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Deputy leader of Taliban faction sustains ‘serious’ injuries in skirmish
Mullah Abdul Manan Niazi, deputy head of the Taliban splinter group in the western part of the country, was badly injured in a skirmish in Herat province, sources said.
Provincial officials told Ariana News that Niazi was wounded in a skirmish with Taliban militants in the Guzara district of the province.
The sources stated that Niazi, who reportedly is a pro-Taliban commander, is currently hospitalized in Herat’s public hospital.
According to the sources, three of Niazi’s bodyguards were killed in the skirmish.
The Taliban has not commented in this regard.
Niazi was believed to have been Mullah Mohammad Rasool’s deputy – the head of the faction that split from the Taliban in November 2015, following the announcement in July that year that the Taliban’s longtime leader Mullah Omar was dead.
The dissident faction’s announcement was at the time believed to be the first public and official split of the Afghan Taliban since the group formed in the 1990s.
Omar’s deputy at the time was Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansoor, who claimed power — sparking a battle over the group’s leadership.
Rasool and Niazi were among several Taliban commanders who challenged Mansoor’s appointment as leader. Mansoor was leader of the group from 29 July 2015 to 21 May 2016 but was killed in a drone strike by the United States in Pakistan.
Niazi was born 1968 in Pashtoon Zarghoon district, in Herat province and served as governor of Kabul Province under the Taliban regime.
Officials from the Kandahar Chamber of Commerce and Investment say that 294,000 tons of fresh and dried fruit have been exported from the province to foreign countries over the past year.
According to them, the total value of these exports amounts to $519 million.
Abdulbaqi Bina, Deputy Head of the Kandahar Chamber of Commerce and Investment, says the products were exported to India, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, the United States, Canada and several other countries.
Meanwhile, fresh and dried fruit traders are calling on the government to provide alternative transit routes, new markets, and greater facilitation for obtaining visas and transportation for the export of these products.
This comes as nearly 59,000 tons of fresh and dried fruit were exported from Kandahar to foreign countries
Latest News
Wali Khan urges Pakistan to resolve tensions with Afghanistan through diplomacy
Wali Khan called on Islamabad to pursue a serious diplomatic approach to de-escalate tensions with Afghanistan and other neighboring countries.
Aimal Wali Khan, the President of Awami National Party (ANP) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, has urged the Pakistani government to address tensions with neighboring countries, particularly Afghanistan, through serious diplomatic engagement.
Speaking to reporters in Islamabad on Thursday, Wali Khan said the ongoing tensions are causing the greatest harm to ordinary people, especially those in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.
“War is not a permanent solution to any problem,” he stressed.
Wali Khan called on Islamabad to pursue a serious diplomatic approach to de-escalate tensions with Afghanistan and other neighboring countries.
Afghanistan and Malaysia have emphasized the need to expand defense cooperation, particularly in training and technical fields, the Afghan Embassy in Malaysia said.
According to the embassy, Shoaib Baryalai, First Director of the Political Directorate at Afghanistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Naqibullah Ahmadi, acting head of Afghanistan’s embassy in Malaysia, met with the Deputy Secretary-General of Malaysia’s Ministry of Defense.
The two sides discussed what the embassy described as “positive progress” in relations between Afghanistan and Malaysia.
The meeting focused on expanding cooperation between the two countries’ defense ministries in educational and technical areas.
Both sides also stressed the importance of further strengthening bilateral relations based on mutual interests.
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