While the Taliban banned the celebration of Nowroz in Afghanistan, Bakhtar News Agency announced that the group held a ceremony to celebrate spring with the “Gol e Narenj” gathering. The Gol e Narenj ceremony was held in eastern Nangarhar province.
The Taliban-controlled Bakhtar News Agency reported that "several officials of the government of the Taliban, writers, and poets of Pashtunistan participated in this programme”.
According to the report, the Taliban allowed other artistic performances during the Gol e Narenj gathering in Nangarhar province.
The Council of European Union on Monday announced that the EU stands ready to impose further restrictive measures on those Taliban officials involved in human rights abuses. The EU demanded that the Taliban cease all direct and indirect ties with terrorism.
The Council of the European Union expressed concerns about the presence and operations of terrorist groups in Afghanistan, including ISKP and Al-Qaeda. The EU stressed that Afghanistan should not once again serve as a base for terrorism and violent extremism to other countries.
The Taliban officials have denied the presence of terrorist groups in Afghanistan. The Taliban do not agree with calling organisations such as Al-Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban as terrorists, who, like themselves, consider armed and terrorist attacks legitimate for their victory.
The European Union emphasised that its sanctions will not harm the ordinary people of Afghanistan. However, the EU has not clarified when it plans to introduce new sanctions against the Taliban.
The EU stressed that the Taliban commits “large-scale and systematic gender-based discrimination”, and added that through their discriminatory decision to ban women from working for national and international non-governmental organisations, the Taliban are impeding the delivery of humanitarian assistance and basic needs support to the Afghan people.
On the eve of the new year and the reopening of schools, the Taliban has once again not allowed female students to return to schools and universities. However, the Taliban's interior minister has said that the ban on girls' education is temporary.
Sources from Balkh province confirmed to Afghanistan International that the Taliban have arrested a group of elders from Marmul district of the province and transferred them to an unknown location.
The sources added that these elders had to met with the Taliban’s former governor of Balkh, Dawood Muzammil, on the day when he was assassinated.
According to the sources, these elders had received an appointment to meet Muzammil for the district’s issues and had been in the waiting room when the explosion occurred.
Muzammil was the Taliban’s governor of Balkh province and was killed in a suicide attack in his office.
ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.
The local elders returned to their district after the explosion, but the Taliban waged a night raid on their locations on Wednesday and arrested them.
According to the sources, about 15 elders have been arrested by the Taliban.
The arrested people are originally from Marmul district of Balkh province, but they live in different parts of this province.
The families of the arrested men are unaware of their whereabouts and fate.
Earlier, other sources told Afghanistan International that the Taliban intelligence operatives have arrested around 30 employees who remained from the previous government in the governor’s office of Balkh after the murder of Muzammil.
According to the sources, the Taliban intelligence operatives arrested these employees on the charges of collaborating with the suicide bomber.
The Taliban have banned the celebration of Nowroz, the Persian new year, in Daikundi province. The ban has been imposed in the Hazara-Shia-dominated province by the group’s Directorate of Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.
The Directorate of Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice of the Taliban in Daikundi stressed that inspectors of the group have met with people at 35 mosques in the province and conveyed to them that "Islam has forbidden the celebration of Nowroz".
According to a statement by the directorate, the Taliban inspectors have urged people to resist "western thoughts.”
The Taliban have also warned the people of Kiti district in Daikundi province not to celebrate Nowroz and avoid exchanging gifts with one another.
Back in the 1990s, the Taliban had banned the celebration of Nowroz in provinces controlled by the group.
However in 2022, the group had announced that it will not hold any ceremony to celebrate Nowroz, but the group will not prevent people from celebrating it.
The Taliban has imposed a ban on the celebration of Nowroz while the United Nations has recognised Nowroz as an international occasion.
Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) criticised the arrest, torture, and killing of former Afghan soldiers by the Taliban. AIHRC on Sunday urged NATO member states to facilitate the resettlement of these soldiers to other countries.
In a statement, the rights watchdog added that based on media reports and video clips from social media, there is an increase in arrests, tortures, and continuous killing of members of the security forces of the previous government of Afghanistan by the Taliban.
According to AIHRC, these former security haves have been living in hiding and many of them have fled Afghanistan to ensure their safety. According to the rights group, the Taliban identify and arrest former security forces members with the help of biometric information.
The Independent Human Rights Commission has expressed concern about the recruitment of these forces by other countries to send them to war zones, such as Ukraine.
The Human Rights Commission has directly asked NATO member states to "make a just and acceptable decision regarding the soldiers and save them and their families from suffering”.
While the rights groups confirm the systemic killing of the former security forces of Afghanistan by the Taliban, there is no comprehensive report about the exact number of the members of security forces of the republic order of Afghanistan being captured or killed by the Taliban.
Taliban authorities have repeatedly denied the retaliatory killing of former Afghan soldiers. However, the testimonies of witnesses and credible international organizations show that Taliban fighters have continuously sought out former security forces to take revenge on them.
Earlier, Human Rights Watch said data from biometric devices has put the lives of thousands of Afghans at risk. These devices, which contain sensitive information about former government employees, are used by the Taliban.
The Taliban Ministry of Refugees announced that more than two thousand Afghan immigrants have returned to Afghanistan from Iran and Pakistan. The ministry announced that on Thursday, 1,851 people entered the country from Iran and another 331 people returned from Pakistan.
The Taliban ministry of refugees said that these people entered the country through Islam Qala and Spin Boldak border crossings.
The ministry said in a statement on Saturday that among those who returned from Pakistan, 70 had been released from Pakistani prisons.
According to the Taliban, some of these people have been introduced to the International Organisation for Migration to receive humanitarian support.
In recent months, the return of Afghan immigrants from Iran and Pakistan has increased. Some of these people have left the host countries "voluntarily" and many of them have been forcefully expelled to Afghanistan.