Local sources in Panjshir province report that four children have died after being struck by a Taliban Ranger vehicle. According to these sources, the incident occurred in Gojol Amraz village, Hesa-e-Awal district of Panjshir, and all four children died as a result.
Several relatives of the children say they were playing at the time of the incident when the Taliban Ranger approached them at high speed, so much so that the children did not even have time to move out of the way. According to these sources, the Taliban threatened the victims’ families after the incident, warning them not to speak to anyone about it or share it with the media. The sources further claim that the families were told to describe the incident as unintentional if asked by others.
At the same time, several Panjshir residents have expressed concern over what they describe as widespread human rights violations and violent treatment by the Taliban in the province. According to them, the Taliban also detain and torture young men on accusations of cooperating with the resistance front, and some of those detained, according to these sources, have died under torture.
Ferdows (pseudonym), a relative of the four children reportedly killed the previous day in Hesa-e-Awal district of Panjshir province, says a Ranger vehicle belonging to the Taliban ran over the children before noon on Friday. According to this source, the incident took place in Gojol Amraz village of Hesa-e-Awal district, and all four children died as a result.
This Panjshir resident says: “The victims included two children from the Azizuddin family, one child from the Mohammad Hanif family, and one child, the grandson of the late Mullah Abdul Raqib. The bodies of the four children were buried at six o’clock in the evening, the same day.” According to him, the victims’ families and local elders have approached Taliban officials to follow up on the incident, but have not yet received a clear response.
Ferdows adds: “The local neighborhood representative and elders have pursued this matter, but so far no one has been detained or prosecuted in connection with the incident. These children were on their normal route and were not in the vehicle’s path, but the Taliban vehicle ran over them.”
Jawid (pseudonym), another relative of the children, also says the four children died in a traffic incident that, according to him, resulted from the high speed of a Taliban military Ranger vehicle. He says, “The Taliban Ranger took the lives of these young children. Unfortunately, the recklessness of Taliban forces driving at dangerous speeds has repeatedly caused fatal incidents in Panjshir province. This is not the first such tragedy, and there is fear it will not be the last.”
Tayeb (pseudonym), a witness to the incident, claims that after the incident, the Taliban threatened the families of the four deceased children not to speak to the media or others about it. He says, “The Taliban deliberately drove a Ranger vehicle into a path that was not meant for vehicle traffic. The children were playing there. The vehicle approached them at high speed, and the children did not even have time to move out of the way. The Taliban Ranger ran over all four children, and all of them died.” According to him, despite the heavy grief they carry, the children’s families are unable to share their pain and suffering with others out of fear of the threats.
Tayeb adds: “The Taliban threatened the families of these children with death and told them not to speak to anyone about the incident or report it to the media. They were also told that if anyone asked about the incident, they should say it was not intentional, that it happened accidentally, and that the children had been playing in an unsuitable location.”
Rohullah (pseudonym), a resident of Panjshir province, says that, in his view, there are widespread cases of human rights violations and violent treatment by the Taliban in the province and against its residents. He says, “Taliban Rangers and motorcycles move recklessly and at high speed on the roads. In addition, they detain and torture young men on accusations of cooperating with the resistance front, and some of them even die under torture.” According to him, Panjshir residents are not safe from Taliban treatment even in Kabul, where their vehicles are repeatedly stopped and searched at checkpoints.
This Panjshir resident says: “The Taliban detain several Panjshiris on charges such as carrying narcotics or cooperating with opposition fronts.”
Rohullah adds that this situation has caused severe anxiety among Panjshiri families. He says: “Panjshiri mothers and fathers, fearing that their children will be detained or harmed, are constantly worried about them and watch over them as if they were young children. We do not feel safe anywhere.”
This comes as, following the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan, numerous reports have been published on the harassment, detention, torture, and killing of dozens of Panjshir province residents.
On Wednesday, sources from Panjshir told the Hasht-e Subh Daily that the Taliban had detained a resident of the province, who had been deported from Iran a few months earlier, approximately one week ago, on charges of cooperating with the resistance front.
These sources said that in recent months, the Taliban have been detaining every Panjshiri who returns to the country from Iran.
The Panjshir Women’s Movement had also previously stated in a released communique that Taliban forces had detained dozens of residents from various districts of Panjshir over the past two months on various pretexts.
According to the movement, the detained individuals were first taken to local checkpoints and then transferred to the provincial center, where they were pressured to pay weapons or money as an “alternative to weapons.”
You can read the Persian version of this report here:
خون کودکان زیر تایر رنجر طالبان؛ خانوادهها به سکوت واداشته شدند
