KABUL – Taliban forces have arrested five local residents in Panjshir province following a roadside explosion that targeted one of their officials, local sources said Sunday.
The incident occurred on Saturday, August 23, in Pariyan district when a planted mine struck the vehicle of the Taliban’s head of the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice for the district. According to sources, the official survived the attack unharmed and no casualties were reported.
Following the blast, Taliban fighters detained five residents and transferred them to the provincial center. Their fate remains unclear.
No group has claimed responsibility for the explosion.
Panjshir has remained a focal point of anti-Taliban armed resistance since the group’s takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021. The province is widely regarded as the stronghold of the National Resistance Front (NRF) and other opposition groups.
Rights organizations, including Amnesty International, have accused the Taliban of committing war crimes in Panjshir, pointing to extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detentions, and collective punishment of civilians in response to attacks carried out by resistance fighters. The group has consistently carried out mass arrests of local residents, often accusing young men of collaborating with armed opposition forces.
The Taliban, which imposes severe restrictions on civil and political freedoms in Panjshir, has intensified crackdowns in the province amid a continuing armed resistance.
