From May to July 2023, the Taliban detained around 200 individuals in different provinces for various charges. Among those held were 14 former military personnel, 70 elderly members of ethnic communities, one human rights activist, two journalists, two teachers, one comedian, three religious scholars, one attorney, and two guards of political and business figures. Additionally, 40 individuals were accused of listening to music, 30 of gambling, six were family members of a former parliament representative, 12 were alleged members of the National Resistance Front (NRF), and five were detained for resisting the Kuchis.
These are just some of the individuals arrested by the Taliban during these months. Moreover, there have been numerous other citizens detained on various charges. It is important to note that the numbers mentioned in this report are based solely on media reports, and the actual number of detainees may be higher. Many of the arrests made by the Taliban are not being publicized due to security concerns raised by the families of the detainees.
On the first days of their control over Kabul, the Taliban, led by Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, their supreme leader, announced a general amnesty order. According to this order, they stated that no one should face harassment or persecution due to their past opposition to the group. Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban spokesperson, announced this order during his first press conference on August 17, 2021.
However, over the past two years, the group has not followed this general amnesty order, as they continuously detained and mistreated security forces, former government employees, and other citizens. In some cases, they even resorted to killings. The information provided in this report is categorized based on dates.
Sources report that Abdul Hamid Khorasani, a Taliban commander, detained two nephews of Engineer Ali, aged 16 and 17, in Panjshir province. These two teenagers were subjected to electric shock torture and forced to make coerced confessions. Engineer Ali was the head of the former government’s National Security Command in this province.
The Taliban continues their arrests, and most recently, they detained General Hussein Khan Sangin, a retired army general of the previous government, in Kabul. They took him into custody from the 315 Khairkhana area and transferred him to an undisclosed location. General Sangin had served as the commander of the Afghan Public Protection Force (APPF) and was a prominent figure in the Faraj village of Panjshir province.
The arrests of former military personnel by the Taliban have been ongoing for the past two years. On May 23, two officers of the former government’s army named Muslim and Baryalai were detained in the 2nd district of Kabul city. They were residents of the Pochawa village in the Dara district of Panjshir province. According to sources, after the fall of the previous government, they chose to work on their farmland.
On Thursday night, May 25, Almas Sarwari, another military personnel, was arrested in his home in the Kotal-e Khairkhana area of Kabul and transferred to an undisclosed location. He is the main resident of the Faraj village in Anabah district, Panjshir province. He had gone to Iran after the fall of the previous government and returned to Kabul one month before his arrest.
In addition to former military personnel and government employees, the Taliban have also detained individuals who resisted attacks from Kuchis or nomads on their farms. For instance, on May 27, the Taliban detained a teacher named Noorullah in the Shangriyan Valley of the Sheikh Ali district, Parwan province. He had reportedly prevented the nomads’ assault on his farmlands. Moreover, several citizens who had filed legal complaints against the Kuchis (Nomads) have also been arrested. The Taliban detained four residents of the “Posht-e Gorgoori” village in Bamyan province on the orders of Mullah Abdullah Sarhadi, the Taliban’s governor for the province, due to their legal dispute with the Kuchis.
Despite announcing a general amnesty and promising security for traders and their affiliates, the Taliban have continued to detain and imprison people associated with the trade sector. One of the guards of Ajmal Rahmani, a former member of parliament and a businessman named Abdul Wakil Mirzayie, was arrested by the Taliban in the 3rd Parwan area of Kabul and transferred to an undisclosed location.
The Taliban have not spared merchants and businessmen from arrests and brutality. On Thursday, June 1, they detained the organizer of a handicraft and agricultural produce exhibition in Herat province after male journalists had visited the women’s section of the event.
Journalists and human rights activists have also faced suppression and ongoing detention by the Taliban. Shams-ul Rahman Rahiq, a human rights activist, was arrested for the second time in Kabul while the Taliban pursued detaining some civil activists. On Monday, May 29, the Taliban arrested Mr. Rahiq and his cousin, Ata-ul Rahman, from the Guzargah area of Kabul City. They are both residents of Panjshir province.
Despite claiming a general amnesty, the detention of former military personnel has been a recurring issue for the Taliban. Their fighters have persistently arrested former security forces personnel in various provinces, leading to disappearances and, in some cases, even killings. In the past month, the group also executed two former military personnel in Kunduz and Paktika provinces. Additionally, the Taliban have detained Ramazan Zirak, a former security commander of Qarabagh district in Ghazni province.
The Taliban have detained not only combatants but also local residents and ethnic elders multiple times across the country. On Monday, June 5, they arrested 70 residents of Panjshir province from the “Qashdaraz-e Prankaal Sengi Khan” area in the Abshar district.
Former government employees who continued to work under the Taliban regime have also faced detention and harassment. The Taliban detained the financial and administrative director of the Dara district in Panjshir province. Over the past two years, the group has arrested a significant number of Panjshir Identity Card holders on charges of cooperating with the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRF), and in some cases, even killed them.
During the past two years, the Taliban’s Department for Propagating Virtue and Preventing Vice has gained notoriety for subjecting citizens to humiliation and psychological torture. On Friday, June 9, the Taliban Moral Police in Logar province detained 30 individuals from the local population on charges of cockfighting and gambling. The arrests took place in the village of “Padkhawaba-e Shanae” in the city of Pul-e Alam, the capital of Logar province, according to sources.
The Taliban’s arrests and torture have also affected foreign citizens in Afghanistan. The Austrian Foreign Ministry reported the detention of an 86-year-old Austrian man on espionage charges by the Taliban. The Austrian government has not disclosed the citizen’s identity due to security concerns.
