Contrary to international refugee principles, forced deportations and mistreatment by police have left refugees returning empty-handed.
On the last day of Pakistan’s deadline for the forced return of Afghan refugees holding PoR (Proof of Registration) cards, nearly 2,000 families returned to Afghanistan through the Torkham border crossing.
The newly returned refugees say that despite having legal documents, Pakistani police mistreated them and extorted money from them.
Shamsuddin, a 40-year-old man, was forcibly deported through Torkham after living in Pakistan for two and a half decades. However, his family members and belongings remain in Pakistan. He told TOLOnews: “At midnight, police took me to the station, then transferred me to Haji Camp, and from there I was sent back through Torkham. They pulled me off a bus full of passengers, and the bus was left behind. My eldest son is three years old, and he is my oldest male child. My entire family remains there.”
Contrary to international refugee principles, forced deportations and mistreatment by police have left refugees returning empty-handed.
Recently, in the refugee camp at Torkham, Saudi Arabia’s King Salman Charity Foundation distributed food packages to 1,250 newly returned families.
Askar Khan, deported from Pakistan, said: “We are in need of help; we are poor people and don’t even have food for the night. I am responsible for a family of eight and cannot provide for them. One of my sons has been imprisoned in Pakistan for 20 nights. The only thing I managed to do was to bring my children and grandchildren back through Torkham.”
Nazak Mir, another deportee, said: “We were forced into a very difficult situation and went through great hardship. We sold our household goods at half price; items worth 100,000 rupees were sold for only 20,000 Pakistani rupees.”
Abdul Rahman Al-Fadhli, a representative of the charity foundation, said about their activities in the refugee camp: “Each family receives a food package that includes 50 kg of flour, 5 kg of rice, 5 kg of beans, 5.5 kg of sugar, and 5 liters of cooking oil.”
Local officials in Nangarhar say that nearly 2,000 families are being forcibly deported from Pakistan to Afghanistan through Torkham every day.
They also urged international relief organizations and aid agencies to continue assisting the returnees.
Mohammad Hashim Maiwandwal, head of the Umari refugee camp in Torkham, said: “We call on all organizations to assist Afghan refugees in this difficult situation, as the pace of returns has accelerated more than ever.”
Baz Mohammad Abdul Rahman, head of the Nangarhar Refugees Department, said: “Today, nearly 2,000 families arrived in 450 large vehicles, and this process is rapidly continuing. Most of them are Afghans holding PoR cards.”
According to the Nangarhar Refugees and Repatriation Department, in the past two weeks nearly 10,256 families, amounting to 71,792 individuals, have returned to Afghanistan through the Torkham crossing.
Pakistan’s Deportation Deadline Ends: Thousands of Afghans Return
The Doha Agreement between the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and the United States, paved the way for the withdrawal of foreign forces.
August 31 is not just another date on the calendar; it marks the end of the United States’ 20-year presence in Afghanistan, a presence that began under the slogan of the “War on Terror” and concluded with the departure of the last U.S. soldier from Kabul Airport in 2021.
On October 7, 2001, following the deadly September 11 attacks, the U.S. and its allies launched air and ground assaults on Afghan soil. At the time, U.S. President George W. Bush declared: “On my orders, the United States military has begun strikes against al Qaeda terrorist training camps and military installations of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.”
With the signing of the Bonn Agreement and the establishment of an interim government led by Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan entered a new phase. However, security remained fragile. The killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, which then-President Barack Obama called a “major victory,” failed to change the course of the war.
Barack Obama, after bin Laden’s death, said: “The United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of al Qaeda.”
NATO’s official mission ended in 2014, but fighting continued, and the Islamic Emirate grew stronger once again.
In 2020, the Doha Agreement was signed between the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and the United States, an accord that paved the way for the withdrawal of foreign forces.
Joe Biden, the fourth U.S. president to inherit the Afghan war, ultimately set the final withdrawal deadline for August 31, 2021.
Shamsur Rahman Ahmadzai, a political analyst, said: “The 20-year presence of U.S. forces in Afghanistan created very difficult situations and brought many problems for the citizens of the country, especially fueling internal conflicts. In the end, they could not eradicate the seeds of prejudice and discrimination.”
The two-decade-long presence of foreign troops in Afghanistan left heavy casualties. By August 31, 2021, 2,460 American soldiers had been killed, and more than 21,000 others wounded.
