India reaffirmed its “longstanding ties” with Afghanistan and the Afghan people, a day before the fifth anniversary of the Islamic Emirate’s return to power in Kabul.

At a bi-weekly media briefing on Friday, India’s Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said New Delhi had maintained regular engagement with Afghanistan over the past year, including several ministerial visits.

“In the last few months and over a year now, we have had several engagements and several ministerial visits from Afghanistan to India and these have led to strengthening of partnerships in several areas including in development cooperation, trade, connectivity”.

“We have longstanding ties with Afghanistan and the Afghan people, and we look forward to strengthening these ties,” he added.

Jaiswal was responding to a question about reported plans by the Afghan Embassy in New Delhi to hold an event marking the IEA’s return to power in August 2021.

India’s foreign ministry did not confirm whether any representative would be present.

Several senior officials from the Islamic Emirate have visited India over the past year, including Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, Industry and Commerce Minister Nooruddin Azizi, Public Health Minister Noor Jalal Jalali and Agriculture Minister Ataullah Omari.

As Afghanistan marks the fifth anniversary of the Islamic Emirate’s return to power, Richard Lindsay, the UK’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, said on Friday the country cannot reach its full potential without the participation of women and girls in education, employment and public life.

Lindsay said in a post on X that the resilience of Afghan women and girls over the past five years has been “incredible,” but said their resilience should not be a substitute for their fundamental rights.

Lindsay stressed that the UK remains committed to supporting the people of Afghanistan.

Tajikistan has sent a protest note to the Afghan authorities following an alleged violation of its airspace, damage to residential buildings and the death of a civilian in Darvoz district of the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO), the Tajik Foreign Ministry said on Friday.

Tajik media outlet Asia-Plus, citing the Information and Press Department of Tajikistan’s Foreign Ministry, reported that armed clashes in recent days in Afghanistan’s Badakhshan province, particularly in districts bordering Tajikistan’s Darvoz district, have posed a threat to the security of Tajik border areas and resulted in violations of international law.

The ministry said Tajikistan’s airspace was violated during the fighting, several homes were damaged and one civilian was killed in Darvoz district.

In response, Tajikistan delivered a formal protest note to the Afghan side, expressing strong concern over the incident and calling on the Afghan authorities to respect the inviolability of Tajikistan’s state border.

Dushanbe also demanded that effective measures be taken to prevent similar incidents from occurring again.

An official source in the Darvoz district administration told Asia-Plus that the victim was identified as 21-year-old Yosuman Yatimzoda, a resident of Dashtak village.

She leaves behind a young child. According to sources, Yatimzoda was also pregnant.

The incident occurred at around 6:40 p.m. on August 13. Yatimzoda was at home doing household chores when a bullet entered through a window and struck her in the liver area.

“The woman was taken to the district central hospital, but she died on the way,” an Asia-Plus source said.

However, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) has not yet commented on the report.