Taliban Justice Minister Detains Shia Council Chief and Four Members in Ministry 'Private Prison'

Taliban Justice Minister Abdul Hakim Sharei detained Mohammad Ali Akhlaqi, head of Afghanistan's Supreme Shia Council, along with four members — Sayed Nader Shah Bahr, Haji Amir Mohammad Bazel, Sayed Mohsen Hossaini and Sayed Abdullah Hashemi — inside a 'private prison' at the Ministry of Justice in Kabul on Sunday, September 13, 2026, according to sources cited by KabulNow and independently by Amu TV. The five had gone to the ministry to negotiate the release of Shia figures detained a week earlier during the Khatam al-Nabieen seminary crackdown. Sharei reportedly branded the council — said to have been established with backing from Taliban intelligence — a 'political-intelligence institution' engaged in illegal activity and ordered the five held. The detention extends a month-long pattern: Sharei's ministry previously detained four Hazara employees in the same 'private prison' in August. Shia scholars and elders have accused Sharei of 'systematic discrimination' against the Shia-Hazara community through forced displacement and detention without court orders. The Taliban government has not issued a public statement on the detentions.