Taliban - Afgan
US lifts bounties on senior Taliban officials, including Sirajuddin Haqqani
The U.S. has lifted bounties on three senior Taliban figures, including the interior minister who also heads a powerful network blamed for bloody attacks against Afghanistan’s former Western-backed government, officials in Kabul said Sunday.
Sirajuddin Haqqani, who acknowledged planning a January 2008 attack on the Serena Hotel in Kabul, which killed six people, including U.S. citizen Thor David Hesla, no longer appears on the State Department’s Rewards for Justice website. The FBI website on Sunday still featured a wanted poster for him.
Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Mateen Qani said the U.S. government had revoked the bounties placed on Haqqani, Abdul Aziz Haqqani, and Yahya Haqqani.
“These three individuals are two brothers and one paternal cousin,” Qani told the Associated Press.
The Haqqani network grew into one of the deadliest arms of the Taliban after the U.S.-led 2001 invasion of Afghanistan.
The group employed roadside bombs, suicide bombings and other attacks, including on the Indian and U.S. embassies, the Afghan presidency, and other major targets. They also have been linked to extortion, kidnapping and other criminal activity.
A Foreign Ministry official, Zakir Jalaly, said the Taliban’s release of U.S. prisoner George Glezmann on Friday and the removal of bounties showed both sides were “moving beyond the effects of the wartime phase and taking constructive steps to pave the way for progress” in bilateral relations.
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“The recent developments in Afghanistan-U.S. relations are a good example of the pragmatic and realistic engagement between the two governments,” said Jalaly.
Another official, Shafi Azam, hailed the development as the beginning of normalization in 2025, citing the Taliban’s announcement it was in control of Afghanistan’s embassy in Norway.
Since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, China has been the most prominent country to accept one of their diplomats. Other countries have accepted de facto Taliban representatives, like Qatar, which has been a key mediator between the U.S. and the Taliban. U.S. envoys have also met the Taliban.
The Taliban’s rule, especially bans affecting women and girls, has triggered widespread condemnation and deepened their international isolation.
Haqqani has previously spoken out against the Taliban’s decision-making process, authoritarianism, and alienation of the Afghan population.
His rehabilitation on the international stage is in contrast to the status of the reclusive Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, who could face arrest by the International Criminal Court for his persecution of women.
9 days ago
Taliban insist Afghan women’s rights protected as UN says bans cannot be ignored
The Taliban issued a message on International Women’s Day, saying Afghan women live in security with their rights protected, even as the U.N. condemned ongoing employment and education bans.
Since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in 2021, they have barred education for women and girls beyond sixth grade, most employment, and many public spaces. Last August, the Vice and Virtue Ministry published laws that ban women’s voices and bare faces outside the home.
The Taliban’s chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid released a statement on his official X account, without specifically mentioning International Women’s Day, which is celebrated on March 8.
He said the dignity, honor, and legal rights of women were a priority for the Islamic emirate, the term used by the Taliban to describe their government.
Afghan women lived in security, both physically and psychologically, he added.
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“In accordance with Islamic law and the culture and traditions of Afghan society, the fundamental rights of Afghan women have been secured. However, it should not be forgotten that the rights of Afghan women are being discussed within an Islamic and Afghan society, which has clear differences from Western societies and their culture,” said Mujahid.
Also Saturday, the U.N. renewed its call for the Taliban to lift the bans.
“The erasure of women and girls from public life cannot be ignored,” said Roza Otunbayeva, the head of the U.N. mission in Afghanistan. “We remain committed to investing in their resilience and leadership, as they are key to Afghanistan’s future.”
Alison Davidian, special representative for U.N. Women Afghanistan, said the world could not accept a future for Afghan women that would never be tolerated elsewhere.
“Our response to their erasure is a test of our commitment to women and girls everywhere,” said Davidian. “We must stand with Afghan women as if our own lives depend on it — because they do.”
The Taliban remain isolated from the West — and without international recognition as the country’s official government — because of their restrictions on women and girls.
On Friday in Paris, UNESCO hosted a high-level conference on women and girls in Afghanistan. Participants included Hamida Aman, the founder of the women-only station Radio Begum, Fawzia Khoofi, a parliamentarian from the former Western-backed government, and rights experts including Richard Bennett, who is barred from entering Afghanistan.
In an apparent dig at the event, the spokesman for the Vice and Virtue Ministry Saif ul-Islam Khyber said recent international conferences held under the name of women’s rights exposed the hypocrisy of certain organizations and European Union foundations.
24 days ago