By Abubakar Siddique
June 11, 2024
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
The Taliban government has cracked down on rival Islamist parties in Afghanistan in what is seen as an effort to prevent any future opposition to its hard-line rule.
Since banning all political parties last year, the Taliban has targeted two of its major former rivals. It shut down two Kabul-based TV stations owned by the Hezb-e Islami and Jamiat-e Islami parties, respectively.
Now, the extremist group has cracked down on Harakat-e Islami Afghanistan, closing a TV station as well as a university and seminary accused of having links with the Shi’ite political party.
The Taliban’s clampdown on political parties is part of a wider assault on dissent. After seizing power in 2021, the militants have jailed dozens of journalists, activists, and academics.
‘Relentless Crackdown’
The Taliban’s Justice Ministry on June 8 ordered the closure of Tamadon TV due to its alleged affiliation with Harakat-e Islami Afghanistan. The ministry also alleged that the station was operating on “seized land.”
Tamadon TV, which covered news and current affairs as well as Shi’ite religious programming, has denied the claims.
The station was founded in 2006 by Ayatollah Asif Mohseni, a prominent Shi’ite cleric and leader of Harakat-e Islami Afghanistan who died in 2019.
Mohammad Jawad Mohseni, the director of Tamadon TV, rejected the Taliban’s claims about the broadcaster’s political affiliations. He said Mohseni had resigned as the leader of Harakat-e Islami in 2005, a year before establishing the station.
Global and Afghan media watchdogs have condemned the closure of Tamadon TV.
“The Taliban is expanding its relentless crackdown on Afghan media and suppressing any independent voices,” said a statement by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, which called on the group to “immediately and unconditionally reverse its decision.”
In April, the Taliban shut down Noor TV and Barya TV for “violating Afghan and Islamic values and journalistic principles.”
Jamiat-e Islami owned Noor TV, while Hezb-e Islami ran Barya. The stations ran Islamic programs.
Harakat-e Islami Afghanistan, Jamiat-e Islami, and Hezb-e Islami were all factions of the mujahedin, the Islamist groups that battled the Taliban for control of Afghanistan in the 1990s. Prominent mujahedin figures received prominent roles in the new political order that emerged after the U.S.-led invasion in 2001 toppled the Taliban’s first regime.
‘Narrow-Minded Policies’
On the same day that it ordered the closure of Tamadon TV, the Taliban also announced that it was shutting down Khatam-al Nabyeen University and its madrasah, or Islamic seminary. The same allegations were made against the educational institutions.
“Political parties are abolished in the country,” Barakat Rasuli, a spokesman for the Taliban’s Justice Ministry, wrote on X. “Their media outlets do not have the right to operate.”
“The buildings [of all three] are built on usurped land,” Rasuli added. “This why we have stopped their activities and shut down their offices.”
The TV station, university, and seminary are all part of a sprawling complex in west Kabul, where members of the Shi’ite minority reside. Like Tamadon TV, the university and madrasah were established by Mohseni in 2006.
Mohseni was believed to have ties with neighboring Iran, where he lived for years during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s. Tehran allegedly helped fund the Khatam-al Nabyeen University and seminary as part of its efforts to build influence in the country.
Afghanistan’s Shi’ite community have been increasingly marginalized under the rule of the Taliban, a Sunni militant group.
The Taliban has prevented members of the Shi’ite community, which makes up around 15 percent of the population, from publicly marking important religious festivals and restricted the teaching of Shi’ite jurisprudence in universities in Afghanistan.
Sami Yousafzai, a veteran Afghan journalist and commentator, said the militant group’s closure of Tamadon TV as well as Khatam-al Nabyeen University and seminary “shows the Taliban’s religious bias and its narrow-minded policies.”
“They are against anyone who doesn’t follow their ideology, [including] followers of Islamist groups such as Hezb-e Islami, Jamiat-e Islami, or Harakat-e Islami Afghanistan,” Yousafzai added.