Taliban killed 13 members of Hazara ethnic group: Report | Taliban Information

The Taliban killed not less than 13 members of the Hazara ethnic group, together with a 17-year-old woman, within the central province of Daykundi, shortly after they took energy in Afghanistan, based on a brand new report from Amnesty Worldwide.

On August 30, a convoy of 300 Taliban fighters entered Khidr district and killed not less than 11 former members of the Afghan Nationwide Safety Forces (ANSF), 9 of whom have been taken to a close-by river basin the place they have been executed shortly after having surrendered, the rights group mentioned in its report printed on Tuesday.

A teen, recognized by the identify of Masuma, was killed in crossfire after the Taliban focused Afghan forces who have been making an attempt to flee the world. One other civilian, Fayaz, a newly-wed in his 20s, was additionally amongst these killed within the crossfire.

The ANSF members who have been killed ranged in age from 26 to 46, Amnesty mentioned. All of the victims have been Hazara, who have been persecuted in the course of the Taliban’s first stint in energy between 1996 and 2001.

It’s the second killing of Hazaras documented by Amnesty. A minimum of 9 Hazara males have been killed by Taliban fighters in Ghazni province in July earlier than the group captured energy, Amnesty reported on August 19.

Each the Taliban and their rivals, the Islamic State Khorasan Province, ISKP (ISIS-Okay), an ISIL affiliate, have been accused of focusing on the Hazara folks, who make up nearly all of Afghanistan’s Shia inhabitants.

By September 1, the Taliban had denied the killings. Saidqullah Abed, the Taliban appointed police chief for Daykundi, would solely affirm that considered one of their fighters had been injured within the crossfire.

Raihana Azad, a former member of Parliament for the province, additionally verified Amnesty’s report back to Al Jazeera, saying the occasions of August 30 amounted to “inhumane mass killings” carried out by the Taliban.

She mentioned what transpired in Khidr was in direct violation of the Taliban’s claims of a nationwide common amnesty for former safety forces and authorities employees.

“These cold-blooded executions are additional proof that the Taliban are committing the identical horrific abuses they have been infamous for throughout their earlier rule of Afghanistan,” mentioned Agnes Callamard, Amnesty Worldwide’s secretary-general.

Throughout their five-year rule within the Nineties, the Taliban have been accused of massacring tons of of Hazaras within the provinces of Balkh and Bamiyan.

Zaman Sultani, South Asia researcher at Amnesty Worldwide, mentioned the killings in Daykundi observe a transparent sample by the Taliban.

He factors to a press release that interviewees attributed to a senior Taliban official as proof: “I’ve killed folks for the previous 20 years. Killing is straightforward for me. I can kill once more,” the official reportedly instructed Daykundi residents.

Azad, the previous MP, mentioned the Taliban’s abuses in Daykundi don’t finish with the killings.

She says that for the reason that Taliban captured the province on August 14, a day earlier than former President Ashraf Ghani fled the nation, hundreds of households have been pressured from their houses within the Gizab and Pato districts of the mountainous province.

A listing compiled by residents reveals that as many as 20,000 households have been forcibly displaced throughout not less than 10 completely different villages during the last month and a half.

Daykundi residents talking to Al Jazeera mentioned that when the Taliban got here to their houses, the fighters claimed that the households had been illegally occupying the land or {that a} Taliban shura had determined the land “belongs to the folks”.

No monetary means

Azad says the extensive swathe of lands taken by the Taliban makes their reasoning laborious to consider.

“If it was only one village it could be attainable that these have been some form of authorized points, nevertheless it doesn’t make sense that there are land disputes all throughout this many villages.”

She says lots of the households had been residing on their land for generations, “That they had the deeds of their palms.”

Mohammad*, a resident of the Gizab district, is a type of folks.

The 42-year-old says his spouse and youngsters have been at dwelling when the Taliban got here to their doorstep demanding they vacate the property on September 23. Frightened and not sure of what to do, all 9 folks in Mohammad’s household left the home they’d lived in for many years.

“I used to be a toddler when that home was constructed. I planted the timber outdoors it myself,” Mohammad mentioned to Al Jazeera from Kabul, the place his household now lives.

Earlier than coming to the capital, Mohammad, a former schooling ministry employee, tried to attraction to the Taliban, however he says it was no use, regardless that the fighters who got here to his home have been from the identical district as him.

“I attempted to elucidate to the Islamic Emirate, however they only mentioned, ‘It’s been determined that your land now belongs to the folks.’”

Even his deed was of no use. He was instructed the choice was made in accordance with Islamic legislation. Like Azad, although, Mohammad has issue reconciling the Taliban’s justification, saying that even in a Sharia courtroom, land disputes can take months, if not years, to settle.

“This stuff don’t simply occur in a matter of weeks,” Mohammad mentioned.

Azad, the previous MP, mentioned that with the Afghan winter quick approaching, these pressured evictions would result in a humanitarian disaster in a mountainous province the place it might take as much as 14 hours to journey from a district to the capital of Nili.

“With out their houses and lands, these folks don’t have any monetary means to maneuver wherever else, so that they’re simply left to reside in tents in fields,” Azad mentioned.

Daykundi is taken into account considered one of Afghanistan’s poorest and least-developed provinces. A lot of the males within the province head off to different cities or Iran and Pakistan as youngsters to work as day labourers or in mines.

These pressured displacements appear to be in step with different experiences on the Taliban earlier than their takeover of Afghanistan. In July, Human Rights Watch issued a report from the Northern province of Kunduz alleging the Taliban pressured not less than 400 households to flee their houses.

“The pressured displacement of civilians is illegal except required for the safety of the affected civilians or is totally mandatory for army causes. Retaliatory assaults are a type of collective punishment and are additionally prohibited,” Patricia Gossman, affiliate Asia director at Human Rights Watch, instructed Al Jazeera.

*Names modified to guard their identities.