19,000 People Including 800 Women Imprisoned in Afghan Jails

The deputy head of the Office of the Prison Administration said that around 19,000 people, including 800 women, are currently held in prisons across Afghanistan for various crimes.

In an interview with RTA, the country’s national TV channel, Habibullah Badar stated that there is no private, unofficial prisons in the country. He also denied the reports about detainees facing “torture” in the prison, saying that there is no torture and mistreatment of prisoners.

“There are total of 19,000 detainees in various provinces and districts of the country. Many of them are under investigation. 800 of them are women,” Badar said.

Badar also claimed that there are no political detainees in the country’s prisons. However, he, said that some foreign nationals have been detained on various charges.

“We have prisons across Afghanistan. The surveillance houses belong to the intelligence directorate. No one can prove that there are private prisons in the country,” he said.

Meanwhile, some political and military analysts urged the interim government to launch educational training for the detainees.

“Education is a very important issue for the detainees. The detainees should also be provided with various skills,” said Zahorullah Zahir, a political analyst.

“There should be many craft fields for the detainees, so that they become better after the prison term,” said Ahmad Khan Andar, a military analyst.

This comes as last December, the US Department of State urged its citizens to refrain from traveling to Afghanistan “due to terrorism, risk of wrongful detention, kidnapping and crime.”

“US citizens should not travel to Afghanistan for any reason,” the State department said in statement.