On the evening of June 13, Taliban intelligence officers detained Danish, a news manager for the news website Revayat, while he was traveling from the capital Kabul to Bagrami district, according to news reports and a person familiar with the case, who spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity, due to fear of reprisal.

The source told CPJ that Danish was questioned over an April 3 report for the Khane Mawlana cultural center that was critical of the Taliban’s education policies and an April 21 Facebook post alleging the Taliban were using schools as military bases in Kapisa province.

Danish was held in an unknown location and severely beaten, sustaining a head injury, before being released on June 15 and going into hiding, the source said.

“The Taliban must immediately and impartially investigate the arbitrary detention and beating of journalist Abdullah Danish and hold those responsible to account,” said CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Beh Lih Yi. “It is high time for the Taliban to take responsibility for the safety of the media and to allow reporters to critically cover issues of public interest without fear of reprisal.”

Danish previously worked as a broadcast director at Dunya Radio, a reporter and presenter at Mitra TV, and a program host and research manager at Maarif TV, the source told CPJ.

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid did not respond to CPJ’s request for comment.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

On January 17, the Taliban’s Government Media Information Center (GMIC) summoned Akbari, the assistant bureau chief of Japanese media outlet Kyodo News, to their office in the capital, Kabul, and officials from the General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI) agency detained the journalist and took him to an undisclosed location, according to news reports and a Kyodo News representative who spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity, as they did not have permission to speak publicly.

The following day, Taliban intelligence officials forced Akbari to call his family, instructing them to hand over his mobile phone to agents waiting at the family residence, according to those sources. Members of the Taliban intelligence unit raided the Kyodo office in Kabul on the same day, seizing security and video recording cameras, laptops, a satellite phone, and documents.

“Taliban authorities must immediately and unconditionally release Kyodo News journalist Ehsan Akbari and stop detaining Afghan journalists in retaliation for their work,” said CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Beh Lih Yi. “Akbari’s detention and the raid on the Kyodo office in Kabul are excessive and highlight the systematic media crackdown in Afghanistan led by the GDI intelligence agency. The Taliban must abide by its promise to allow journalists to report freely.”

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed Akbari’s detention and the seizure of his work equipment. He told CPJ via messaging app that the journalist was detained because he had been “in contact with anti-government [Taliban] circles and transferred information to them.”

Since the Taliban retook control of the country on August 15, 2021, the Taliban’s repression of the Afghan media has worsened. Last year, it detained several Afghan journalists on charges of reporting for exiled media.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

On Sunday, December 10, a Taliban court in the city of Nili, in central Daikundi Province, sentenced Jawadi, director of the independent Radio Nasim, to one year in prison, according to local media support group the Afghanistan Journalists Center and two journalists familiar with his case, who spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity, due to fear of Taliban retaliation. He was convicted of spreading anti-regime propaganda, committing espionage for foreign organizations, and cooperating with foreign media, the two journalists told CPJ.  

The ruling was issued in the presence of Jawadi and his wife, with the local Taliban’s intelligence agency presenting the charge sheet just before the start of the closed-door proceeding. Jawadi was taken back to prison after the verdict, according to those sources.

Jawadi was detained alongside two other journalists from the radio station, Saifullah Rezaei, and Mojtaba Qasemi, on October 7. The two other journalists have since been released.

“Taliban authorities must immediately and unconditionally release Radio Nasim director Sultan Ali Jawadi and stop detaining Afghan journalists and media workers,” said CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Beh Lih Yi. “This is a grave injustice. Jawadi’s conviction on vague charges during shoddy legal proceedings shows how the Taliban’s sweeping measures against journalists are impeding even basic newsgathering.”

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid did not immediately respond to CPJ’s request for comment.

Since the Taliban retook control of the country on August 15, 2021, the Taliban’s repression of the Afghan media has worsened. On the second anniversary of the group’s return to power, CPJ called on the Taliban to stop its relentless campaign of intimidation and abide by its promise to protect journalists in Afghanistan.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

On December 4, Mohammadi, a reporter for the independent broadcaster Tamadon TV, responded to a summons by Taliban provincial intelligence officers in the southern city of Kandahar and has not been heard from since, according to local media support group the Afghanistan Journalists’ Center and an Afghan journalist familiar with his case who spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity, due to fear of Taliban retaliation.

As of Tuesday, CPJ could not determine why the journalist was summoned, the reason for his detention, or his whereabouts.