Shirin Agha, a member of the former government’s special unit in Panjshir province, has been arrested by the Taliban. Sources indicate that he was unemployed after the fall of the previous government and had no affiliations with any group.
The group continues to detain former military personnel. On Saturday, June 17, they arrested Ghiasuddin, a former employee of the National Directorate of Security of the previous government, from the Khairkhana area in Kabul. Ghiasuddin was also unemployed after the previous government’s collapse and had no ties to any group.
The Taliban have arrested women associated with the former security forces as well. Sabro Rezaie, the recruitment officer of the female police under the previous government’s command in Daikundi province, was detained. The Taliban also took her two sisters into custody. She was apprehended on Saturday, June 17, on charges of insulting the Taliban and engaging in anti-Taliban activities on Facebook.
Residents of Panjshir province have been particularly vulnerable to the Taliban’s arrests, according to reports. On Thursday, June 15, the Taliban arrested Sana-ul Rahman, an official from the Ministry of Interior of the previous government, and Saddam Hussein, a teacher from one of the schools in Panjshir province. They were detained from the Aabdara area in the Anaba district and transferred to the 40th Intelligence Directorate of the Taliban in Kabul.
Media reports in the past two months also indicate that the Taliban have continued to arrest journalists and media activists in addition to detaining former military personnel. On June 17, Reza Shahir, a former journalist for Rah-e Farda TV, was detained by the Taliban along the Herat-Kabul highway. Sources report that he was arrested in the Shahjoi area of Zabul province. It is said that he had gone to Iran a year ago and returned to renew his travel documents. Furthermore, Erfanullah Bidar, a journalist for Radio Safa in Nangarhar province, was arrested by the Taliban. Sources state that Taliban members took the journalist with them using a Hilux vehicle in front of the Eidgah Mosque in Jalalabad City, the center of Nangarhar province.
Not even associates of Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, the head of the High Council for National Reconciliation of the former government and one of the prominent political figures in the country, who chose to remain in Afghanistan after its fall to the Taliban, have been safe from the Taliban arrests. One of Dr. Abdullah’s guards, Malek Mir Mohammad, was arrested by the Taliban. He was apprehended on Monday, June 19, in the Karte Parwan area of Kabul, according to sources.
Even former government prosecutors, despite facing dire straits, have been subject to arrests in the past two months. Zakaria, a former government prosecutor, was arrested on Tuesday, June 20, from his home in the village of Khushkak, Sheikh Ali district, Parwan province. Sources indicate that he served as a military prosecutor in 207th Corps in Herat province.
The group continues its arrests of former military personnel. On Thursday, June 22, they detained three army officers of the previous government from Panjshir province. According to sources, Khan Alam, Tala Mohammad, and Wasiqullah were arrested from the Piawashat area of the Rukha district of the province and taken to an unknown location. After the Taliban’s takeover, these three individuals were reportedly engaged in personal affairs and continued their ordinary lives.
The Taliban have not only detained individuals accused of collaborating with the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRF) and the former government, but they have also arrested and tortured barbers for grooming people’s beards and hair. On Tuesday, June 27, the group arrested three barbers in the old city of Puli Khumrī, the center of Baghlan province, based on their appearance.
In the early days of their control over Spin Boldak district, the Taliban publicly punished a famous comedian from Kandahar province. Since then, comedians have faced harassment and mistreatment by the group. On the first night of Eid al-Adha this year, the Taliban arrested Ehsanullah, known as Khairu Kaka, from Ghazni province. He is one of the most well-known comedians in the province of Ghazni.
Family members and relatives of former parliamentarians have also not been spared from Taliban arrests. On Sunday night, July 9, Taliban militants entered the home of Jabar, a former representative of Takhar province in the parliament. They arrested his nephews, nieces, two farmers, and their wives, and transferred them to an unknown location.
The Taliban’s restrictions on women have extended beyond education and work limitations, as they have now imposed compulsory hijab. In Herat province, sources report that the Taliban are harassing and arresting women who do not wear the designated hijab of the Taliban.
Listening to music at wedding celebrations has become a major concern for families since the Taliban’s takeover. The Taliban’s moral police detained a groom and 20 of his guests during his wedding night in Ghazni province.
The Taliban’s continuous arrests on charges of affiliation and collaboration with the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRF) have persisted over the past two years. In July of this year, the group detained at least six young individuals from the villages of Busht, Labdara, and Sarghilan in the Shuhada district of Badakhshan province, accusing them of collaborating with the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRF). Additionally, six people from the Charkh wa Falak area of Khost district in Baghlan province were arrested on charges of being members of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRF).
The Taliban continued their arrests by detaining Shukoor, a former member of the security forces, in Qala-e-Naw, the capital of Badghis province. According to sources, he had returned to civilian life after the fall of the previous government and had no affiliation with any group.
Listening to music has been a constant concern for citizens under the Taliban’s rule. On Thursday, July 20, the group detained five young individuals from Ghazni province on charges of listening to music at a residential house.
Security forces’ arrests have been a recurring problem for media outlets operating outside the Taliban’s domain. On June 4 and 6, the group detained two former soldiers from Taimani and Sark-e-Bostan areas in Kabul City, and they have been transferred to an undisclosed location.
It is important to note that the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) has discredited the Taliban’s general amnesty order as a false proclamation. Richard Bennett, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, and several international human rights organizations have previously expressed grave concerns over the Taliban militants’ violations and arbitrary detentions of citizens.