Shiite cleric’s office in Kabul closed; Behsudi: Taliban decision was without investigation.
Continuing the Taliban’s pressure on critical religious figures, prominent Shiite cleric Waizzada Behsudi announced that his representative office in western Kabul had been closed by the group.
Behsudi said in a statement on Wednesday that his office had been sealed by the Taliban’s Ministry of Justice and that its teachers, students, and office members had been expelled. He added that the allegations against his institution were “baseless” and that some individuals had “conspired and plotted” to deceive the Taliban.
According to him, the complaints initially led to the arrest of four of his colleagues, but the detainees were released after the charges were not proven in court. However, Behsudi stressed that the Taliban had closed the office completely without an investigation.
The religious authority also announced that he would step down from the leadership of the Mahdavieh Mosque and School in Kabul.
In recent years, Vaezzada Behsudi has repeatedly criticized the Taliban’s approaches, especially towards different ethnicities and religions. He recently warned in a speech in Balkh that the Taliban will not achieve stability without accepting ethnic and religious diversity and engaging with the international community.
He called on the Taliban to respect the customs, culture and religious beliefs of the people and transform the current administration into a national structure. According to him, “If we have a national administration, the world cannot eliminate or ignore us.”
