Afghanistan under neo-Taliban rule

Afghan resistance mulls formation of government in exile

The leaders of Afghanistan’s armed resistance against the Taliban have left the country and are regrouping with former senior figures of the toppled Ashraf Ghani administration with the aim of forming a government in exile, Foreign Policy reported on Saturday.

A former afghan security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the resistance comprises three broad categories: supporters of former vice-president Amrullah Saleh and Ahmad Masoud’s National Resistance Front; former officers including generals of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces; as well as senior officials of the former defense and interior ministries; and former ministers and deputy ministers.

Taliban hang bodies of four men in Herat city

The Taliban hung the bodies of four kidnappers from cranes after killing them during a shootout in Afghanistan's western city of Herat on Saturday, a senior official said.

Herat Province's Deputy Governor Mawlawi Shir Ahmad Muhajir said the men's corpses were displayed in various public areas on the same day as the killings to teach a "lesson" that kidnapping will not be tolerated, AFP reported.

The display across several squares in the city is the most high-profile public punishment since the Taliban swept to power last month, and is a sign the hardliners will adopt fearsome measures similar to their previous rule from 1996 to 2001.

Taliban issue eleven rules for scribe organizations

Taliban unveiled ‘11 rules’ for scribe organizations on Saturday. These rules include directives against publishing topics that are in conflict with Islam or insulting to national personalities, and also instruct journalists to produce news reports in coordination with the government media office, The New York Times reported.

Since the collapse of Afghan government, over 150 media outlets in Afghanistan have shut down their operations as they struggled to carry out their day to day functions. This is because the Taliban have been continuously creating intrusion in media’s ‘right to information’, which has hampered the work of media organizations, TOLOnews reported.