KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – The Taliban authorities claim that Kyrgyzstan has officially removed the group from the country’s designated list of terrorist organizations.
The spokesperson for the Taliban Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Abdul Qahar Balkhi, announced the development in a statement on Thursday, September 5, describing it as a “commendable move.”
“Aligning with Actions of other countries, the step taken by Kyrgyzstan signifies a growing political recognition of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan [Taliban] on both regional and international levels,” Balkhi said.
“It also removes a barrier to strengthening bilateral relations between the Islamic Emirates of Afghanistan [Taliban] and other countries,” he added.
However, neither Kyrgyzstan’s foreign ministry has announced this decision nor have any Kyrgyz news outlets reported on it so far.
The country, like others, listed the Taliban as a terrorist group due to their involvement in terrorist activities, particularly their support of Al-Qaeda, which carried out the 9/11 attacks in New York.
Despite this development, over three years after regaining control of Afghanistan, the Taliban government remains unrecognized by any country, leaving the group isolated on the global stage.
Meanwhile, Kyrgyzstan, like other countries in the region and around the world, has previously expressed concern about the presence and growing capabilities of terrorist groups in Afghanistan, particularly in the northern part of the country.
Earlier in May, Kamchybek Tashiyev, the head of Kyrgyzstan’s State Committee for National Security, warned that the concentration of terrorists in northern Afghanistan poses a threat to the security of Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) member states.
Speaking at a CIS meeting in Bishkek, the Kyrgyz security chief emphasized that international terrorist organizations and their sponsors aim to exploit global social and political tensions “to achieve their strategic objectives.”
In addition to concerns about terrorist ties, the world also worries about the Taliban’s human rights violations, particularly their treatment of women and girls, and the lack of inclusivity in their government structure, which is composed solely of Taliban members, nearly all of whom are from the Pashtun ethnic group.
If the Taliban’s claim proves true, Kyrgyzstan will become the second country in the region, after Kazakhstan, to remove the Taliban from its list of designated terrorist groups.
Kazakhstan, which designated the Taliban as a terrorist group in 2005, removed it from the list in June this year to enhance trade and economic relations.
Recently, Russia also announced that it is considering removing the Taliban from its list of terrorist organizations, which it designated in 2003, arguing that doing so is crucial for combating terrorism and drug trafficking.
