KABUL: Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid responded to a US State Department report on religious freedom by saying that "the religious and civil rights of all minorities in Afghanistan are protected."

The spokesperson said on Twitter on Sunday that the State Department's report findings on religious freedom in Afghanistan are "incomplete" and based on "fake facts." "All of our Sunnis, Shias, Sikhs, and Hindus are free to pursue their faith," he noted.

According to the State Department, "severe violations" of religious freedom occurred in China, Pakistan, Iran, Russia, Myanmar, and India in 2022.

After the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan last August, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said that  the group's basic rights for women and girls were violated, and the regime's ideological restraints impeded women and girls' liberties.

Blinken further said that once the Taliban assumed power, the Taliban created the basis for the Islamic State (IS) terror group to operate in Afghanistan and that religious minorities, particularly the tens of thousands of Afghans, were under attack from the Taliban.

The report added that the US Commission on International Religious Freedom earlier advised the State Department to place Afghanistan at the bottom of religious freedom rankings.  The committee described the Taliban's rise to power as a "disaster" for Afghanistan's religious freedom. The Taliban, on the other hand, claims to have established and protected all religious rights.

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