A university student in Afghanistan, known for being highly critical of the Taliban regime, has been arrested in Kabul, with his daughter saying today that she fears "for his health and safety".
Faizullah Jalal, a professor at Kabul University, was arrested by the Taliban yesterday, Saturday, and there has been no word on his fate since. In recent months Jalal had repeatedly spoken out on television against the Islamists who seized power in Afghanistan in August.
The Taliban government spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, justified the professor's arrest by stating on Twitter that Jalal had made frequent posts on social media in which he "tried to convince people to rise up against the system."
"He was arrested to prevent others from making similar silly comments under the pretext of being professors or academics," Mujahid added, also reposting the professor's posts.
What the university professor's daughter says[BR][/B]
His daughter Hasina Jalal, a student at Georgetown University in Washington, explained that these posts were made from a fake account that her family repeatedly tried to shut down in the past few weeks.
"The Taliban are using these posts as an excuse to silence a powerful voice in the country," she said, adding that she has had no contact with her father since his arrest.
"We are very concerned about his health and safety," she stressed.
"How can I abandon my people?"
A revered figure who also criticized the previous US-backed Afghan government, Jalal was in the spotlight when, during a television broadcast, he called a Taliban official an "ox", a very serious insult to Afghanistan.
The clips of this broadcast had gone viral in Afghanistan, raising concerns about possible reprisals against the professor.
According to Hasina Jalal, her father, who is in his 60s, refused to leave Afghanistan, where he was in danger, and had recently been living in hiding in Kabul. His family has sought refuge in Europe.
"He had said to me, 'How can I abandon my people? I didn't abandon them during the first Taliban regime or during the civil wars, how can I abandon them now?"
A professor of law and political science at Kabul University, Faisullah Jalal has a reputation as a fierce critic of Afghanistan's leaders.
During the 1980s he was imprisoned after Soviet troops invaded the country and during the first Taliban regime (1996-2001) he was arrested several times, according to his daughter.
His wife Masuda Jalal was the first female candidate in Afghanistan's 2004 presidential election.
Today a small group of women demonstrated in Kabul calling for his release and respect for freedom of expression.
Amnesty International has called for his release, assessing that the academic was arrested "for exercising his right to speak freely and criticizing the Taliban."
Source: APE-MPA
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