RASC News Agency: Local sources in Khost report that residents have taken a firm stand against the Taliban’s decision to distribute land to members of the Pakistani Taliban. According to these sources, locals have armed themselves and confronted the Taliban, opposing what they see as a direct violation of their rights and sovereignty. One source told RASC News that in protest, residents destroyed engineering equipment and obstructed surveyors attempting to map out land for redistribution.
Locals perceive this move as a calculated attempt to marginalize them and facilitate the settlement of foreign militants. To suppress the protests, Taliban forces opened fire on demonstrators and arrested several individuals, according to eyewitnesses. The Taliban claim that the land is intended for fighters who had sought refuge in Waziristan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during the previous Afghanistan government, but locals strongly dispute this, insisting that the beneficiaries are Pakistani Taliban militants rather than returning Afghanistani refugees.
A separate source revealed that the Taliban are attempting to rebrand Pakistani Taliban fighters as ‘returning refugees’ to justify the land allocations, yet residents have seen through this deception and are actively resisting the scheme. Reports of the Taliban settling Pakistani Taliban fighters in Afghanistan’s eastern provinces Khost, Paktia, and Paktika are not new. These regions have frequently been targeted by Pakistani military airstrikes, purportedly aimed at eliminating Taliban-affiliated militants.
According to sources, the Taliban intends to allocate 500 square meters of land per family in Dasht-e-Gokha, located in Tani district, west of Khost Airport. However, the indigenous Dakheo tribe claims rightful ownership of this land and has vowed to resist the forced redistribution. Previously, the Taliban had granted land to Waziristani refugees in Takhar and Jowzjan, but locals maintained that these so-called “refugees” were, in fact, Pakistani Taliban militants.