August 31: End of America’s Longest War in Afghanistan
According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the epicentre of Afghanistan earthquake was located near Jalalabad.
A strong earthquake measuring 6.0 on the Richter scale struck Afghanistan’s mountainous Hindu Kush region late Sunday, US seismologists reported. The tremor occurred near the country’s eastern border with Pakistan, raising concerns in a region prone to seismic activity.
The epicentre of the earthquake was located 42 kilometres east-northeast of Jalalabad, reported news agency AFP.
The quake occurred at a relatively shallow depth of 10 kilometres (six miles), which can sometimes increase the intensity of shaking experienced on the surface, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).
The USGS reported that the earthquake struck at 11:47 pm local time (19:17 GMT). Despite the strength and shallow depth of the tremor, there were no immediate reports of casualties or structural damage.
Authorities are likely monitoring the situation closely to assess any delayed impact.
Afghanistan lies in a seismically active zone, particularly in the Hindu Kush mountain range, which sits near the junction of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates. Earthquakes are a recurring threat in the region, occasionally causing significant destruction and loss of life.
German aid group HELP warns Afghanistan’s severe drought has cut wheat harvests by 60% in the west, pushing millions closer to hunger amid worsening climate-driven crises.
The German aid organization HELP has warned that Afghanistan is facing one of its most severe food crises in recent years, with drought devastating wheat production.
According to a statement issued Thursday, the ongoing drought has caused wheat harvests in western Afghanistan to plummet by nearly 60 percent compared to last year. The group said this dramatic decline poses a direct threat to the food security of millions of Afghan families.
HELP noted that over the past 12 months, Afghanistan has been battered by climate shocks, including severe droughts and sudden flash floods. These disasters have left more than nine million people vulnerable and pushed 19 provinces toward the brink of a humanitarian crisis.
International agencies have repeatedly described Afghanistan as one of the countries most at risk from climate change, given its reliance on traditional farming and lack of modern water management systems. Successive droughts have eroded agricultural output, leaving communities increasingly dependent on aid.
The worsening climate conditions are compounding Afghanistan’s broader humanitarian crisis, already marked by widespread poverty, conflict aftershocks, and economic isolation since the Taliban takeover.
Aid agencies, including the World Food Programme and the UN humanitarian office, have warned that without urgent international support, millions could face acute hunger in the coming months.
HELP’s statement stressed the urgency of increased humanitarian assistance and climate adaptation measures, warning that the country’s fragile food systems cannot withstand repeated climate shocks without sustained international intervention.
Severe Drought Slashes Afghanistan Wheat Harvest by 60%, Aid Group Warns of Worsening Food Crisis
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization will convene in Dushanbe on September 11–12, focusing on Afghanistan’s security, terrorism threats, and the need for an inclusive political settlement amid regional concerns.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) will hold a consultative meeting of its member states on September 11–12 in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, with Afghanistan set to dominate the agenda. SCO Secretary-General Nurlan Yermekbayev said the discussions would focus on the security and political situation in Afghanistan and its wider regional implications.
Yermekbayev stressed that while Afghanistan’s economy shows modest signs of improvement, the country continues to face major humanitarian and social challenges. “Issues such as women’s rights, social instability, and the persistent threat of terrorism remain unresolved,” he told Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti.
Security concerns will be central to the talks. Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu recently warned that more than 23,000 foreign militants are currently active in Afghanistan, underscoring fears of spillover instability across Central Asia.
The SCO chief emphasized that all member states share a common view of Afghanistan’s challenges and maintain channels of communication with the Taliban on security and border management. However, he noted that cooperation remains bilateral rather than coordinated through the SCO as an institution.
Founded in 2001, the SCO brings together Russia, China, India, Pakistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Belarus as full members. Afghanistan and Mongolia hold observer status, while Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates are among its dialogue partners.
The Dushanbe meeting comes just days after the SCO’s annual summit in Tianjin, China, from August 31 to September 1. Significantly, the Taliban has not been invited to that gathering, reflecting the lack of international recognition of their government despite ongoing engagement at bilateral levels.
SCO to Hold Consultative Meeting in Dushanbe with Afghanistan’s Security and Stability on Agenda
While girls above grade six have been banned from attending school for nearly four years, the latest UN Women survey highlights Afghan society’s strong support for education.
