In the past month, the Taliban have reportedly killed more than 50 citizens of the country, including former military personnel, women, elderly men, youths, and children. The group continues its practices of detention, torture, humiliation, and imprisonment of its opposition forces. Citizens of the country claim that these murders are only a fraction of the cases that have been covered by the media, as many other instances of Taliban-induced fear go unreported, and media outlets struggle to access information. According to them, the Taliban’s declaration of general amnesty is a lie, and former military personnel should not trust this group. While credible sources attribute these killings to the Taliban, there are also numerous cases where unknown gunmen are implicated. Nevertheless, reports from the United Nations and other human rights organizations indicate widespread instances where the Taliban have engaged in killing, detaining, and torturing both former military personnel and civilians.
Following the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, militants have repeatedly targeted both former military personnel and civilians in public executions. In the past month alone, the group is reported to have killed more than 50 citizens, including former military members, and attributed the assassination of dozens to unidentified gunmen.
While these killings are linked to unidentified gunmen, the residents of the country, as well as the Taliban and affiliated groups, accuse each other of widespread and targeted killings. According to them, aside from the militants of this group, others do not have the right to bear arms.
Recently, a Taliban commander named Khaksar allegedly shot death two young individuals from the Hazara community in the Dasht-e Barchi region of Kabul, the capital. Sources say that these two young individuals were killed last Tuesday by Taliban militants in the Unchi Baghbanan area of this region, and the group informed their families that “they were thieves.”
Meanwhile, in response to these events, some residents claim that dozens of individuals are killed daily by the Taliban in Kabul, but due to Taliban warnings, the families of the victims do not disclose details to the media.
A Kabul resident, who wishes to remain anonymous, reports that a former military member disappeared last week in the Bagh-e Dawood area of the fifth district of Kabul. However, after two days, his body was found. According to the source, when the family members of this former military personnel approached the Taliban-controlled forensic medicine, the officials of this group showed them a list of 37 names to identify the deceased.
In pursuit of targeting, detaining, torturing, and killing former military personnel, the Taliban have reportedly killed Abdul Basheer, a commander of the previous government’s People’s Uprising Forces, and his pregnant wife in the village of “Katta Qorooq” in the Ishkamish district of Takhar province. According to sources, Mullah Amir Khan, the head of the Taliban’s public works in Takhar province, and Qari Feroz, the intelligence chief of this group in the Ishkamish district, are responsible for the killing of this former military personnel.
Before him, Mohammad Dawood Wahdat, a former military officer and intelligence official for the Taliban, was killed in front of his house in the Nili district center, Daikundi province.
In the past month, the Taliban have resorted to killing civilians, including elderly individuals. A Taliban fighter killed an elderly man named Ismail in the Surma village of Nawur district, Ghazni province, while he was heading towards the mosque. Similarly, a man named Jamal in the Nghloo area of Surobi district, Kabul province, has been shot by the Taliban.
Continuing their spree of killing civilians, the Taliban targeted Padshah Khan Niazi, a prominent tribal leader in the Dery Niazi area at the center of Khost province. However, they did not detain the accused and allowed him to move freely.
In response to escalating pressures on women, the Taliban have executed a woman on charges of traveling with a non-relative male in the province of Faryab. A video circulating on social media shows the Taliban interrogating a woman. Sources report that the body of this young woman was found in the Khwaja Osman village of Almar district, Faryab province.
Children, too, have not been spared from Taliban gunfire in the past month. Fighters of this group have killed a 10-year-old child in the Paykamar region named “Rezaha”, affiliated with the city of Firuzkoh, the capital of Ghor province. According to sources, the Taliban intended to kill his father, who had been targeted and wounded.
Mysterious killings and attributions to unidentified gunmen have also been unprecedentedly reported, especially in Herat, over the past month. According to local sources, unidentified gunmen have shot and killed a 33-year-old man named Abdul Ghafoor in the Qasr Anbiya village, Guzara district, Herat province.
Two Shiite religious scholars named Sheikh Rajab Akhlaqi and Khadem Hussein Hedayati, along with six others, were shot in front of the “Sayyed al-Shohada” mosque in the Jebrail area. Additionally, a 60-year-old man in the Ghoran village, Guzara district of this province, was killed by unidentified gunmen.
Numerous killings have taken place in Herat in the past month, most of which are attributed to the Taliban. According to sources, unidentified gunmen have killed a young man in front of the Herat Regional Hospital, as, apart from the Taliban, no one else is allowed to carry weapons within the city.
In the past month, the province of Nimruz has also witnessed a series of systematic killings of both civilians and military personnel. According to sources, Taliban fighters, operating under the guise of unidentified gunmen, have shot and killed a young man named Yargul in the first district of Zaranj city.
Over the past two years, former government prosecutors have been repeatedly subjected to Taliban interrogations. One prosecutor named Naqeebullah, along the Kabul-Nangarhar route, was reported missing. His body was later delivered to his family with visible signs of torture. Sources attribute his killing to the Taliban.
Women and girls, under the Taliban regime, not only face deprivation of their basic human rights but also become victims of killings, torture, and detention. In the past month, two women in the provinces of Balkh and Faryab, whose deaths have been attributed to unidentified gunmen, were killed. Sources report that the Taliban publicly lashed and then shot a 35-year-old woman named Gulalay in the Chamtal district of Balkh province, in front of her children and husband. Another woman was killed by the Taliban in the Pushtun Kot district of Faryab province.
Meanwhile, in Parwan province, there have been unexplained killings of girls and former military personnel. Some families hesitate to report these incidents due to threats and revenge motivations from the Taliban. Sources report the death of a 19-year-old girl in the village of “Badamak Qalandar” in the Surkh-o-Parsa district of Ghorband Valley, but specific details about her murder remain undisclosed. Previous instances of such killings have been linked to the Taliban, as per sources.
Nevertheless, some residents of the country dismissed the Taliban’s general amnesty as a “lie.” Ahmad, a resident of Kabul, claims that dozens of “elderly and young” individuals are detained and their bodies handed over daily. According to him, this group does not believe in its general amnesty and considers it a trap to deceive its opposing forces.
Previously, Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) confirmed extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detentions, torture, and disappearances of officials and former government personnel by the Taliban. According to these entities, more than two years after the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, their retaliatory massacres have not ceased.
