Afghanistan crisis live updates: Taliban should be given incentives, says Pak PM Imran Khan

Pakistan unable to accept more Afghan refugees

Pakistan's national security adviser said Wednesday that his country cannot host any more Afghan refugee for several reasons, including financial constraints. "Pakistan is in no condition right now to accept any more refugees,'' Moeed Yusuf told a news conference in the capital, Islamabad. He said Pakistan is already hosting more than 3 million Afghan refugees who had fled the war and violence in their country over the past decades. Yusuf said Pakistan will try to do whatever is possible to help Afghans, but that international efforts should step up to prevent a humanitarian crisis. He asked the world community not to repeat the past mistake of abandoning Afghanistan.

Taliban should be given incentives instead of being forced to do something: Imran Khan

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday suggested that the Taliban should be given incentives to handle the current situation instead of being forced to do something and claimed it would be a "fallacy" to think that Afghanistan could be controlled from outside. The Pak PM, in an interview to CNN's Becky Anderson, asserted that the best way forward for peace and stability in the war-torn country is to engage with the Taliban, which seized Kabul last month. "So rather than sitting here and thinking that we can control them, we should incentivise them because this current government in Afghanistan clearly feels that without international aid and help they will not be able to stop this crisis. We should push them in the right direction,” he said. Read more

Afghanistan would either gain lasting peace or end up in chaos, says Pak PM Imran Khan

Joe Biden top aides discouraged abrupt Afghan pullout, book says

President Joe Biden's top cabinet members unsuccessfully tried to dissuade him from pulling all US troops from Afghanistan, hoping he would leverage the withdrawal to seek a political settlement, a new book says. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin pushed for a slower drawdown to encourage negotiations between the Taliban and Afghan government, according to "Peril," a forthcoming book by famed investigative journalist Bob Woodward co-authored with his Washington Post colleague Robert Costa. Read more

According to reports from Washington, the US has frozen about $ 9.5 billion in assets belonging to Afghanistan's central bank and stopped shipments of cash to Kabul, in a bid to keep the Taliban government from accessing the money.

China on Wednesday supported the Taliban's demand that the US should unfreeze Afghanistan's assets and said that America has no legitimate reasons to do so as the Chinese envoy to Kabul called on acting Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi and congratulated the interim government.

Taliban army chief says those who defend democracy will be suppressed

The Chief of Army Staff of the Taliban, Fasihudin, has said that those who defend democracy in Afghanistan and oppose the Taliban will be suppressed. He added that they will suppress all those who defend the gains of the past two decades under the name of specific ethnic groups or resistance in Afghanistan, Khaama News reported.

Security blocs led by Russia, China meet on Afghanistan

Countries allied with Russia and China were preparing for a series of meetings on Afghanistan Wednesday held in the crisis-hit country's neighbour, Tajikistan. Moscow and Beijing have moved to assert themselves as key players in the region, after the United States' hasty retreat from Afghanistan and the Taliban's takeover of the country. Two regional security blocs led by Moscow and Beijing are holding summits in the capital of ex-Soviet Tajikistan, Dushanbe, this week along with other countries attending as observers and guests.

Taliban seize $12.4 million from former top Afghan officials

Afghanistan's Taliban-controlled central bank said it had seized nearly $12.4 million in cash and gold from former top government officials on Wednesday, including former vice president Amrullah Saleh. In a statement, the central bank said the money and gold had been kept in officials' houses, although it did not yet know for what purpose. Saleh's whereabouts are unknown. He has vowed to resist the Taliban, who stormed to power a month ago, and last week a family member said the Taliban had executed his brother Rohullah Azizi. Read more

Afghan origin Indian national allegedly kidnapped in Kabul, Afghanistan

An Afghan origin Indian national Bansri Lal Arendeh (about 50) who belongs to Hindu Khost community of Afghanistan was allegedly abducted at gunpoint from Kabul in the morning on Tuesday, September 14, told Puneet Singh Chandhok, President of Indian World Forum. As per the information, Arendeh whose family lives in Faridabad, Delhi NCR region is a businessman who deals in pharmaceutical products at Afghanistan for last two decades and he along with staff was going towards his shop in Kabul when the incident took place. Read more

Afghan central bank recovers $12.4 million cash from former govt officials: Reuters quoting a statement

China backs Taliban's demand to US to unfreeze Afghanistan's assets

China on Wednesday supported the Taliban's demand that the US should unfreeze Afghanistan's assets and said that America has no legitimate reasons to do so as the Chinese envoy to Kabul called on acting Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi and congratulated the interim government. According to reports from Washington, the US has frozen about $9.5 billion in assets belonging to Afghanistan's central bank and stopped shipments of cash to Kabul, in a bid to keep the Taliban government from accessing the money.

Panjshir resistance to declare parallel govt in Afghanistan

In response to the new cabinet announced by the Taliban for the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, the resistance front in Panjshir province led by Ahmad Massoud has said that they will declare a parallel government in the country after consultations. The front termed the Taliban's caretaker government as illegitimate and a vivid enmity with the people of Afghanistan, Khaama News reported. Read more

Thousands protest in Afghanistan's Kandahar against evacuation order by Taliban

Thousands of people in Afghanistan's Kandahar held a protest on Wednesday after being ordered by the Taliban to vacate their houses. The provincial officers of the Taliban-led Afghanistan government told the families living in the division of the Afghanistan national army land to vacate their houses in three days, reported The Khaama News Press Agency. "We have been living in this place for 20 years, we agree that this is a government place, but we have built a house here. The Taliban have been saying for days that we should evacuate these houses," a protestor said, reported TOLOnews.

Iran's Alalam TV says flights between Iran and Afghanistan resumed

First passenger plane from Iran arrives in Afghanistan: Report

The first passenger flight from Iran landed in the Afghan capital on Wednesday since the Taliban's takeover, Sputnik reported citing a Kabul airport source. There were 14 people on board the aircraft from Iran, the source said. The Taliban on Monday said that while domestic flights had resumed in Afghanistan, "a little bit of work" was still required for international flights to resume, because of heavy damage to the Kabul airport. The Taliban last week announced its caretaker government in Kabul.

Pakistan's provincial govt backs recognition of Taliban rule in Afghanistan

Pakistan's provincial government in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region has extended full support for recognising the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, local media reported on Wednesday. (ANI)

According to Pakistan's information minister Fawad Chaudhry, the Afghan women soccer players entered in Pakistan though the northwestern Torkham border crossing holding valid travel documents.

It was unclear how many Afghan women players and their family members were allowed to enter in Pakistan.

Thirty-two women football players from Afghanistan, who were facing threats from the Taliban, have reached Pakistan along with their families after the government issued emergency humanitarian visas to evacuate them, according to a media report on Wednesday.