Need prior permission to hold protests: Taliban mandates

Kabul: The interim government in Afghanistan led by the Taliban has reportedly banned all types of protests and slogans against its rule without prior approval from the authority.

The newly appointed interior ministry under Sirajuddin Haqqani, who is a member of the hard-line Islamist group within the Taliban, has issued a notification which warned of severe legal consequences if held demonstration without securing prior permission.

The warning in the form of an official statement came following a series of protests in Kabul and major cities in the country many of which turned violent to the extent of reaching lethal confrontations between the Taliban fighters and the public, including women who oppose the Taliban ruling.

In the recent demonstrations that had seen hundreds of people gathering and raising anti-Taliban and anti-Pakistan slogans, two protesters were reported to have been shot dead.

The notification is also being seen as breaking of earlier promises the Taliban delegation had made on the moderation and inclusivity of women and minorities in the government to the negotiators involved in the Afghan power transitional deal. Though the present government is being called a short term set up to bring normalcy in the country before a proposed full-grown elected government, it is an all-male cabinet.

The partial prohibition on protests came amid evidence that the Taliban is rapidly consolidating its grip on power after its recent conquest of the last areas opposing it in the Panshjir Valley, north of Kabul.