“The Taliban must immediately release Afghan journalist Abdul Rahim Mohammadi and end the intimidation and detention of journalists in Afghanistan,” said CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Beh Lih Yi. “After more than two years in power, the Taliban and its intelligence agency continues to crack down on Afghan journalists on a daily basis, hampering reporting and the free flow of information.”

Mohammadi, who has been working as a journalist for 10 years, reports on local current affairs in Kandahar, Afghanistan’s second-largest city. In February, armed Taliban members raided the headquarters of Tamadon TV in the capital, Kabul, beat several staff members, and held them for a half hour.

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid told CPJ that he was not aware of the detention and declined to elaborate.

Since the Taliban retook control of the country on August 15, 2021, the Taliban’s repression of the Afghan media has worsened. On the second anniversary of the group’s return to power, CPJ called on the Taliban to stop its relentless campaign of intimidation and abide by its promise to protect journalists in Afghanistan.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

“We are committed to the media within our cultural frameworks. Private media can continue to be free and independent. They can continue their activities,” Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said at the first news conference two days after the fall of Kabul on August 15, 2021.

Two years later, the Taliban not only has reneged on that pledge, but intensified its crackdown on what was once a vibrant media landscape in Afghanistan.

Here is a look of what happened to Afghan media and journalists since the 2021 takeover:

What is the state of media freedom in Afghanistan?

Since the fall of Kabul, the Taliban have escalated a crackdown on the media in Afghanistan. CPJ has extensively documented cases of censorship, assaults, arbitrary arrests, home searches, and restrictions on female journalists in a bid to muzzle independent reporting.

Despite their public pledge to allow journalists to work freely, Taliban operatives and officials from the General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI) – the Taliban’s intelligence agency – have assaulted, arbitrarily arrested and detained journalists, while shutting down local news outlets and banning broadcasts of a number of international media from inside the country. Foreign correspondents face visa restrictions to return to Afghanistan to report.

Journalists continue to be arrested for their job. Since August 2021, at least 64 journalists have been detained in Afghanistan in retaliation for their work, according to CPJ’s research. They include Mortaza Behboudi, a co-founder of the independent news site Guiti News, who has been held since January.

Afghan journalists have fled in huge numbers, mostly to neighboring countries like Pakistan and Iran. Many who left are now stuck in legal limbo without clear prospects of resettlement to a third country, and their visas are running out, prompting fears they could be arrested and deported back to Afghanistan.

What trends have emerged in the last two years?

The Taliban have not ceased their efforts to stifle independent reporting, with the GDI emerging as the main driving force behind the crackdown. The few glimmers of hope that CPJ noted in its 2022 special report on Afghanistan’s media crisis are dimming as independent organizations like Ariana News and TOLO News face both political and economic pressures and Taliban intelligence operatives detained at least three journalists they claimed were reporting for Afghan media in exile.

The Taliban are also broadening their target to take aim at social media platforms, enforcing new regulations targeting YouTube channels this year while officials mull a ban on Facebook.

A clampdown on social media would further tighten the space for millions of Afghans to freely access information. The rapid deterioration of the media landscape has led to some Afghan YouTubers taking on the role of citizen journalists, covering issues from politics to everyday lives on their channels.

Meanwhile, the Taliban are seeking to end their international isolation. In recent weeks, they have sent a delegation to Indonesia and held talks with officials from the United States as the group tried to shore up the country’s ailing economy and struggle with one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises. with more than half of its 41 million population relying on aid to survive.

A worsening media repression, however, is pushing Afghanistan deeper into isolation from the world, hurting its economy and people’s livelihoods, as CPJ’s Beh Lih Yi writes in an op-ed for Nikkei Asia.

What is CPJ hearing from Afghan journalists?

Even two years after the fall of Kabul, we hear from Afghan journalists on a near-daily basis – both from those who remain inside the country and those who are in exile – on the hostile environment they are facing.

Afghanistan remains one of the top countries for CPJ’s exile support and assistance to journalists. Since 2021, Afghan journalists have become among the largest share of exiled journalists getting support each year from CPJ, and contributed to a jump of 227 percent in CPJ’s overall exile support for journalists during a three-year period from 2020-2022. The support they received included immigration support letters and grants for necessities like rent and food.

We also increasingly received reports from exiled Afghan journalists who were being targeted in immigration-related cases. Afghan journalists who have sought refuge in Pakistan told us they have been arrested and extorted for overstaying their visas, and many are living in hiding and in fear.

What does CPJ recommend to end the Taliban’s media crackdown and help Afghan journalists forced into exile?

