Influential Shia Cleric Calls On Mourners To Defy Taliban Orders On Muharram Rituals

The Council also asked people to individually visit the shrines of Abolfazl and Sakhi in Kabul. These two are the most popular Shia shrines in Kabul.

In a statement, this council specifically asked the Shia mourners to refrain from appearing in mourning caravans on the streets on the 7th and 10th of Muharram.

Under the previous Afghan government, Shiites used to move from one place to another in the form of mourning caravans.

The Shia Ulema Council recently asked the Taliban twice to lift the restrictions on the Muharram ceremony in Afghanistan.

The council had confirmed that the Taliban had ordered a ban on raising flags on Muharram and opening cabins for volunteer distribution of food and water.

The Taliban governor in Kabul had also announced that Shias can only hold mourning ceremonies during the month of Muharram at mosques and other religious centers that “have no security risks”.

In recent days, reports were published that the Taliban in Kabul prevented the movement of the mourners' convoys and beat Shia mourners in the streets of the capital city.

After the Taliban imposed restrictions on the Muharram ceremony, several political and military groups opposed to the Taliban condemned the group’s anti-Shia acts.

The Taliban has changed the police chief of Panjshir three times in the last two years.

The new police chief of the group in Panjshir was previously the police chief of Samangan province.

Panjshir is the main hub of the National Resistance Front’s (NRF) activities against the Taliban. NRF has clashed with the Taliban many times in this province in the past two years.

After the escalation of the security situation in Panjshir, the Taliban appointed Mullah Abdul Qayyum Zakir as the military commander in Panjshir and Andrab region.

According to the Taliban's Ministry of Interior, during the introduction ceremony of the new police chief of Panjshir, the group’s governor for the province, Mohammad Agha Hakim, said that the outsiders’ perceptions of Panjshir are not true.

The governor of the Taliban has claimed that the people in this province "obey" all the orders of the leader of the group.

According to reports, the Taliban in Panjshir has intensified detaining civilians on the charge of cooperation with the NRF and have been mistreating the residents of the province. It has been reported that only in the past few months, the Taliban has arrested and tortured dozens of residents of Panjshir province.

Previously, Dad Mohammad Batar and Mullah Mohammad Tayeb Haqqani worked as Taliban police chiefs of Panjshir province.

These refugees have been transferred to Ankara and await deportation to Afghanistan.

The Ankara police arrested these refugees after they received information about the arrival of a group of "illegal" immigrants from the borders with Iran. The Ankara police announced that these asylum seekers entered Türkiye without passports and identity documents.

The arrest and deportation of Afghan immigrants in Türkiye has increased in recent months.

In the latest case on Monday, 38 "illegal Afghan immigrants" has been arrested from a boat off the coast of Ayvacik in the Turkish city of Çanakkale.

Following the announcement of the new immigration policy of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the arrest and deportation of Afghan immigrants in the country has increased significantly.

It has been reported that more than three thousand Afghan refugees have been arrested and forcibly deported from Turkiye this year.

Turkiye confirmed that more than three hundred thousand Afghan immigrants live in the country.

The Taliban has not revealed details of the discussions or visit of the group’s senior officials to Herat province.

According to reports, the senior Taliban officials arrived at Herat province on Monday.

Media sources reported that senior military and intelligence officials of the Taliban have visited Herat province due to concerns arising from the Islamic Republic of Iran.

According to Durrani, the two also discussed the rights of Afghan women and the presence of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in Afghanistan.

The senior Pakistani official did not provide further details about the discussion regarding the recognition of the Taliban. Earlier, the United Nations had said that only the member states of the United Nations would decide whether to recognise the Taliban government or not.

Earlier, the Taliban had also announced that the United Nations will invite the representative of the group to participate in the next UN conference on Afghanistan at the end of 2023.

Durrani and Sinirlioglu also talked about the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, an issue that the United Nations had warned about many times. United Nations relief agencies have said that millions of Afghans are at risk of starvation and famine.

The Taliban has called concerns of the United Nations about the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan as "negative propaganda". Despite the warning of the United Nations, this group has stopped or limited the activities of non-governmental organisations such as the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan.