CALLS mounted today for the Taliban to free a girls’ education activist arrested earlier this week in Kabul, as an Afghan government minister defended the detention.

Matiullah Wesa, founder and president of Pen Path, a local non-governmental group that travels across Afghanistan with a mobile school and library, was arrested in the capital on Monday.

Since returning to power in Afghanistan, the Taliban have barred girls from school beyond the sixth grade and last year banned women from going to universities.

Mr Wesa has been outspoken in his demands for girls to have the right to go to school and has repeatedly called on the Taliban-led government to reverse its bans. 

His most recent tweets coincided with the start of the new academic year in Afghanistan.

Local reports said that Taliban security forces had detained Mr Wesa after his return from a trip to Europe. 

Ministry of Information and Culture director of publications Abdul Haq Humad defended the detention.

“His actions were suspicious and the system has the right to ask such people for an explanation,” he said in a tweet on Tuesday. 

Mr Wesa’s brother said that Taliban forces had surrounded the family home on that day, beaten family members and confiscated the arrested activist's mobile phone.

Social media activists have created a hashtag to campaign for Mr Wesa’s release. Many posts condemned his detention and demanded immediate freedom for the activist.

Mr Wesa and others from Pen Path have launched a door-to-door campaign to promote girls’ education. 

“We have been volunteering for 14 years to reach people and convey the message for girls’ education,” Mr Wesa wrote in recent social media posts. 

“During the past 18 months, we campaigned house to house in order to eliminate illiteracy and to end all our miseries.”