outside Kabul airport hoping to be airlifted from the country by the U.S. military.

Just days before, the Taliban had seized control of the Afghan capital, triggering panic among the city's 5 million inhabitants.

Amid the chaotic scenes outside the airport, which was still controlled by departing U.S. forces, a suicide bomber detonated his explosive-laden vest among the crowd, unleashing a scene of horror.

"Suddenly, there was a loud explosion, which threw me to the ground," Samsor recalled. "There was shouting, and people began running everywhere. I remember the blood and dust around me before I fell unconscious."

The university student was rushed to hospital, where he remained in a coma for four days. When he woke up, the doctors informed him that his spine was fractured in four places. A piece of shrapnel had also pierced his throat.

Around 170 Afghans and 13 U.S. military personnel were killed in the bombing, one of the deadliest attacks of the entire 19-year U.S.-led war in Afghanistan. Hundreds more like Samsor were wounded.

The bombing claimed by the Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K) extremist group became a symbol of the chaotic and deadly U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan that was completed on August 31.

Three years on, survivors are still reeling from the psychological and physical effects of the attack.

Samsor never returned to university to complete his degree in English literature. He cannot work and can barely walk even with the help of crutches.

He and his five sisters and mother depend on remittances sent by his older brother, who works in neighboring Iran.

Samsor's family spent all their savings and sold off a plot of land and their car to fund his treatment.

"I hope that Allah will punish those responsible for devastating my life and the lives of so many others," he said.

Meisam Ahmadi lost his two brothers in the bombing.

Alireza Ahmadi, a journalist, and Mujtaba Ahmadi, a photojournalist, had joined the crowd outside Kabul Airport's Abbey Gate after a friend told them he had been allowed to enter the airport by U.S. forces. The friend, Meisam said, had promised to help the brothers get in.

"Unfortunately, there was an explosion there, and both of them were standing together, and they lost their lives," Meisam said.

'Badly Handled'

Survivors and the families of the victims of the bombing are still seeking answers about what happened.

Two investigations by the Pentagon concluded that all the victims were killed by a lone suicide bomber.

But a CNN investigation based on new video evidence and released in April this year suggested dozens of the victims may have been shot dead by U.S. soldiers.

Three days after the Abbey Gate bombing, the U.S. military carried out a drone strike targeting what it initially said was an IS-K compound in Kabul.

Instead, the U.S. drone strike killed an Afghan aid worker and nine people from his extended family in what the Pentagon called a "tragic mistake."

Michael Semple, an Afghanistan expert at Queen's University Belfast, said the horrific Kabul Airport attack embodied Washington's mishandling of the international military withdrawal from Afghanistan.

"It was time for the U.S. to leave Afghanistan, but the scenes of disorder which we saw, and which were sort of epitomized by the carnage which happened at Abbey Gate, show that it was badly handled," Semple said.

In 2020, the United States and the Taliban signed an agreement for the phased withdrawal of all foreign troops from Afghanistan.

But a lightening Taliban military offensive in the summer of 2021 led to the collapse of the Western-backed Afghan government before all international forces had left the country.

U.S.-led forces kept control of Kabul Airport for two weeks after the Taliban takeover, evacuating tens of thousands of foreign nationals as well as at-risk Afghans.

The Taliban’s new vice and virtue laws that include a ban on women's voices and bare faces in public provide a "distressing vision" for Afghanistan's future, a top UN official warned on August 25. Roza Otunbayeva, who heads the UN mission to Afghanistan, said the laws extend the "already intolerable restrictions" on the rights of women and girls, with "even the sound of a female voice" outside the home apparently deemed a moral violation. Afghanistan's Taliban rulers recently issued a set of morality laws that include a requirement for women to conceal their faces, bodies, and voices outside the home.

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 has revealed that its notorious religious police detained more than 13,000 Afghans during the past year for violating the extremist group's morality laws.

The Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, which oversees the religious police, said those detained had violated the group's strict Islamic dress code and gender segregation in society.

Other violations, the ministry said, included gambling, the use of illicit drugs, and playing or listening to music, which is banned.

Muhibullah Mukhlis, a ministry official, said on August 20 that the Taliban had "confiscated and destroyed" over 20,000 musical instruments and closed 25 bars across the predominately Muslim country in the past year.

He also added that nearly 300 Taliban members were fired from their jobs for trimming their beards, which is also banned.

Why It's Important: The Taliban's religious police have been accused of creating a "climate of fear and intimidation" in Afghanistan.

The force has publicly punished offenders, often violently. Men and women convicted of violating the Taliban's morality laws have been jailed or publicly flogged, often in fields or sports venues.

"We are terrified and cannot celebrate anything," said a resident of the northern province of Parwan, where the Taliban publicly destroyed confiscated musical instruments on August 20.

"If we celebrate, the Taliban's morality police beat and humiliate us," he told RFE/RL's Radio Azadi while requesting anonymity because of concerns over his safety.

What's Next: The Taliban's dreaded religious police are likely to remain a cornerstone of the extremist group's brutal rule.

This week, the Taliban's spiritual leader, Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, issued a decree that expanded the powers of the religious police.

What To Keep An Eye On

The Taliban has banned UN's Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Richard Bennett from entering the country.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid on August 21 accused Bennett of providing "false" information about the situation in Afghanistan and spreading "propaganda."

Bennett called the ban "a step backward" and said it "sends a concerning signal" about the Taliban's engagement with the UN and the international community on human rights.

Bennett was appointed in 2022 to monitor Afghanistan's human rights situation. He has traveled to Afghanistan several times and pointed to grave human rights violations, especially against Afghan women and girls.

Afghan and international human rights campaigners have condemned the Taliban's decision.

Heather Barr, associate women's rights director at Human Rights Watch, said "the Taliban are giving up some of their last pretenses of wanting to look rights-respecting."

Why It's Important: While Bennett will still document rights abuses in Afghanistan, the ban will harm the Taliban's efforts to gain international recognition.

