HRW slams ‘ruthless’ Taliban as new law bans protest

Afghanistan's Justice Ministry has published an 84-page police law that bans all types of protests nationwide, according to Human Rights Watch, which called it part of a “ruthless effort to suppress all dissent” by the Taliban government.

The law also extends detention without charge from three days to 10, and this month intelligence officials held two U.N. employees for 11 days without explanation. Amnesty International called the protest ban among the law's “most egregious provisions.”

Demonstrations have already been rare under Taliban rule; U.N. experts say at least two people were killed in June when security forces opened fire on a women's rights protest in Herat. The Afghan government did not respond to requests for comment.

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