There are several actions we can take. Top of the list is to continue urging the international community to pressure the Taliban to respect the rights of the Afghan people and allow the country to return to a democratic path, including by allowing a free press.

The global community and international organizations should use political and diplomatic influence – including travel bans and targeted sanctions – to pressure the Taliban to end their media repression and allow journalists to freely report without fear of reprisal.

Foreign governments should streamline visa and broader resettlement processes, and support exiled journalists in continuing their work, while collaborating with appropriate agencies to extend humanitarian and technical assistance to journalists who remain in Afghanistan.

CPJ is also working with other rights groups to advocate for the implementation of recommendations that include those in its 2022 special report on Afghanistan’s media crisis. (Read CPJ’s complete list of 2022 recommendations here.)  

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Beh Lih Yi.

On Sunday, July 30, about 20 members of the Taliban provincial police raided the office of Hamisha Bahar Radio and TV in Jalalabad city, in eastern Nangarhar province, after receiving information about a journalism training workshop attended by both male and female journalists from the broadcaster, according to news reports and a journalist familiar with the situation, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app on condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal. On Tuesday, armed members of the Taliban provincial police then shuttered the broadcaster’s operations and sealed its office, according to those sources.

“The Taliban must allow the broadcaster Hamisha Bahar Radio and TV to resume operations promptly and ensure its employees, including female journalists, are allowed unfettered access to professional training,” said Beh Lih Yi, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. “It is appalling that the Taliban cracked down on a media outlet because of women’s participation at a journalism training session. Denying women of their rights has become the hallmark of the Taliban regime.”

Hamisha Bahar Radio and TV has 35 employees, including nine women, according to the journalist who spoke with CPJ. Under the Taliban, women face severe restrictions on education and employment, which the United Nations says have increased in recent months.

CPJ contacted Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid for comment via messaging app but received no response.

In August 2022, CPJ published a special report about the media crisis in Afghanistan showing a rapid deterioration in press freedom characterized by censorship, arrests, assaults, and restrictions on women journalists since the Taliban retook control of the country in 2021.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Arlene Getz/CPJ Editorial Director.

On Tuesday, February 21, Taliban officials, in a meeting with journalists in the southern province of Helmand, announced a ban on all media outlets—including Taliban-run Radio Television of Helmand and Bakhtar News Agency —preparing and distributing photos and videos, according to the media watchdog Nai and a journalist inside Afghanistan, who spoke to CPJ by messaging app on the condition of anonymity due to fear of reprisal. Taliban authorities have not clarified whether text-based media activities are still allowed; however, Bakhtar News Agency has stopped operations in Helmand, because the ban on recording video and taking pictures has prevented them from producing any content.

Separately, on Monday, February 20, Taliban officials in northern Parwan province ordered the media to change their coverage to fall in line with what is reported by the Taliban-run Bakhtar News Agency, stifling all independent reporting, according to a local news report and another journalist inside Afghanistan, who spoke to CPJ by messaging app on the condition of anonymity due to fear of reprisal.

“The Taliban’s severe restrictions imposed on the media in Helmand and Parwan provinces reflect an alarming escalation of local information control,” said Carlos Martinez de la Serna, CPJ’s program director, in New York. “The Taliban must immediately reverse these devastating orders and allow journalists to report without fear of retaliation. Access to information inside Afghanistan depends on it.”

Abdul Ahad Talib, the Taliban governor of Helmand, said during the February 21 meeting that recording videos and taking photos are forbidden in Islam, which is why the ban includes Taliban-run outlets, the journalist told CPJ. Taliban officials also warned the journalists attending the meeting not to discuss the order publicly.

CPJ contacted Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid for comment via messaging app but received no response. CPJ was unable to locate contact information for the Taliban governor of Helmand.

In August 2022, CPJ published a special report about the media crisis in Afghanistan, showing a rapid deterioration in press freedom since the Taliban retook control of the country one year earlier, marked by censorship, arrests, assaults, and restrictions on women journalists.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

On the evening of October 31, three men armed with guns stopped reporter Niaz Mohammad Khaksar as he walked home in District 7 in the city of Jalalabad in eastern Nangarhar province, according to Khaksar, who spoke to CPJ by phone, and a report by U.K.-based Afghanistan International.

The men questioned him about his identity, his background as a journalist, and his work at the privately owned independent Enikass Radio and TV, according to those sources. Khaksar said one of the men punched him in the eye, and the other two started beating him in the head, legs, and stomach after he said he was a journalist, leaving him unconscious.