Despite increased international engagement with the Taliban-led government, Western nations will likely find it difficult to overlook the group's extensive rights abuses, including denying women most of their fundamental rights and carrying out extrajudicial killings as well as the torture and ill-treatment of detainees.

That's all from me for now.

Don't forget to send me any questions, comments, or tips that you have. You can always reach us at azadi.english@rferl.org

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.

Afghanistan's Taliban rulers have banned UN's Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Richard Bennett from entering the country, spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid was quoted as saying by private Afghan broadcaster Tolo. Mujahid accused Bennett of providing "false" information about the situation in Afghanistan and spreading "propaganda." Bennett called the ban "a step backwards" and said it "sends a concerning signal" about the Taliban's engagement with the United Nations and the international community on human rights. Bennett was appointed in 2022 to monitor Afghanistan's human rights situation. He has traveled to Afghanistan several times and pointed to grave human rights violations, especially against Afghan women and girls.

Top officials of the Taliban-led government in Afghanistan marked 105 years of of the country's independence on August 18 by demanding mutual respect from the international community.

Afghanistan gained its independence in August 1919 after the signing of the Anglo-Afghan Treaty, which ended British control over the country’s foreign affairs.

Afghanistan currently remains unrecognized internationally, largely because of the restrictions the Taliban-led government has placed on women since it returned to power in August 2021.

SEE ALSO:

'Systematic Discrimination': Taliban's Drastic Cut In Salaries Of Female State Employees Triggers Anger

The anniversary of the signing of the Anglo-Afghan Treaty was marked at a meeting of top Taliban leaders in Kabul broadcast live by the Taliban-controlled National Radio and Television.

Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob, the Taliban's acting defense minister, told the meeting that the government wants strong relations with the world based on mutual respect but will never give in to pressure.

He also said the Taliban, which seized power after the U.S.-backed government collapsed and its leaders fled into exile, will never allow the Islamic State and other destructive groups to create chaos in Afghanistan.

"Whether they are Daesh (Islamic State) or other rebels, they should hear…that we have not surrendered to anyone's power at any cost. By any name, we have established the Islamic system in this land. We will defend it till death and the last century."

The international community has previously expressed concern about the presence of the extremist Islamic State group in Afghanistan, while the Taliban has said it is the only group capable of ruling and establishing security in the country.

SEE ALSO:

At Least 1.4 Million Afghan Girls Banned From Attending School Since Taliban Takeover, UNESCO Says

Hamid Karzai, who served as the first elected president of Afghanistan from 2004 to 2014, marked the anniversary of the signing of the treaty by calling on the Taliban to allow girls and women to attend school and university.

“I call on the caretaker Islamic government to open the doors of schools and universities in the country as soon as possible so that girls equipped with the jewels of knowledge can play their part in the development of the country alongside their brothers,” Karzai said on X. “Education and national unity are the forces that will keep the country strong.”

Since returning to power in August 2021, the Taliban has banned girls and women from studying beyond primary school.

The United Nations said on August 15 that at least 1.4 million girls in Afghanistan have been denied access to secondary education and this has almost wiped out two decades of steady progress for education in Afghanistan, leaving the future of an entire generation in jeopardy.

The Afghan Taliban's acting prime minister, Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund, who is on a UN sanctions list, is receiving medical treatment in a hospital in the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.), officials said. U.A.E. President Muhammad bin Zayed al-Nahyan visited the Taliban leader "to inquire about his health," a spokeswoman for the U.A.E. Foreign Ministry said on social media, without providing many details. Akhund did not attend Taliban ceremonies in Kabul on August 14 that marked the third anniversary of the group's return to power in Afghanistan.

Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov arrived in Kabul on August 17 in the first high-level visit by an Uzbek delegation since the Taliban returned to power three years ago, ousting a Western-backed government. Aripov will take part in bilateral meetings to discuss trade between the two neighboring countries, the Taliban-led Ministry for Industry and Commerse said on X, sharing a photo of the Uzbek delegation arriving at Kabul's airport. No country has officially recognized the Taliban-led government in Kabul. 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

An Afghan press-freedom watchdog says media freedom continues to decline as the Taliban marks three years in power.

In a new report on August 13, the Afghanistan Journalist Center (AFJC) said the Taliban's brutal treatment of the media was on the rise.

Its government issued "new guidelines" to reign in the once vibrant Afghan press, which was already reeling from pressure to implement 14 detailed instructions the group had issued during the previous two years.

The report said that during the past year of Taliban rule, it decreed what kind of language and terminologies the Afghan print and electronic media should use.

As part of its growing restrictions, the group has banned photography and filming of all meetings in the southern province of Kandahar, where Taliban Supreme Leader Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada lives.

Hamid Obidi, the head of the AFJC, said the Taliban's three years in power had proved it doesn't believe "in a free press and the citizen's right to access free information."

The AFJC documented 181 cases of threats, detentions, and convictions of journalists from August 2023 to the present.

Exiled Afghan journalists in the West say the Taliban has detained more than 300 journalists during the past three years.

Why It's Important: The Taliban has attempted to systematically dismantle the freedoms previously enjoyed by the Afghan press because it sees it as a legacy of the fallen Afghan republic and its Western allies.

The Islamist group has not honored any of its early promises to allow freedom of the press. Instead, it wants Afghan journalists to “reorient their thinking,” according to the AFJC, whose report cites statements by senior Taliban officials.

Taliban actions speak much louder than its promises. Intimidation by its officials has forced hundreds of journalists into exile. Taliban restrictions or the loss of Western funding has forced scores of Afghan media outlets to shut down.

In order to deny Afghans access to the free flow of information, it has banned international broadcasters whose content in Pashto and Dari is widely popular. The Taliban has also denied visas to independent foreign correspondents.

What's Next: The Taliban has been quite successful in shaping a media environment inside Afghanistan that serves its government.

Its restrictions even prompt independent media outlets inside Afghanistan to self-censor and avoid critical reporting.