The survey, conducted among around 2,000 people across Afghanistan, shows that 92% believe girls’ education is vital and essential.
Details of the findings indicate that even in rural areas, where restrictions are usually stricter, 87% of men and 95% of women supported the right of girls to education. In urban areas, the figure was 95% for both men and women.
Susan Ferguson, UN Women’s representative, said: “Today, UN Women, we are releasing new data, which shows that despite this ban, the vast majority of Afghanistan’s women and men alike support girls’ education. In a nationwide door-to-door survey of more than 2,000 Afghans, nine out of ten said it was important for them, for the girls to continue their schooling beyond primary education. Support was overwhelming across the board, from men and women in both urban and rural communities throughout Afghanistan.”
Meanwhile, a number of students once again called for the reopening of schools for girls above grade six.
Nargis, a student, said: “Since childhood, I dreamed of finishing school and studying medicine at university, but after the Islamic Emirate came, I could not continue my studies.”
Another student, Maqboola Mohammadi, said: “Our request from the Islamic Emirate is to reopen schools, because all girls should not be deprived of education just because one girl does not observe hijab.”
Earlier, Zabihullah Mujahid, spokesman of the Islamic Emirate, told TOLOnews regarding girls’ education that work is still ongoing to provide a precise Sharia-based framework for the issue.
UN Survey: 92% of Afghans Support Girls’ Education
The Defense Minister also said that the Islamic Emirate has 150,000 forces, most of whom are equipped with modern American weapons.
Mawlawi Mohammad Yaqoob Mujahid, the Defense Minister of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, says that the roots of all terrorist groups, including ISIS, have been eliminated in Afghanistan and that no country is threatened from Afghan soil.
He added that some countries raise such claims for their own interests, but instead of presenting these accusations at the UN Security Council or other meetings, they should share the information with the Islamic Emirate so that action can be taken.
Mujahid also stated that after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, the Islamic Emirate cut ties with al-Qaeda and currently has no relationship with the group.
In an interview with the BBC, he said: “According to the Doha Agreement signed with the U.S., we pledged that all groups, including al-Qaeda, which are considered threats to America, cannot use Afghan soil against them. We remain committed to this agreement.”
The official further said that if some countries did not promote or campaign for various groups in Afghanistan, the Islamic Emirate would be able to prevent their activities.
He acknowledged that Afghanistan’s relations with Pakistan are not normal at present and described the situation as harmful to both countries.
Responding to a question about the presence of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and other armed groups in Afghanistan, Mujahid said: “TTP carries out attacks hundreds of kilometers across the Durand Line. If these attacks are planned in Afghanistan and then executed hundreds of kilometers inside Pakistani territory, why are they not stopped there?”
He added that Pakistan makes such accusations to conceal its own security failures, and instead of blaming others, it should cooperate to eliminate terrorism.
The Defense Minister also said that the Islamic Emirate has 150,000 forces, most of whom are equipped with modern American weapons.
Defense Minister Says Taliban Cut Ties with al-Qaeda After U.S. Invasion
107 rights organizations signed an open letter published Thursday that implored the UN Human Rights Council to establish an international mechanism to hold Afghanistan accountable for past and ongoing human rights violations.
Organizations argued that the UN Human Rights Council has failed to institute measures to address international crimes committed within the country, particularly under Taliban rule. Experts called for a dedicated investigative mechanism, similar to the ones implemented for Syria and Myanmar, that would complement the mandate of the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan.
The letter also stated the measure should ensure extensive engagement with Afghanistan’s civil society and underscored the EU’s crucial role as “penholder” of Afghanistan at the Human Rights Council.
The UN Human Rights Council can establish an independent international accountability mechanism through resolution passage. UN General Assembly resolution A/71/248 established measures that bolstered investigation and prosecution efforts to hold human rights violators responsible for serious crimes under international law in Syria. The council established legal mechanisms for Myanmar in 2018, with a mandate to investigate serious international crimes committed in Myanmar since 2011.
UN experts called the Taliban government’s weaponization of law against women a crime against humanity earlier this month, following warnings of a deepening human rights crisis in Afghanistan resulting from the Taliban’s dismantling of legal and institutional frameworks and abolishing crucial protections for women and girls.
