Taliban arrests prominent Afghan education campaigner Matiullah Wesa, founder of the Pen Path organization [Video]

Afghanistan’s Taliban regime arrested a well-known education campaigner this week for his work and for holding “meetings with Westerners,” as the Islamic hardliners continue their efforts to stamp out dissent and keep girls out of school. The United Nations mission in Afghanistan said Matiullah Wesa, the founder of the Pen Path organization which has spent more than a decade advocating for education access and campaigning against corruption, was arrested Monday in Kabul as he returned from a trip to Belgium.

Matiullah, 30, brought his mobile library and advocacy to some of Afghanistan’s most remote regions in a bid to improve access to education, including for girls, and highlight corruption in Afghanistan’s national educational system.

The Taliban didn’t provide any detail about the reasons for Wesa’s detention, but one senior official with the group confirmed to CBS News that the activist was in “custody” after his arrest, which was “linked to his activities and high-level meetings …