Afghanistan: Taliban detained former military officer, says family

Kabul [Afghanistan], July 4 (ANI): The family of a former military officer of the Afghan Defense Ministry, Layiq Saifi said that he is still incommunicado, 24 days after the Taliban detained him.
According to the sources, the Taliban arrested the ex-officer Layiq from the Khairkhana area of Kabul around 24 days ago and transferred him to an unknown location, local media reported.
The arrest of Liyaq is yet another case amid other allegations that the Taliban are detaining former military officials who were serving in earlier Afghan governments.
Reports have claimed that the Taliban have been involved in alleged killings and disappearances of former members who served in the Afghan security forces.
Since the Taliban took over Afghanistan, reports have shown the expanding restrictions on the rights of Afghans and issues concerning the continuing presence of terrorist organizations in the country.
Moreover, the Taliban, in Herat, have ordered gyms not to allow men to exercise with teenagers under 18 at the same time, giving a reason that “they will be provoked”.
According to sources, the Taliban have also banned playing music and posting photos of athletes in clubs, local media reported.
The order is the latest in the Taliban’s crackdown on free expression.
The detention of journalists and media workers is yet another example of the Taliban’s atrocities on free expression.
A report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) stated that “The Taliban is still seeking to restrict the media in Afghanistan and restrictions such as censorship, detention of journalists, and pre-release monitoring of international media news programs continue.”
Since the Taliban took over, more than 300 media outlets stopped activity and nearly seventy per cent of journalists lost their jobs, reported Tolo News.
With the consistent arbitrary arrests of journalists by the Taliban, the media in Afghanistan faces ever-increasing restrictions. Around 80 per cent of women working in the media have lost their jobs.
The Taliban made tall promises of equality and inclusive society, during a press conference when they took over control of Afghanistan in August last year.
Due to the displacement of Afghans back to the country by the Taliban, up to 500,000 families in Afghanistan are on the verge of homelessness, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) stated.
The Afghans have been displaced from the Afghan soil due to decades of war, political instability and subsequent economic meltdown that gripped the country since the Taliban took control in August last year.
As a result, several of them settled in enclaves outside of bigger towns that over time developed into informal settlements, reported Khaama Press.
More than 653,000 Afghan refugees have returned or been deported to Afghanistan mainly from neighbouring countries since August 2021, according to official figures from the Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation.
Although the fighting in the country has ended, Afghanistan’s situation has been deteriorating as serious human rights violations continue unabated. (ANI)