Taliban

The projects were being prepared for implementation by United Nations agencies to support agriculture, education, health and livelihoods, the World Bank said, Pajhwok News reported. Now the four projects will be presented to ARTF donors for approval only when the World Bank and international partners have a better understanding of the situation and confidence that the goals of the schemes could be achieved. The US officials last week cancelled planned meetings in Doha.

Supreme leader of the Taliban Mullah Hebtullah Akhundzada has ordered military officials onot to recruit teenager members to their ranking. In a decree, Akhundzada said no teenager must be allowed in military bases of the Taliban regime and should not be given a part in any military operation, reports Khaama Press. "Teenagers are unable to conduct military operations and the existence of underage members in the military ranking will lead to intrigue and notoriety.

In the statement, the countries said they were united in condemnation of the announcement of a ban on teenage girls' schools. "The decision came after months of work by the international community to support teacher stipends based on an expectation that schools would be open for all, with the higher interest of Afghan students and teachers in mind. And sadly, it came as eager Afghan girls were walking to their schools for the first time in seven months," the statement said.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid on Thursday denied rumours that the group's Prime Minister Mullah Hasan Akhund has been replaced by his deputy, Dawn reported. The rumours of Akhund being replaced emerged after China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi arrived in Kabul unannounced on Thursday morning, for the first time since the Taliban takeover of the country in August last year.

The three-day cabinet meeting was held in Kandahar and was headed by the supreme leader of the Taliban, Mullah Hebtullah Akhundzada for the first time. The Amir al-Mu'minin or Supreme Leader said that if he could, he would set salaries for the Afghan men and women, adding that he understood the problems and hardships of his poor people, but that the economy of the Islamic Emirate was still weak, Bakhtar News reported.

The Taliban has ordered the secondary girls schools in Afghanistan to shut just hours after they reopened, saying they would remain closed until a plan was drawn up in accordance with the Islamic law for them to reopen, RFE/RL reported.

The Taliban-led government's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said negotiations over technical issues of the TAPI, or the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India, pipeline have taken place and the project will resume in the spring, the media reported on Friday.

Rights groups have accused the Taliban of imposing gender apartheid in Afghanistan, with fears that girls and women will be excluded from public life. The Taliban has dramatically rolled back women's rights in recent months, including closing most girls' secondary schools and banning women from most forms of employment.

 The Taliban government said work on the Turkmenistan–Afghanistan–Pakistan–India (TAPI) gas pipeline will resume soon and rejected a media report claiming the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has paused all activities related to the project.

Haqqani, nicknamed Khalifa, attended a graduation ceremony in Kabul for hundreds of newly-trained Afghan police on Saturday. He also addressed the gathering, saying the fundamentalist militant group is committed to the Doha agreement signed with the United States in 2020 that paved the way to a pullout of US-led international troops that culminated in late August last year.