The Taliban have detained 29 women and their families in Kabul, a senior US diplomat said on Saturday, adding to concerns about rising numbers of people seized and held indefinitely in Afghanistan.
Women were among 40 people seized on Friday, US Special Envoy for Afghan Women, Girls and Human Rights Rina Amiri wrote on Twitter.
“These unjust detentions must stop,” she wrote.
The post has since been deleted, but other sources confirmed that multiple women had been detained in Kabul.
The US Department of State did not respond to requests for comment on why it was removed.
Earlier on Friday, the Taliban released a group of journalists, including two foreigners, after news of their detention caused an international outcry. They also freed an activist who had disappeared after a women’s rights protest, amid mounting diplomatic pressure including from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
“I am increasingly concerned about the wellbeing of missing women activists in Afghanistan. Several have ‘disappeared,’ some not heard from in weeks,” Guterres had wrote on Twitter on Thursday. “I strongly urge the Taliban to ensure their safety so that they can return home.”
However, other female activists, some of who were abducted from their homes in the middle of the night, have not been set free.
The Taliban police and interior ministry have denied any role in their arrests.
Rights groups denounced the disappearances as a campaign of intimidation, after the Taliban brought in oppressive rules including barring girls from secondary education and women from most work outside the health and education sectors.
“Every disappearance highlights one of the huge gaps in Afghanistan today, the lack of rule of law,” said Heather Barr, associate women’s rights director at Human Rights Watch.
“This is not how you act when you are trying to be a government, and it highlights the callousness with which they seem to think they can just abduct women and sloppily deny it,” Barr said.
There are also concerns about Alia Azizi, a senior prison official who has been missing for more than four months after reporting for work.
Several women who worked for the security forces under the previous government have been attacked and killed since the Taliban came to power.
None of those held have been charged with any crime, or are able to contact lawyers or speak to their families.
The British government has also raised concerns about citizens who have been held for several months.
Cameraman-turned-businessman Peter Jouvenal was seized in December last year.
Friends are concerned about his health and safety; he requires medication for high blood pressure and COVID-19 is rampant in the Afghan prison system.
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