In a damning report against the Taliban, which now runs the government in Afghanistan, rights organisation Amnesty International says that the Taliban militants unlawfully killed 13 ethnic Hazaras. Most of them were Afghan soldiers who had surrendered to the Taliban during its lightning offensive as it took over Afghan capital Kabul.
Of the 13 killed, 11 were soldiers of the Afghan National Defence Security Forces (ANDSF), one 17-year-old girl and one civilian. They were killed on August 30 in Kahor village in Daykundi province in central Afghanistan.
Amnesty says that the killings happened despite assurances by Taliban leaders that the group had changed itself from its fundamentalist ideology when it ruled Afghanistan during the late 1990s.
The investigation by Amnesty says: "… the Taliban extrajudicially executed nine of the ANDSF members after they had surrendered, killings that appear to be war crimes. Two civilians were killed as they attempted to flee, including a 17-year-old girl shot when the Taliban opened fire on a crowd of people".
The rights group adds that verifying human rights abuses by the Taliban have proven to be difficult as the militants have cut mobile phone services in many areas.
In its investigation, Amnesty spoke with the villagers, confirmed the location of two of the graves and the identities of the people buried in them. It also verified photographs and video evidence taken in the aftermath of the killings, and identified the location of Kahor village.
The Taliban has denied the killings of the minority Hazara community which comprises the third-largest ethnic community in Afghanistan after the Pashtuns and the Tajiks. Also, the Hazaras are largely Shia leading to discrimination by the Sunni Pashtuns.
Despite the complete takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban on August 15, violence continues to plague the country. The Taliban now faces the wrath of the Islamic State (ISIS) which has unleashed attacks in various parts of the country.
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