Two Panjshir Men Reportedly Executed By Taliban After Detention

Local sources in Panjshir province say Taliban fighters have executed two men following several days of detention and interrogation in the mountainous Malam-Khak area.
Local sources in Panjshir province say Taliban fighters have executed two men following several days of detention and interrogation in the mountainous Malam-Khak area.
The victims, identified as Hakimullah and Ahmad Ali, were reportedly arrested about ten days ago in the Abdullah Khel Valley and transferred to the central prison at Dashtak, according to residents who spoke to Afghanistan International.
Ghulam Farooq Alem, a civil activist from the district now living abroad, said the pair were repeatedly taken from the prison into the surrounding mountains as Taliban fighters searched for alleged hidden weapons. “They were accused of stashing arms, but no evidence was produced,” Alem told the broadcaster.
Alem and another local source, who asked not to be named for security reasons, said the two men were executed by firing squad on Saturday, 5 July, and that their bodies have not been returned to their families. The second source stressed that neither man had any links to the National Resistance Front (NRF), an anti-Taliban group active in the region.
The Malam-Khak mountains are regarded as strategically significant. In the summer of 2022, Haji Malik Khan, a former Taliban commander who joined the NRF, was killed there alongside dozens of fighters.
Taliban officials in Panjshir have not commented on the latest allegations. Rights groups have previously accused the Taliban of carrying out extrajudicial killings in the province, a charge the group denies.