Protests against the Taliban in Mazar-i-Sharif

On Tuesday, September 15, hundreds of residents of Mazar-i-Sharif took to the streets to protest against the actions of the Taliban movement. The participants of the rally chanted slogans such as “Death to traitors,” expressing their outrage at the Taliban destroying shops in the city’s commercial area.

Residents of Mazar-i-Sharif complain that in the morning the Taliban attempted to demolish several trading points and shops, and when the owners returned to their workplaces, they faced an attempted attack. According to them, for the past four years, the Taliban had been collecting taxes from these shops, but now they decided to destroy them without any warning.

It is reported that shop owners protested to prevent the demolition of their trading points. Some of them emphasized that these trading points have been in their ownership for forty years and demanded that an alternative location for business be offered before any demolition.

In turn, a representative of the Taliban governor, Haji Zaid, in Balkh province stated that the decision to demolish was made by the authorities in Kabul. A new commercial market is planned to be built on the site of the old shops. According to him, local authorities have already negotiated with the protesters to calm them down.

A former member of the Balkh Chamber of Commerce, Nasim Amiri, reported that the shops are formally owned by the Ministry of Hajj and Religious Endowments of Afghanistan, but were recently transferred to a private company by the decision of the Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs of the Taliban government for the construction of a modern market.

The protesters claim that if the shops are demolished, hundreds of families will lose their source of income, as many of them have been doing business at this location for nearly four decades.

Similar protests have taken place before, particularly in Bamyan province, where residents also opposed the Taliban’s decisions regarding the demolition of private property.

Mazar-i-Sharif, which was previously a center of resistance against the Taliban, has now become a battleground for sharp clashes between protesters and Taliban authorities.

The recent protests in Mazar-i-Sharif indicate that the residents of Afghanistan, especially in the north of the country, disagree with the Taliban’s policies and continue to fight for the protection of their rights.