Taliban’s morality police have detained six people for playing music at a gathering in northern Mazar-i-Sharif city.
Abdur-Rahman Hanif, Taliban’s spokesman for the provincial office for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, said on Friday that the individuals were arrested in the city’s PD 9th area where they were playing music during a circumcision ritual.
The detainees will be referred to the group’s legal court for a hearing, he added.
Last week, Taliban gunmen killed one person after opening fire on a wedding convoy in eastern Laghman province because music was being played.
Since seizing power two years ago, the Taliban has banned music, which it considers “un-Islamic” and “evil” and has subjected musicians or those who listen to music to beating, detention, and even death.
The group has also confiscated and publicly burned hundreds of musical instruments and barred TV and radio stations from broadcasting music.
Meanwhile, recitation of the Koran, Islam’s holy book, has replaced the songs once heard at weddings.
Fearful of Taliban retaliation, hundreds of artists and musicians have fled the country in a bid to safety, while those who remain face the constant risk of abuses. Musicians have also been forced to make pledges that they will never sing or play music again.
