On that day, four passenger planes were hijacked in the United States.
Today marks 25 years since the September 11, 2001 attacks, which not only changed the course of US foreign and security policy but also triggered a war in Afghanistan that lasted nearly two decades.
On that day, four passenger planes were hijacked in the United States. Two of the planes struck the World Trade Center towers in New York shortly before 9 a.m., and both towers collapsed hours later.
A third plane struck the Pentagon, the headquarters of the US Department of Defense, near Washington, while the fourth plane, which was believed to be targeting the US Capitol, crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers resisted the hijackers.
George W. Bush said: “Make no mistake: The United States will hunt down and punish those responsible for these cowardly acts.”
Nearly 3,000 people from 90 countries were killed in the attacks, and about 25,000 others were injured. Al-Qaeda was held responsible for the attacks, after which Washington made the fight against terrorism a central part of its security policy.
A few weeks after the attacks, US forces, backed by British troops, launched military operations in Afghanistan. The operation began on October 7, 2001, with the stated aim of fighting the Al-Qaeda network.
Following the fall of the government at the time, a new political process took shape in Afghanistan. After the Bonn Agreement was reached on December 5 of that year, Hamid Karzai was selected to head Afghanistan’s interim administration.
The US and NATO military presence in Afghanistan continued for nearly two decades. During this period, the number of US troops increased or decreased depending on the conditions of the war.
In 2011, Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed in Abbottabad, Pakistan, and then-US President Barack Obama ordered the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan.
Barack Obama said at the time: “The United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of Al-Qaeda.”
In 2014, the combat mission of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan ended, and primary responsibility for the war was handed over to the security forces of the then-Afghan government. However, in the years that followed, attacks by the Islamic Emirate intensified, and fighting continued in various parts of the country.
After Donald Trump took office, Zalmay Khalilzad was appointed US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation. Negotiations between the United States and the Taliban eventually led to the signing of the Doha Agreement in 2020.
Under the agreement, the United States committed to withdrawing its forces from Afghanistan, with May 2021 set as the deadline for the complete withdrawal of US troops.
The withdrawal of foreign forces subsequently accelerated. In 2021, provinces came under the control of the Islamic Emirate one after another. Finally, after former President Ashraf Ghani left the country on August 15, Islamic Emirate forces entered Kabul and took control of the Presidential Palace after nearly 20 years.
25 Years Since 9/11: From the Attacks to the Afghanistan War
A court has temporarily suspended a directive to expel the students, but the threat of eviction lingers amid broader Pakistan-Afghanistan tensions.
Islamabad, Pakistan – Alishba*, a medical student, was on a maternity ward night shift in Lahore when her phone began filling with messages on September 8.
“Someone said, ‘We’ve received a notification that almost 20 students are being expelled,’” she told Al Jazeera. “My first reaction was, this is nonsense. How could a government expel students from universities without any reason?”
By morning, it was not nonsense. She was one of nearly two dozen Afghan nationals named on her college’s expulsion list, circulating on Facebook within hours, all given less than three days to prepare to leave the only country where, as a woman, she has been able to study medicine at all.
On September 1, the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC), the country’s medical regulator, ordered universities and colleges to send enrolled Afghan students home. They were also barred from any new admissions, transfers or migrations of Afghan nationals for the current academic year.
In all, more than 200 Afghan students are currently enrolled in Pakistani medical or dental colleges, according to the PMDC, and most of them have been hit.
On September 11, they got temporary reprieve: Lahore High Court on Friday suspended the implementation of the PMDC directives, hearing petitions from Afghan students. The petitioners, represented by advocate Asad Jamal, argued PMDC had exceeded its jurisdiction under its own governing act and that students had been “condemned unheard”, their rights to education, life and dignity violated without any opportunity to respond.
The court noted some petitioners had studied in Pakistan for four years before now being told to leave. “Until yesterday, these were favoured children,” Justice Khalid Ishaq remarked. “Today, the policy has changed.”
The case returns to court on September 18, by which point PMDC, the Ministry of National Health Services, and the vice chancellors of affected institutions are required to file their responses. Until then, the students have respite from any punitive measure, Jamal, their lawyer, said.
“The judge very clearly stated in the courtroom that the students will be allowed to sit their exams, join classes, resume studies, and go back to their hostels, and no coercive measures can be taken against them,” he told Al Jazeera.
But the threat of expulsion lingers – a fear students must now live with, alongside their studies, while the case proceeds in court.