Waning international interest in Afghanistan and the lack of access to the country make in-depth reporting from the government very difficult.

All this has paved the way for the Taliban to replace journalism with propaganda.

What To Keep An Eye On

Ten major international nongovernmental aid groups have called for more Western donor engagement with the Taliban's unrecognized government.

CARE, the Danish Refugee Council, Save the Children International, and other groups have called on Western capitals to rethink their approach to the Taliban.

"Diplomatic engagement is crucial to creating an enabling environment in Afghanistan that will support upscaling international aid efforts to include development projects alongside emergency assistance," the NGOs said in a joint statement on August 13.

International donors have suspended most of their funding for Afghanistan over the Taliban's ban on most education and employment for women and its reportedly extensive human rights abuses.

The statement said the current "isolationist approach" of donor countries does not help alleviate the suffering of Afghans as they face one of the world's largest humanitarian crises.

More than half of Afghanistan's 40 million population needs humanitarian assistance, but funding for the crises is declining, with only 25 percent of the funds pledged for the current UN humanitarian appeal of more than $3 billion.

Why It's Important: The statement is part of a new trend that favors engagement over pressure to change the Taliban's behavior.

It is, however, not clear whether the Taliban will commit to reversing its extremist policies if its government is recognized and receives international assistance.

That's all from me for now.

Don't forget to send me any questions, comments, or tips that you have. You can always reach us at azadi.english@rferl.org

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.

At least 1.4 million girls in Afghanistan have been denied access to secondary education since the Taliban returned to power in 2021, UNESCO, the United Nations' cultural agency, said on August 15.

"In just three years, the de facto authorities have almost wiped out two decades of steady progress for education in Afghanistan, and the future of an entire generation is now in jeopardy," the agency said in a statement.

It comes as the Taliban marked three years since its forces seized Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, on August 15, 2021, after the U.S.-backed government collapsed and its leaders fled into exile.

Since the Taliban's return to power, women have been squeezed from public life -- banned from many jobs as well as parks and gyms -- and barred from secondary and higher education.

The restrictions amount to what the United Nations has described as "gender apartheid."

SEE ALSO:

Afghan Taliban Created World's Most Serious Women's Rights Crisis, HRW Says

There are now nearly 2.5 million girls deprived of their right to education, representing 80 percent of Afghan school-age girls, UNESCO said. This represents an increase of 300,000 since the previous count carried out by the UN agency in April 2023.

"As a result of bans imposed by the de facto authorities, at least 1.4 million girls have been deliberately denied access to secondary education since 2021," UNESCO said.

Access to primary education has also fallen sharply, with 1.1 million fewer girls and boys attending school, the agency added. It blamed the drop on the authorities' decision to ban female teachers from teaching boys as well as the lack of incentive for parents to send children to school.

The agency is "alarmed by the harmful consequences of this increasingly massive drop-out rate, which could lead to a rise in child labor and early marriage."

Enrolment in higher education is equally concerning, the statement said, adding that the number of university students had decreased by 53 percent since 2021.

SEE ALSO:

The Push To Recognize 'Gender Apartheid' As A Crime

UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay urged the international community to remain mobilized "to obtain the unconditional reopening of schools and universities to Afghan girls and women."

Lack of access to education has been among the main points of criticism by Afghans toward the Taliban authorities.

"There are those who are not literate enough, and more importantly, a part of society, women, are deprived of education, and this is a big problem for the people of Afghanistan," a male resident of the northern Balkh Province who preferred not to be named due to security concerns, told RFE/RL's Radio Azadi.

"The issues of education -- women's education and work -- and their participation at national and international level have been completely nullified and pushed to the sidelines," a female resident of Kabul, who also preferred not to be named, said.

The Taliban celebrates their return to power both in mid-August around the date Kabul fell and at the end of the month, when the last U.S.-led international troops left Afghanistan.

The withdrawal, agreed by the United States and the Taliban on February 29, 2020, allowed the radical Islamist movement's return to power 20 years after being ousted by U.S. forces following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.

The Taliban government remains unrecognized by any other state.

WATCH: Rights groups have documented targeted killings, disappearances, and extrajudicial arrests of hundreds of former Afghan service personnel, while RFE/RL has spoken to two women who say they live in fear due to their past roles in the military.

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Torture And Death: The Dangers Faced By Former Afghan Soldiers Under Taliban Rule

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International aid organizations have warned that millions of Afghans struggle in "one of the world's largest and most complex humanitarian crises, three years after the change in power."

"Heavily dependent on humanitarian aid, Afghans are trapped in cycles of poverty, displacement, and despair," a statement by 10 aid groups -- including Save the Children, World Vision, Islamic Relief Worldwide, and the International Rescue Committee -- said on August 13.

SEE ALSO:

Afghan Evacuees Remain In Limbo In Albania 3 Years After Taliban Takeover

Women and girls are among the most seriously affected by this humanitarian crisis, Human Rights Watch has said. The Taliban has created "the world's most serious women's rights crisis," the organization said on August 11.

With reporting by AFP

Fatima and her young son fled their home soon after the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in 2021.

A former lawmaker, she was in danger of reprisals from the hard-line Islamist group.

But three years after the Taliban takeover, Fatima lives with her 7-year-old son in limbo in Albania, waiting to be resettled to the United States.

"The uncertainty is excruciating," said the single mother, whose name has been changed to protect her identity. "Our futures are hanging in the balance."

Fatima was among the hundreds of thousands of at-risk Afghans who escaped their homeland after the collapse of the Western-backed Afghan government and the Taliban's seizure of power.

The United States and its allies airlifted tens of thousands of Afghans out of the country during the chaotic and deadly evacuation of Kabul.

Fatima was among those who fled by road to neighboring Pakistan. From there, several thousand Afghans were relocated temporarily to Albania as they waited for their U.S. visas to be processed.

But three years on from the Taliban takeover, dozens of Afghans remain stranded in the small Balkan country.

