On 12 July 2024, a protest took place in Kabul at a commemoration for Gilaman Wazir, the late Pakistani Pashtun poet at the Eidgah Mosque in Police District (PD) 8 of Kabul. According to media reports, on 7 July 2024, Wazir was attacked by unidentified people in Islamabad, Pakistan, and died of his injuries on 11 July 2024.
Wazir was a member of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM), a group which advocates for the rights of Pashtuns, based in Pakistan’s provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. The group has previously campaigned against the Pakistani military, as well as Islamist movements, including the Taliban, and supported the former Afghan government led by Ashraf Ghani. Gilaman Wazir was a prominent supporter of PTM, and previously openly expressed affection for Afghanistan by reciting poems and appearing with the former Afghan flag. PTM’s leader, Manzoor Pashteen, reportedly confirmed Wazir’s death on 11 July 2024, with the announcement triggering widespread reactions across Pashtun communities in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
A group of mourners initially gathered in front of the Eidgah Mosque in Kabul to perform funeral prayers for Wazir in absentia. According to claims on social media and media reports, a protest erupted as a result of Taliban forces prohibiting the group from performing funeral prayers at Eidgah, one of the largest congregational mosques in Afghanistan, which is mostly used for official state religious ceremonies.
According to a report by Radio Azadi, Taliban forces guarding the mosque told the people that they were instructed to prevent the funeral prayers from happening. The outlet also quoted a protester, who said they had not informed the Taliban and did not coordinate with them about their plans to perform the prayers in the mosque.
Videos of the protests which were circulated on X (formerly Twitter), show a group of men protesting and chanting slogans in Pashto, including, “Lar aw Bar, Yaw Afghan,” (a statement used to claim that Pashtuns living on both sides of the Durand Line are Afghans).
Additional photos and footage indicate that the initial gathering in front of Eidgah mosque entry gate was disrupted by Taliban members. Footage (between 0:08 – 0:12) of the protest shows a gathering of a group of men outside of the entry gate of the mosque. One of the men is seen talking as an alleged Taliban member approaches and asks the protesters to stop, while reaching for the camera which is filming the incident. AW geolocated the footage, as can be seen below.
Figure: Geolocation of a gathering in front of the entry gate of the Eidgah mosque [34.5181842231, 69.1905427394], where protesters had gathered to perform funeral prayers for Gilaman Wazir.
AW then observed and geolocated a large group moving away from Eidgah Mosque towards Chaman Hozori, a local park, where funeral prayers were performed, seen below.
Figure: Geolocation of the protest (right) as the protesters march away from the Eidgah mosque, and the prayers (left) conducted in Chaman Hozori [34.5160498567, 69.1946058943].
Quoting protesters, local media reported that the Taliban attempted to disperse protesters by firing into the air, beating protesters, and confiscating their phones. AW was unable to verify these claims.
There were reports of further attempts to commemorate Wazir’s death in regions outside of Kabul. Unidentified sources told 8am Media that the Taliban prevented funeral prayers from taking place in Paktika and Khost provinces, meanwhile, Afghanistan International reported that several people were arrested in Khost and Nangarhar for attempting to recite funeral prayers for Wazir in absentia.
On 14 July 2024, local media outlet Zala News published an announcement of funeral prayers for Wazir’s death on X, claiming that a commemoration would be held in Kandahar province on the same day. AW was unable to verify whether this commemoration took place.
Taliban reactions to Wazir’s death
While the Taliban did not officially comment on Wazir’s death, reactions from certain Taliban and pro-Taliban accounts were mixed. Some labelled Wazir a critic of the Taliban regime or dismissed the incident as irrelevant, while others condemned the killing and expressed sympathy.
On 8 July 2024, pro-Taliban propagandist Mubariz Kandahari posted a photo on X of Wazir in an unconscious state, expressing happiness [at his death], and calling him an enemy of the Islamic Emirate. Kandahari, who has more than 6,000 followers on X, subsequently published several other posts condemning Wazir and his ideology of non-violence.
Another pro-Taliban social media activist, Jabeer Nomani, with over 61,000 followers on X, labelled the PTM a “fitna” (sedition). He claimed that the movement “disarmed” the youth of Waziristan, including Wazir, transforming them into individuals who only chant slogans. In another post, he referred to Wazir’s death as a Pakistani matter, asserting that it has nothing to do with Afghanistan.
Similar stances opposing Gilaman and his non-violent struggle were expressed by other pro-Taliban propagandists on X, including Qaseem Nangyal (over 101,000 followers), Baryal Kunduzai (over 22,000 followers), Jawad Yaseer (over 29,000 followers) and Yaseen Hamza (over 69,000 followers).
However, on 11 July 2024, Kabul Police Spokesperson Khalid Zadran, who is part of the Haqqani Network led by Sirajuddin Haqqani (current Taliban Minister of Interior), posted a memory about Wazir to his 83,000 followers on Facebook, expressing his “deep sadness” following Wazir’s death.
He detailed Wazir’s family support for the Haqqani Network over the past two decades, and thanked Wazir’s mother for providing food and washing clothes for him and other “Mujahidin.” He also mentioned Gilaman’s cousin, Bilal, as a key commander under Haqqani, who was killed while fighting for the Taliban in Afghanistan. While Zadran acknowledged that Wazir had made some anti-Taliban remarks in recent years, he emphasised that the support Wazir and his extended family had provided to the group in the past should not be forgotten or overlooked.
Similar pro-Gilaman posts were made by other pro-Taliban propagandists, including Pashtun Afghan (over 15,000 followers), Shahab Lewal (over 10,000 followers), and Khplwak Mubariz (over 12,000 followers).
The opposing views between the two Taliban factions escalated, with supporters of Kandahari and Nomani clashing with those of Zadran. Both sides circulated photos from the insurgency era, claiming to prove which of the three were genuine Taliban fighters. Subsequently, other pro-Taliban propagandists launched a campaign against the division within the Taliban and among pro-Taliban social media activists. They posted photos of both pro- and anti-Gilaman factions, calling for patience and peace between them.
While tensions among Taliban supporters on social media have been observed previously on issues like girls’ education and cricket, this was the first time that prominent figures such as Zadran took a clear stance, which resulted in an online escalation between the two camps.