RASC News Agency: Local sources from Kandahar province report that Taliban fighters tortured a young man and burned his books for possessing writings about Ahmad Shah Massoud. On Saturday, June 22, sources revealed that three days earlier, Taliban fighters had beaten a young man on the Kandahar-Kabul highway for carrying Persian books, including poetry and works about Ahmad Shah Massoud, the anti-Taliban commander.
The sources clarified that the young man, a student in Iran, was returning home when he was stopped and interrogated at a checkpoint on the Kabul-Kandahar highway, where his books were subsequently burned. “This young man was a resident of Kabul and did not speak Pashto. The Taliban fighters pulled Persian books from his bag and tortured him,” the sources added.
According to these sources, after discovering the books about Ahmad Shah Massoud and various poetry writings, the Taliban labeled him an “apostate.” The sources further indicated that the Taliban fighters intended to execute him by shooting, but he was eventually released after the intervention of a local elder.
While the Taliban in Kandahar have not commented on the incident, books critical of the group have been banned in Afghanistan bookstores. In recent months, approximately 11,000 books were confiscated from Saeed Bookstore and Publishing, and an additional 10,000 from Amiri Publishing in Kabul.
