The Fall of Commanders: IS-K’s War Against Taliban Elites
Over the three and a half years of Taliban rule in Afghanistan, the Islamic State Khorasan Province (IS-K) has not only launched deadly attacks on civilians, including students, worshippers, and Hazara, Shia, and Sufi travelers, but also eliminated at least eight influential and powerful Taliban members or ideologues. IS-K's attacks on public places, such as mosques and schools, often involve conventional insurgency tactics like bombings or coordinated assaults by multiple attackers. However, targeting senior Taliban officials, who live …
11 Sufi Worshippers Shot Dead by Unknown Gunmen in Baghlan
Mukhtar Wafayee - Independent Persian - Local sources in Nahrin district, Baghlan province, in northern Afghanistan, told Independent Persian that on Friday night, November 22, 11 Sufi worshippers were killed by unknown gunmen at the Shahr Kohna shrine in the district. According to these sources, the worshippers, who had gathered weekly for years to pray and recite dhikr at the shrine, were shot while seated on their prayer mats. Photos shared with Independent Persian from the scene show prayer mats neatly arranged in a room, with the b…
Between Caliphate and Emirate: Tajikistan’s Jamaat Ansarullah Struggles for Direction
Jamaat Ansarullah, commonly known as Tajikistan’s Taliban, finds itself disillusioned with its goal of establishing its desired government in Tajikistan, 18 years after its founding and despite fighting alongside Afghan Taliban against Afghanistan’s previous government. The Tajik group Jamaat Ansarullah was established in 2006 by Tajik followers of extremist Islamist movements and Tajik government opponents, particularly those who had taken refuge in Afghanistan and Pakistan after the Tajik civil war (1992–1997). The group’s first leader, Amr…
Rashid Khan Arman: Afghanistan’s First Millionaire Athlete and Global Cricket Icon
RashidKhan_19/X Rashid Khan, 26, is among the highest-earning athletes worldwide, with a monthly income of 59 million Afghanis, equivalent to approximately 883,000 USD. Rashid, who became famous at 15 while playing for Afghanistan’s cricket team, is Afghanistan’s first athlete to become a millionaire through his sports fame. The Indian Premier League (IPL) website reported that Rashid Khan played for the Gujarat Titans for 15 crore Indian rupees (about 1.8 million USD) in a season of the IPL. Established in 2008, the IPL has become one of the …
Jihad on TikTok: How ISIS and the Taliban Use Social Media to Spread Extremism
BM Amaro/pexels.com TikTok, by simplifying content publishing and broadcasting through videos, photos, and audio clips, has become one of the most popular platforms among jihadists. I reviewed dozens of accounts on this platform, disseminating jihadi content in multiple languages from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, and other countries. These accounts, each with thousands of followers, bypass TikTok’s algorithms using emojis, censoring forbidden words, and editing videos and text to avoid account suspension. Accounts broadcasting jiha…
Taliban Leader's Order: Free Land and Housing for Religious Clerics
Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, the Taliban leader, has ordered that land be distributed free of charge to clerics affiliated with the group and those working within Taliban structures, including religious and jihadist schools. Special settlements for clerics are to be established in every province. Informed sources within the Taliban’s Ministry of Education, confirming this, shared documents with Independent Persian's journalist indicating that after being informed about settlements designated for teachers, the Taliban leader ordered simila…
Surviving the Amazon, Defying Borders: Afghan Migrants’ Path to the U.S.
In the past three years, a lesser-known migration route has been added to the well-known paths for Afghan migrants that previously included only Iran, Turkey, the Balkans, and Central Europe. Many Afghan migrants, despite the risk of death or falling into the hands of ruthless drug traffickers and criminal gangs, have taken this route, which begins in Brazil and, by crossing 11 countries in South America, leads to the United States. Afghans started on this path in September 2021, after the collapse of the Afghan Republic and the return of the …
Sanaullah Ghafari: The Path from Kabul University Student to ISIS-K Leadership
This report was written by Nilofar Langar for Independent Persian . The original version of this report was published in Farsi/Dari. After the deadly attack by ISIS-K on the Crocus concert hall in Moscow on March 2024, which led to the death of over 140 people and the injury of dozens, the name of the young leader of this group once again made headlines. However, there has always been contradictory and often misleading information in the media regarding the true identity of this man behind ISIS-K's deadly attacks. Now, Independent…
Sydsvenskan: Mukhtar Wafayee Writes About Humanity's Darkest Sides
Swedish and Farsi/Dari version of the book The original version of the text by Maria Küchen, the Swedish author, about my book was published in Sydsvenskan newspaper in Swedish. Here, I am sharing the English translation of that text. It is painful to read Mukhtar Wafayee’s “This Blood Bears Witness to God's Wrath”, his first novel and the first to be translated into Swedish. The 29-year-old journalist fled to Malmö from Afghanistan three years ago, after enduring constant harassment in his homeland for his journalism. From 2019-2020, he …
From Algeria to Afghanistan: A Jihadist's Journey
It’s the spring of 1984, and Abdullah Anas, a passionate young Islamist, is sitting in a library in his hometown of Sidi Bel Abbès, in western Algeria. While browsing religious books, he comes across a fatwa by several influential Arab sheikhs regarding jihad. The fatwa addresses the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, declaring jihad in Afghanistan as a "fard 'ayn" (a personal obligation) for all Muslims. Anas notices the signature of prominent Islamists, including Abdullah Azzam, and from that moment begins his efforts to reach A…
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