Taliban Forced Shia Clerics To Offer Eid Prayers On Friday in Balkh

The former MP added, "The shopkeepers of Nili Bazaar were forcibly taken to the headquarters of the brigade by Haji Rashid, the commander of the Taliban brigade, and all of them were forced to drink water and break their fast."

Rasikh criticised the Taliban and said that the group has targeted religious beliefs, culture, and most private issues of the people and abolished religious diversity.

Earlier, the Taliban officials in Balkh had ordered the Shia community members in the province to celebrate Eid according to the fatwa of the Taliban leaders.

The Supreme Court of the Taliban announced on Tuesday that the head of the Taliban court for Balkh province has conveyed this message to the Shia community representatives.

Shia-Hazara communities of Afghanistan usually follow their religious leaders and celebrate religious ceremonies including Eid, sometimes a day apart from Sunni Hanafi citizens of Afghanistan.

Taliban announced Eid in Afghanistan on Friday, but it seems that most Shiites celebrate Eid on Saturday.

Earlier, Amina Mohammed, the Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations, expressed hope that in the upcoming meeting of the UN Secretary-General with the special envoys of various countries, initial steps for recognition of the Taliban will be discussed.

The statement of Mohammed has been met with wide-ranging reactions from political groups, activists, and Afghan women.

The political and military groups opposed to the Taliban have also called any discussion on the recognition of the Taliban a "betrayal of the Afghan people".

Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission asked Amina Mohammed to apologise to the people of Afghanistan for her recent remarks about the recognition of the Taliban.

The meeting of the Secretary General of the United Nations with the special representatives of countries for Afghanistan is scheduled to be held in Doha on May 1 and 2.

The UN spokesperson has also said that the meeting will not be focused on the international recognition of the Taliban.

In recent years, due to differences among the senior leaders of the Jamiat-e-Islami Party, Noor established a splinter group.

Noor also asked other political forces opposing the Taliban to stand together to save Afghanistan.

In an Eid message, Noor said that over the past two years, "the cruel and ignorant Taliban has taken away people's happiness”.

He emphasised that the Taliban have deprived Afghan citizens of democratic governance and fundamental rights, eliminated political groups, and tortured and killed former security forces.

After the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in 2021, several Afghan political leaders established the National Resistance Council for the Salvation of Afghanistan. They include Atta Mohammad Noor, Mohammad Ismail Khan, Yunos Qanooni, Ahmad Massoud, and Salahuddin Rabbani.

However, AFF and NRF in separate statements emphasised that currently, they are not in favour of engagement with the Taliban.

The two military anti-Taliban fronts have also condemned the statement of the UN deputy secretary general about the recognition of the Taliban.

NRF said, "Lobbying for the Taliban is a futile task and against the interests of the people of Afghanistan.”

According to NRF, "The path to freedom and the return of peace to Afghanistan will come from standing up, fighting and sacrificing, not from engaging [and] dealings with the Taliban."

The Afghanistan Liberation Front, which has lost seven of its prominent forces in a recent clash with the Taliban, has said that political talks with the Taliban have no results and considers "armed struggles against the group as the most effective solution”.

In a statement on Thursday, AIHRC stressed that the Taliban oppress the people of Afghanistan and has an autocratic government.

The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, which operates outside of Afghanistan after the fall of the former government, has described the official recognition of the Taliban as "reckless and insulting" to the victims of the Taliban.

On Monday, Amina Mohammed, the UN deputy secretary general said that the recognition of the Taliban is necessary to make the group responsible and prevent the deterioration of the situation in Afghanistan.

However, on Thursday, a UN spokesman, Farhan Haq admitted that the remarks of Mohammed had "caused confusion". He emphasised that only member states of the UN can recognise the Taliban.