"It is painful not to know what's wrong with my case," said Fatima, who lives in an apartment in the capital, Tirana. "Why is it being delayed?"

According to the State Department, more than 160,000 Afghans have been resettled in the United States under the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) program since September 2021. SIVs are intended for Afghans who served the U.S. government or U.S.-led NATO forces in Afghanistan for at least one year.

U.S. allies in the West have also taken in tens of thousands of Afghans.

Afghans who do not qualify for SIVs can apply for the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP), which gives special priority status for Afghans who worked for U.S.-government funded projects in Afghanistan, interpreters for the U.S. government, and stringers for U.S.-based media organizations.

The application process for SIVs and resettlement through USRAP can take years, and advocacy groups have said the programs are proceeding too slowly.

That has meant that thousands of Afghans hoping to resettle in the United States have remained in extended limbo in third countries, including in Albania, Kosovo, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.

'Adding To Our Anxiety'

Fatima admits she is lucky to be alive. But she also revealed that the uncertainty has taken a toll on her.

"I never even took a pill for a headache," she said. "But I now take medication three times a day."

The former member of parliament is not allowed to work. She makes ends meet with the help of a Washington-based nongovernmental organization. Her son attends a local school, although the language barrier has deprived him of a meaningful education, she said.

Fatima is not alone.

Ahad, a former Afghan military officer, is among the around 40 Afghans stranded in Albania.

Ahad, who requested his real name not be used for security reasons, lives with his four children and wife in a resort town along the Adriatic coast.

Each member of the family receives a $50 monthly stipend from the UN's refugee agency, the UNHCR. But Ahad says the money is barely enough to pay the rent for their small apartment.

"Mounting financial problems are adding to our anxiety," he said.

Unable to work, Ahad says he has accumulated debts to local shopkeepers from whom he has received food and other essential items.

'Why Have They Left Us Here?'

The U.S. State Department says the cases of Afghans in Albania are being considered under the U.S. refugee program.

"We are focused on increasing capacity, expediting processing, and resolving long-delayed applications," a U.S. State Department spokesperson told RFE/RL in written comments. "While continuing to maintain the program's rigorous screening and vetting standard."

The spokesperson said the State Department is "issuing SIVs to Afghan partners at record rates."

In the last U.S. fiscal year that ended in September 2023, the State Department issued more than 18,000 SIVs to Afghans, the most in a single year, the spokesperson said.

"In this fiscal year (FY2024), we have already surpassed that figure," the spokesperson added.

But the assurances from Washington have not quelled the concerns of Afghans stuck in Albania.

"Why have they left us here when they even evacuated animals from Afghanistan?" said Fatima, referring to the British government's evacuation of animals from Kabul in 2021 even as London left behind thousands of at-risk Afghans who had worked with the British military.

Going back to Afghanistan is not an option for Fatima or Ahad.

The Taliban declared a general amnesty shortly after seizing power that included all Afghan officials, security forces, and individuals who cooperated with the departed U.S.-led military presence in Afghanistan.

But international rights watchdogs and the United Nations have documented widespread cases of retribution including extrajudicial killings and torture.

Ahad says if he does not qualify for resettlement to the United States, Washington should help him move to a third country.

"I want our misfortune to end," he said.

Days after the Taliban seized power in 2021, Lieutenant General Faiz Hameed, the powerful head of Pakistan's notorious Inter-Services Intelligence agency, took what seemed a victory lap in the Afghan capital, Kabul.

"Please don't worry -- everything will be OK," he told a Western journalist while smiling and sipping tea in the five-star Sarena Hotel.

Allies Turn Into Enemies

But three years later, Pakistan's sense of scoring a strategic victory by helping the Taliban to reclaim power has vanished as the Taliban-led government has cemented its position as Pakistan's key foe.

Islamabad accuses the Taliban of sheltering the Tehrik-e Taliban (TTP), which has killed hundreds of its soldiers since 2021. Repeated Pakistani air strikes on the TTP's alleged hideouts inside Afghanistan and diplomatic warnings of severe consequences have not led to the Taliban reigning in the group as Islamabad has frequently demanded.

On August 14, Torkham, the main border crossing connecting Pakistan and Afghanistan, remained closed for a third day after a firefight that injured several Taliban fighters and at least three Pakistani soldiers on August 12. The Taliban said three Afghan civilians were killed in the cross fire.

Such clashes are almost a weekly occurrence along their 2,500-kilometer border.

Frequent border closures and the expulsion of nearly 1 million impoverished Afghans from Pakistan have also failed to pressure Afghanistan's current rulers to acquiesce to Islamabad's demands.

"The situation has turned 180 degrees," said Ihsanullah Tipu Mehsud, news director at the Khorasan Diary, a website tracking militant groups in Afghanistan and Pakistan. "There is now a conflict situation inching toward a war."

In a conciliatory gesture on Pakistan's Independence Day on August 14, the country's powerful army chief, General Asim Munir, asked the Taliban-led government to reciprocate Islamabad's desire for cordial, cooperative relations.

He asked the Taliban-led government not to "prioritize" ties with the TTP over relations with Pakistan.

"Just as Pakistan has always helped you out, you should join us in finishing off this scourge," he told a gathering of new military graduates.

Reverse Strategic Depth

But Michael Semple, a former EU and UN adviser to Afghanistan, told RFE/RL it would be difficult for the Taliban to give up on the TTP's nearly two-decade campaign when it sees a tipping point given the grave political and economic crises engulfing Pakistan.

"Can the level of backing which [the TTP militants] are receiving from the Afghan Taliban change?" asked Semple, a professor at Queen's University Belfast.

After the Taliban's return to power, the TTP emerged with new vigor. It had retreated to Afghanistan in 2014 after a Pakistani military operation and U.S. drone attacks decimated its ranks and leadership.

As a close ideological and organizational ally, the TTP cloned the Taliban insurgency's tactics. It mainly targeted security forces while establishing a shadow government to challenge Islamabad's authority in some border regions.

