KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – The Taliban has detained a schoolteacher in Afghanistan’s northeastern Panjshir province, as the group continues its crackdown in the region, local sources report.
The teacher, identified as Abdul Wasi Almas, was taken into custody by Taliban intelligence agents last Thursday in Anaba district, the sources said.
Almas, who teaches at Rukha High School, was also active on YouTube, but the reason for his detention remains unclear.
The Taliban have yet to comment on the matter.
Panjshir, a mountainous region north of Kabul, has remained a stronghold of resistance against Taliban rule since the group took control of Afghanistan in August 2021. In the months that followed, the Taliban seized Panjshir province, detaining, torturing, and killing hundreds of residents, including teachers, activists, and poets. Many have been accused of supporting armed opposition groups or possessing weapons.
Rights groups, including Amnesty International, have condemned the Taliban’s actions in Panjshir, calling them war crimes. The organization has previously documented widespread human rights abuses in the province, including forced disappearances and extrajudicial killings.
“While many of the acts taken by Taliban forces individually constitute war crimes, the entirety of those acts – plus the additional arbitrary detentions and restrictions on the civilian population – also constitute the war crime of collective punishment,” Amnesty International stated in its 2023 report.
