KABUL — The Taliban’s Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice has announced the arrest of a man in northern Balkh province, accusing him of blasphemy.
Saif-ul Islam Khyber, the ministry spokesperson, said the individual was identified and detained by morality police for “insulting sacred beliefs.”
Obaidullah Haqqani, the ministry’s head in Balkh, stated that the arrest was carried out due to the content of the man’s remarks in a public space.
The authorities have not released information regarding his current whereabouts or legal status, a pattern consistent with increasing secrecy around such cases.
This arrest occurs amid a broader crackdown under the Taliban’s stringent interpretation of Sharia. The group’s morality police have ramped up surveillance, including monitoring social media, and have recently detained several other young people over alleged ideological infractions, such as “ideological deviation.”
A UN report says that the Taliban have weaponized the legal and judicial system to suppress women and dissent, involving the dismantling of previous legal protections and installing untrained male judges in place of female and experienced judicial officials.
The Taliban’s approach to religious law is widely viewed as excessively rigid, even by traditional standards of Islamic jurisprudence.
