Taliban besieges Kabul seminary and orders evacuation
Taliban authorities have besieged the Khatam al-Nabiyyin seminary in Kabul and ordered it to be evacuated, sources in the city said.
Sources said Taliban forces surrounded the seminary on Saturday, 5 September, and told officials and students to leave the building. According to the sources, some students were still inside the premises at the time of publication.
Based on the information from the sources, forces affiliated with the Taliban’s Ministry of Justice have been stationed around the centre with military equipment. Videos circulating on social media also show military vehicles carrying the Taliban’s white flag entering the grounds of the Khatam al-Nabiyyin seminary.
The sources said the move was carried out on the orders of Abdul Hakim Sharaei, the Taliban’s acting justice minister. The Taliban had not given any official explanation by the time of publication for why the educational and religious centre was being besieged.
A reliable source in Kabul told Afghanistan International that the Taliban also took control of Khatam al-Nabiyyin University last week and appointed a president and four vice-presidents for the institution. According to the same source, pressure on institutions linked to the group had begun earlier as well.
Tamadon TV has also remained closed since the seventh of Muharram on the order of the Taliban’s acting justice minister. On 23 June this year, forces linked to the ministry went to the media outlet’s headquarters in Kabul, stopped its broadcast and arrested Mohammad Rahmati, the editor-in-chief of Tamadon TV, and Mohammad Reza Ehsani, one of the channel’s employees; both were later released.
The Taliban Justice Ministry had previously said Tamadon TV’s operations would be halted because of its links to the Islamic Movement of Afghanistan and its use of land that the ministry considers to have been “seized.” Tamadon TV, however, said the land ownership case was still under review in a Taliban court and no final ruling had been issued.
This is not the first dispute by the Taliban Justice Ministry over institutions and properties linked to Shiites in Kabul. In 2024, reports said the ministry had demanded the evacuation of about 100 homes in Kabul’s Sanatorium area, and sources said a Shiite mosque in the same area had also been sealed. The Taliban Justice Ministry has also ordered residents of Omid Sabz township in western Kabul to vacate their homes.
Khatam al-Nabiyyin seminary is a Shiite religious educational centre on Darulaman Road in Kabul, founded in 2007 at the initiative of Mohammad Asif Mohseni. In addition to seminary studies, the centre has been active in academic, research and cultural fields, and is regarded as one of the best-known educational centres for Afghan Shiite students and clerics.
