Calls mount for Taliban to free girls’ education activist

ISLAMABAD (AP) — A top U.S. diplomat says the Taliban must free detained Afghanistan activists, following the arrest of a girls’ education advocate. Matiuallah Wesa, the founder and president of Pen Path, a local nongovernmental group that travels across the country with a mobile school and library, was arrested on Monday. The U.S. charge d’affaires for Afghanistan said late Tuesday that Wesa and others should work unhindered as their voices reflect the will of the people. A Taliban government official said Wesa’s actions were “suspicious” and that the system had a right to bring him in.