Two journalists, Bashir Hatif and Shakib Ahmad Nazari, have been detained by the Taliban for more than a week, according to sources, in the latest sign of intensifying restrictions on the press.
Hatif and Nazari were taken into custody last Thursday in Kabul by Taliban’s morality enforcers, sources said. Both men have worked with a range of Afghan and international media outlets. Hatif has reported for Zhwandoon TV, while Nazari has contributed to Japan’s i24 News channel.
The two are now in the custody of Taliban intelligence, sources said, and are being held in connection with their ties to the Afghanistan Media Center, a local press organization. Their detention came during the same sweep in which Abu Zar Sar-e-Puli, the center’s director, was arrested alongside journalists from the Tawana News Agency and the Afghan Women Journalists’ Association.
Taliban have accused Sar-e-Puli of “moral corruption” and of links to foreign intelligence agencies. Taliban released a video of him apparently confessing, though the circumstances of that statement remain unclear.
The arrests are part of a broader crackdown. In recent weeks, Taliban security units — including a joint force from the intelligence service and the virtue ministry — have detained several reporters and media workers across the country.
This is not the first time Hatif has been detained. He was previously held for several hours by Taliban authorities in April 2024.
Since the Taliban returned to power in 2021, rights groups have documented more than 500 cases of arrests, threats and violent incidents against journalists. Most have involved the intelligence directorate or the virtue ministry, the agencies now holding Hatif and Nazari.
