The Taliban have arrested a well-liked college professor and outspoken critic of successive Afghan governments, together with the brand new rulers in Kabul, the gang’s spokesman mentioned Sunday.
Zabihullah Mujahid mentioned in a tweet that professor Faizuallah Jalal used to be being held by way of the Taliban’s intelligence arm.
The crowd accused the professor of “nonsense remarks on social media, that have been scary other folks in opposition to the federal government and enjoying with other folks’s dignity.”
Within the capital of Kabul, a small workforce of ladies protested Jalal’s detention.
They chanted: “Speaking isn’t a criminal offense, professor Jalal isn’t a felony, we wish professor Jalal’s liberate, professor Jalal’s voice is the folks’s voice, Speaking isn’t a criminal offense.”
Afghanistan faces a humanitarian disaster of epic proportions, with the United Countries caution that 90% of the rustic’s 38 million persons are in dire want.
The arrest of a outstanding political activist used to be positive to complicate humanitarian help efforts.
It additionally bolstered fears that the Taliban are implementing the similar harsh and repressive rule as their final stint in energy sooner than they had been ousted by way of a US-led coalition for harbouring al-Qaida chief Osama bin Encumbered.
The Taliban seized keep an eye on of Afghanistan final August forward of The united states’s chaotic Aug. 31 departure after just about two decades of warfare.
The Islamic militant guerrillas-turned-rulers up to now held energy from 1996-2001.
In a tweet early Sunday, Jalal’s daughter Hasina Jalal pleaded for her father’s liberate.
“As I ascertain the traumatic information. I ask for the instant liberate of my father Professor Faizuallah Jalal,” she tweeted.
TOLO TV, Afghanistan’s biggest station on which Jalal used to be a common commentator, tweeted that Jalal used to be arrested “reportedly for making allegations in opposition to govt departments, a safety supply mentioned.” There used to be no professional reaction from the federal government to queries about Jalal’s arrest.
Jalal is the husband of one of the vital nation’s first feminine presidential applicants, Masooda Jalal, who ran in opposition to former President Hamid Karzai in 2004.
In an interview in Kabul, Jalal’s niece Sudaba Adina cried as she pleaded for his liberate.
She mentioned he has lived in Afghanistan thru successive regimes, together with the former Taliban rule.
“He had probabilities to head in another country, however he didn’t cross as a result of he sought after to stick right here and serve his society,” she mentioned.
“His sin is that he’s residing in Afghanistan, and he used to be a fair guy who had the braveness to criticise the federal government, he didn’t have every other sin except for his braveness.”