SEE ALSO:

Taliban Battles Boredom, Risk Of Fighters Joining Enemy Ranks

Semple said there is now "mounting evidence" that the General Directorate of Intelligence, the Taliban spy service, is supporting the TTP with the blessing of its supreme leader, Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada.

"There's this dream of achieving the strategic depth -- being sort of the senior partner in delivering a Shari'a-based system in Pakistan," he said.

"Strategic depth" once denoted a Pakistani military doctrine. After Islamabad became a frontline state against the 1979-1989 Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, its military planners pushed for eventually dominating the neighboring country so it could be used as a rear base in case of a war with its archrival India.

In Islamabad, Mehsud said a sizeable number of Afghan Taliban fighters seem to be embedded in the TTP. He noted some Taliban-allied clerics have repeatedly issued fatwas or religious decrees supporting the TTP's campaign in Pakistan.

"Things will keep on getting worse," he said, adding that the Pakistani government claims at least 15 suicide bombers who conducted attacks in Pakistan were Afghan nationals.

Interdependence

But Sami Yousafzai, a veteran Afghan journalist and commentator, said high anti-Pakistan sentiment among Afghans who blame Islamabad for their misery prompted the Taliban to adopt hard-line public positions against Islamabad.

"Being seen as Pakistani proxy by the Afghans is a major disadvantage for the Taliban," he said.

SEE ALSO:

Three Afghan Civilians Reported Killed In Clash Between Afghan, Pakistani Troops

Islamabad's covert military support enabled the Taliban to sweep through most of Afghanistan by 1996. Pakistan then joined Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to formally recognize the first Taliban-led government after it seized Kabul in September 1996.

"This relationship gets very tense at times, but they can still reach an understanding," he said.

Hameed Hakimi, an Afghanistan expert at London's Chatham House think tank, sees relations between the Taliban and Pakistan shifting toward greater interdependence.

He said Islamabad is unlikely to seek "instability in relations" with Afghanistan at a time when India is cementing its role as a regional hegemon because of its rising global clout.

He said the Taliban's relations with Pakistani Islamist factions are much more profound than its ties with Islamabad's security establishment.

"These contacts and networks immediately come into play when there is a risk of escalation of violence between Kabul and Islamabad," he told RFE/RL.

The Taliban celebrated the third anniversary of its return to power in Afghanistan with a military parade on August 14 amid what international aid groups say is one of the world's largest and most complex humanitarian crises.

Taliban forces seized Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, on August 15, 2021, after the U.S.-backed government collapsed and its leaders fled into exile.

Their government remains unrecognized by any other state, with restrictions on women, who bear the brunt of the radical group's policies that the United Nations has branded "gender apartheid," remaining a key sticking point.

SEE ALSO:

'Overwhelmed By Misery': Taliban's Harvest Tax Squeezes Impoverished Afghan Farmers

The Taliban takeover is marked both in mid-August around the date Kabul fell and at the end of the month, when the last U.S.-led international troops left Afghanistan amid a chaotic withdrawal.

The withdrawal, agreed by the United States and the Taliban on February 29, 2020, allowed the radical Islamist movement's return to power 20 years after being ousted by U.S. forces following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.

The August 14 military parade was held at the Bagram airfield, some 40 kilometers north of Kabul, which was once the largest U.S. military base in Afghanistan. The audience of some 10,000 men included senior Taliban officials. Women were barred.

Uniformed soldiers marched carrying light and heavy machine guns, with a motorcycle formation bearing the Taliban flag. The parade was also an opportunity to showcase some of the military hardware abandoned by U.S. and NATO-led forces after decades of war: helicopters, Humvees, and tanks.

Taliban Prime Minister Mohammad Hassan Akhund, who had been scheduled to appear at Bagram, praised the Taliban authorities' victory over "Western occupiers" in a statement read by his chief of staff.

The Taliban government has "the responsibility to maintain Islamic rule, protect property, people's lives, and the respect of our nation," the statement said.

SEE ALSO:

Taliban Battles Boredom, Risk Of Fighters Joining Enemy Ranks

But international aid organizations have warned that millions of Afghans struggle in "one of the world's largest and most complex humanitarian crises, three years after the change in power."

"Heavily dependent on humanitarian aid, Afghans are trapped in cycles of poverty, displacement, and despair. Afghanistan is at risk of becoming a forgotten crisis without sustained support and engagement from the international community," a statement by 10 organizations said on August 13.

The aid groups -- including Save the Children, World Vision, Islamic Relief Worldwide, and the International Rescue Committee -- said an estimated 23.7 million people are currently in need of assistance in Afghanistan, out of a population of around 40 million.

More than 6.3 million people are internally displaced in Afghanistan, the statement said, while unemployment has doubled over the past year.

Women and girls are among the most seriously affected by this humanitarian crisis, Human Rights Watch has said.

The Taliban has created "the world's most serious women's rights crisis," the organization said in a press release on August 11.

Since the Taliban's return to power, women have been squeezed from public life -- banned from many jobs as well as parks and gyms -- and barred from secondary and higher education.

SEE ALSO:

The Push To Recognize 'Gender Apartheid' As A Crime

"The issues of education -- women's education and work -- and their participation at national and international level have been completely nullified and pushed to the sidelines," a female resident of Kabul, who preferred not to be named due to security concerns, told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi.

Afghan women's rights activists have been campaigning to declare the Taliban's treatment of Afghan women and girls as gender apartheid.

With reporting by AFP, AP and dpa

The Taliban craves recognition by the international community that it is the only group capable of ruling and establishing security in Afghanistan.

But not only has the militant group failed to achieve that status in its three years in power, rival extremist groups like Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K) are mocking it for trying.

IS-K has accused the Taliban of abandoning jihad, or holy war, and bowing to the foreign states it once fought to secure foreign aid and investment.

That is the narrative promoted by the Afghanistan-based branch of the Islamic State (IS) extremist group as it looks to recruit belligerent Taliban fighters into its ranks.

