Taliban

A letter issued by the regime's Education Ministry on Tuesday said the decision, which will further restrict women's access to formal education, was taken at a cabinet meeting and the order will go into effect immediately, reports CNN.Meanwhile, the Minister for Higher Education said that the suspension will remain until further notice.

The outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the incident. In a statement, a spokesperson for the militant group said that its members had taken CTD staff and security officials as hostage. He added that the militants -- in a previous video statement -- had demanded safe passage but "mistakenly mentioned Afghanistan", Dawn reported.

Mujahid said that during the investigation, they learned that the planning of the attack was jointly carried out by IS and another militant group. He also hinted at involvement of a foreign hand in it which aimed at ruining relations between two Islamic neighbouring countries, Samaa TV reported.

Marrying their girls off also provides some sense of security: fewer mouths to feed at a time when Afghan girls have been banned from attending school and face harassment as the country deals with a humanitarian crisis and economic ruin, said the RFE/RL report.

A day earlier, the spokesperson of the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights and representatives of Western Countries had called the punishment of flogging an "inhumane and cruel act". Mujahid said that this remark on the implementation of the penal code of Islam was "disrespect to the Holy religion of Islam and against the international standards", The Express Tribune reported.

According to the Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, the "obligatory" order came after Akhundzada had a meeting with a group of judges on Sunday, the BBC reported.

"The burial site of late Amirul Mominen (Supreme leader) Mullah Mohammad Omar Mujahid was revealed to public at a ceremony attended by ranking officials in Omarzo area of Suri district, Zabul province, on Sunday," Mujahid tweeted.

"Forces of Special Units of Islamic Emirate spotted a hideout of IS militants yesterday (Friday) and arrested two operatives and after that stormed their hideout in Police District 8 as a result six insurgents were killed earlier today," the Taliban-led government's chief spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid said in a tweet.

Since seizing power last year, the militant group has barred girls who are 13 or older or above the sixth grade from attending school, RFE/RL reported. The expulsions in Kandahar are part of the Taliban's enforcement of its deeply controversial ban, which has fuelled protests inside the country and attracted international condemnation.

"The Taliban may have accepted Pakistani support for years but do not wish to be Pakistani proxies forever," said Husain Haqqani of the Washington-based Hudson Institute who previously served as Pakistan's ambassador to the United States, RFE/RL reported.