Karim Khan said in a statement he asked judges to approve warrants for the group’s supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhunzada, and the head of Afghanistan's Supreme Court, Abdul Hakim Haqqani, accusing the men of crimes against humanity for gender-based persecution.

Karim Khan said there were reasonable grounds to suspect that Supreme Leader Haibatullah Akhundzada and chief justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani 'bear criminal responsibility for the crime against humanity of persecution on gender grounds.

Afghanistan's Taliban foreign ministry said on Friday it "strongly condemns" and rejects the International Criminal Court's request for arrest warrants for two Taliban leaders. In a statement, the ministry said the warrants,