Taliban leader issues warning against 'ungrateful' Afghans on takeover anniversary

Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada warned Friday that God would severely punish Afghans who are ungrateful for Islamic rule, marking the fourth anniversary of the group's return to power with threats against those who oppose their governance.

Akhundzada, who is seldom seen in public, said in a statement that Afghans had endured hardships and made sacrifices for almost 50 years so that their interpretation of the Islamic law, known as Sharia, could be established.

The law had saved people from “corruption, oppression, usurpation, drugs, theft, robbery, and plunder,” he stated.

“These are great divine blessings that our people should not forget and, during the commemoration of Victory Day, express great gratitude to almighty God so that the blessings will increase,” Akhundzada said.

“If, against God’s will, we fail to express gratitude for blessings and are ungrateful for them, we will be subjected to (God's) severe punishment,” he added in a statement shared on the social platform X by the Taliban’s chief spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid.

The Taliban seized Afghanistan on 15 August 2021, as NATO and the US withdrew their forces at the end of a two-decade war.

Since then, they have imposed their own severe reading of Islamic law on daily life, including sweeping restrictions on women and girls, based on edicts from Akhundzada himself.

On Wednesday, at a Cabinet meeting in Kandahar, Akhundzada said the stability of the Taliban government lay in the acquisition of religious knowledge.

He urged the Taliban to increase "religious awareness" among the population, cracking down on what they see as immoral conduct, among other things, according to a statement from another government spokesperson Hamdullah Fitrat.

Akhundzada ordered the Kabul Municipality to build more mosques, and there was a general focus on identifying means to “further consolidate and fortify” the government, said Fitrat.

'We stand, even in the darkness'

This year’s anniversary celebrations are more muted than last year’s, when the Taliban staged a military parade at a former US airbase.

Officials have planned aerial floral showers and a sports display in the capital Kabul. Cabinet members gave speeches earlier Friday listing the administration’s achievements and highlighting diplomatic progress.

Rights groups, foreign governments, and the UN have condemned the Taliban for their treatment of women and girls, who remain barred from education beyond sixth grade, many jobs, and most public spaces.

Some venues for the official anniversary celebrations are off-limits to women because they are forbidden from entering parks and other recreational areas.

Members of the United Afghan Women’s Movement for Freedom staged an indoor protest on Friday in northeast Takhar province against Taliban rule.

“This day marked the beginning of a black domination that excluded women from work, education, and social life,” the movement said in a statement.

“We, the protesting women, remember this day not as a memory, but as an open wound of history, a wound that has not yet healed. The fall of Afghanistan was not the fall of our will. We stand, even in the darkness.”

The country remains gripped by a humanitarian crisis made worse by climate change, millions of Afghans expelled from Iran and Pakistan, and a sharp drop in donor funding.