Ties Will Not Normalise While Taliban Shelter Militants, Says Pakistan

In a statement issued on Thursday, the ministry said the Afghans had been held in various prisons across Pakistan due to lacking legal residency documents. It added that 379 people returned via Torkham and 112 via Spin Boldak during the current week.

The ministry also said the returnees had been transferred to their home areas, but did not specify when or where they had been detained.

Detentions of undocumented Afghan migrants in Pakistan are ongoing, with police arresting dozens in recent days across different regions.

The United Nations has urged Pakistan to halt the arrest and deportation of Afghan migrants. Taliban authorities, however, have called for an acceleration of returns despite limited humanitarian resources.

The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the application contains surveillance capabilities that could expose users’ smartphones and internet-connected devices to Taliban intelligence monitoring systems.

Cybersecurity experts in London also warned that suspicious applications can collect sensitive data, including users’ locations, contacts, messages, internet browsing history and device access permissions.

According to the experts, in countries with severe restrictions on digital privacy, such tools can be used for surveillance and intelligence gathering.

At the same time, Hedayatullah Hedayat, director of Bakhtar News Agency which operates under Taliban control, announced that Afghanistan’s state broadcaster was developing keyboard software applications.

The development points to a broader trend of Taliban-affiliated institutions entering the software and digital services sector, raising concerns about efforts to expand state monitoring capabilities.

Experts say the use of Iranian experience in digital surveillance could intensify concerns over privacy rights and the protection of citizens’ personal data if such tools are implemented or widely used.

Iran has a long record of internet restrictions, surveillance and digital controls. The country has repeatedly disrupted internet access during periods of unrest and restrictions have continued for extended periods in recent months.

The Taliban have also previously imposed nationwide internet and telecommunications disruptions. In October last year, the group shut down fibre-optic internet and mobile networks across Afghanistan for several days, prompting widespread criticism from citizens and human rights organisations.

On Thursday, May 7, he said agreements between elders in Bajaur-Kunar and Chitral-Nuristan were encouraging developments showing that people on both sides of the border seek peace.

In mid-April, tribal elders in Nuristan, after two months of road closures in Kamdesh and Barg-e Matal and facing the risk of famine, approached Pakistani border forces in Chitral. Their efforts led to a ceasefire agreement on both sides.

Working with elders in Chitral, Nuristan representatives secured the Pakistani army’s agreement to a ceasefire along routes leading to Kamdesh and Barg-e Matal.

Amid border clashes between the Taliban and Pakistan, Pakistani forces had been firing on vehicles travelling along these routes.

At the same time, attempts by Nuristan elders to draw the Taliban authorities’ attention to the issue had yielded no results.

More recently, tribal elders in Kunar, following the Nuristan example, contacted elders in Bajaur across the border and also reached a ceasefire agreement.

The Pakistani foreign ministry spokesperson welcomed these agreements, while Taliban officials have not yet commented on them.

Amid warnings of famine in Nuristan, Taliban authorities said they would build alternative routes.

A copy of the ceasefire agreement between the Taliban and Pakistani forces in Kunar, obtained by Afghanistan International, shows the deal was reached through mediation by a local jirga.

The agreement outlines mechanisms to prevent direct clashes and facilitate the return of displaced people.

On Wednesday, the chief of staff of the Taliban prime minister Mullah Hassan Akhund met a number of Nuristan elders at the presidential palace and said the Taliban administration is giving special attention to addressing problems in remote provinces, particularly Nuristan.

In an interview with Pakistani journalist Hassan Khan, she said the absence of strong leadership in Afghanistan has made it difficult to manage challenges and establish stability.

She stressed that understanding the current situation requires a different perspective, as Afghanistan does not function as a centralised state.

The head of the South Asian Strategic Stability Institute explained that the country is better seen as a collection of border regions whose lifelines are closely tied to neighbouring states.

According to her, centrifugal tendencies are deeply embedded in Afghanistan’s structure, and provinces bordering Iran, Pakistan and Central Asian countries often have stronger trade links and dependencies with those neighbours than with the central government.

Sultan argued that, given these regional dependencies, Afghanistan’s state structure may not remain in its current form.

She added that there is little sign of a strong unifying nationalism capable of overcoming these structural divisions.

Residents said the incident occurred around 8:00 am on Thursday, May 7, in the market of Ishkashim district. They said the woman was killed while on her way to work, carrying her child with her.

According to sources, the attacker used a hunting rifle. The victim, identified as Leilma, was first wounded and later died in the district hospital.

Ehsanullah Kamgar, Taliban police spokesperson in Badakhshan, confirmed the killing but provided no further details.

Local sources said Leilma, an Ismaili woman and the wife of Salam Maftoon, a local singer, ran a tailoring workshop in a women’s market in Ishkashim established by the Aga Khan Foundation.

Salam Maftoon had previously been detained by the Taliban and was later released following mediation by local elders.

This is not the first killing of an Ismaili in Badakhshan. Sources said that around late December 2025 and early January 2026, at least three followers of the sect were killed by unidentified gunmen within a single month.

Since the Taliban’s return to power, Ismaili communities in Badakhshan have faced various pressures, including forced conversion.

According to United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), in the first three months of 2025 the Taliban forced more than 50 Ismailis to convert to Sunni Islam. The report said Taliban officials beat, coerced and threatened those who refused with death.