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Amnesty International says Taliban unlawfully killed 13 ethnic Hazaras

by Sarakshi Rai - 10/05/21 2:07 PM ET

Human rights group Amnesty International said Tuesday that the Taliban unlawfully killed 13 ethnic Hazaras the day the U.S. officially withdrew from Afghanistan.

Among the dead are 11 members of the Afghan national security forces and two civilians, including a 17-year-old girl, a report released by Amnesty has found.

The killings are said to have taken place on Aug. 30, two weeks after the Taliban’s campaign to takeover Afghanistan recommenced in earnest. The alleged incident took place in Kahor village, in the Khidir district of Daykundi province, reports The Associated Press.

“The Taliban extrajudicially executed nine of the Afghan National Defence Security Forces after they had surrendered, killings that appear to be war crimes. Two civilians were killed as they attempted to flee the area, including a 17-year-old girl shot when the Taliban opened fire on a crowd of people,” Amnesty said in a news release on Monday.

Hazaras, an ethnic minority in Afghanistan, make up of only 9 percent of the population of the landlocked country. They have long been persecuted by the Taliban as the follow the Shia branch of Islam in the Sunni-majority country.

Eyewitness testimony from the incident has been verified through photographs and video evidence taken in the aftermath of the killings, according to Amnesty.

“These cold-blooded executions are further proof that the Taliban are committing the same horrific abuses they were notorious for during their previous rule of Afghanistan,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s secretary general.

“They repeatedly violate the rights of those they perceive as their adversaries, even killing those who have already surrendered. The Taliban say they are not targeting former employees of the previous government, but these killings contradict such claims,” Callamard added.

The report further added that Sadiqullah Abed, the Taliban-appointed chief of police for Daykundi, denied any killings in the province and stated that a member of the Taliban had been wounded in an attack in the province.

Reports of the incident come at a time when the Taliban are trying to convince the world that they’ve become more moderate since their 1990s rule, in which they were notorious for stifling women’s rights and their access to education.

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