Local sources in Laghman province say that members of the Taliban’s Department of Promoting Virtue and Preventing Vice have been forcibly searching citizens’ mobile phones and pockets across the city in recent days.
According to reports, the ombudsmen have been patrolling markets and public roads, stopping and searching young people using abusive language. Some who resisted the searches have been detained and beaten.
Eyewitnesses say that these actions have been ongoing for several days, and that citizens’ concerns about privacy violations have increased.
The Taliban’s Department of Promoting Virtue and Preventing Vice has been accused of harassing citizens on several occasions in the past. Over the past four years, the group has imposed sweeping restrictions on individual freedoms, especially for women, affecting many aspects of people’s private lives.
