Several residents of Panjshir province complain about the continued harassment of civilians by the Taliban in this province. According to them, the Taliban have accelerated the process of detaining Panjshir residents in this province and the city of Kabul, detaining and imprisoning dozens in recent months.
Some residents of Panjshir claim that the Taliban periodically harass the local people, accusing them of possessing weapons and collaborating with the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRF). They assert that the Taliban detain and imprison “one or two individuals” from the residents of this province and Kabul daily, but most of these incidents are not reported by the media.
Furthermore, over the past two years, the Taliban have imposed strict restrictions, making living conditions challenging for the residents of Panjshir province. However, local inhabitants urge the international community and human rights organizations to exert serious pressure on the group to prevent “human rights violations” by the Taliban in the province of Panjshir.
Nevertheless, findings from the Hasht-e Subh Daily indicate that in the past two weeks alone, the Taliban have detained at least 59 residents of Panjshir from this province and the city of Kabul.
A credible source from a human rights organization, withholding its name in the report, confirmed to the Hasht-e Subh Daily that the Taliban have detained these individuals since October 16 of this year. The source provided the Hasht-e Subh Daily with a list of detained individuals from Panjshir province, stating that the list was compiled based on interviews with the families of the detainees.
According to this list, the Taliban have detained 30 individuals from the area named Pujava, 15 from Abdullah Khel Valley, two from the area named Takhti in Dara district, and two others from Abshar district in Panjshir province. During this period, the Taliban, in two separate incidents at inspection checkpoints in Kabul, opened fire on five young men from Panjshir after verbal confrontations. In the first incident on October 14, the Taliban stopped and opened fire on a young man from Panjshir named “Abdul Aziz” at the inspection checkpoint in the Kolola Poshta area after a verbal altercation. On October 25 this year, in a similar event in Kabul, the Taliban opened fire after a verbal dispute, killing four young men who were originally from the Panjshir province.
Sources identify two of these young men as Shams-ul-Rahman and Mohammad Yousuf, stating that one of them is a resident of the Darah district, and the other is from the Hesa-e Awal district of this province. The identities of the other two individuals remain unclear. According to sources, the Taliban stopped these young men at a checkpoint in the Darul Aman area of Kabul and requested identification.
These sources added that Taliban members criticized the traditional attire of these four young men, leading to a verbal altercation. Following the verbal dispute, the Taliban members reportedly opened fire on Shams-ul-Rahman, Mohammad Yousuf, and the other two individuals.
Sources claim that the Taliban have threatened the families of these young men, warning them not to publicize their killings through the media.
Nevertheless, some civil society activists in Panjshir dispute the statistics provided by human rights organizations, claiming that the number of detainees in recent months exceeds the figures reported by these organizations. Guholam Farooq, a university professor and one of the civil society activists in Panjshir, emphasized to the Hasht-e Subh Daily that the Taliban detain, on average, one or two individuals daily from various parts of Panjshir or areas around Kabul. He stated, “There is not a day that the Taliban do not detain one or two residents of Panjshir from villages of this province and Kabul, but people try to keep it from becoming a media issue. The perception of the people is that any case that becomes a media issue becomes more problematic. The Taliban tell the detained individual, ‘You must have been an important person that you have become a media issue.'”
Residents of the province also assert that the Taliban occasionally harass and detain people in the area, accusing them of possessing weapons and collaborating with the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRF).
Ahmad (pseudonym), one of the residents of Panjshir, stated in an interview with the Hasht-e Subh Daily: “Currently, you won’t find any family in Panjshir that doesn’t have one or more of its members or relatives imprisoned in Taliban prisons.” Ahmad added, “Even in all gatherings, both male and female, Panjshir residents talk about their imprisoned family members and console each other. No one asks about the harassment and troubles people face from the militants in Panjshir… In short, we are in a dire situation.”
Alongside this, the Taliban, over the past two years, have imposed strict restrictions, making living conditions challenging for the residents of Panjshir in this province.
Ghulam Farooq, a university professor and one of the civil society activists in Panjshir, stated: “The harassment by the Taliban in Panjshir continues with the same intensity as it started. For instance, residents within Panjshir are not allowed to inquire about someone’s whereabouts during their phone calls, as the Taliban consider it a crime to ask why someone asked about the individual’s location. In some cases, residents have been detained for asking such questions.” Farooq added, “On the other hand, like in the past, their checkpoints in villages have increased, making it difficult for people to move around. There are multiple inspection checkpoints in every village.”
However, civil society activists and residents call on the global community and human rights organizations to exert serious pressure on the Taliban to address the “violation of human rights” in Panjshir province.
This comes as the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) office recently announced in a report that the number of prisoners in Taliban prisons has surpassed 17,000 individuals by mid-September of the current year. This figure indicates an increase in Taliban detainees compared to 2022 when the average number of prisoners was 10,000.
However, the Taliban remain unresponsive to any inquiries or accountability regarding such actions.