On Wednesday morning, September 23, Taliban forces raided the residence of former Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul, dispersing a group of people who had gathered to visit him. According to sources cited by Afghanistan International and independently echoed by Atlas Press, Taliban forces intervened and prevented the gathering from taking place. The sources described the visitors as including ethnic elders and said that armed Taliban personnel dispersed them. Neither the Taliban authorities nor Karzai’s office had issued an official explanation. One reported explanation is that the authorities sought to prevent the gathering itself. Another possibility is that the operation was intended to reinforce restrictions already imposed on Karzai’s political and social activities.
A Pattern of Increasing Restrictions
Karzai remained in Afghanistan after the Taliban returned to power in August 2021. Rather than leaving the country permanently, he maintained a limited presence in Kabul and continued receiving Afghan visitors and, on occasion, foreign representatives. As a former president who had governed Afghanistan for thirteen years, Karzai retained extensive political relationships and personal contacts across Afghanistan. He also maintained relationships with former political leaders, ethnic and community elders, religious figures and foreign diplomats. This has made him potentially useful as an interlocutor—but also potentially sensitive from the perspective of a regime that has sought to centralize political authority. Recent reporting indicates that the Taliban authorities have increasingly restricted Karzai’s ability to travel and conduct political and social meetings. In July, he was reportedly prevented from travelling to Kandahar, his home province. Karzai has been also prevented from meeting domestic and foreign political figures, diplomats and other visitors without prior authorization. Reports have further indicated that some of his foreign travel has been restricted, although he has made limited trips abroad, including to Germany, Italy, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom, to pursue reconciliation efforts as well as medical treatment.Taliban authorities have also prevented Karzai from attending some Ashura ceremonies and from attending the funeral of Iran’s former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Furthermore, the senior Taliban officials had urged Karzai to refrain from public commentary on Afghanistan’s political situation, particularly the education of girls.These reports cannot independently establish the full extent of the restrictions, but taken together they suggest that the Taliban authorities have become increasingly uncomfortable with Karzai maintaining an independent political and social profile.
The Massoud and Rabbani Statements
The latest incident also follows two public messages issued by Karzai marking the anniversaries of the assassinations of Ahmad Shah Massoud and Burhanuddin Rabbani. Karzai described Massoud as a heroic mujahid (Freedom Fighter) and Rabbani as a figure associated with peace. The statements were significant because both men remain important historical figures for constituencies that fought against the Taliban during the factional war and the subsequent insurgency. The statements angered Taliban leaders and may have contributed to the latest restrictions on Karzai.
Karzai and the Haqqani Faction
There is another important dimension to understanding Karzai’s changing position: his relationship with senior figures associated with the Taliban Haqqani network. In March 2026, Karzai reportedly met Sirajuddin Haqqani in Kabul during Eid, with the two discussing national unity, sovereignty and recent developments. Another recent report described Karzai visiting the Haqqani family residence in connection with the memorial ceremony for Khalil Ur-Rahman Haqqani. These contacts are relevant because the Taliban administration itself is not politically monolithic. United Nations reporting has identified an important divide between the Kandahari-based faction surrounding Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada and the Kabul-based faction associated with Sirajuddin Haqqani and other senior officials. More recently Hibatullah has moved to consolidate authority around Kandahar and has reduced some of the Haqqani network’s institutional influence. For example in July 2026, the Haqqani’s authority over some appointments were reduced and that certain security assets associated with the Haqqani network were transferred toward Kandahar. Karzai’s longstanding contacts with the Haqqani wing of the Taliban have become politically more consequential as the balance of power inside the Taliban has shifted toward Hibatullah’s Kandahar-centered leadership.