“I want to cry every minute,” Alishba said. “We are not dolls for them to play with. This is our life.”
A directive without a warning
In a statement issued to justify its directive, the PMDC had argued that all foreign students enrolled in Pakistani medical or dental institutions needed to be registered with the regulator.
It said “only 22 are presently registered” with the PMDC – including 14 who have graduated, and eight who are about to graduate.
But many of the other students came through the Allama Iqbal Scholarship, a programme run by Pakistan’s Higher Education Commission (HEC) with the Pakistani embassy in Kabul for top-scoring Afghan students.
And the students say neither any Pakistani government agency nor their colleges told them at the time that they also needed to register with the PMDC, a body that – per its official mandate – both oversees medical practitioners and is supposed to register medical and dental students.
“I came to Pakistan in 2021,” Alishba said. “They [Pakistan] provided us the scholarship, processed entirely through HEC and the embassy.”
Nevertheless, within days of the PMDC directive, institutions across different parts of the country began issuing eviction notices, in some cases giving students as little as 24 hours to clear their hostel rooms.
The order comes amid a broader, years-long expulsion drive that has coincided with a dramatic plunge in relations between Islamabad and the Taliban government in Kabul, marked by a rise in cross-border attacks and clashes along the two countries’ shared border.
Pakistan launched what it called the Illegal Foreigners’ Repatriation Plan in late 2023, initially targeting undocumented migrants, after authorities said Afghan nationals had carried out 14 of 24 suicide bombings recorded in the country that year.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said in June this year that more than 2.4 million Afghan nationals had returned since the drive began, describing it, in a message marking World Refugee Day, as a “phased, orderly and dignified repatriation process”.
But to the medical and dental students now being forced to leave their studies midway, there’s nothing orderly or dignified about the way they are being treated.
Left off the register
For Zainab*, a final-year student at another Lahore medical college, the order is the second time a change of government has closed a medical school door to her.
She had completed one semester at Kabul University of Medical Sciences when the Taliban seized power in August 2021, ending her studies there, as part of the group’s broader ban on women in higher education.
She later won her place in Pakistan through the HEC scholarship.
In her second year in Lahore, Zainab said, she walked into her college’s student affairs office and asked a simple question: Was she registered with PMDC?
She was told not to worry about it, that registration would come later, after graduation. Three years on, that unanswered question has become the official justification for sending her home mid-degree.
“If PMDC registration was genuinely the issue here, why wasn’t that stated anywhere?” she asked. “Why weren’t we told we weren’t registered? Why wasn’t it raised on the very first day we arrived, if it mattered this much?”
She initially held out hope the notice would not apply to her.
“But then our own university issued the same notice, and our vice chancellor called us in and told us clearly: This is a PMDC order, there is nothing we can do, come and collect your NOCs,” she said, referring to the no-objection certificates required to leave.
She has not formally been handed one. But she has been barred from lectures and hospital shifts since the notice arrived, which she says amounts to expulsion in practice, if not yet on paper.
Students interviewed by Al Jazeera describe a registration process they say was never in their own hands.
Rizwan*, a final-year medical student in Rawalpindi, said universities, not students, submit registration data to PMDC, typically once a student reaches second or third year.
“We are registered with the university, UHS and HEC,” he said, referring to the University of Health Sciences Lahore, which oversees several affected colleges. “But we are not registered with PMDC. Our registration is pending due to PMDC not approving it.”
Rizwan said the gap traces back to a regulatory upheaval that predates the current dispute.
Pakistan’s medical regulator was dissolved in 2019 under a presidential ordinance and replaced by a newly created body called the Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC).
In 2022, the Islamabad High Court restored the PMDC and declared the PMC’s formation illegal, a reversal that left a backlog of students and graduates from that period without a clear registration status. PMDC has since worked through the backlog in phases for various categories of students.
Afghan students admitted during the transition, Rizwan said, were among those still waiting.
The PMDC’s directive bars institutions from facilitating any transfer or migration for Afghan students, a clause he says would strip him of even the option of continuing elsewhere.
“What if we want to continue somewhere else?” Rizwan, who is five months from finishing his degree, asked.
‘We are not immigrants’
Students interviewed by Al Jazeera were emphatic that they had never intended to remain in Pakistan beyond their studies, and had no legal path to do so regardless.
