The militant Islamist Taliban ruling in Afghanistan have arrested a professor who has made a name for himself nationwide with public criticism of their regime.
Taliban intelligence officials took Faisullah Jalal, professor at Kabul University, from his home in the Afghan capital on Saturday, local media reported.
The Taliban did not initially comment on this.
The professor, who belongs to the Tajik ethnic group, had a debate with a Taliban spokesman live on television on November 21.
He criticized the Taliban for suppressing its critics and on one occasion referred to the spokesman as a "calf", a grave insult in the country.
The lecturer for law and political science had already been a frequent guest in television debates in previous years and was known for blunt criticism, which also met ex-presidents Hamid Karzai and Aschraf Ghani.
The video of the discussion made its way onto the internet and went viral, and Jalal received a lot of praise for his courage.
However, many people also worried about his safety.
"The Taliban have never tolerated criticism and free speech," said Patricia Gossman, Asia director of the human rights organization Human Rights Watch, and called for the professor's immediate release.
The Taliban took power in Kabul in mid-August last year after the withdrawal of foreign troops.
Many former government officials have been killed or arrested since then.