Four men arrested over violence at Kabul women’s rights march, say Taliban

The Taliban have arrested four men who hit protesters and held journalists at gunpoint to break up a women’s rights’ demonstration in Kabul on Saturday, the spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said.

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.

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, the BBC has reported. It 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 heathcare workers should stay home from their jobs, was further dented by the violent handling of Saturday’s protest.