Kabul Mayor appointed by Taliban imposes sharia laws amid talks of being moderate

Kabul [Afghanistan], August 31 (ANI): The newly-appointed Kabul mayor, who is also the head of the Taliban’s municipality commission, Hamdullah Nomani on Monday enforced Sharia law in the capital.

In an exclusive interview with Pajhwok Afghan News, Nomani said that the contractual companies will be paid their dues, roadside vendors will be relocated and corrupt elements will be dealt with in accordance with Sharia law.

Dozens of reports about corruption in the Kabul municipality have been published. Two weeks ago, Pajhwok Afghan News published a report that said municipality employees and police illegally collected around 20 million Afghanis a day from vendors.

The Taliban has been trying to paint a new picture from its earlier rule (1996-2001) when they enforced their version of Islamic Sharia law.

The Taliban earlier ruled in accordance with a harsh interpretation of Islamic law under which women were largely confined to their homes. But now the terrorists have sought to project themselves as a moderate group in recent years when they were negotiating peace talks in Doha. Meanwhile, Afghans remain sceptical.

“What is happening in Afghanistan is completely opposite to the Taliban’s pledge of respecting human rights. Women, minorities and children are the worst affected,” said International Forum for Rights and Security (IFFRAS), a non-profit international think tank.

Soon after capturing the capital city, the terrorist group had announced an amnesty for government officials and assured women of basic rights. “However, the past few days have seen women being punished, people from the minority Hazra community being killed and children being subjected to violence,” the IFFRAS report said.

On August 15, Kabul had fallen to the Taliban and since then people are in a state of terror with increasing cases of human rights abuses being reported from several parts of the country.

In recent weeks, the United Nations has received harrowing and credible reports of the impact on civilians of violations of international humanitarian law, as well as violations and abuses of human rights.

Meanwhile, the Taliban backtracked from its assurances to respect women’s rights in Afghanistan and announced a ban on coeducation. This comes after Shaikh Abdulbaqi Haqqani was appointed as the acting minister of higher education in Afghanistan on Saturday. (ANI)