Taliban arrest well-known activist, doctor in Kabul

Kabul Oct 4 (EFE).- The Taliban have arrested Malay Wali, a renowned women’s rights activists, doctor, and director of the Afghan Red Crescent Society in the eastern Khost province, her family members told EFE on Monday.

“Last night around midnight the Taliban fighters raided our house in Kabul’s Police District-15 and took my mother with them to an unknown location without any explanation,” Wali’s son Edrees Ehsaas said.

Ehsaas said the family still does not know the doctor’s whereabouts.

In the past Wali had worked as a doctor at a hospital in Khost, where she attended to poor women, before taking up a post in regional administration and later working as a TV host.

Since May, she had been working as the provincial director of the Afghan Red Crescent Society, equivalent to the Red Cross.

After the Taliban took full control of the country on Aug. 15, Wali fled to the capital fearing retaliation for her work.

“The entire family is in shock and extremely worried about the fate of our mother,” Ehsaas said.

He alleged that the armed men raided their house at night despite the Taliban leaders explicitly banning this kind of action.

Moreover, the Islamists had declared a general amnesty for officials of the ousted government when they captured Kabul in August, promising to pardon even those who had worked for foreign troops.

“I don’t know why they have violated their own amnesty,” the activist’s son said.