Human Rights Watch Calls Afghanistan’s Year Under Taliban ‘Catastrophic’ In New Report

The report by the genocide prevention organisation in the United States stated that the risk of mass atrocities has increased for vulnerable groups, including ethnic and religious minorities, under the Taliban regime. Afghanistan currently ranks fourth in the world for risk of a new onset of mass killing of civilians and has ranked among the three highest-risk countries in the Early Warning Project's last five risk assessments.

Noting that the Hazara community has a history of persecution, the organisation stated that there is a necessity for an immediate response by the US government and the international community in this matter. “The attack has been on every part of the social life of the Hazaras, this indicates that there’s a kind of wiping … or destruction of the community in part if it’s not in whole. The attacks on youth and infants … are signaling to the community that [they] do not have a future in this country,” Dr. Farkhondeh Akbari, a human rights advocate and postdoctoral fellow at Monash University, said.

The organisation added that over the past 11 months of the Taliban rule, the Hazara community has faced repeated targeting by at least two distinct perpetrator groups: ISIS-KP and the Taliban. Citing examples, it said that in the first week of August 2022, ISIS-KP claimed responsibility for multiple attacks targeting predominantly Hazara areas of Kabul, reportedly killing and wounding more than 120 people. The Holocaust Memorial Museum added that despite promises to protect the Hazaras from threats, the Taliban have committed targeted attacks and have forcibly displaced thousands of Hazara civilians. “A June 2022 Taliban offensive in Balkhab district against a former Hazara official in the de facto Taliban government has given rise to reports of atrocities and other serious violations of human rights targeting civilians in the region, including summary executions, property destruction, and communication/internet blackouts. Additionally, as of July 2022, more than 25,000 primarily-Hazara people have been forcibly displaced from their homes by the Taliban’s military campaign and currently face intolerable conditions as aid organisations have encountered difficulties in reaching them due to the mountainous landscape,” it said.

In the first months after seizing control, the Taliban killed 13 Hazara men in Daikundi province and forcibly displaced thousands of Hazaras across several provinces, claiming the community had disputed rights to the land “partly to distribute land to their own supporters.”

While several international groups and monitoring bodies have expressed concern about the increasingly dire crisis facing the Hazaras, the abuses have been underreported by global media, the organisation said.

The organisation also suggested some means to help alleviate the situation a little better. It asked for resources to be provided to the special rapporteur for human rights in Afghanistan; it said that atrocities should be documented now to identify perpetrators and risks to vulnerable communities; it called for an independent UN investigative mechanism and to break the cycle of impunity by supporting the International Criminal Court and universal jurisdiction cases.

The Hazaras—an ethnic and religious minority constituting an estimated 20 percent of Afghanistan’s population—have faced discrimination and persecution in Afghanistan for over a century and particularly during the last period of Taliban rule in the 1990s. The Taliban and other Sunni extremists, notably Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISIS-KP), view the Hazaras as a sworn enemy primarily because of their Shi’a faith.

Al Hadath TV announced that one of the Taliban members even flogged the cameraman of the TV station.

Baysari was reporting about the distribution of humanitarian aid in Kabul.

In the pictures, it could be seen that Baysari sat in a vehicle and left the place after being threatened by the Taliban.

The TV station’s report about this incident has met with strong reactions from the Arabic speaking audience and many have criticized the Taliban.

A social media user wrote, "The Taliban are extremists and brutal terrorists, and we all know that."

Previously, the Taliban had arrested a number of foreign journalists and expelled them from Afghanistan.

After taking control of Afghanistan, the Taliban imposed severe restrictions on the activities of the media and journalists across Afghanistan.

No further details about the meetings have been announced.

The Ministry of Defense of the Taliban said that during the meeting with the Chinese envoy, Mullah Yaqoob, the Taliban Defense Minister, appreciated Beijing's assistance and cooperation for the victims of the recent earthquake in Afghanistan and assured facilitation for Chinese investors in Afghanistan.

The Taliban's foreign ministry also said in a statement that Amir Khan Muttaqi, the Taliban Foreign Minister, during the meeting with Xiaoyong, appreciated the process of issuing visas to Afghan businessmen in Kabul by the Chinese government and called it useful for bilateral trade between Afghanistan and China.

Muttaqi said that the group asked China to provide more opportunities for Afghanistan's exporters.

This is Xiaoyong's second visit to Kabul since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in August 2021.

The Taliban had hinted that they support a United China amidst the dispute between China and Taiwan.

The Taliban's foreign ministry had also reacted to the visit of Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the US House of Representatives, to Taiwan.

Abdul Qahar Balkhi, the spokesperson of the Taliban Foreign Ministry, indirectly referred to the United States and said that countries should avoid provocative actions.

The Taliban's Foreign Ministry stressed on "the principled policy of a United China" and said that the Taliban wants all countries to "avoid actions that are considered a violation of the national sovereignty of countries and provide the basis for further provocative actions".

Taliban and Iranian authorities have not commented on the issue so far.

If confirmed by officials, this is the second Iranian soldier to be killed by the Taliban since the group took control of Afghanistan.

Previously according to Afghanistan International's sources from Nimroz province, a Taliban fighter had shot at Iranian border guards, one of whom was killed.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iran, then, responded by asking the Taliban to identify and punish the perpetrators of the attack.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iran had stressed that "the incidents on the border between Iran and Afghanistan happened as of result of the lack of attention and understanding of Afghan border guards about the border lines of the two countries".

According to Mujahid, based on the Doha agreement, the intelligence had to be shared with the Taliban.

In an interview with Afghanistan's National Television station, Mujahid said that the United States intelligence operation about Ayman al- Zawahiri, the leader of Al-Qaeda was a violation of the Doha Agreement.

The Taliban spokesperson further claimed that the US drone strike in Kabul had been conducted with powerful substances which eliminated everything with “no traces left at the scene”.

However, in an interview with National Public Radio (NPR), US National Security Adviser Jack Sullivan said that the US is aware that senior members of the Haqqani network, part of the Taliban government in Kabul, had knowledge of al-Zawahiri's presence.

Meanwhile, according to media reports, al-Zawahiri was staying at the house of Sirajuddin Haqqani, the Taliban's interior minister. Haqqani held meetings with the leader of al-Qaeda at his residence, but he was not there on the day of the US drone strike.

It has been reported that a couple of relatives of the Taliban's interior minister had also been killed in the drone strike on al-Zawahiri's safe house in Kabul.