Rights groups urge UN to create legal pathways for justice in Afghanistan
Turbaned Afghan officials and hard-hatted Chinese engineers gathered in Afghanistan’s Sar-e-Pul province in 2023 to mark the opening of Chinese-invested oil fields.
The fields are located in the Amu Darya River basin, a major Central Asian watershed that includes glacier-capped mountains and vast, arid deserts.
At a signing ceremony in Kabul, China’s envoy, Wang Yu, hailed the deal as “an important project” between the two countries. It was the first — and at the time, only — foreign investment in Afghanistan since the Taliban took back power in August 2021.
Under the 25-year contract, China pledged to invest $540 million in the first three years.
“The contract specifies that the oil will be processed in Afghanistan,” noted Afghanistan’s then-Acting Minister of Mines and Petroleum Shahabuddin Delawar. “We will not allow crude oil to be processed or transported abroad.”
But two years later, the deal collapsed amid mutual recriminations —in a saga that sheds light on the often-opaque relationship between Beijing and the Taliban.
Afghan officials complain of breach of contract
Afghan officials accused the Xinjiang Central Asia Petroleum and Gas Co., the Chinese company that had signed the 2023 deal, of breaching the contract, while some Chinese employees with AfgChin Oil and Gas Ltd., the joint venture that ran the oil wells, likened the Taliban’s actions to “robbery.”
In June, the Taliban announced the termination of the contract, claiming that the Chinese firm had repeatedly violated it. Hamaun Afghan, spokesperson for Afghanistan’s Ministry of Mines and Petroleum, said the decision was approved by the Taliban’s Prime Minister Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund.
The ministry said the Chinese side didn’t deliver its promised investments on time, didn’t pay royalties or finish promised geological surveys and infrastructure projects. It added that the Chinese company had not responded to their complaints.
But Chinese employees say the Taliban forcibly took over the joint venture and “unreasonably drove our Chinese personnel out of the oil field at gunpoint,” according to one of the employees.
Three Chinese sources — including two Chinese employees and the spouse of a third — and one Afghan source, all with direct knowledge of the matter, say that the Taliban then confiscated the passports of a dozen Chinese employees, effectively barring them from leaving the country.
NPR has obtained a list from AfgChin that contains the names and passport numbers of the 12 detained Chinese employees.
Afghanistan’s Ministry of Mines and Petroleum did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Liu Pengyu, the spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., said he was “not familiar with the specific situation” but said that China attaches high importance to protection of its citizens overseas. China’s Foreign Ministry has not responded to NPR’s request for comment.
The Chinese sources say their colleagues were confined to the offices of AfgChin in Kabul, guarded by General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI) agents, and not allowed to leave without permission. The Afghan source tells NPR that the Taliban consider it a ban on exiting the country and not a form of house arrest.
Following a visit by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to Afghanistan last week, the Taliban returned passports to nine of the Chinese nationals. Eight of them have since returned to China, according to the same Chinese sources.
At least three employees, these sources say, are being kept by the authorities in Kabul to process the handover of the joint venture to the Taliban.
But the Afghan source says they will not be allowed to leave until the dispute is over. However, he notes that because Afghanistan lacks a formal mechanism for resolving such disputes, it is unclear how long they will have to remain in the country.
The wife of one of the detained Chinese employees, who was among the eight to leave Afghanistan last week, told NPR before his release that her husband had suffered from stress and was running out of medication for diabetes and high blood pressure.
The two Chinese employees NPR spoke to say the Afghan side of the joint venture is now running the oil wells, but with reduced output and without adequate technical expertise or safety procedures.
Chinese accuse the Taliban of “bandit”-like behavior
One of the Chinese sources says that the Afghan Ministry of Mines delivered a private verbal message to the company’s management, offering a deal.
“‘You give us a written pledge, saying that you’re voluntarily terminating the contract. We’re not forcing you to do it,” the source says, describing the message. “‘Secondly, you voluntarily leave all your equipment and assets in Afghanistan to us.'”
The third demand was that the Chinese side hand over to the Taliban their Kabul bank account, which held millions of dollars. “If you do these three things, I reckon you’ll get your passports back quickly,” the source recalls the message as saying.
“That’s when we realized our 12 people were essentially being held hostage,” the source says.
