TAKHAR, Afghanistan: At least four people were killed during clashes between residents and gold miners linked to the Taliban in Chah Ab district of Takhar province, according to local sources.
Sources told Hasht-e Subh Daily on Monday that three residents were shot and killed by Taliban fighters during the violence. After being hit by a shovel, one of the Taliban was killed by the residents.
The fight was said to be a result of gold mining in the area. According to the locals, the mining is being done by firms that are associated with two Kandahar men, Haji Moheb and Haji Ruhullah Ruhani, who have ties to the Taliban. Reports suggest that the companies are in collaboration with the Chinese.
People living in the area have been protesting the mine, claiming that it had been established against their will. Previous quarrels between residents and the Taliban have taken place in the same area.
In a separate incident earlier, local sources reported that an internal clash among Taliban members in Jurm district of Takhar left one fighter dead and another injured.
Since returning to power, the Taliban have taken control of many mines across Afghanistan. This has led to ongoing disputes and conflicts over the extraction of gold and other natural resources in several provinces.
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Taliban impose new ban on women at key Afghan-Uzbek border market
The Taliban have imposed a new restriction on women by banning their entry without a male guardian (mahram) into a joint border market established between Afghanistan and Uzbekistan, according to local and international media reports.
The market is located in Hairatan, a border area of Afghanistan’s northern Balkh province, and serves as a shared commercial and public space for people from both countries. It has traditionally been frequented by a large number of women for shopping, trade, and travel-related purposes.
Under the new directive, Taliban security personnel stationed at the market have begun preventing women from entering unless they are accompanied by a male guardian. Eyewitnesses reported that women arriving alone are being turned away at entry points.
Reports further indicate that even women accompanied by men are being stopped and asked to provide documentary proof confirming that the accompanying male is a legitimate mahram. In cases where such proof is not presented, both the women and the men are denied access to the market.
Taliban members have been charged by local inhabitants with maltreatment and making them feel small, especially in the case of men who were with the women. Sometimes, some of the people who lived there remarked that the Afghans’ treatment at the border market was harsher than that of the Uzbeks.
This Afghan man from the locality told the reporters that the people who try to go to the market or cross the border are often subjected to multiple checks, pressure and humiliation.
The locals pointed out that the majority of women who come to the market are aged and many of them go to Uzbekistan and Russia for medical reasons thus, the prohibition is especially hard for them.
Taliban officials have not yet provided any official account or thorough explanation regarding the policy or its legal grounding. The latest incident has once more brought to the fore the issue of the increasing restrictions on women’s freedom of movement and access to public spaces in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.
