NGO staff arrested

Staff from the Shelter Now International (SNI) NGO in the Afghan capital Kabul were arrested over the weekend for allegedly spreading the word of Christianity and encouraging Muslim Afghans to convert, an official from the NGO confirmed to IRIN on Monday.

The Taliban has introduced the death penalty for any Muslim converting to any other religion and for anyone responsible for causing Muslims to convert.

While reports are sketchy, at least 24 workers, including eight foreigners, have been detained, according to media reports. Those arrested include an Australian, a German and two American women, but details of the nationalities of the other detainees remained unclear, the SNI spokesman in Peshawar, the capital of Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province, Esteban Witzemann, told IRIN.

According to a UN official in Kabul, the two Americans were arrested on 3 August after visiting the house of an Afghan, such visits having been prohibited by the Taliban. The remaining workers were detained on 5 August, the official said.

Meanwhile, the relevant embassies in Pakistan are working to establish a clearer picture of events in Kabul. “We are looking into reports of the arrests,” a spokesperson from the US embassy in Islamabad confirmed to IRIN.

A German embassy spokesman in Islamabad told IRIN that officials were “very concerned” over the situation and would be holding a meeting with officials from the Taliban embassy there.

“It is very difficult to get information and clarity on the situation,” he said. “But we hope to find a quick solution to the problem,” he added.

The Kabul offices of SNI had been closed by the Taliban’s Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, which was currently carrying out an investigation, media reports said.

SNI, a Christian aid agency funded by the UK, Germany and Holland, provides relief to thousands of impoverished Afghans in their homeland and in neighbouring Pakistan.