RASC News Agency: The Taliban have once again intensified their crackdown on dissenting voices, this time targeting a prominent Islamic scholar from Panjshir province. According to local sources, Mawlawi Abdul Malik, the former deputy head of the Panjshir Ulema Council, was detained in Kabul by Taliban intelligence agents and has since been forcibly disappeared, with his whereabouts still unknown. Eyewitnesses report that Abdul Malik was seized near his home in District 15 of Kabul shortly after performing evening prayers at a local mosque. Family members say they have received no official information about his condition or location, and they fear for his health and safety.
“He suffers from serious medical conditions. We have contacted every office we could think of, but the Taliban won’t tell us where he is or what he’s accused of,” said a relative, speaking on condition of anonymity due to security concerns. This is not the first time Mawlawi Abdul Malik has faced Taliban repression. In 2022, he was arbitrarily detained for two years on baseless accusations of affiliation with the National Resistance Front (NRF). No formal charges were ever presented. His family maintains that Abdul Malik has never been involved in political or military activities, but has instead devoted his life to Islamic education and public service.
Sources close to the case believe this renewed detention is part of the Taliban’s escalating strategy to systematically intimidate religious figures, particularly those with influence in Panjshir a province that remains a symbolic stronghold of resistance to Taliban rule. “The Taliban fear clerics who are respected by their communities but don’t serve their ideology. They want total control over every pulpit, every school, and every mind,” said a Panjshiri activist in exile. There are growing fears that Mawlawi Abdul Malik may be subjected to torture or forced confession, as Taliban interrogators are known to coerce detainees into signing false statements linking them to anti-regime groups. Such tactics have become common as the Taliban attempt to silence all perceived opposition under the guise of national security.
Abdul Malik is originally from Abdullah Khil village in Dara district, Panjshir province, and is widely regarded as a moderate scholar who led the Abdul Wahid Islamic Seminary—a respected religious institution in the region. His scholarly background and decades of peaceful community engagement contrast sharply with the Taliban’s harsh and politicized interpretation of Islam. In an alarming pattern of collective punishment, Taliban forces also detained Abdul Malik’s brother, Payenda Mohammad, in April 2025. Mohammad, a former officer with Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security (NDS), was held without charge for three months before being released, likely due to international pressure.
Despite repeated calls for transparency, the Taliban’s intelligence agency has refused to comment on the detention or present any legal basis for Abdul Malik’s arrest further deepening concerns that his imprisonment may be indefinite and unlawful. Human rights advocates warn that such enforced disappearances, especially targeting nonviolent religious leaders, amount to crimes against humanity and reflect the Taliban’s broader effort to eliminate all independent moral authority in Afghanistan. “Every week brings new reports of arrests, beatings, and disappearances. The Taliban want absolute obedience, and they are willing to destroy lives to achieve it,” said a Kabul-based human rights researcher.
International organizations are being urged to intervene urgently and pressure the Taliban to release Abdul Malik or at the very least disclose his location and allow independent access to legal counsel and medical care. Observers warn that in the current climate of fear, even the country’s clerics once considered untouchable are no longer safe. As the Taliban tighten their grip on Afghanistan, stories like Mawlawi Abdul Malik’s underscore the regime’s increasing reliance on surveillance, intimidation, and religious repression not governance, consensus, or rule of law.
