KABUL: Professor of the leading Afghan University who openly criticized the Taliban hardline regime was arrested in Kabul, a spokesman for the government said.
Professor Faizullah Jalal has made some appearances at television talks since the US-backed government previously overthrown in August, blamed the Taliban for a deteriorating financial crisis and criticized them to rule by force.
Since returning to power, the Taliban has taken action against differences of opinion, forcibly spread the protest of women’s rights and briefly detain several Afghan journalists.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid tweeted that Jalal had been detained on Saturday for the statements he made on the social media where he “tried to incite people with the people’s dignity”.
“He has been arrested so that other people do not give comments that are equally unreasonable in the name of being a professor or scholar who endangers the dignity of others,” he added.
Mujahid shares a screenshot of tweets he claims has been posted by Jalal, who said the Taliban intelligence head was stooge from Pakistan, and that the new government considers Afghanistan as a “donkey”.
In one television appearance, Jalal was called Taliban spokesman Mohammad Naeem – who also participated – “Betis”, the insult of the grave in Afghanistan.
Clip from his passionate criticism became a viral on social media, triggering fears he risked Taliban retribution.
Wife Jalal Massouda, who had stood as Afghan’s first female candidate for the presidency, posted on Facebook that her husband was arrested by Taliban forces and detained in unknown locations.
“Dr.
Jalal has struggled and speaks for justice and national interests in all activities related to human rights,” he said.
The old professor of law and political science at Kabul University, Jalal has long has a reputation as a criticism of Afghan leaders.
On Twitter, the Group of Rights Amnesty International condemned the capture of lecturers “because it trained freedom of expression and criticized the Taliban”, called for a direct and unconditional release.
The Taliban has formed a cabinet of all men who are fully made from group members, and are almost exclusively from Pashtun ethnic.
They have limited women’s rights to work and learn, trigger widespread international criticism.