AFGHANISTAN: The Voice of America (VOA) recently reported that the Taliban issued a harsh dictum to stifle criticism of its regime and punish those who dare criticize the “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan“ and its scholars and other public officials with words, gestures, newspaper reports or anything else.
Taliban spokesperson, Zabiullah Mujahid, issued these new “instructions”, citing their leader Mullah Hebatullah Akhundzada. It clearly stated the implementation of these “instructions” was part of a larger “Sharia responsibility” of the people and the media.
The so-called “Sharia responsibility” of the people comes to the forefront in the backdrop of reports of arrests, tortures and killings of Taliban dissidents and defectors who have criticized the regime on multiple accounts, including its violation of human rights and women’s rights to freedom of education.
These official instructions also emerge weeks after an Islamic religious scholar from Herat, Mujibur Rahman Ansari, urged the participants at the “Great Meeting of Scholars” in Kabul to issue a fatwa, condemning all Taliban opponents to incarceration and beheading.
VOA has mentioned that these guidelines are meant to prevent “negative propaganda” that result in the spread of false information and “unconsciously helps the enemies”. However, the Taliban are yet to specify who these “enemies” are.
Additionally, the “instructions” also state that if any citizen “touches any soldier, or pulls his clothes, or says bad things to him, he will be punished appropriately”.
At present, the Taliban faces a strong opponent from inside the nation’s borders, the “National Resistance Front” which has accused the authoritarian regime of “arresting, killing and injuring civilians.” A UN report published earlier this week reported 18 extrajudicial killings, 54 instances of torture and ill-treatment and 23 cases of isolated detention of individuals linked to the National Resistance Front.
Heavier impositions of censure, surveillance and threats will fail to dampen criticism and opposition. On the contrary, they will only invigorate people to oppose the fundamentalist government more and rebel even harder against their radical “instructions”.
Baitullah Hamidi, a professor of Journalism at Kabul University, wrote on Facebook that this situation will “make the oppression and violence in the country stronger and more frightening.”
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