“After graduation we are not given a visa, because our visa is extended on our student status,” Rizwan said. “When that status ends, we always go back. We can’t stay here without a visa.”
Zainab made a similar point more pointedly, rejecting any comparison with the undocumented migrants targeted by Pakistan’s wider repatriation drive.
“We are not immigrants,” she said. “We were legally invited here, legally granted a scholarship by this country, legally issued a visa every single year. This should not be happening to us.”
The picture is not uniform across the country.
Batool*, a final-year medical student in Peshawar, said her college had not issued an eviction notice so far. She said her Pakistani classmates had been unfailingly supportive.
“The culture, the language, even the food, feels remarkably close to home,” she said. “I’ve never experienced or heard anything negative from people here, not now, and not before any of this.”
Afghanistan’s Taliban government has called the decision “inhumane”. Chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the country’s Ministry of Higher Education stood ready to help returning students continue their studies.
Rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW), too, condemned the government’s decision.
“The Pakistan government’s order is shockingly short-sighted and cruel, and seems yet again aimed only at punishing Afghans because of Pakistan’s conflict with the Taliban,” Patricia Gossman, HRW’s senior associate Asia director, told Al Jazeera.
“The end result of this incredibly callous approach is to deprive Afghans of trained doctors and other medical professionals, especially women, just as the country is in the throes of a humanitarian crisis,” she added.
Two former Pakistani ambassadors to Afghanistan have also questioned the decision, urging the government to reverse it.
Mansoor Ahmad Khan urged PMDC to “reconsider its decision on Afghan students in medical colleges and universities on humanitarian grounds”, proposing students be allowed to finish their degrees before any return is arranged.
Asif Durrani, a former special representative for Afghanistan, called the expulsion “shocking”.
“Expelling these students, particularly young women who have fought against extraordinary odds simply to study, is not just an administrative matter,” Durrani wrote on X. “It is a question of humanity, compassion and Pakistan’s own moral responsibility. Let them study. Let them become doctors. Let them serve their people. Reverse the decision. Give these students a future.”
Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Sajjad Haider Khan told Al Jazeera that students holding a valid visa and registered in a degree programme “are supposed to stay in the country” and finish their studies. But he did not explain the gap between that assurance and what students describe happening on campuses.
Khan also outlined this position in response to a question from a reporter at a weekly briefing on Thursday.
HEC did not respond to questions from Al Jazeera. PMDC also did not address questions, referring Al Jazeera instead to its public statement.
Siddiq Shariati, president of the Afghan Student Union at the International Islamic University Islamabad, said the policy risked damage beyond the students immediately affected, and that he feared for his own position too, despite studying international relations rather than medicine.
“Given that PMDC has already issued a notice for all medical students, it’s entirely possible HEC could issue a similar notification next, one that applies to all Afghan students across all disciplines,” he told Al Jazeera. “If that happens, we would be forced to leave as well.”
In all, about 7,000 Afghan students are studying in Pakistani colleges, with more than 4,500 of them on Pakistan government-sponsored scholarships.
‘This is our life’
Batool, the student in Peshawar, said the consequences of any expulsion would not fall equally on male and female students.
Male students, she said, could still be admitted to universities inside Afghanistan.
“Female students are in a genuinely devastating position, because no one is going to open universities just to accommodate 200 or 300 girls trying to finish a degree,” she said. “And if they did make that exception, they’d be forced to open education more broadly to everyone, not just us, not just medicine, because the double standard would draw immediate criticism, both from inside and outside Afghanistan.”
At Alishba’s college in Lahore, the vice chancellor gave students 24 hours to vacate the hostel, warning that anyone who stayed would be reported to the authorities.
She has not yet been forced out, but has not been allowed back into class either.
“The administration has said no Afghan student is permitted in class, and our attendance won’t be counted since we’re considered expelled,” she said.
She has packed an “emergency” bag, just documents and a change of clothes, in case she is made to leave without warning.
“My mother always dreamed of seeing me in scrubs, serving female patients who have no doctors in Afghanistan,” she said. “She has already made my graduation dress. Now, all of that has faded. There is no graduation. There is no degree.
“I feel like a doll being played with between the political issues of two countries,” Alishba added. “I’ve done nothing wrong. If you brought us here and gave us seats, let us finish our degrees.”
*Names have been changed to protect the identities of the students.
‘I want to cry’: Afghan medical students in Pakistan face expulsion fear
It remains unclear whether the administration would seek to use the court again after successfully obtaining an order from its chief judge to expel the woman.
