Taliban Starts Military Recruitment Programme in Panjshir

Sources from southern Afghanistan said that the principals of four schools from Gardiz city and one school from Samkani district were imprisoned by the Taliban.

Local sources told Afghanistan International last week that four girls' secondary schools in Gardiz, the capital city of Paktia province, and one high school in Samkani district had been reopened for girls.

On Saturday, however, when female students went to school, they were prevented by the Taliban members.

The students, then, protested and chanted slogans about the right to education for Afghan girls in Gardiz city.

Citing that the situation in Afghanistan is extremely worrying as the country faces an increasingly intertwined spate of crimes under international law, gross human rights violations and a deteriorating humanitarian crisis, the rights body said that despite such crimes, there is no independent and impartial national human rights monitoring body in place in the country

Amnesty urged for a need for investigations into violations of international humanitarian and human rights law in Afghanistan and establishment of an independent accountability mechanism with a mandate to comprehensively investigate and document crimes under international law and serious human rights violations and abuses committed in Afghanistan. It also requested the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to enhance its monitoring of the human rights situation in Afghanistan and report on a regular basis.

“The Taliban have been grossly and systematically violating women`s rights since their takeover on 15 August 2021. They have imposed a ban on girls beyond grade six from attending schools and dismantled institutions such as Ministry of Women’s Affairs (MoWA), Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) and other structures that were addressing women’s human rights. Now, women facing different forms of gender-based violence, including domestic violence and increased instances of early and forced marriages are left without avenues to seek shelter and redress,” the letter stated.

Amnesty International also said that the Taliban takeover has led to increasing attacks and marginalisation of minority groups in particular Shia/Hazara, Hindu and Sikh, and ethnic groups who have little or no presence in their de facto structure according to various reports. It cited at least 11 attacks against the Shia/Hazaras after the Taliban takeover by the Islamic State of Khorasan Province (IS-KP).

The report also touched upon the forced eviction of ethnic Hazaras/Shia and Tajiks; disappearances, detentions and killings of former security personnel and government officials; arbitrary arrests of critical voices, such as journalists, human rights defenders, women activists and protestors.

Amnesty International added that the humanitarian situation has been worsening due to cuts in international development assistance, freezes of Afghanistan assets, challenges in transferring humanitarian aid and severance from international market because of sanctions, which has been exacerbated by the increasing drought and flash floods due to climate change.

Apart from this, Amnesty also sought support for the mandate of the Special Rapporteur and enhance the Special Rapporteur's capacity to "seek receive examine and act on" human rights information as mandated by UN Human Rights Council resolution 48/1 and asked them to develop a set of benchmarks or indicators on immediate measures that should be adopted by all actors (including the Taliban, UN member states, regional and international organisation, as well as international financial institutions) towards addressing human rights concerns.

The students chanted slogans regarding the right to education in front of the provincial directorate of education of Paktia province.

Earlier this week, reports from Pakita had indicated that a few schools had been reopened for girls based on the residents’ demands in Gardiz city.

Since seizing power on August 15, 2021, the Taliban have stopped girls in Afghanistan from attending school for secondary education.

The Taliban’s ban on girls’ secondary education has been met with widespread domestic and international criticism while global rights organisations have continuously called on the group to reopen girls’ schools across Afghanistan.

In a statement on the 21st anniversary of the assassination of Ahmad Shah Massoud, the national hero of Afghanistan, the council stressed that Afghans’ fight for their rights must be supported.

The council has addressed the international community and said that in the absence of a legitimate, decentralised, and inclusive government, the prospect of the Taliban rule will be dark and will spread terrorism in the region and across the globe.

Atta Mohammad Noor, a member of the Supreme Council of National Resistance for the Salvation of Afghanistan, has published the statement.

Other members of this council include former vice-president Marshal Abdul Rashid Dostum; Hazara leader Mohammad Mohaqiq; anti-Taliban Jihadi leader Abdul Rab Rasool Sayyaf; former speaker of Afghan Lower House of Parliament Mir Rahman Rahmani; former Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani; jihadi leader Ismail Khan and some other political figures of Afghanistan.

This council had previously asked the Taliban to negotiate with them regarding ruling Afghanistan. The Taliban did not respond to these demands of the council.

NRF stressed that Massoud understood the extremist ideology of the Taliban and other international terrorist organisations and had always warned about the threats and dangers of such groups.

The Front, then, cited Massoud’s famous words, "Be it or not, the resistance continues”.

Ahmad Shah Masoud is considered one of the most prominent commanders of Guerrilla wars in the 20th century. He was able to defend his home, Panjshir Valley, against the attacks of the Soviet Red Army and later, resisted the Taliban in northern Afghanistan.

During the presidency of Hamid Karzai, the Afghan government had honoured Massoud with the "National Hero of Afghanistan" title.

Massoud was assassinated on September 9, 2001, by two Arab suicide bombers who had posed as journalists in Takhar province.