Separately, on October 18, two men armed with guns took Ezatullah Salimi, a reporter and presenter with the privately owned Spogmai FM, from his office in the capital, Kabul, and held him in their car for three hours while questioning and beating him, according to Salimi, who spoke to CPJ by phone, and security footage of the abduction reviewed by CPJ.

“The Taliban must investigate the beating and harassment of Afghan journalists Niaz Mohammad Khaksar and Ezatullah Salimi, and bring the perpetrators to justice,” said Beh Lih Yi, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator in Frankfurt, Germany. “Violence against journalists must not go unpunished. The Taliban should also stop detention and harassment of journalists in Afghanistan and allow the media to operate freely.”

Residents sent Khaksar to the Fatema Zahra hospital, where he regained consciousness after a few hours and was hospitalized for a day, he said. As a result of the beating, Khaksar has bruises on his left eye and back, according to pictures reviewed by CPJ.

The attackers questioned Salimi about his journalistic activities, and when he defended his reporting, he said one of the men punched him in the head and slapped him in the face. They continued to punch and slap him on the face, head, and upper body as they questioned and accused him of anti-Taliban reporting.

When they approached a Taliban checkpoint, one of the men shocked him in the neck with some type of electric tool and told him to keep silent, said Salimi. The men also searched his cell phone and released him from the vehicle, threatening him with sexual assault and murder if he ever disclosed the incident.

Salimi said he tried to report the attack to Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid but did not receive a reply. Mujahid did not respond to CPJ’s request for comment sent via messaging app.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

Butler, along with CPJ Asia research associate Sonali Dhawan and the organization’s Emergencies team, are now in the process of vetting those requests.  

Many Afghan journalists told CPJ they are too afraid to speak on the record. To get a picture of what’s happening on the ground, CPJ features editor Naomi Zeveloff spoke to Butler and Dhawan via video about what they have learned. Their interview has been edited for length and clarity.

CPJ contacted Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid for comment via messaging app but received no response. CPJ also emailed the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Department of Defense for comment but received no immediate response.

When did CPJ begin getting requests for help from Afghan journalists?  

Butler: The requests for help from journalists who wanted to leave Afghanistan because they saw the Taliban coming started early this year. It was a trickle at the time and then it started to crescendo in July and increased by early August.

We are getting hundreds and hundreds of requests for help every day now. Many of them are journalists and some of them are not journalists, they are just trying to find a way out. It has completely flooded our system. We are doing the best we can. We have four people working on analyzing and looking into individual cases. 

We value our reputation for thorough documentation on everything we do and are applying our same standard to this — we are trying to document the cases as the best we can, because we are recommending them to the U.S. government for emergency evacuation.  

What can you tell us about the chaotic scenes at the airport and what it means for journalists? 

Butler: As of Tuesday the area has been secured and there is a perimeter. Anytime you have a military perimeter you have a problem, because there is an outside and there is an inside, and the outside is going to be controlled by the Taliban in one way or another, so the challenge has been to figure out how to get people through an insecure situation on the streets of Kabul, how to get them checked in through this military perimeter including additional checks by the U.S. military, and then get them on to flights. We have had people that have failed to get through.  

Why are Afghan journalists so desperate to leave?  

Butler: As the Taliban have extended their control over the provinces we have seen them close down media outfits and substitute their own personnel. That hasn’t always led to people being killed or put in prison necessarily, but nonetheless journalists in Afghanistan are concerned that they are going to be pushed out of their profession — at the minimum. There are a number of very prominent journalists who have been harassed or chased by the Taliban and who have gone into hiding.

What specific threats against journalists are you hearing about?

Dhawan: Journalists who identify as women and ethnic minorities, specifically the Hazara, are at particular risk. The Hazara are an ethnic minority group who were subject to mass killings during the Taliban regime in the late 1990s. Journalists who have critically covered the Taliban are also terrified.

I spoke to a journalist who was covering the Taliban takeover of a northern province — the Taliban came to his home after his reporting and they chased him out of the home. He ran away and they fired shots behind him and he managed to escape and get to Kabul. In the days after he escaped he continued to receive calls that said, “We will find you.” Another prominent female journalist told me she received threatening calls in recent days from the Taliban that said, “Your time is over.”

One other case that I want to highlight is the takeover of the TOLO News compound, which is arguably the most prominent news channel in Afghanistan, a 24-hour channel that has covered a wide range of events and produced very critical coverage as part of this post-2001 media boom in Afghanistan. The Taliban have interestingly taken over the compound but are still allowing journalists to broadcast, and female journalists actually came back on the air today. But we are seeing that a number of women and ethnic minority journalists are continuing to be threatened and the Taliban are showing up at their homes.