An Afghan woman accused of supporting the Islamic State has been sent back to her homeland in the first successful use of an obscure court set up 30 years ago to deport immigrants said to have ties to terrorist groups, according to the Justice Department and court papers unsealed on Friday.
The woman, Nazira Haji Zada, was arrested in Texas in July and brought by national security prosecutors before what is known as the Alien Terrorist Removal Court, which sits in Washington. The prosecutors claimed that Ms. Zada, 47, was connected to a foiled terrorist plot inspired by ISIS to commit a mass shooting on Election Day in 2024 and asked a judge to expel her from the country.
Ms. Zada’s lawyers initially challenged her removal, claiming that the court, which handles deportation proceedings that largely rest on classified information, was unconstitutional. But in a statement issued on Friday, the Justice Department said that Ms. Zada had eventually “conceded that she is an alien terrorist” and had waived her challenge to the government’s request for deportation.
“This landmark case, resulting in the prompt removal of this alien terrorist to her country of origin, is a win for national security and the rule of law,” Attorney General Todd Blanche said in the statement, adding that the case showed “how the department will use every tool at its disposal to protect our country.”
Ms. Zada’s lawyers, Matthew Farley and Mary Petras, pushed back in a statement, asserting that Ms. Zada’s consent to removal “should not be seen as an endorsement” of the court.
“Dragging lawful permanent residents into court but refusing to show them or their attorneys the evidence that will be used against them is a plain violation of due process,” they said. “We are confident that the Alien Terrorist Removal Court will be struck down as unconstitutional as soon as a judge is asked to address the issue.”
The Trump administration has used an array of aggressive tactics to carry out the president’s promise to ramp up deportations — and many of those methods have faced legal challenges. The case against Ms. Zada was a test of a new avenue: a little-known court where much of the evidence is presented in secret and defendants cannot contest how it was collected.
It remains unclear whether the administration would now seek to use the court again after successfully obtaining an order to expel Ms. Zada from Joan N. Ericksen, the chief judge of the court. The case has also left unanswered broader questions about how the court would handle any future proceedings and about its underlying legality.
After Ms. Zada was arrested this summer, prosecutors disclosed in an unclassified summary of her case that last year, both her son, Abdullah Haji Zada, and her son-in-law, Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, had pleaded guilty to charges connected to the Election Day plot and had admitted that they tried to buy two AK-47-style rifles and 500 rounds of ammunition to carry it out.
Moreover, they claimed that Ms. Zada herself “supported” the conspiracy and had “pledged loyalty” to the Islamic State. The prosecutors also said that she had “worked to indoctrinate her children with ISIS ideology” and concealed a plan to relocate her family to ISIS-controlled territory from “her unsuspecting husband.”
Ms. Zada’s lawyers claimed that the government was using the court only because investigators were unable to develop enough evidence to charge her criminally. They noted that a lower standard of proof was required to deport her, adding that, under the court’s rules, the government did not have to reveal all the evidence it had collected.
Afghan Woman Deported in First Use of Obscure Terrorism Court
Former US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta has described the complete withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan and the Taliban’s return to power as a terrible mistake, saying Washington betrayed those it had fought for.
Panetta, who served as defence secretary under former President Barack Obama, said the United States had made significant efforts in Afghanistan, including building and training the military, establishing intelligence institutions, fighting terrorism, educating women, supporting businesses and improving people’s lives.
Panetta, who was director of the CIA when Osama bin Laden was killed by US special forces, said that although the war in Afghanistan had gone on for too long, the United States should have maintained a presence in the country and continued working with the Afghan people.
He told Sky News: “We betrayed all of those we fought for when we suddenly pulled all our forces out of Afghanistan and left it to the Taliban to again regain control.”
The former US defence secretary said Washington had a responsibility to continue supporting the Afghan people and remain alongside them in efforts to build better lives.
The withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan under President Joe Biden has repeatedly drawn criticism from senior American officials.
US Betrayed Allies by Leaving Afghanistan, Says Former US Defence Secretary
REACH, a Geneva-based international humanitarian initiative specialising in humanitarian data collection and analysis, says 3.1 million people were displaced in Afghanistan last year due to economic pressures, food insecurity and natural disasters.
Poverty and a lack of financial resources, particularly among poor households and women, have also prevented people from leaving vulnerable areas.
