While it’s not expected to hear good news from a terrorist group in control of a country, these days more than ever, bad news is being disseminated. Simply by daily referring to the news of Afghanistan’s independent media, we see the intensified oppression and subjugation of people by the Taliban. The most significant news of this week was the protests of Afghanistan’s people in Badakhshan and Baghlan provinces against the injustices and assaults by the Taliban on women. Following that, another important news was the armed attack by Kuchis on people in the Behsud district of Maidan Wardak province, behind which the Taliban are once again present. Every day, news of people being abducted, detained, whipped, and killed by the Taliban is published in the free media. If we look at the headlines of yesterday’s news, we see that most of them are close to these events; a situation that indicates the dire condition of the people of Afghanistan.
Here we are only looking at yesterday’s events: yesterday, we started the morning with the news of the arrest of Nida Mohammad Noori, a local journalist in Parwan province, and ended the night with the news of the arrest of Faridun Ryan, a poet, and writer in Khost province. Between these two arrests, many arrests, torture, killings, whippings, and assaults by the Taliban have taken place, some of which have been covered by the independent media. Due to severe restrictions on the circulation of information in the country, not all events – whether good or bad – are covered by the press; but the very few events that receive news coverage indicate that various segments of society are exposed to multiple dangers from the Taliban. Yesterday, after the arrest of Nida Mohammad Noori Parwan, the news of the arrest of a teacher in Panjsher province was reported by the media. Moments later, the press reported the arrest of two former government soldiers and a civilian in Takhar province. An hour after the Takhar report, the media reported that the bodies of two citizens were found in Kandahar province; the body of Noor Mohammad in Shah Wali Kot district and the body of the second individual in the fifth security district of Kandahar city. Since the Taliban’s takeover of the country, cases of targeted yet mysterious killings have increased day by day, and it is the opponents of the Taliban and the forces of the former government security that are targeted, there is no doubt that Taliban fighters and commanders are behind these massacres, and what Mullah Hibatullah called “general amnesty” was an empty slogan and a deception and deceit.
Approximately three hours after the news of the bodies in Kandahar was published, the media reported, citing the Taliban Supreme Court press release, that this group had whipped three individuals on charges of “dishonor, insult, and theft” in Paktia province. After that, the news of the deaths of two citizens in Jawzjan province due to flooding was published. This was the only bad news for which the Taliban were not responsible. Following that, the news of the killing of a 35-year-old man in the Jawand district of Badghis province was reported, which the Taliban claimed was murdered by unidentified armed individuals. However, the reality is that if not all, the majority of these mysterious killings are committed by the Taliban, and often the motive is revenge. Therefore, the likelihood that the Taliban are behind the massacre in Kandahar and Badghis is very high, especially since in Taliban rule, carrying weapons by non-Taliban is difficult. If groups or segments in the country carry weapons, they are supported by the Taliban. The last bad news yesterday was the arrest of a poet and writer in Khost province by the Taliban. Undoubtedly, during this period, many similar events have occurred that have remained out of the media’s reach.
The only good news yesterday was the national futsal team’s ascent in the world rankings.
The question is why there is so much captivity, arrest, and killing. Why can’t Taliban security institutions stop the mysterious killings?
If the second question is answered first, it must be said that Taliban security institutions may be able to prevent or at least reduce the occurrence of mysterious killings in the country, but deliberately they do not control the situation. The reason is that most of these killings are carried out by the Taliban themselves, and the perpetrator in most cases is someone who has an official duty in one of the Taliban security institutions and advocates for ensuring security. Because in most cases, those targeted do not have a favorable view of the Taliban, there is a possibility that this group is targeted for revenge. The Taliban have many opponents in society, only a few of whom are armed and fight against this group in the form of military groups and fronts; the rest of the Taliban’s opponents are not present on the battlefield and are identified and targeted in some cases. Eliminating a Taliban opponent is neither difficult nor costly for a militant or Taliban commander. Even if their members commit the worst crimes, the Taliban do not prosecute them, but they throw people into prison and torture them on flimsy pretexts. There are many cases where suspects, without having committed any crimes, lose their lives under Taliban torture in the notorious prisons of this group. Taliban security institutions are themselves involved in some of these mysterious killings, as reports and accounts of the slaughter of opponents by the fighters of this group and throwing their corpses in public streets have been published before. An example of this was the arrest of a female protester in Balkh province and then her killing by the Taliban, who ultimately threw her corpse beside a road. Therefore, Taliban security institutions are either directly or indirectly benefiting from these killings and do not want to prevent them.
The reason why society is confronted with a wide array of detentions and torture is due to the official policy of the Taliban. The Taliban’s official policy is to instill fear in the people. This group, unable to provide services and appear as a legitimate government entity, intimidates the people to maintain its rule. The Taliban leadership is well aware that the people of Afghanistan strongly oppose this group, and if given the opportunity and space, they will stand against them. In that case, the era of Taliban rule comes to an end. To prevent a popular uprising, the Taliban have no more options: either they keep the people satisfied by providing services and respecting their rights and freedoms, or they intimidate them. Since the Taliban cannot provide services and fundamentally opposes rights and freedoms, only the second option remains for this group: fear. The more violence the Taliban resorts to, the less effective that violence becomes over time, and this group imposes more diverse and severe violence. In this way, they continuously inject fear and terror into society and keep it alive to prevent a people’s uprising.
Sometimes, the detentions and abductions by the Taliban have no justification or reason. A source who has experienced nearly a week of imprisonment in the Taliban’s 40th Intelligence Directorate Prison in Kabul told me that the Taliban detained him from the market and for nearly a week, they did not accuse him of anything, and after extensive physical and psychological torture, they released him. He was puzzled as to why they detained him and why they released him afterward without opening a case for him or accusing him of anything. Such incidents happen frequently, and the reason is that the act of arbitrarily detaining innocent individuals makes society terrified. People even fear their shadows. In other cases, when the Taliban detain someone with or without reason, they tie many baseless accusations to him, sometimes with no rational basis. There have been published accounts and reports where this group has arrested a female protester or a dissenting man on one charge, then forgotten that charge and levied another accusation. These events indicate that the widespread trend of case fabrication and detentions is linked to the Taliban’s official policy and is part of this group’s fear strategy.
You can read the Persian version of this analysis here: