Afghanistan's Taliban have arrested a local BBC employee on charges that he was working with the organization without the authorities' permission, a senior official said Sunday.
Abdul Saboor Salehzai was picked up from his Kabul office on Saturday, foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Osman Sheryar said.
"He will remain in detention until the BBC has removed him," Sheryar said.
Salehzai, who is in his 40s, has been working as an interpreter for the BBC for more than a year.
"The main reason for his detention is his violation of the laws and his renegadeness," Sheryar said, adding that the BBC had ignored repeated official warnings to sack the interpreter.
Salehzai previously worked for the Afghan foreign ministry before the authorities removed him in a purge of around 60 "unfavorable" officials.
The hardline Taliban militia has slapped this label on hundreds of civil servants who were educated during the pre-1992 communist regime in the former Soviet Union or were awarded for their work in Afghanistan's former communist party.
The spokesman however said BBC could continue to work as normal in Kabul and there were no complaints against its correspondent, Kate Clark.
Agence France-Presse, Associated Press, Reuters, Voice of America and Qatar-based Al-Jazira TV also have permanent offices in Kabul.
The Taliban had told foreign media that employment of local staff was subject to foreign ministry approval -- KABUL (AFP)
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