According to the report, hundreds of thousands of people in Afghanistan were displaced in 2025 because of economic pressures, unemployment and natural disasters such as droughts, floods and earthquakes.
The report, published on Thursday, 10 July, said poverty and unemployment accounted for 85% of emergency and involuntary displacement among Afghan households, followed by lack of access to food and drought.
Severe flooding in eastern Afghanistan last year also caused deaths and financial losses.
REACH said continued livelihood crises and damage to infrastructure in areas of origin meant that 95% of displaced households had no short-term plans to return home.
Its findings showed that many families could not even afford the cost of moving to safer areas.
Taliban restrictions, including requirements for women to be accompanied by a mahram and limited access to mobile phones, have made emergency evacuations of women during natural disasters more difficult.
Nimroz province in south-western Afghanistan has the country’s highest displacement rate, at 15 per cent, with severe drought and the destruction of agricultural land cited as major causes.
According to the report, Kabul, Herat, Mazar-e Sharif and Jalalabad are among the main destinations for displaced people seeking to resettle.
REACH is an international humanitarian initiative that collects and analyses humanitarian data, conducts research and provides information on crises, conflict, natural disasters and displacement.
It shares its findings with humanitarian organisations and decision-makers to help them design and implement more effective and targeted responses.
According to the 2026 annual report on internal displacement, published earlier this year, around seven million people in Afghanistan were internally displaced last year as a result of prolonged conflict and natural disasters.
3.1 Million People Displaced In Afghanistan In 2025, Says Research Group
Former Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai has called Pakistan’s decision to stop admitting Afghan students to medical and dental colleges “deeply concerning,” urging Islamabad to immediately reverse the policy and allow Afghan students to continue their education.
Karzai said educational and scientific cooperation should never become a victim of political disputes between neighboring countries. In a statement released Wednesday, he stressed that the education of Afghan youth is a humanitarian and developmental issue that must remain separate from regional tensions.
He added that universities, research institutions and academic exchanges should be protected from political disagreements, warning that restricting education undermines the future of an entire generation of Afghans.
The remarks came after Pakistan’s Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) instructed universities and affiliated colleges not to admit Afghan students for the current academic year and directed institutions to complete administrative procedures requiring previously enrolled Afghan students to leave Pakistan. Pakistani media, including Dawn, reported that the directive was issued on September 1.
The order affects Afghan students studying medicine and dentistry in Pakistan, a country that has long been one of the primary destinations for Afghan students pursuing higher education because of its geographic proximity and relatively affordable tuition.
Karzai also thanked Pakistani political and civil society figures who publicly opposed the decision and welcomed their efforts to persuade the Pakistani government to reconsider the directive.
Growing criticism inside Pakistan
The move has drawn criticism from Pakistani academics, student groups and rights advocates, who argue that Afghan students should not be punished for deteriorating political relations between Islamabad and the Taliban administration in Kabul.
Education experts have warned that forcing Afghan students to abandon their studies could disrupt medical training for hundreds of young people who have already invested years in Pakistani universities and may struggle to transfer their credits elsewhere.
A setback for Afghan students
Pakistan hosts thousands of Afghan students in universities and professional colleges. The latest restrictions come amid broader Pakistani measures targeting Afghan nationals, including tighter immigration policies and the repatriation of undocumented Afghans.
The decision also comes as relations between Pakistan and the Taliban administration remain strained over border security, militant violence and diplomatic disagreements. Islamabad has repeatedly linked security concerns to Afghanistan territory, while the Taliban have rejected the accusations.
Karzai’s appeal reflects growing concern among Afghan public figures that access to education should remain protected despite political tensions. He urged both countries to preserve academic cooperation, describing it as an investment in regional stability and the future of Afghanistan youth.
Karzai Urges Pakistan to Reverse Ban on Afghan Students, Says Education Must Not Be Politicized
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has condemned the Taliban’s temporary detention of 12 journalists in Khost province after morality police arrested them while they were covering a public book fair, calling the incident another example of escalating repression against Afghanistan’s independent media.
RSF said the journalists were detained by officials from the Taliban’s Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, their cameras were confiscated, and they were later released after several hours in custody. The organization described the arrests as a “repressive act” that violates press freedom and urged the Taliban to stop targeting journalists for carrying out their professional duties.
According to the Afghanistan Journalists Center (AFJC), the journalists were reporting from a book exhibition in Khost city when Taliban morality police detained them on Tuesday. Their cameras and recording equipment were seized before they were taken to the ministry’s local office for questioning. The journalists were released later the same day, but their detention disrupted news coverage of the public event.
