Taliban Arrests Group of Local Elders In Connection With Balkh Governor’s Murder

The Directorate of Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice of the Taliban in Daikundi stressed that inspectors of the group have met with people at 35 mosques in the province and conveyed to them that "Islam has forbidden the celebration of Nowroz".

According to a statement by the directorate, the Taliban inspectors have urged people to resist "western thoughts.”

The Taliban have also warned the people of Kiti district in Daikundi province not to celebrate Nowroz and avoid exchanging gifts with one another.

Back in the 1990s, the Taliban had banned the celebration of Nowroz in provinces controlled by the group.

However in 2022, the group had announced that it will not hold any ceremony to celebrate Nowroz, but the group will not prevent people from celebrating it.

The Taliban has imposed a ban on the celebration of Nowroz while the United Nations has recognised Nowroz as an international occasion.

In a statement, the rights watchdog added that based on media reports and video clips from social media, there is an increase in arrests, tortures, and continuous killing of members of the security forces of the previous government of Afghanistan by the Taliban.

According to AIHRC, these former security haves have been living in hiding and many of them have fled Afghanistan to ensure their safety. According to the rights group, the Taliban identify and arrest former security forces members with the help of biometric information.

The Independent Human Rights Commission has expressed concern about the recruitment of these forces by other countries to send them to war zones, such as Ukraine.

The Human Rights Commission has directly asked NATO member states to "make a just and acceptable decision regarding the soldiers and save them and their families from suffering”.

While the rights groups confirm the systemic killing of the former security forces of Afghanistan by the Taliban, there is no comprehensive report about the exact number of the members of security forces of the republic order of Afghanistan being captured or killed by the Taliban.

Taliban authorities have repeatedly denied the retaliatory killing of former Afghan soldiers. However, the testimonies of witnesses and credible international organizations show that Taliban fighters have continuously sought out former security forces to take revenge on them.

Earlier, Human Rights Watch said data from biometric devices has put the lives of thousands of Afghans at risk. These devices, which contain sensitive information about former government employees, are used by the Taliban.

The Taliban ministry of refugees said that these people entered the country through Islam Qala and Spin Boldak border crossings.

The ministry said in a statement on Saturday that among those who returned from Pakistan, 70 had been released from Pakistani prisons.

According to the Taliban, some of these people have been introduced to the International Organisation for Migration to receive humanitarian support.

In recent months, the return of Afghan immigrants from Iran and Pakistan has increased. Some of these people have left the host countries "voluntarily" and many of them have been forcefully expelled to Afghanistan.

In a statement, Nai said that two journalists had been killed and 16 others had been injured in an explosion in Balkh province just last week.

On the occasion of Journalist's Day, the watchdog said that media activity and journalistic work in Afghanistan has been deteriorating.

Nai added that many media outlets have shut down operations due to existing challenges and economic problems, and hundreds of journalists have lost their jobs or left the country.

Nai urged the Taliban to "respect media activities and freedom of expression in Afghanistan.”

However, the families of the eight victims had said that the Taliban later accepted that the eight victims were innocent.

The Taliban had also said last Friday that the group members had killed the victims due to a misunderstanding.

However, officially the Taliban spokespersons had claimed at that time that the victims were members of ISIS and were killed in a gunfight with members of the group.

Two days later, on Friday, the families of these victims protested against the killing of their relatives in Kabul. These families said that their children were civilians and had traveled to Mazar-e-Sharif for a construction project.

Ten days after the last killing in Mazar-e-Sharif city, on Friday night, local sources from Mazar-e-Sharif reported that gunshots were heard in the city again.

On Saturday morning, Mohammad Asif Waziri, the spokesman of the Taliban police command in Mazar-e-Sharif, announced that the forces of this group killed five people on the charges of "rebellion" during an operation on Friday night.

There is still no exact information about the identity of the victims.

After the takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, independent human rights groups do not have ground presence inside the country.

The UN offices, including United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), focuses on the distribution of humanitarian aid and publishes few reports on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan.

Human rights organisations have previously asked the United Nations to form a fact-finding commission about gross violations of human rights in Afghanistan. However, this UN Security Council has only appointed a special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Afghanistan.