To lure Taliban fighters, IS-K has conducted attacks within and outside Afghanistan that undermine the Taliban's rule.

IS-K has also employed a sophisticated and multilingual propaganda network to cast itself as the only option for hardened Taliban fighters who want to continue warring against foreigners and sectarian adversaries.

"This is a very powerful and potent strategy, and it is likely already working," said Lucas Webber, co-founder of Militant Wire and research fellow at the Soufan Center. "There are reports of defections."

Some Taliban rank-and-file, Webber says, may be fighting the complacency that comes with the day-to-day monotony of running a state.

"A lot of these fighters, they grew up their whole lives fighting the United States and the international coalition, and they come from the global jihadist movement, the historic legacy of fighting the Soviets and fighting the Americans and their Western allies," Webber said. "Now a lot of them are stuck, bored, doing administrative jobs."

The Taliban has tightened its grip on power since seizing Kabul in August 2021 and tried to capitalize on its gains to boost its image as a stabilizing force inside Afghanistan and in the region.

"The consolidation of power has improved peace and stability internally and resulted in other positive benefits such as reduced corruption, decreased opium cultivation, and enhanced revenue generation," the UN monitoring team in Afghanistan reported in early July.

But the hard-line Islamist group's widespread human rights abuses and failure to establish a government inclusive of women and the country's various religious and ethnic groups has left its biggest goal -- international recognition -- out of reach.

It is a situation that, combined with multiple humanitarian, environmental, and economic crises, has hampered international aid and investment and undermined the Taliban's de facto government.

So, too, have the actions of IS-K, a group founded in 2015 by disgruntled members of the Afghan Taliban and the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan and which subsumed the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, according to Webber.

When IS militants claimed responsibility for the deadliest terrorist attack in Russia in two decades in March, suspicion immediately fell directly on IS-K.

The Taliban, which has tried to neutralize IS-K and assuage concerns that Afghanistan is a haven for extremist groups, repeated its denials that the organization was operating on Afghan soil.

But there is a wealth of evidence to show that the Taliban recognizes the threat IS-K poses both militarily and ideologically to its rule.

Just prior to the Moscow bombing in March, Afghan media published an internal document attributed to the General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI), the Taliban's notorious intelligence agency, which acknowledged IS recruitment efforts in the central Wardak Province. The document discussed the possibility that Taliban members who left the group during a recent effort to purge the ranks of undesirable fighters might have enlisted to fight for IS.

The UN monitoring team in early July warned that IS-K had grown in numbers and succeeded in infiltrating the Taliban's GDI as well as its Defense and Interior ministries.

In late July, Afghan media reported the arrest of 20 GDI members accused of working for IS-K in the western Herat Province, leading to the dismissal of the security body's regional head.

For every step the Taliban takes to burnish its image at home and abroad, IS-K is doing its best to undermine it.

IS-K seeks to establish a caliphate, or Islamic state, in Khorasan, a historical region that includes parts of modern-day Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, and Central Asia.

"The group's narrative aims to reduce the Taliban's credibility among the Afghan population and trigger sectarian fault lines, promoting the idea that the Taliban has deviated from Islamic principles, while portraying itself as advancing the 'wider Khorasan,'" a UN Security Council committee reported in late July.

Externally, that means conducting attacks in Tajikistan, Iran, and Pakistan, as well as in Russia.

In Afghanistan itself, IS-K attacks undercut the Taliban's argument that it has established the type of security demanded by potential foreign investors from China and other states willing to work with the de facto government.

In March, IS-K killed 21 people, most of them Taliban employees, at a bank in the southern city of Kandahar.

Two months later, IS-K killed six foreign and local tourists in the central city of Bamiyan. The Bamiyan Buddhas were infamously reduced to rubble by the Taliban's first regime just before it was ousted by U.S.-led forces in 2001. Since retaking power, the Taliban has taken the remains of the Buddhas under its protection as it attempts to lure foreign, particularly Chinese, tourists to visit the UNESCO site.

IS-K has used such attacks to flip some Taliban fighters to its side, boasting in a statement following the killings in Bamiyan that it had targeted foreign tourists and "Shi'a" living in the area. A Sunni extremist group, IS-K considers Shi'ite Muslims apostates.

Riccardo Valle, director of research for The Khorasan Diary, said following the attack IS-K pointed out differences between the first Taliban regime that destroyed the Bamiyan Buddhas and the current one.

"They are saying that once the Afghan Taliban were correctly applying religion, so they were destroying these idols," Valle said. But today IS-K has accused the Taliban of protecting the Bamiyan Buddhas "so that the Chinese can in return grant financial assistance, economic assistance to Afghanistan."

The violence, Valle says, is part of IS-K's effort to disrupt the Taliban's economy and weaken its relations with foreign states.

"They are also speaking directly to Taliban soldiers, trying to show them that the Islamic State is the only actor carrying out jihad," Valle added. "They know that some Afghan Taliban might be willing to listen."

Three Afghan civilians were killed during a clash between Afghan and Pakistani border troops near the Torkham border crossing, a spokesman for the de facto Taliban government in Kabul said on August 13. The clash occurred late on August 12, with Pakistani troops opening fire on Afghan forces, a spokesman for the Taliban Interior Ministry said, adding that a woman and two children were killed in the incident. Pakistan has not commented on the incident. To read the original story by RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi, click here.

The Taliban has created "the world's most serious women's rights crisis" since returning to power in Afghanistan in August 2021, Human Rights Watch (HRW) says.

Under the Taliban rule, Afghanistan has become the only country where girls are banned from going to school beyond the sixth grade, HRW said in a press release on August 11.

The Taliban has also "undermined women's right to freedom of movement, banned them from many forms of employment, dismantled protections for women and girls experiencing gender-based violence, created barriers to them accessing health care, and barred them from playing sports, and even visiting parks."