What is the Taliban presence like at TOLO News? How are the journalists there continuing to report?

Butler: It looks like the Taliban have stationed armed people around the outside of the compound mainly. When they entered the premises [on August 16] they took away government issued weapons from TOLO security but they allowed privately purchased weapons to remain. People who have watched the recent news broadcast say it is much toned down. The women are appearing with headscarves and more conservative dress. It is really unclear what is going to happen and why the Taliban have taken what seems to be a softer approach to TOLO compared to other radio or broadcast operations in the provinces. Are they trying to create a kind of appearance for the international community because TOLO is the best known? That is one possibility. Have they changed? They say they welcome press freedom and they are allowing women to operate in certain professional positions. I don’t think that people are taking what they say at face value. There is a lot of skepticism given the documented history of brutality by the Taliban.

What specifically did the Taliban say about press freedom?

Dhawan: The Taliban spokesperson, Zabihullah Mujahid, conducted a press conference [yesterday] and it really goes to show how brave Afghan journalists are because they were asking really tough questions, particularly about women in the country. He said the Taliban will allow all media outlets to continue their activities on three conditions, the first being there should be no broadcast that will contradict Islamic values, the second that they should be impartial, the third that no one should broadcast anything against the national interest. What we are seeing on the public platform is not matching the realities on the ground, because several radio stations in provinces, newspapers, and news outlets have shut down amid fighting as the Taliban took over.   

What is the Taliban trying to convey with these comments about press freedom? 

Butler: I would look on it pessimistically. Governments use this kind of double talk all over the region and all over the world to find ways to restrict what journalists do. It could well be that the Taliban have seen what other countries are doing in terms of rhetoric and are imitating it. It is a fact that democracy and press freedom are values that are universally spoken about but only rarely fully embraced. I think that we may see that pattern repeat itself in Afghanistan. Hopefully not. Hopefully they actually believe what they are saying, but we will have to see.

You mentioned that female journalists are at particular risk. What else are you hearing from women?

Dhawan: Most of the female journalists I have spoken to are absolutely terrified and have left their homes and gone into hiding somewhere. This is because there are several local reports of women journalists who have had their homes searched or the Taliban have showed up at their homes. And that is a particularly traumatizing experience.

A lot of women journalists who work in the fields of arts and culture or education are equally terrified. I know of several women journalists that work in these fields and are actively receiving threats from the Taliban. The Taliban did show up at the home of one very prominent journalist and said they would come back to her home and are looking for her.

What other journalistic beats could draw the attention of the Taliban?

Butler: Journalists have a history of their own work that lives on social media. I have been told that many journalists are now trying to scrub their social media profiles and deleting articles to try to hide that past. It is hard to say going forward what are going to be the sensitive issues, but journalists who were highly critical of the Taliban in the past could face a kind of reckoning. There’s a journalist I have been in touch with quite a lot. He and his wife were able to get out. But they are desperate now to get their families out. They say that the Taliban is going to go after their families because of their highly critical reporting on the Taliban in the past. I don’t know if that is going to be the case. I hope it is not. But they are convinced that their families will be killed.  

You described a “media boom” in Afghanistan after 2001. Can you say more about what is at risk of being lost at this moment?  

Dhawan: Afghan journalists have done incredibly thoughtful and diligent work over the past 20 years to build a thriving press. They have braved the dangers of a military occupation, the presence of militant groups in the country, and they have reported critically during these extremely dangerous times. The precipitous withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan has led to a complete collapse of the government and security forces, leaving journalists at severe risk of violence. There are simply no avenues for journalists to seek protection from authorities and they are essentially relying on their own community, their neighbors, and family members for protection at this point. As much as there is a need for journalists to get out of the country and CPJ is doing its best to do that work, journalists who want to remain in the country must be allowed to freely report on the extent of a humanitarian crisis that is about to occur.

Butler: The international community totally failed to create a stable democracy, but they did succeed in creating a thriving press. There was a lot of money – U.S. government money, USAID, private foundation money — to support and get these operations going because of course a free press is the absolute foundation of democracy. It stuck. We had a case a couple of weeks ago of people being forced into an interview with a Taliban local commander and made to promise that they would broadcast the interview. They came back and refused to do it because it wasn’t good journalism just to broadcast one side, so they went into hiding in Kabul. They got some of the lessons of what good journalism consists of and if you look at TOLO News, all these news outlets, a lot of it is quality journalism. And, of course, the international press relied heavily on local journalists. This is really a remarkable achievement and it would be a terrible shame for it to disappear completely. It would be wonderful for some of that spirit of press freedom and quality journalism and reporting to live on even if the previous government, the collapsed government of Afghanistan, no longer exists. 

