Theme: Afghanistan

France’s Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez confirmed at the National Assembly that the country is holding technical discussions with the Taliban authorities to return Afghans in an irregular situation. Nuñez cited Germany as a precedent and said some of these Afghans may pose threats to public order, making it a priority to be able to return them. Green MP Léa Balage accused the government of a beginning of normalization of diplomatic relations with a regime that commits crimes against humanity and practices gender apartheid. France has not had diplomatic relations with the Taliban since the group’s return to power in August 2021, and a diplomatic source said the talks do not call that position into question.

The Taliban government expressed concern on Monday over reported United States (US) plans to deport more than 150 Afghans from the US to Pakistan for eventual return to Afghanistan, with advocacy groups warning of the risk to their lives. The Taliban government urged on Monday that the United States (US) “act responsibly” in the deportations, saying it was ready to address the issue constructively.

Pakistan warned Afghanistan that it reserves the right to take all necessary measures to eliminate cross-border terror threats and said terrorism is a “red line”. Pakistan’s information ministry accused the Afghan Taliban of a “persistent refusal to address terrorism” and warned Kabul that it reserves the right to take “all necessary measures” to eliminate threats to its security “wherever they originate”, according to The Hindu and Independent Pakistan.

The administration of United States (US) President Donald Trump is planning to deport Afghans detained in the US back to their home country via Pakistan, according to court documents obtained by The Associated Press (AP). Among those facing deportation are relatives of Afghans who worked with the US military in its 20-year war against the Taliban, which is back in power, according to NBC News.

More than 150 Afghan immigrants are expected to be deported from the United States, in what would be one of the largest single expulsions of Afghans ever organized by the country, the Jerusalem Post reported. Dozens are already detained in Louisiana and the first deportation flight could depart as early as Monday, according to The New York Times, cited by the Jerusalem Post. The removals will take place through Pakistan because Washington lacks diplomatic relations with the Taliban, a US official told Reuters.

Poppy cultivation in Afghanistan more than quadrupled this year compared with 2025 to an estimated 43,300 hectares, according to Reuters, based on satellite imagery analyzed by the UN, and rose to more than 43,000 hectares in 2026, with traders’ income from opium estimated at around 525 million dollars, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

Australian SAS officers knew that soldiers under their command were using “throwdowns” — planting weapons on dead Afghan civilians to portray them as combatants — and did nothing to stop the unlawful practice, according to a previously unpublished military report cited by The Guardian. The executive summary of a 2021 investigation into the “cultural context” of the special operations command by the inspector general of the Australian Defence Force, posted online this week, is scathing about the “breakdown of command” and the erosion of military discipline. An earlier Inspector General of the Australian Defence Force (IGADF) report, the Brereton Inquiry, made public in 2020, found credible information that Australian special forces personnel murdered 39 Afghan civilians and prisoners.

Pakistan urged Afghanistan’s Taliban government to stop militants from carrying out cross-border attacks, according to the Associated Press (AP).

Pakistani security forces on Saturday (October 17, 2026) killed several Afghan Taliban personnel in retaliatory action after alleged unprovoked firing along the border in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, according to Pakistani security officials cited by The Hindu. The same outlet reported that in the Upper Kurram sector Pakistani forces targeted the Afghan Taliban’s Topsar post and Shipola base camp, and that the Shipola base camp was completely destroyed in the retaliatory action.

Pakistani forces and Afghan Taliban personnel exchanged fire at several locations along Pakistan’s northwestern border on Saturday, with Pakistani security officials and state-run media saying troops backed by artillery destroyed Taliban posts, according to the Associated Press (AP). TASS said Pakistan’s armed forces gave an efficient response with heavy weaponry to an unprovoked fire opened by Afghan Taliban members in the Kurram sector, and that Afghan broadcaster TOLO News had earlier reported clashes on the border with at least seven Pakistani servicemen killed and six wounded, citing a security source.

The Taliban suspended the BBC’s FM radio services in Afghanistan, alleging “repeated violations” by the broadcaster, without detailing them, according to Khubib Ghufran, spokesperson for the Taliban government’s information and culture ministry, who spoke to Reuters. The BBC confirmed the suspension and said it is working with the Afghan authorities to address the situation, noting that millions of people across the country rely on it for accurate news and information.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) unsealed warrants against four Taliban leaders for gender persecution, issued in July and September last year, according to The Hindu. Among the targets are the Taliban’s supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, and the head of Afghanistan’s Supreme Court, Abdul Hakim Haqqani. The court sees reasonable grounds to hold them criminally responsible for persecution, a crime against humanity under article 7(1)(h) of the Rome Statute. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid rejected the decision.

Participants in the Moscow Format called on Kabul and Islamabad to refrain from military action, according to TASS, and said they were ready to help find political and diplomatic solutions. The October 5 meeting is expected to bring together Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi and Pakistan's special representative for Afghanistan, with Russia ready to mediate, according to Ariana News.

The eighth meeting of the Moscow format of consultations on Afghanistan takes place on Monday in the Russian capital, and attendees will discuss the situation in Afghanistan and around it, including the conflict between Kabul and Islamabad, according to TASS.

Pakistan said it had killed an estimated 22 fighters in airstrikes on camps in Kunar and Helmand; Kabul says the strikes killed at least nine people and destroyed three houses, according to Al Jazeera.

The Pakistani military struck the Kunar and Helmand provinces in Afghanistan, killing civilians and destroying three buildings, according to TASS. At least nine people died and 11 others were injured in the strikes, according to Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid.

Afghanistan's Defence Ministry said it had killed 41 fighters and captured 62 in Kamdesh district, in the northeastern province of Nuristan, between Sunday and Tuesday. In a statement issued late on Tuesday night, the ministry said the fighters included members of the Islamic State group and had crossed into Afghanistan “with the support” of Pakistan, according to the Associated Press, in a report published by Arab News.

The Afghan Defense Ministry said its forces had killed 28 fighters and wounded 32 in the eastern province of Nuristan, after a group it said included Islamic State militants crossed from Pakistan. Kabul alleges that Pakistani intelligence trained and sent former Afghan security personnel across the border, an allegation Islamabad has not responded to. Reuters said it could not independently verify the ministry’s account or its casualty figures, in text published by The Hindu.

Pakistan’s security forces foiled an attempt by Afghan Taliban fighters to carry out an attack in the Gulistan sector, on the border between the two countries, and killed several of them in a retaliatory operation, according to The News, which cited security sources. An attempted Afghan incursion was repelled and several Afghan Taliban members were killed, Pakistani security sources told Reuters, which reported intermittent exchanges of fire and border forces on alert. Hours earlier, Pakistan had carried out precision air and drone strikes on 10 targets in Afghanistan in response to attempted drone attacks it attributed to the Taliban government, and shot down 8 drones entering from Afghan airspace, according to Information Minister Attaullah Tarar, as quoted by The News.