Officials announced on Saturday that various tribes in Paktia and Paktika ended their decades-long enmity in the presence of Acting Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani and Acting Minister of Refugees and Repatriation Khalil-ur-Rehman Haqqani.

The reason for the enmity between the Sarokhel, Karikhel, Sheng, Drur, Iokhel and Matkhel tribes is said to be land issues

The enmity between them had begun 80 to 100 years ago, resulting in about 100 deaths.

“With God’s help, we have ended long-standing enmities, some lasting more than 80 years,” Sirajuddin Haqqani said at the reconciliation ceremony.

He added that this reconciliation is a big step for the pleasure of God and the unity of the Afghan people.

Haqqani, while referring to the amnesty decree of the leader of the Islamic Emirate, also stressed the importance of reconciliation and tolerance among Afghans.

Meanwhile, Khalil-ur-Rehman Haqqani, Acting Minister of Refugees and Repatriation, said that anyone who returns to killing after forgiving will be guilty before God.

US Republican senator Joni Ernst in a letter to President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken has called for accountability over erroneously sending $293 million to the Islamic Emirate-controlled Afghanistan.

State Department bureaus failed to properly vet the recipients of $293 million provided for aid to Afghanistan in 2022, raising concerns that the Islamic Emirate may have been a beneficiary, according to a Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) report from July. 

Ernst told Biden and Blinken in the Friday letter that the mistake was “unacceptable” and demanded they “take immediate action to rectify these issues.”

“After leaving billions in cutting-edge military equipment behind during the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have given the Taliban $293 million in cold hard cash,” Ernst told Daily Caller News Foundation “The American people deserve better than the complete amateur hour occurring at the White House and State Department. I’m demanding accountability.”

Ernst said in the letter that the Biden administration should be sanctioning rather than “subsidizing” the Islamic Emirate.

Earlier, US senator Mike Braun, had called on Blinken to suspend American aid to Afghanistan.

The Islamic Emirate, however, has said that cash aid from countries, including the United States, is spent through international organizations and their partners and the Emirate is not involved in it.

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US Ambassador in Islamabad Donald Blome met with Pakistan’s Minister of States and Frontier Regions Amir Muqam and said that the United States will work with Pakistan to assist Afghan refugees.

According to a statement issued by the US Embassy in Islamabad on Friday, Blome reaffirmed the United States’ commitment to working with Pakistan to assist Afghan refugees and Pakistani community members in areas hosting refugees.

The envoy expressed appreciation for Pakistan’s recent decision to extend the validity of refugee Proof of Registration cards, for the positive steps taken to address protection concerns, and for our countries’ continued cooperation to facilitate the safe, efficient resettlement of eligible Afghans to the United States.