Kabul:

Afghanistan’s Taliban Authorities have arrested no less than 18 workers of a world NGO, together with an American girl, accusing them of finishing up Christian missionary work, the nation’s leaders stated Saturday.

The Worldwide Help Mission (IAM) confirmed its staffers had been picked up from its workplace in Ghor province, central Afghanistan, and brought to the capital Kabul.

Safety and intelligence forces had been observing the group for a while, Abdul Wahid Hamas Ghori, a authorities spokesman for the province, informed AFP.

“Paperwork and audios had been obtained that confirmed they had been inviting individuals to hitch Christianity,” he stated, with out offering additional particulars.

He stated 21 individuals had been arrested, together with an American girl.

IAM stated in a press release earlier that 18 individuals, together with a “foreigner”, had been being held and that it had no details about the character of the allegations.

The American girl and two Afghan workers had been the primary to be detained on September 3, adopted by 15 extra Afghan workers on Wednesday.

“Ought to any fees be lodged in opposition to our organisation or any particular person workers member, we’ll independently evaluation any proof offered,” it added.

IAM’s web site says the organisation is based on Christian values, however that it doesn’t present support based on political or non secular perception.

“We worth and respect native customs and cultures,” the Swiss-registered group stated in a press release on Saturday.

IAM has operated in Afghanistan since 1966 — by earlier royal, communist and Taliban governments — when it specialised in eye care, later branching out into different areas of well being and training.

In 2010, 10 IAM medics, together with eight foreigners, had been shot useless in an assault in distant northern Afghanistan.

On the time, competing theories emerged over the motive for the assault, with police saying it was probably a theft.

Nonetheless, two teams claimed accountability, together with Taliban leaders who stated the medics had been Christian missionaries and accused them of working as navy spies.

Dozens of foreigners — together with a number of Westerners — have been detained by the Taliban authorities for the reason that group’s return to energy in August 2021.

The Taliban rulers have imposed sweeping restrictions on the inhabitants they are saying are according to their strict interpretation of Islamic Sharia legislation — together with barring ladies from working for NGOs and the United Nations.

Teenage women and girls are additionally banned from faculties and universities, and excluded from many different formers of public social life.

(Aside from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV workers and is printed from a syndicated feed.)