Uzbek Foreign Ministry denies reports on Taliban banning Uzbek language in Afghanistan

TASHKENT. Aug 31 (Interfax) - The leadership of the Taliban (terrorist organization banned in Russia) has reiterated that the Uzbek language will remain one of the official languages of Afghanistan, the Uzbek Foreign Ministry said on Telegram on Tuesday.

"A Taliban representative has confirmed that the Uzbek language, along with the Pashto and Dari languages, will remain one of Afghanistan's official languages. The country's new leadership will attach importance to its study and development in Afghanistan, according to the Taliban's official representative," the Foreign Ministry said.

Uzbekistan asked the Taliban to comment on social media posts claiming that they have removed the Uzbek language from the curriculum in Afghanistan's school, the ministry said.

"I'd like to inform you that, in a conversation between an Uzbek Foreign Ministry representative and the Taliban's official leadership, said information was dismissed by the Afghan side as untrue," it said.

Some ill-informed analysts and journalists "publish utterly distorted and false information in pursuit of dubious sensation and scandalous facts," the ministry said.

Uzbek First Deputy Foreign Minister Farkhod Arziyev said at a plenary session of the Senate (the upper chamber of the Uzbek parliament) on August 26 that Uzbekistan has maintained contacts with the Taliban for several years and views them as "an undisputable factor of Afghan society."