Taliban have arrested Abdul Qadir Qanit, a religious scholar and former head of the Council for the Protection of Religious and Jihadi Values, according to local sources.
The reason for his detention remains unclear.
Qanit had recently appeared in Afghan media as an expert on religious affairs, where he openly criticized the Taliban’s restrictions on women’s education. His arrest follows the Taliban’s growing crackdown on voices critical of their policies.
In a recent move, the Taliban distributed a list of approved analysts to the media, instructing outlets to refrain from inviting any experts not on the list for commentary. This arrest mirrors the earlier detention of political analyst Javid Kohistani, who was taken from the Khair Khana neighborhood of Kabul and transported to an undisclosed location.
The Taliban have yet to comment on the arrests of Qanit or Kohistani, or on the wider pattern of detaining scholars and analysts. International human rights organizations have condemned these actions, calling them a blatant violation of free speech and human dignity.
Despite the mounting arrests, the Taliban have remained silent on their motives, leaving many in Afghanistan concerned about the future of free expression under their rule.