AFJC said the arrests were linked to the Taliban’s ban on publishing images of living beings, a restriction introduced under the group’s Law on the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. Although the law has not been formally announced in Khost, local Taliban officials have repeatedly enforced the ban against journalists and media workers in the province.
RSF warned that the incident reflects a broader pattern of intimidation aimed at silencing visual journalism in Afghanistan. The Paris-based media watchdog said Taliban authorities continue to impose arbitrary restrictions on reporting, photography and video coverage despite repeated calls from international organizations to protect freedom of the press.
Since returning to power in August 2021, the Taliban have steadily tightened controls over Afghanistan’s media sector. Journalists across the country have reported arrests, interrogations, censorship orders, equipment confiscations and threats linked to their reporting, particularly on issues involving women’s rights, public protests and government policies.
The Taliban have defended the law as an Islamic measure designed to regulate public life, arguing that complaints can be addressed through government institutions rather than public criticism. Press freedom advocates reject that justification, saying the law is being used to intimidate journalists and restrict independent reporting across Afghanistan.
RSF Condemns Detention of 12 Journalists at Book Fair in Eastern Afghanistan
Pakistan has clarified that Afghan students holding valid visas will be allowed to continue their education, following reports that the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) had ordered medical universities to stop admitting Afghan students and expel those enrolled.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Sajjad Haider Khan said Islamabad has not imposed a blanket ban on Afghan students studying in Pakistan. He said students with valid visas who are enrolled in recognized academic programs can continue their studies and complete their education.
Speaking at the Foreign Ministry’s weekly news briefing, Khan said Pakistan remains committed to honoring the legal status of foreign students who comply with the country’s immigration and education regulations.
“Those who have valid visas and are enrolled in legitimate academic programs will continue their education in Pakistan and complete their studies,” Khan said, rejecting reports that all Afghan students would be forced to leave the country.
His remarks came after widespread concern among Afghan students and universities over reports that the PMDC had instructed medical colleges to halt new admissions for Afghan nationals and remove existing Afghan medical students from institutions across Pakistan.
The reported directive has created uncertainty for hundreds of Afghan students pursuing medical degrees in Pakistan, many of whom fled Afghanistan after the Taliban returned to power in 2021 and continued their education abroad.
The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council has reportedly instructed medical universities not to admit new Afghan students, citing regulatory and documentation requirements. However, the Foreign Ministry’s statement suggests the restriction does not apply to Afghan students who already possess valid visas and are legally enrolled.
The clarification is expected to ease concerns among current Afghan students, although questions remain over whether universities will reverse or modify any measures taken in response to the PMDC’s reported decision.
Pakistan has been one of the main destinations for Afghan students, particularly those studying medicine and higher education, since the Taliban takeover. Many students have relied on Pakistani universities after educational opportunities for women and some professional fields were severely restricted inside Afghanistan.
The latest controversy comes amid Pakistan’s broader tightening of immigration policies toward Afghan nationals, including deportation campaigns targeting undocumented Afghans. Rights groups and education advocates have warned that restrictions on student enrollment could disrupt the education of young Afghans who have few alternatives.
Pakistani authorities have not announced any nationwide policy ending education for Afghan students with valid visas, but the future of new admissions to medical programs remains uncertain pending further clarification from the PMDC.
Pakistan Says Afghan Students With Valid Visas Can Continue Studies
He also criticized the international community, accusing it of neglecting Afghanistan.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has expressed concern over what he describes as widespread restrictions in Afghanistan and called for the country’s obligations under international law to be upheld.
Volker Türk particularly criticized restrictions on women and girls in education, employment, freedom of movement and participation in public life, saying women are absent from public decision-making bodies.
He also criticized the international community, accusing it of neglecting Afghanistan.
Jeremy Laurence, spokesperson for the UN Human Rights Office, said that the world appeared to have forgotten and abandoned the people of Afghanistan, whose situation was worsening by the day. He added that millions were trapped in poverty, respect for fundamental human rights continued to deteriorate, and hundreds of thousands of people were being returned to Afghanistan against their will.
Türk says millions of Afghans are living in poverty and that, alongside human rights restrictions, the forced return of hundreds of thousands of Afghan migrants has further worsened the humanitarian situation in the country.
