Taliban Nab Four Men Over Violence At Kabul Women’s Rights March

• Say men ‘mistreated the women and a reporter’
• Tell Afghans it is ‘not a time for protest’

The Taliban have arrested four men who hit protesters and held journalists at gunpoint to break up a women’s rights demonstration in Kabul.

The demonstration came amid fierce fighting in Panjshir valley, the last holdout of anti-Taliban forces from the fallen government, and as Afghanistan waits for the country’s new rulers to reveal how they plan to govern.

Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said the four men, who assaulted the women and journalists, were from a checkpoint, adding; “They mistreated the women and a reporter from Al Arabiya.

“Police from the intelligence department came, put the situation under control and arrested them [the Taliban],” he told the Guardian.

Mujahid however refused to guarantee a right to protest when asked if women could safely come out on the streets again.

“It’s not a time for protest as [Taliban control] is new and all offices are closed. And we witnessed the airport explosions, insecurity will occur. They should be patient and wait for the government to establish, then they can have demands. We ask people to not cause disruption for themselves and the authorities”, he said.

According to the BBC reports, a female police officer was shot dead at her home in central Ghor province, in a targeted killing in front of relatives, and relatives blame the Taliban

This is the latest in multiple accounts of apparent reprisal killings across the country, despite Taliban promises that they would not seek revenge on former enemies.

Taliban efforts to shed their historic image of brutality and oppression, already badly undermined by an order that all women except healthcare workers should stay home from their jobs, was further dented by the violent handling of Saturday’s protest.

Images of the bloodied face of one protester spread rapidly on social media, and other protesters said Taliban fighters used teargas and beat them with rifle butts.

The militants also forced foreign journalists covering the demonstration to the ground at gunpoint, and hit at least one before he was released.

The Taliban have promised women their rights will be protected, but only with an Islamic framework that they have not defined. “Since the Taliban took over, I didn’t go to my office,” said one protester at the Kabul demonstration, adding that; “I didn’t try to go back to work, because they’ll harm me if I do.”

Farhat Popalzai, a 24-year-old student who went to the demonstration, said she was speaking for Afghan women who were too afraid to come out.

“I am the voice of the women who are unable to speak. They think this is a man’s country but it is not, it is a woman’s country too”, Popalzai said

The makeup of the new government remains uncertain, with any announcement pushed back until next week amid reports of heated disagreement between hardliners in the Islamist movement and those wanting to pursue a more inclusive line.

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, reported by some Taliban sources to be in line to lead the new government, told Al Jazeera the new administration would include all factions of Afghans, saying; “The government will provide security.”

But in a reminder of deep-seated hostility, Taliban fighters have disfigured a mural showing the face of the anti-Taliban figurehead of the 1990s, Ahmad Shah Massoud. They have blacked out the faces of women elsewhere and entirely painted over many murals, including ones promoting healthcare and warning of the dangers of HIV.

These have been replaced with plain black-and-white slogans. A Taliban spokesperson, Ahmadullah Muttaqi, said the murals were “against our values”.

Massoud’s son Ahmad Massoud is one of the leaders in a resistance movement, centred around commando fighters from the fallen government, trying to hold out in the Panjshir valley, north of Kabul.

It is the last anti-Taliban stronghold in Afghanistan after the group’s lightning takeover of the rest of the country last month, and has a storied history of resistance through the 1980s and 1990s, first against Soviet forces, then against the previous Taliban government.

Now though, the valley is entirely surrounded, and supply lines that supported past resistance movements have been cut off. International observers have said the rebels’ chances of holding out against the Taliban army, now lavishly equipped with weapons and ammunition seized from US-backed forces, look slim.

The Taliban have already pushed deep into the valley, although both sides made competing claims about their military success.