Considering the continuous economic and security instability of Afghanistan, Abdullah Abdullah, and the US Special Representative for Afghanistan Thomas West held phone talks earlier this week, stressing the need for “a genuine intra-Afghan national dialogue” to strengthen national unity and partnership. On economic side Central bank of Afghanistan has stated that banking system in Afghanistan  is out of crisis situation and is on the way of normalization. Afghanistan’s banking system was in a critical situation after the collapse of previous government. This bank called on citizens to cooperate for development and progress of banking activities. On the other hand Opium & Hash prices within Afghanistan have risen more than 50 per cent since the IEA announced the ban in April, but media sources say that authorities so far appear to have left the enormous heroin trade mostly unhindered, with vast poppy fields still cultivated. Further more it is being reported that reports that the recent ban on hookah/ shisha smoking is bankrupting adverse health effects (that is true though).  But the ban has affected the livelihoods of thousands with no substitute of business switch ideas provided to them. The Café Owners Association in Herat estimates more than 2,500 people have lost their jobs because of the ban. Moreover, Obaid ur Rehman Nizamani, Pakistan's chargé d'affaires for Afghanistan has arrived in Kabul and has officially taken charge of Pakistan's embassy in Afghanistan. He has arrived with stronger motivation of strengthening the level of ties ad trust between the two countries strategically further. Also Islamic Emirates of Afghanistan has also been successful to manage healthy relationships with Kazakhstan too. Specifically in the field of trade, both countries are showing tilt towards each other as exports of Kazakhstan to Afghanistan are recorded more than double as compared to last year’s. According to a financial report, only during January-September 2022, Kazakhstan delivered goods worth $635.9 million to Afghanistan. This figure increased by 2.1 times compared to the same period in 2021. Plus on 3^rd November, eight Kazakh companies signed contracts with Afghan companies in the value of 5 million USD following a two-day meeting between Kazakh investors and Afghan businessmen. The Kazakh companies that came to Afghan capital city to seek investment opportunities in Afghanistan signed contracts with Afghan companies involved with the fuel, natural gas and food industries. However the relationship of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan with Russia seem to be in a colder zone as Russia have not invited Afghanistan in a meeting regarding Afghanistan which is going to be held in this month in Moscow. It is expected that the representatives of Russia, China, Iran, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan will participate in the meeting. According to Russia’s special envoy for Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, IEA delegation will not take part [in the meeting], it is only for members of the Moscow format. In my opinion there might be two reasons for not inviting the Afghanistan’s government; First, the Afghan Taliban’s inflexibility and second, Russia may have concluded that the Afghan Taliban are getting closer with the America in recent times.

Last weekend the official mouthpiece of Islamic State Central, Amaq released the video for the last month’s  attack on bus carrying government officials in Herat, Afghanistan. A similar incident happened on 2^nd November as an explosion hit a bus carrying Taliban administration employees in Kabul early morning. According to Kabul Police, due to the blast on a minibus from the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development, seven persons have been injured. In addition ISKP also has published a new video featuring virulent sectarian propaganda against Shias. As in other ISKP's publications, it links the group's war against Taliban and minorities to the presence of Fatemyoun and Zainabyoun brigades in Iraq and Syria. Several clips of recent and past videos of ISKP attacks in Khorasan are present, including Shiraz's attack, this year's Peshawar blast and 2021 massacre in Machh. Parallel to that, it has been reported by secret sources that Afghan Taliban are inquiring into local people's (religious or political) convictions. A man in Nangarhar needed security clearance before being appointed as a teacher. So GDI issued a certificate stating “Based on our info, he has no criminal record, but he is a Wahhabi by faith." This is an example of the intensity of the ongoing sectarian conflict in Afghanistan which is one of the root cause of the instability and security lapse. Moreover it is known to all that most of these sectarian groups and their militant wings are backed (financial, diplomatically and militarily) by states with higher motives. An incident was reported on 31^st October that Niaz Mohammad Khaksar, a reporter with Enikass TV (local Afghan Channel), said that he had been beaten up by armed men when he was on his way home from work that day. He added that three armed men stopped him in district 7 of Jalalabad city, beat him up, and questioned him about his work. Moreover on 2^nd November, Late at night, the fighters of the Islamic and National Movement of Independence of Afghanistan attacked the second battalion of the Afghan Taliban border battalion in Shinwari district of Nangarhar province, as a result of which 4 Taliban fighters were killed and two others were seriously injured. Loss of life on other side has been reported as 2 including one commander. In another incident on 5^th November, in the Angashka village of Sayad district, a man by the name of Mohammad Naeem was murdered by unidentified people. According to Din Mohammad Nazari, the spokesman for the Taliban administration chief of police in Sar-e-pol province, the victim was first tortured before being strangled with a cloth. Apart from that On 6th November, Mahmood Karzai, the brother of Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai was detained at the Kabul airport by Afghan Intelligence while he was boarding towards UAE (Mahmood Karzai is a major shareholder in the modern commercial city of Aino Mina in the Southern Kandahar province).

Moreover this week reports were received regarding Afghan Taliban's extensive alleged killing and persecution of the Achakzai tribe (a large Pashtun tribe in southern Afghanistan <also have roots in some areas of Pakistan’s KPK and Balochistan>). According to a senior political figure of the tribe, Afghan Taliban have engaged in killings, forced disappearances, torture, detentions, displacement, and the seizure of tribe members' property. The community faces retribution for alleged atrocities carried out by the late General Abdul Raziq, an Achakzai and the most prominent anti-Taliban commander in the region. According to spokesman of Abdul Raziq’s family, Afghanistan is hell for the supporters of the late General. Former lawmaker Mohammad Naeem Lalai Hamidzai alleged an estimated 18,000 members of the Afghan security forces that Raziq once led are the primary target of Taliban persecution. This persecution that began during the Afghan Taliban takeover 14 months ago is still on. 

Apart from that it being reported through multiple sources that Russia's private  paramilitary group (Vagner) is recruiting Western-trained former Afghan special forces to boost the Russia’s  war effort in Ukraine. According to a former Afghan General  some 15 former Afghan commandos have already joined the Russians as mercenaries and many more could be recruited. Vagner's plan is to recruit 1,000 persons in the 1^st  phase and 1,000 persons in the 2^nd  phase as a battalion and to gradually continue this process. Plus former foot soldiers and officers who fled to Iran are being recruited with Iran's help. However it is being said that there's little motivation for the Afghans to put their lives on the line for a foreign country and that too a former invader.