Türk called on countries around the world to prioritize the lives of the Afghan people and work to support equality and dignity for all Afghans.
Khalil Ahmad Nadem, a political analyst, said: “The international community has become disappointed with Afghanistan, and that is why its attention has declined. The Afghan people are the ones who suffer as a result.”
The remarks come as Islamic Emirate officials have repeatedly said that citizens’ rights are protected within the framework of Islamic Sharia and Afghan culture, while calling on the international community to adopt a humanitarian and non-political approach in its engagement with Afghanistan.
UN Human Rights Chief Voices Concern Over Situation in Afghanistan
He added that thousands of families need humanitarian assistance, but reductions in international aid have left many of them without support.
Jan Egeland, Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), says that avoiding diplomatic engagement and cutting humanitarian aid have failed to address the challenges facing people in need in Afghanistan and have only increased their suffering.
Egeland, who recently visited the country, said that nearly six million people have returned to Afghanistan from Iran and Pakistan over the past three years, with many returnees arriving without shelter, jobs, or basic necessities.
He added that thousands of families need humanitarian assistance, but reductions in international aid have left many of them without support.
Jan Egeland, Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said: “Very few countries have continued providing assistance to the people of Afghanistan, and very few countries are engaging with Afghan authorities to press them to make progress on the rights of girls and women, who have been denied education and employment. Cutting aid and refusing diplomatic engagement do nothing to help millions of people in need; they only deepen their suffering.”
Aziz Maarij, a former diplomat, said: “Overall, global isolation is detrimental to Afghanistan, and as the Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council said, cutting diplomatic relations is also harmful to Afghanistan.”
Meanwhile, UNICEF’s representative in Afghanistan, during a visit to the Omari refugee camp in the east of Afghanistan, said that more than 500 unaccompanied or separated children had returned over the past seven months.
Tajudeen Oyewale emphasized the need to support returnees in the country.
Tajudeen Oyewale, UNICEF Representative in Afghanistan, said: “Today at the Omari camp, I assessed the situation of children, and from January to July this year, we registered more than 500 children who returned unaccompanied or separated from their families. This is a reminder that the returnee crisis is continuing, and we continue to call on our donors and partners to support efforts to address the situation of the returnee population in Afghanistan.”
Abdul Raziq Adel, a migrant rights activist, said: “The need to support returning migrants is urgent and critical. Afghanistan alone, without international assistance, does not have the capacity to manage returns on this scale.”
Earlier, Zabihullah Mujahid said at an event in Kabul that nearly two million migrants had returned to the country from Pakistan, Iran, and Türkiye over the past year.
Egeland: Aid Cuts, Lack of Diplomatic Engagement Deepen Afghans’ Sufferings
The United Nations says aid workers are still in a “race against time” to remove rubble and rebuild after the devastating earthquake struck eastern Afghanistan last month, killing at least 2,200 people and cutting off remote areas.
The 6.0-magnitude quake on Aug. 31 was shallow, destroying or causing extensive damage to low-rise buildings in the mountainous region. It hit late at night, and homes — mostly made of mud, wood, or rocks — collapsed instantly, becoming death traps.
Satellite data shows that about 40,500 truckloads of debris still needs to be cleared from affected areas in several provinces, the United Nations Development Program said Wednesday. Entire communities have been upended and families are sleeping in the open, it added.
The quake’s epicenter was in remote and rugged Kunar province, challenging rescue and relief efforts by the Taliban government and humanitarian groups. Authorities deployed helicopters or airdropped army commandos to evacuate survivors. Aid workers walked for hours on foot to reach isolated communities.
“This is a race against time,” said Devanand Ramiah, from the UNDP’s Crisis Bureau. “Debris removal and reconstruction operations must start safely and swiftly.”
People’s main demands were the reconstruction of houses and water supplies, according to a spokesman for a Taliban government committee tasked with helping survivors, Zia ur Rahman Speenghar.
People were getting assistance in cash, food, tents, beds, and other necessities, Speenghar said Thursday. Three new roads were under construction in the Dewagal Valley, and roads would be built to areas where there previously were none.
“Various countries and organizations have offered assistance in the construction of houses but that takes time. After the second round of assistance, work will begin on the third round, which is considering what kind of houses can be built here,” the spokesman said.
Afghanistan is facing a “perfect storm” of crises, including natural disasters like the recent earthquake, said Roza Otunbayeva, who leads the U.N. mission to the country.
Afghanistan Peace Campaign
