Taliban shut down Rah-e-Farda TV after coverage of crackdown on Shiite minority

New York, September 7, 2026—Taliban authorities must allow independent broadcaster Rah-e-Farda TV to resume operations, immediately release its owner, Salman Akhlaqi, and end their crackdown on news outlets serving Afghanistan’s persecuted Shiite Hazara community, the Committee to Protect Journalists said on Monday.

On September 6, Taliban security forces raided Rah-e-Farda TV’s office in the capital Kabul, forced the broadcaster off the air, and took Akhlaqi to an undisclosed location, according to media reports and an Afghan journalist familiar with the case who spoke to CPJ on condition of anonymity for fear of Taliban reprisal.

The raid followed mounting pressure on Rah-e-Farda’s management over the station’s coverage of a Taliban crackdown last week on a Shiite Muslim seminary in western Kabul, according to the journalist.

“The closure of Rah-e-Farda TV and detention of its new owner Salman Akhlaqi show the Taliban are determined to dismantle what remains of Afghanistan’s independent media,” said CPJ’s Afghanistan-Pakistan Representative Waliullah Rahmani. “What’s more, the Taliban seem intent on expanding their systematic attacks on news outlets serving the country’s Shiite Hazara community. Taliban authorities should release Akhlaqi without delay and allow Rah-e-Farda to resume broadcasting.”

This is the second time this year that Taliban authorities have closed Rah-e-Farda TV, one of the last surviving broadcasters serving Afghanistan’s minority Shiite community under the group’s ultraconservative Sunni Islamist rule.

In February, Taliban authorities shut down Rah-e-Farda TV for three months and revoked the license of its former owner, Mohammad Mohaqiq, before shifting ownership to Akhlaqi and allowing it to begin operating again.

On June 23, armed officials from the Taliban’s Ministry of Justice raided the Kabul headquarters of Shiite-owned Tamadon TV and closed the station. This week, Tamadon TV announced that it had resumed operations online, but CPJ could not determine whether it was operating from inside Afghanistan or from exile.

Since seizing Kabul in August 2021, the Taliban have brutally repressed the press — particularly women journalists — and allowed a propaganda ecosystem to flourish.

Taliban Deputy Spokesperson Hamdullah Fitrat did not respond to CPJ’s text messages requesting comment.