KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – Credible sources have told KabulNow that Mawlawi Abdul Rashid, the Taliban’s mayor in Kabul, has been arrested on charges of corruption.
According to the sources, Taliban intelligence forces arrested Mawlawi Abdul Rashid yesterday (Saturday, June 20).
The sources say that, along with the Taliban mayor of Kabul, 20 district officials in Kabul have also been detained.
Taliban spokespersons and the Kabul Municipality have not yet commented on the matter.
Mawlawi Abdul Rashid was appointed as the Taliban’s mayor of Kabul on October 17, 2021, following the group’s return to power in Afghanistan. He was appointed by order of Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund, the Taliban’s prime minister, and had remained in the position until now.
The reported arrests come amid ongoing concerns about corruption and governance within Afghanistan’s public institutions. While the Taliban have repeatedly pledged to combat corruption since returning to power, reports of investigations and arrests involving government officials continue to emerge from different parts of the country.
Afghanistan, under Taliban rule, has dropped four places in Transparency International’s 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), ranking 169th out of 182 countries and territories.
The annual report, which measures perceived levels of public sector corruption, gave Afghanistan a score of 16 out of 100, down from 17 in 2024, when it ranked 165th, and 17 in 2023, when it was 162nd. The CPI scores countries on a scale from 0, indicating high corruption, to 100, indicating very clean governance.
In Afghanistan, the findings indicate that corruption remains widespread despite Taliban claims of eradication. Since returning to power in 2021, the Taliban have provided minimal transparency on the management of public funds, tax revenue, and national resources. While bribery in the public sector has been criminalized, other forms of corruption—including diversion of public funds and humanitarian aid, nepotism, and abuse of official powers—persist widely.
Transparency International urged global leaders to strengthen democratic checks and balances, protect independent civil society, and act decisively against abuses of power. The watchdog emphasized that without sustained leadership and accountability, countries at the bottom of the CPI risk further declines, undermining governance, economic development and public trust.