The pressures on Afghan women come as their country is also experiencing a major humanitarian crisis, with aid severely underfunded and thousands of Afghan refugees forced back into Afghanistan from Pakistan.

Women and girls are among the most seriously affected by this humanitarian crisis, HRW said.

The situation has been described by the United Nations special rapporteur on Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, as "an institutionalized system of discrimination, segregation, disrespect for human dignity, and exclusion of women and girls," HRW said.

"Under the Taliban's abusive rule, Afghan women and girls are living their worst nightmares," HRW's Fereshta Abbasi said.

Abbasi urged all governments to "support efforts to hold the Taliban leadership and all those responsible for serious crimes in Afghanistan to account."

Abbasi said countries engaging with the Taliban-led government in Kabul should consistently remind it that its "abuses against women and girls and all Afghans violate Afghanistan's obligations under international law."

More than half of Afghanistan's population -- 23 million people -- face food insecurity, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Restrictions that the Taliban authorities have imposed on women and girls have impeded access to health care, jeopardizing their right to health, HRW noted.

The Taliban's bans on girls' education inevitably leads to future shortages of female health workers, HRW said.

The rights group called on donor countries to find ways to mitigate the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan without reinforcing the Taliban's repressive policies against women and girls.

The Islamic State extremist group claimed responsibility on August 12 for a minivan explosion in the Afghan capital that killed at least one person. The militant group said in a statement that it had detonated an explosive device on August 11 targeting members of the Shi'ite minority community, killing and wounding about 13 people. Police spokesman Khalid Zadran confirmed on August 12 that a bomb had exploded in western Kabul, killing one civilian and wounding eleven. He added that the explosion happened in the Dasht-e Barchi neighborhood, and that a police investigation was under way.

An explosion in the Afghan capital, Kabul, killed one person and injured 11 others, Taliban police spokesman Khalid Zadran told RFE/RL on August 11, an attack apparently targeting the country’s minority Hazara community.

Zadran said the explosion was caused by a bomb planted in a minibus in Kabul's Dasht-e Barchi area, where many Shi'ite Hazara reside.

No group immediately claimed responsibility, but the Sunni-led Islamic State Khorasan (IS-K) branch has carried out numerous attacks since the Taliban seized power in August 2021, often targeting Taliban officials, foreign nationals, the Hazara community, and others it considers incompatible with its extreme interpretation of Islam.

A female resident told RFE/RL that the Taliban authorities have failed to protect residents of the Dasht-e Barchi area.

"Explosions in Dasht-e Barchi occur regularly without anyone taking responsibility for maintaining security," she said.

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The Azadi Briefing: Brutal Police Treatment Draws Attention To The Plight Of Afghans In Iran

"The Taliban say they have ensured security, but that's only words. They don't care who's killed or what attacks occur. If they're genuinely ensuring security, why do explosions keep happening?"

Shi'ite Muslims, the country's largest religious minority, have complained that the Sunni Taliban has not done enough to protect them from terror attacks and have accused the Taliban itself of abuses, including "killing, torture, and forced displacement." Most Shi'a in Afghanistan are members of the historically persecuted Hazara ethnic minority.

A report this year by the U.S. State Department cited several examples of terror attacks against the Hazara community and stated that religious freedoms have continued to deteriorate under harsh Taliban rule in Afghanistan.

"Consistent with trends observed in past years, many suicide bombings and other attacks on civilians targeted Shi’a Muslims, particularly ethnic Hazara," by the IS-K terrorist group, it said.

The report identified IS-K as the "most serious threat" in the Central and South Asia region and said the group was "projecting terror beyond Afghanistan."

The U.S. report also cited UN officials in Afghanistan as saying the Taliban "had marginalized the minority Shi'a Muslim population in an effort to force them to leave the country."

Refugee breaker Manizha Talash, or "b-girl Talash," was disqualified from the first-ever Olympic breaking competition on August 9 after she wore a cape that said "Free Afghan Women" during her pre-qualifier battle against India Sardjoe, known as “b-girl India." The 21-year-old, originally from Afghanistan and representing the Olympic Refugee Team, lost in the pre-qualifier battle against Sardjoe and would not have advanced even if she hadn't been disqualified. Political statements and slogans are banned on the field of play and on podiums at the Olympics.

Militants attacked three army posts in northwest Pakistan on the border with Afghanistan, triggering intense shoot-outs that killed three soldiers and four insurgents. The attacks happened on August 9 in the Tirah Valley in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, the military said in a statement. It said a search operation was under way in the area to eliminate any other insurgents and security forces were "determined to wipe out the menace of terrorism." The military gave no further details. The Gul Bahadur group, a breakaway faction of the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan, claimed responsibility for the attacks.

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

Afghans have widely criticized a viral video showing two Iranian police officers brutally restraining an Afghan teenager on a road in the capital, Tehran.

The victim, Mahdi Musavi, 16, is unconscious and under treatment for injuries he sustained when a police officer kneeled on his neck. At the same time, another plainclothes man held him tightly to the ground.

“I do not wish such a day for my enemies,” said Masuma Mohammadi, his mother. “My son suffers from hearing and speech disorders.”

The video, which first emerged on August 7, is amplifying Afghan fears that their increasing harassment and abuse in Iran is aimed at expelling the more than 4.3 million Afghan refugees and migrants that the UN estimates are currently living in the country.

During the past year, Iran expelled some 500,000 Afghans after its government announced a campaign to force undocumented foreigners to leave the country.

Why It's Important: Negative sentiments against Afghans have been rising in Iran since the growing influx of mostly impoverished Afghans began after the Taliban returned to power three years ago.

Iranian officials have consistently blamed Afghan migrants for crimes, unemployment, and other problems.

During the past year, Tehran’s campaign to expel undocumented foreigners appears to have affected the treatment of Afghans, with incidents of police brutality and mob violence against them on the rise.

On August 7, Iran’s semiofficial Mehr News Agency reported that police arrested 50 Afghans in Tehran’s Shahriar county as part of an “emergency plan to gather undocumented Afghans.”

