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Restoration work of Rumi’s Balkh birthplace set to begin this week

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Construction work to restore a teaching complex said to once be the home of 13th-century Sufi mystic and poet Rumi is due to commence this week in the northern Afghan city of Balkh, the country’s Ministry of Information and Culture has told The National.

The government has long planned to rebuild the teaching complex that includes a mosque, a monastery, and a religious school, and is thought to be Rumi’s birthplace.

“From this week onwards, restoration on the complex will start,” Murtaza Azizi, the Ministry of Culture and Information’s acting director for tourism told The National.

Balkh city is about an hour’s drive east of Mazar-e-Sharif.

“The complex was originally constructed using mud and clay and is now in a state of disrepair,” Azizi told The National.

According to him, the entire project’s budget had not yet been publicized, but that the presidential affairs department had taken on the job.

However, Matiullah Karimi, head of the Information and Culture Centre in Balkh, told The National the renovation would cost about $7 million.

Jalal al-Din Mohammad Balkhi, widely referred to as Rumi, was born in 1207, likely in the city of Balkh but fled his home as a child when Mongols captured the region, destroying entire cities in what is today’s northern Afghanistan.

His father, Bahauddin Walad, who owned the house and premises, was a prominent theologian of his time.

Rumi later traveled within the Middle East – including Iran, Iraq, and Syria – but spent most of his life in Turkey, where he died in 1273.

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Afghanistan says Pakistani military post destroyed near Spin Boldak

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Afghanistan’s Ministry of Defense says a Pakistani military post near Spin Boldak was targeted and destroyed after Pakistani forces opened fire toward Afghanistan.

Ministry spokesperson Enayatullah Khwarazmi said in a post on X that Afghan forces suffered no casualties or damage in the clash.

Khwarazmi also rejected claims made by the Pakistani side about the incident, describing them as “propaganda.”

 

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Mujahid: Pakistan attacking Afghanistan to evade Mecca Pact responsibilities

He warned that the Islamic Emirate would give an “appropriate response” to what he called the Pakistani military regime’s “bullying.”

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Islamic Emirate spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid has accused Pakistan of carrying out attacks on Afghanistan to divert attention from its domestic problems and to evade responsibilities under the “Mecca Pact.”

Speaking at a religious seminary in Kandahar, Mujahid said Pakistan was facing political and economic challenges at home and was using attacks on Afghanistan to shift public attention away from protests and its internal problems.

“Pakistan, by violating the territory of its neighboring Islamic country, wants to divert attention from its failures,” he said.

Mujahid also criticized Pakistan’s political situation, claiming that political space had been restricted and that freedoms guaranteed under the country’s laws were not being allowed.

He said Pakistan’s economic problems had also increased significantly and accused the country of seeking to distract the public from those problems by engaging in conflict with Afghanistan.

Mujahid further accused Pakistan’s military leadership of putting the Pakistani people at risk through what he described as its “false position.”

He warned that the Islamic Emirate would give an “appropriate response” to what he called the Pakistani military regime’s “bullying.”

His remarks followed Pakistani airstrikes on Kandahar, Paktia and Khost provinces on Thursday, which Afghan authorities said killed four civilians.

The strikes came three days after attacks on Kunar and Paktika provinces, in which Afghan authorities said three civilians were killed.

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Kabul rejects U.S. claim that meth seized in Pakistan was of Afghan origin

Balkhi said the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) has imposed an absolute ban on the production, trafficking and use of all types of narcotics in Afghanistan.

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Afghanistan’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Abdul Qahar Balkhi has rejected a U.S. claim that 463 kilograms of synthetic drugs seized in Pakistan were of Afghan origin, calling the attribution “unfounded and politically motivated.”

Balkhi said the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad should investigate the origin of the seized drugs in Pakistan rather than attributing them to Afghanistan.

“The attribution by the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad of the synthetic drugs bound for Sri Lanka and intercepted in Pakistan through joint U.S.-Pakistani efforts as ‘Afghan-origin’ is an unfounded and politically motivated allegation,” Balkhi said.

He said the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) has imposed an absolute ban on the production, trafficking and use of all types of narcotics in Afghanistan.

Balkhi also claimed that following the ban in Afghanistan, the cultivation, production and trafficking of narcotics have increased “on the other side of the Durand Line.”

He further argued that Afghanistan does not have the capacity to produce synthetic drugs and said crossing points along the Durand Line have been completely closed to all movement for nearly a year.

His remarks came after the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad said U.S. and Pakistani anti-narcotics authorities had seized 463 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine worth an estimated $21 million and bound for Sri Lanka.

The embassy said the operation led to multiple arrests and highlighted ongoing U.S. cooperation and training with Pakistani authorities to disrupt international drug-trafficking networks.

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