Khaled Ahmad Zekriya, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the still diplomatically recognized Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in Rome, argues that the latest developments should be understood within this broader struggle for political control. In his assessment, Hibatullah Akhundzada does not regard Karzai merely as a retired former president. He sees him as a potential political rival whose continued public presence could create an alternative center of influence among Afghanistan’s Pashtun communities and beyond. As Ambassador Zekriya stated: “The increasingly restrictive treatment of former President Hamid Karzai reflects the Taliban Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada’s determination to eliminate every potential independent center of political influence. Karzai is not an armed opponent of the Taliban; his potential significance lies precisely in the opposite fact—he remains a nationally recognized former president with relationships across Afghanistan’s political, ethnic and social landscape. Hibatullah’s concern is that Karzai’s continued engagement with Afghan elders, political figures and communities could gradually create an alternative channel of political legitimacy outside the Taliban’s tightly controlled system.” Ambassador Zekriya further emphasized that the issue should not be reduced to one incident at Karzai’s residence. “What we are witnessing is not simply the interruption of a meeting at a private residence. It is part of a broader effort to narrow the remaining political and civic space in Afghanistan. When a former president cannot freely travel within his own country, receive Afghan elders, meet foreign representatives or speak publicly about fundamental national issues without fear of reprisal or restriction, the distinction between political containment and de facto detention becomes increasingly difficult to maintain.” This interpretation is consistent with the broader pattern of restrictions reported by Afghan media.
Why Hibatullah May Regard Karzai as a Threat
There are several possible reasons for this apparent sensitivity. Karzai possesses a form of political legitimacy that the Taliban authorities have never fully acquired internationally or through an inclusive national political process. His relationships extend beyond the Taliban’s institutional structure. He can receive ethnic elders, former officials, religious figures, civil society representatives and other Afghans who may not have access to the Taliban’s elusive supreme leader. Moreover, Karzai’s political identity is distinct from that of the Taliban. Although he has called for dialogue with the Taliban and has maintained communication with senior Taliban figures, he has also repeatedly criticized the exclusion of women and girls from education and public life. His contacts with senior Haqqani figures become more significant in the context of the current Kandahar-Kabul power imbalance.
From “Bridge” to Political Prisoner?
For years after the Taliban takeover, Karzai occupied an unusual position. He always attempted to maintain dialogue with Taliban officials while advocating, at various times, for national reconciliation, girls’ education and a political process involving broader segments of Afghan society. That position made him potentially useful as a bridge. But a bridge can function only when political space exists on both sides. If the Taliban authorities increasingly restrict Karzai’s movements, visitors, public statements and political contacts, the former president’s role may change fundamentally—from a tolerated interlocutor to a largely symbolic figure whose political activities are tightly controlled. The Financial Times, in a recent interview with Karzai, described him as living under effective house arrest and reported that he sharply criticized the Taliban’s treatment of women and girls while continuing to call for national reconciliation.
A Broader Pattern of Shrinking Political Space
The reported raid on Karzai’s residence also comes amid other incidents involving political, religious and civic figures. On September 22, local sources reported that Taliban intelligence forces raided the home of Mohammad Hamidi, a Shia cleric in Ghor, with several members of his family and associates reportedly detained or missing. The Taliban had not publicly confirmed the reported detentions. Separately, reporting has emerged about restrictions affecting former officials and political figures. On September 21, the Taliban intelligence had ordered occupants of the homes of several former Afghan officials to vacate those properties, allegedly under instructions originating from the Taliban leader. ZThese incidents are different in their circumstances but nevertheless they contribute to a broader picture of political and social space becoming increasingly regulated by the Taliban authorities.
Ambassador Zekriya argues that the significance of the Karzai incident extends beyond the former president himself. “The Taliban’s treatment of Hamid Karzai reveals a deeper contradiction at the heart of the Taliban regime suggesting not strength, but an unwillingness to tolerate independent political and social centers.” He added: “The international community should not normalize the containment of Afghan political figures as the price of maintaining security dialogue with the Taliban. Engagement is sometimes necessary, but engagement must not become acquiescence. Afghanistan needs a political process, not merely an arrangement in which the Taliban controls the territory while independent Afghan voices are progressively silenced.”
Whatever the precise operational purpose of Wednesday’s incident, its political significance extends beyond one former president. The closure of political space can reduce opportunities for dialogue, mediation and peaceful expression of disagreement. It can also deepen the perception among Afghans that political authority is becoming increasingly concentrated around Kandahar and the Taliban Supreme Leader. For Afghanistan, the larger issue is not whether Karzai is permitted to receive visitors. It is whether there remains any meaningful space in the country for independent Afghan political figures, ethnic elders, religious communities, civil society actors and other constituencies to organize, communicate and participate in shaping the country’s future.
