Sources in the northern province of Balkh say that the Taliban tortured a community elder, Mohammad Hussain Ehsani, to death in the city of Mazar-i-Sharif on Thursday.
Ehsani who lived in the Balkhab district of the neighbouring Sar-e-Pol province was arrested by Taliban intelligence agents at a flea market in Mazar-i-Sharif.
According local sources, Ehsani had been detained multiple times, accusing him of having links to a former Taliban commander who turned against the group, Maulvi Mahdi.
A source alleged Ehsani endured a day night of torture before being killed.
Mohammad Mohaqiq, the leader of the People’s Islamic Unity Party of Afghanistan, said in a tweet on Friday that Mohammad Hussain Ehsani was subjected to brutal torture before being murdered. Mohaqiq also condemned the killing of Ehsani as part of a broader pattern of “systematic killing of Mujahideen and public figures.” He dismissed the general amnesty order recently issued by the Taliban’s leader as a “falsehood.”
The Taliban has been widely accused of arbitrary detention, torture and murder of former members the previous government, military officers and community elders.
