Taliban Detains Loyalist As Internal Rift Over Jihad Policy Widens
Sources told Afghanistan International that the Taliban have arrested Rahim Sekandar, a prominent supporter of the group on social media.
Sources told Afghanistan International that the Taliban have arrested Rahim Sekandar, a prominent supporter of the group on social media.
His detention reportedly followed criticism of a Taliban official’s remarks opposing the participation of Taliban fighters in clashes between militants and Pakistani security forces.
According to Taliban sources in Kabul on Tuesday, the group’s Reform Committee arrested Sekandar after he criticised Saeedullah Saeed, the head of the committee. Sekandar had harshly criticised Saeed’s statement that no one has the right to independently wage jihad abroad without direct orders from the Taliban’s supreme leader.
Sources added that Sekandar is currently being held in Kabul alongside prisoners from Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). The Reform Committee, formed by Taliban supreme leader Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, primarily oversees matters related to the TTP.
Sekandar, a vocal Taliban supporter on social media, has been inactive on his accounts for the past two days. Before the Taliban’s return to power, he worked as a journalist and was previously arrested by Afghanistan’s former National Directorate of Security, months before the collapse of the previous government, for allegedly collaborating with the Taliban. On social media, he has expressed support for the TTP and the Baloch separatist movement.
He resides in Khost and is known to have close ties with the Haqqani Network, particularly its media wing.
In a Facebook post responding to Saeedullah Saeed’s remarks, Sekandar had written: “What are you trying to prove with such statements?”
Saeed’s comments have sparked backlash from some Taliban clerics. Sheikh Abdul Sami Ghaznavi, another Taliban supporter, publicly rejected Hibatullah’s fatwa and argued that jihad does not require the leader’s permission. Under pressure from Pakistan, Mullah Hibatullah had issued a fatwa instructing Taliban fighters not to travel abroad for jihad without his approval.
Meanwhile, sources previously told Afghanistan International that the Taliban had imprisoned General Mobin, a high-profile figure close to the group, sentencing him to one and a half years in prison for statements and behaviour deemed contrary to official Taliban policies.
