A Taliban court in Paktika province has overturned the death sentence against Abdul Alim Khamosh, a teacher who had been detained on charges of “insulting the Prophet of Islam,” local sources told Afghanistan International on Sunday.
The court ruled that the allegations against him were unfounded, the sources said.
Relatives confirmed that Khamosh has returned from the provincial centre of Paktika to Jani Khel district and has been reunited with his family.
Khamosh was previously arrested in Jani Khel after remarks he made in class about the importance of modern education, according to local sources. They said he was detained by Taliban morality enforcers and later sentenced to death.
Sources said Khamosh told his students during a lesson that modern sciences were more important than religious instruction, comments that led to his arrest and imprisonment.
Earlier, the spokesperson for the Taliban’s Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice said Khamosh had been detained following complaints by religious scholars and morality enforcers in Jani Khel district and, after what the ministry described as a confession, was referred to court.
At the time, the spokesperson said a primary court in Paktika sentenced Khamosh to death on charges of “insulting the Prophet of Islam and Islamic sanctities.”
Khamosh’s relatives rejected those claims, saying he neither insulted the Prophet nor Islamic sanctities and was condemned solely for stressing the value of modern sciences.
