Following Legal Land Dispute, Taliban Arrests Four Villagers In Bamiyan

Following a land dispute between the nomads (Kuchis) and the Hazaras, Taliban has once again arrested four people from a village in the Punjab district of Bamiyan province.

Local sources told Afghanistan International that the men had been arrested after they protested against the decision of the Taliban to hand over the land of Hazaras to the nomads.

Earlier, these four people were arrested when they contacted the office of Abdullah Sarhadi, the Taliban governor in Bamiyan to pursue the legal land dispute with the nomads.

On Thursday, a Taliban delegation visited the Poshte Gharghari village in Punjab district and announced the decision of the Taliban that the lands in the village should be given to the nomads.

According to a video recording from this meeting received by Afghanistan International, the residents of the area told the Taliban delegation that the group’s commission decided unfairly in favour of the nomads without visiting the area last year. They said that they do not accept the decision of the commission to resolve the conflicts of nomads and villagers.

According to this video, a local resident who is a party to the land dispute said to the Taliban delegation, "You want to hand over my centuries-old inherited land to the nomads, morally and conscientiously, this is not right."

After this resident's criticisms, a member of the Taliban said in this meeting, "I am not a judge, I know that the land belongs to you."

This local resident emphasised that he would complain to the Taliban governor in Bamiyan and to the Taliban leadership to pursue this dispute legally.

Local sources said that after the residents protested the decision of the Taliban, the group’s members arrested four people including Ewaz Danish, Ali Hossein Bakshi, Mohammad Gholami, and Anwar Mohammadi, and transferred them to the Punjab District Police Command.