Before I let you get back to your work, is there anything else that has struck you from this past week that you’d like to share?

Dhawan: I was in contact with a journalist who is being actively threatened by the Taliban. She has been messaging me every day, afraid for her life. She is sheltered in a hotel right now and I told her we are working with the U.S. government to evacuate her and will continue to provide updates about her case as soon as we receive them. She said, “I may not be alive by that time.”

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Naomi Zeveloff/CPJ Features Editor.

A cease-fire had been demanded by Washington before any peace agreement could be signed. A peace deal would allow the U.S. to bring home its troops from Afghanistan and end its 18-year military engagement there, America’s longest.

There was no immediate response from Washington.

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The U.S. wants any deal to include a promise from the Taliban that Afghanistan would not be used as a base by terrorist groups. The U.S. currently has an estimated 12,000 troops in Afghanistan.

The Taliban chief must approve the cease-fire decision but that was expected. The duration of the cease-fire was not specified but it was suggested it would last for 10 days. It was also not specified when the cease-fire would begin.

Four members of the Taliban negotiating team met for a week with the ruling council before they agreed on the brief cease-fire. The negotiating team returned Sunday to Qatar where the Taliban maintain their political office and where U.S. special peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad has been holding peace talks with the religious militia since September, 2018.

Talks were suspended in September when both sides seemed on the verge of signing a peace pact. However, a surge in violence in the capital Kabul killed a U.S. soldier, prompting President Donald Trump to declare the deal “dead.” Talks resumed after Trump made a surprise visit to Afghanistan at the end of November announcing the Taliban were ready to talk and agree to a reduction in violence.

Khalilzad returned to Doha at the beginning of December. It was then that he proposed a temporary halt to hostilities to pave the way to an agreement being signed, according to Taliban officials.

Taliban officials familiar with the negotiations spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media outlets.

A key pillar of the agreement, which the U.S. and Taliban have been hammering out for more than a year, is direct negotiations between Afghans on both sides of the conflict.

Those intra-Afghan talks were expected to be held within two weeks of the signing of a U.S.-Taliban peace deal. They will decide what a post-war Afghanistan will look like.

The first item on the agenda is expected to address how to implement a cease-fire between the Taliban and Afghanistan’s National Security Forces. The negotiations, however, were expected to be prickly and will cover a variety of thorny issues, including rights of women, free speech, and changes to the country’s constitution.

The intra-Afghan talks would also lay out the fate of tens of thousands of Taliban fighters and the heavily armed militias belonging to Afghanistan’s warlords. Those warlords have amassed wealth and power since the Taliban were ousted from power in 2001 by the U.S.-led coalition. They were removed after Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida carried out the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States. The Taliban had harbored bin Laden, although there was no indication they were aware of al-Qaida’s plans to attack the United States.

Even as the Taliban were talking about ceasing hostilities, insurgents carried out an attack in northern Afghanistan on Sunday that killed at least 17 local militiamen.

The attack apparently targeted a local militia commander who escaped unharmed, said Jawad Hajri, a spokesman for the governor of Takhar province, where the attack took place late Saturday.

Local Afghan militias commonly operate in remote areas, and are under the command of either the defense or interior ministries.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack.

Last week, a U.S. soldier was killed in combat in the northern Kunduz province. The Taliban claimed they were behind a fatal roadside bombing that targeted American and Afghan forces in Kunduz. The U.S. military said the soldier was not killed in an IED attack but died seizing a Taliban weapon’s cache.

The U.S. military in its daily report of military activity said airstrikes overnight Sunday killed 13 Taliban in attacks throughout the country.

Taliban as well as Afghan National Security Forces aided by U.S. air power have carried out daily attacks against each other

The Taliban frequently target Afghan and U.S. forces, as well as government officials. But scores of Afghan civilians are also killed in the cross-fire or by roadside bombs planted by militants. The United Nations has called on all sides in the conflict to reduce civilian casualties. The world body said increased U.S. airstrikes and ground operations by Afghan National Security Forces, as well as relentless Taliban attacks, have contributed to an increase in civilian casualties.

Last year, Afghanistan was the world’s deadliest conflict.

Gannon reported from Islamabad.