The Chinese sources say the oil fields were producing up to around 12,000 barrels of oil a day, creating thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in tax revenue for the Afghan government.
“We had hoped that we could help them [Afghanistan] develop, improve citizens’ lives, and help their interim government to function and be stable,” said one of the Chinese sources. “Their stability is good for China, and its Xinjiang region,” which borders eastern Afghanistan and has long been a major security concern for Chinese authorities.
But not everyone on the Afghanistan side was satisfied with Chinese efforts, the number of jobs created or the oil sales revenue, the source argued.
“Their business mindset does not include win-win outcomes,” he says. “They think whatever they say goes. Like a bandit committing a robbery, they think: ‘If I like it, then it’s mine.'”
He says the Chinese wrongly believed that the Taliban would honor the pledges they made when they came to power to respect international law, human rights and investors’ interests.
The overall China-Taliban relationship has not been derailed
After the U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan four years ago, China quickly moved to fill the vacuum left by the Americans. Both Afghanistan’s mineral resources, estimated to be worth more than $1 trillion, and its strategic location — bordering China’s Xinjiang region — are among top priorities for Beijing.
But the oil field fiasco underscores the challenges China faces in achieving its goals. And for the Taliban, the lack of rule of law and international sanctions continue to pose major obstacles to attracting foreign investment and developing domestic industries.
Still, both Beijing and Kabul appear to be trying to keep their larger relationship on track.
“I think that both sides, not just the Afghans, may want to be a bit more sober about this,” says Omar Samad, a former Afghan diplomat, “and realize that this one particular deal may jeopardize overall relations, if it’s not handled properly.”
Wang also suggested that Afghanistan should crack down on the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, a separatist group seeking to build an independent state including parts of Xinjiang, which has historically received Taliban support.
This is not the first Chinese investment in Afghanistan to hit snags. Another big project, the Mes Aynak copper mine in Logar province, has been delayed for nearly two decades by everything from security concerns and contractual disputes to saving archaeological treasures from an ancient Buddhist city situated atop the copper deposits.
After canceling the Chinese contract, Afghanistan’s government invited other international oil companies to invest in the Amu Darya Basin oil fields. But the Chinese employees warn that unless the Taliban treat foreign investors with more respect, they are likely to stay away.
Contract breach or banditry? Inside the collapse of the Taliban’s oil deal with China
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Airstrikes that Afghanistan’s Taliban blamed on neighboring Pakistan struck two eastern provinces of the country, killing at least three people, wounding seven others and damaging homes, officials and witnesses said Thursday.
The Taliban foreign ministry decried the strikes that took place late Wednesday in Nangarhar and Khost provinces, calling them a “provocative act” by Pakistan and summoning the Pakistani ambassador in Kabul.
Neither the Pakistani government nor the military commented on the alleged strikes.
Kabul previously has accused Pakistan of launching airstrikes in Afghanistan against suspected hideouts of the Pakistani Taliban, a militant group banned in Pakistan and blamed for some of that country’s deadliest terrorist attacks.
In Nangarhar’s Shinwari district, members of a family whose house was reduced to rubble sifted through the debris to try to recover what they could.
“They dropped the first big bomb on my house. My house was completely destroyed,” said Shah Sawar, a resident of Nangarhar’s Shinwari district. “First I pulled a child out of the rubble, then I pulled four children and a woman out.”
Nangarhar’s deputy governor, Maulvi Azizullah Mustafa, said that the strikes were fired by Pakistani drones. The Taliban foreign ministry said three people were killed and seven wounded in Nangarhar and Khost.
Kabul in December 2024 accused Pakistan of carrying out airstrikes against suspected hideouts of the Pakistani Taliban in Paktika province. Pakistan also did not acknowledge those strikes at the time. Kabul claimed hitting several points inside Pakistan in retaliation.
However, relations between Islamabad and Kabul have remained tense since 2021, when the Afghan Taliban seized power, mainly over Kabul’s alleged support of the Pakistani Taliban, who have stepped up attacks on security forces and civilians in Pakistan in recent years.
Pakistan accuses the Taliban of harboring the Pakistani Taliban, which is separate but closely allied to the Afghan Taliban. Kabul denies, saying it does not allow anyone to use its soil against another country.
Taliban blames Pakistan for airstrikes that kill 3 people in eastern Afghanistan
Afghanistan Peace Campaign