Taliban, facing armed resistance in Panjshir and Andarab after Seizing control of Afghanistan, has been accused of widespread harassment and persecution of residents in these regions over the past nearly three years. According to sources, the group has detained and tortured hundreds of young men and adults from Panjshir province and Andarab regions. Sources in these areas claim that Taliban fighters are establishing bases among people’s farmlands and homes. Residents allege that the Taliban forcibly displaced people and relocated their families instead.
Some residents of Andarab in Baghlan province report that alongside establishing military bases among their farmlands, the Taliban also forcibly relocate families living near these bases. According to these residents, the Taliban have constructed roads over people’s lands to connect their bases built on hilltops.
A resident of the Deh-e Salah district in the Andarab region told the Hasht-e Subh Daily that the Taliban have seized, schools, and health centers in villages such as Dara Jar, Bidkalo, Kasatarash, and Taghanak Masjid and are using them as military bases.
This source adds that the Taliban have constructed four military bases in each village and forcibly displaced at least 80 families living around these military bases, relocating their own families to those areas.
Furthermore, the source mentions that the Taliban have occupied a 50-bed hospital in the village of Bidkalo and a health center in the village of Dara Jar in the Andarab region, using them as military bases.
Residents of this area explicitly state that they are forced to transfer their patients to the city center and Deh-e Salah district, covering a considerable distance, and on the way, they face unwarranted inspections by the Taliban.
Simultaneously, another source indicates that the group is using six mosques in the villages of Kasatarash and Dara Jar, and one school in the village of Bidkalo as military bases, resulting in hundreds of students being deprived of education.
Furthermore, according to residents, the Taliban have seized a building in the village of Dara Jar, previously used as a school by the local community which was built by the Aga Khan Foundation for the children’s education.
Sources suggest that Dara-e Qasan in Andarab is one of the strategic areas in the region where the Taliban have taken control of all its vital points to repel attacks from the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRF) and other armed opposition groups.
This comes as the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) previously stated that the Taliban continue to detain former military personnel, especially in the provinces of Kabul and Panjshir. UNAMA added that extrajudicial killings of former government employees and military personnel have been documented in various provinces.
According to the UNAMA report, most individuals have been detained on charges of “collaborating with the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan.”
Human Rights Watch also stated in a statement that Taliban fighters in Panjshir province have unlawfully detained and tortured residents accused of having connections with the NRF, which according to the organization, “constitutes a war crime.”