Statements by Iranian officials indicate that an official drive to create conditions to force impoverished Afghans to leave by the end of the year is in full force.

On August 6, Majid Shuja, the commander of border forces in Iran’s northeastern Razavi Khorasan Province, said his forces have arrested and deported more than 15,000 Afghans to the neighboring Afghan province of Herat so far this year.

Ahmad Moqori, a senior law enforcement official in the northwestern East Azerbaijan Province, said Afghans can no longer live in the region even if they have legal documents allowing them to reside there.

East Azerbaijan is the latest among the growing number of Iran’s 31 provinces where Afghans can no longer live.

What's Next: Afghans are often likely to be victims of mob violence and abuse by Iranian law enforcement.

Yet widespread poverty and skyrocketing unemployment in Afghanistan is likely to push large numbers of Afghans to continue to look for work in Iran.

What To Keep An Eye On

Climate change has displaced more Afghans during the first six months of this year than all of last year.

More than 38,000 Afghans were forced to leave their homes by the end of June compared to more than 37,000 in all of 2023.

Save the Children, a nongovernmental organization, said its analysis of the preliminary data collected by the International Displacement Monitoring Center shows that landslides, floods, avalanches, storms, droughts, and extreme temperatures are now the leading causes of why Afghans abandon their homes.

Since 1980, over four decades of war have turned Afghans into one of the largest displaced populations globally. But beginning in 2022, more Afghans are now being displaced by natural disasters caused by climate change.

“Afghanistan also had the highest number of children made homeless by climate disasters of any country in the world as of the end of 2023,” said the briefing.

Some 747,094 Afghan children were displaced by the end of last year.

Afghans are South Asia’s largest long-term displaced group and the second-most displaced globally, slightly behind Syrians.

Why It's Important: Afghanistan is one of the most vulnerable countries to the ravages of climate change.

But its cash-strapped Taliban government can do little to adapt and mitigate as international development funding disappears.

That's all from me for now.

Don't forget to send me any questions, comments, or tips that you have. You can always reach us at azadi.english@rferl.org

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.

Fawad was already reeling from the deadly earthquake that struck western Afghanistan in October and severely damaged his home and crops.

But the Taliban dealt the small-scale farmer from the western Herat Province another crippling financial blow.

Fawad, who grows lentils and wheat, was recently forced to pay "ushr," an Islamic tax on harvests.

"We are overwhelmed by misery," Fawad, whose name has been changed to protect his identity, told RFE/RL's Radio Azadi. "But we are forced to pay taxes to the Taliban."

Since seizing power in 2021, the unrecognized and cash-strapped Taliban government has levied the harvest tax in a bid to boost revenue. While tax collection was initially sporadic and uneven across the country, it has been expanded nationwide.

But the tax have angered many farmers, who say the militant group has not taken into consideration the losses they have incurred.

Afghanistan has been the scene of a series of deadly natural disasters in recent years, including earthquakes, floods, and a severe drought, that have exacerbated the devastating humanitarian crisis in the country, the world's largest.

Taliban Taxes

The Taliban has imposed a 10 percent tax on harvests from irrigated land and a 5 percent levy on rainfed crops. It has described the payments as an obligation under Islamic law.

The Taliban has relied heavily on aggressive taxation to raise revenue. The militants have levied taxes on everything from moving goods on highways to hanging a sign in front of a shop.

But the Taliban government's lack of transparency and the loss of essential services has led to complaints about what Afghans are getting in return.

The previous Western-backed Afghan government did not impose Islamic taxes, including "zakat," a 2.5 percent levy on the estimated value of a person's possessions that the Taliban has also collected.

Zakat is one of the five pillars of Islam that are considered obligations for all Muslims.

During its 19-year insurgency, the Taliban collected ushr and zakat from Afghans living under its rule, including farmers who cultivated opium. Tax collection was a major source of revenue for the militants.

'I Have Nothing'

Awalmir is another Afghan farmer who is critical of the Taliban's aggressive tax collection.

Awalmir, who owns a farm outside of Kabul, says he was forced to give the Taliban around 45 kilograms of wheat from his 450-kilogram harvest this year.

"They made me pay it despite all the losses I had incurred because of torrential spring rains" that triggered deadly flash floods in parts of Afghanistan, he told Radio Azadi.

Ali Reza, a farmer in the northern Sar-e Pul Province, says the Taliban is levying high taxes on impoverished Afghans without providing any basic services to citizens in return.

"We want the Taliban government to fix our roads, build health-care clinics, and rebuild schools," he told Radio Azadi.

Qasim, a subsistence farmer in the northeastern province of Badakhshan, said floods in the spring destroyed some of his crops and he will be unable to pay ushr.

"I have nothing to give them," he said.

The Taliban's Agriculture Ministry did not respond to Radio Azadi's requests for comment.

Most Islamic countries do not impose compulsory Islamic taxes on their citizens. In some countries, citizens can donate zakat, which is meant for the poor and needy.

Critics of governments' collection of zakat include Islamic scholars and aid workers who say that the practice has failed to alleviate poverty in the Muslim world. They argue that the funds are often wasted and mismanaged.

One Afghan cleric, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, said the Taliban "is not even authorized" to collect Islamic taxes.

Under Islam, he said, Muslims are encouraged to make donations to the poor in their communities. Governments, he said, have no authority to impose and collect Islamic taxes.

Written by Abubakar Siddique based on reporting by RFE/RL's Radio Azadi.

Afghanistan’s Taliban government on August 5 said it would allow people in the country on visas issued by the former Western-backed government to stay for now, but that they wouldn’t be allowed back in without documents from a Taliban-approved diplomatic mission. The announcement by the Taliban's Foreign Ministry on the social media platform X clarified its July 30 announcement that it would no longer accept documents from consulates and diplomatic missions abroad staffed by members of the former government. The move is part of the Taliban's efforts to gain control of Afghanistan’s representation abroad since returning to power in 2021.