Taliban’s Defence Minister Orders Military Personnel To Wear Uniforms

The Taliban’s new restriction imposed on Muharram ceremonies comes even though on Tuesday the Shia Ulema council had expressed dissatisfaction with the Taliban’s restrictions on the Shia religious ceremony across Afghanistan.

In a joint statement on Tuesday, the Kabul governor and the Taliban’s interior ministry promised that they will ensure security during the mourning ceremonies of Shias during the month of Muharram. In the statement, the Taliban asked Shia youth to cooperate with the group in providing security for the Shia religious ceremony.

While the Taliban have previously ignored any threats from the ISIS in Afghanistan, now close to the month of Muharram, the group has warned that ISIS plans to attack the Shia community members.

The Taliban has claimed that it has imposed restrictions on the Muharram ceremony in consultation with Shiite representatives. However, in response to the Taliban’s claim, on Tuesday, the Shia Ulema Council asked the Taliban to lift the restrictions imposed, so that Shia communities could hold the mourning ceremony during Muharram like the previous years.

In the video, it can also be seen that Taliban members are trying to disperse the gathering of the women protesters with water cannons.

Recently, the Ministry of Promotion of Virtue and Prevent of Vice of the Taliban handed out a one-month ultimatum to owners of beauty salons to shut down their operations.

According to Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, about 60,000 women will lose their jobs due to the closure of beauty salons in Afghanistan.

After Taliban’s brutal crackdown on women’s demonstration in Afghanistan, this is the first women's protest in recent months under the group’s reign.

While outsiders may have their own perceptions, they often fail to grasp the nuanced dynamics that underpin our challenges. Relying solely on external support or waiting for others to act on our behalf is not a sustainable solution. Instead, it is time for us to stand united as a nation, break free from the clutches of terrorism and forge our own path towards a liberated homeland.

The responsibility to liberate and safeguard Afghanistan rests firmly on our shoulders—the people of Afghanistan. By transcending our differences and embracing a collective vision of freedom and social justice, we have the power to defeat the Taliban. This call for unity is not mere rhetoric, it is an absolute necessity. We must unite as a formidable force, representing all voices that reject the Taliban's ideology of terror and oppression. This includes individuals and communities within our borders, as well as among the diaspora, exiled politicians, activists, and international supporters who believe in a free and democratic Afghanistan.

Through unity, we possess the means to effectively evade and counteract the normalisation of the Taliban, along with any undue influence stemming from external entities or individuals with questionable motives, such as Tobias Ellwood. The notion of "improved security," often touted by many in the Western world, may lack a comprehensive understanding of the intricacies involved in this issue, or it may be conveniently ignored for personal gains. However, it is crucial to acknowledge that ultimately, it is not their country, and thus, their perspective may not fully encompass the profound ramifications endured by our people.

The choice before us is stark: either political leaders in exile and all anti-Taliban individuals and parties unite and stand with the people and the resistance to liberate Afghanistan, or bear witness to the heart-wrenching destruction of our country and the obliteration of our rich history and culture before our very eyes. Alarming efforts are underway to normalise and whitewash the Taliban presenting a facade of peace and improved security. However, it is essential to confront the reality sourced from credible and reliable channels and listed below are some examples.

A report pertaining to the period of April 2022 by the UN team monitoring the Taliban's activities revealed a distressing truth: the Taliban maintain a disturbingly close relationship with al-Qaeda, providing them with a secure sanctuary and enabling their dangerous operations.

"The link between the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, and Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) remains strong and symbiotic," stated the fourteenth report of the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team, submitted pursuant to resolution 2665 (2022). This alliance allows various terrorist groups to operate with greater freedom under the Taliban's de-facto rule, posing a rising threat to both Afghanistan and the region.

Sadly, Afghanistan's descent into becoming a safe-haven for terrorism goes hand in hand with a harrowing reality for its citizens. Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International's Secretary General, paints a grim picture of human rights abuses within the nation. "Public critics of the Taliban's oppressive rules face arbitrary arrests, while women, girls, and ethnic Hazara people suffer from targeted executions. The Taliban's actions consistently violate the human rights of Afghanistan's population."

In Panjshir province, the Taliban have committed heinous war crimes, as documented by Amnesty International in the report titled 'Your Sons Are In The Mountains': The Collective Punishment of Civilians In Panjshir by the Taliban. These crimes include extrajudicial executions, torture, hostage-taking, unlawful detention, and the destruction of civilian homes. Civilians suspected of affiliation with the NRF face brutal targeting, while village-wide arbitrary arrests and nighttime curfews further exacerbate the suffering. The report highlights the mass extrajudicial executions of captured NRF fighters and the torture and unlawful killings of innocent civilians.

Adding to the horrors, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) reported numerous serious human rights violations by the Taliban since they took control in August 2021. Documenting 160 allegations of extrajudicial killings, 56 incidents of torture and ill-treatment, and over 170 arbitrary arrests and detentions of former government officials and security force members, UNAMA's findings reveal a pattern of gross abuse. Methods of torture, such as kicking, punching, slapping, and the use of electric shock devices, are employed alongside cruel, inhumane, or degrading punishments, including beating up of shopkeepers for not attending mosques.

In a statement on Tuesday, this council asked the Taliban to lift the restrictions so that Shias can hold Muharram freely and like the previous years.

In the statement, it has been stated that Taliban officials, during a meeting with the representatives of this council, imposed restrictions on holding the Muharram ceremony due to security threats.

On Monday, after reports of the Taliban's restrictions on the Muharram ceremony, Zabihullah Mujahid, the group’s spokesperson announced that they "support religious minorities and have given [them] freedom to worship and perform their religious ceremonies".

However, Mujahid emphasised that "large gatherings and collective movement have been limited due to security measures”.

The Shia Ulema Council has stressed that the Shia clerics did not accept the Taliban's restrictions, and to address this issue, they assigned a delegation to convey their message and discuss it with the Taliban officials.

The council's statement said, "The officials of the Islamic Emirate [Taliban], in a meeting with the mentioned delegation, expressed their firm decision to impose restrictions in some areas of Kabul due to serious security threats."

The council emphasised that their delegation expressed "serious concern" about the consequences of imposing restrictions on the Muharram ceremony during the meeting with the Taliban officials.

In their statement, the Shia Ulema Council emphasised that there have been reports of Taliban restrictions on Muharram ceremonies from other provinces and districts too.

The council has also asked the people to organise the Muharram and Ashura ceremonies "in an orderly and magnificent manner" with the coordination and cooperation of the Taliban forces.

In a statement on Tuesday, the Taliban’s Supreme Court added that each of these individuals had been publicly flogged 30 times.

Based on the statement, they have been sentenced to one year in prison too.

On Monday, the Taliban announced the flogging of the two men at the Eidgah Mosque near the governor's office of the group in Mehtarlam city for Tuesday.

Nearly a month ago, the group had executed a man in Laghman, who had been accused of committing several murders.

The Taliban’s Supreme Court had recently announced that 175 people had been sentenced to Qisas [retribution] as well as stoning of 37 people across Afghanistan.

Rights groups have repeatedly called on the Taliban to stop Afghan citizens’ public punishment and said that the accused do not have access to due legal processes.