KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – A UK-based human rights organization reports that at least 367 people, including women and children, have been killed or injured in various incidents across Afghanistan since January.
In a report released on Monday, August 12, Rawadari, a London-based Afghan NGO, documented numerous violations of the right to life in Afghanistan, including targeted, mysterious, and extrajudicial killings.
The report reveals that at least 239 people, including 44 children and 17 women, were killed in the first half of 2024 as a result of targeted attacks, explosions, or deliberate extrajudicial executions.
According to the report, the victims included former government officials and their family members, human rights defenders, tribal elders, and critics or opponents of the Taliban.
Rawadari noted a 28.8% decrease in such incidents compared to the same period last year, which had 516 cases. However, the organization attributed this decline to the Taliban’s stringent information restrictions, as the regime increasingly conceals these incidents.
According to the report, at least 51 former government officials or their family members were either mysteriously or extrajudicially killed or injured during this reporting period across Afghanistan.
Following their return to power in August 2021, the Taliban’s supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, announced a “general amnesty” for employees of the previous government. Despite this, local commanders and members have continued to carry out revenge attacks, especially targeting former ANDSF members.
Over nearly three years, hundreds of former government officials, members of the previous security forces, and civilians have been detained, tortured, and killed under various accusations across the country.
The human rights organization also documented at least 614 cases of arbitrary and illegal detention by the Taliban in Afghanistan, including 33 women. This figure is more than double the 222 cases reported during the same period last year.
The detained individuals included 64 former government officials, 48 human rights activists and journalists, and 252 critics or opponents of the Taliban.
The report further highlights the Taliban’s violation of prisoners’ human dignity, including severe torture and mistreatment to obtain specific information or statistics.
According to the report, at least 12 people died from severe torture in Taliban prisons across Afghanistan in the first half of 2024, and 10 others were hospitalized, marking a 20% increase from last year’s figures.
Rawadari’s findings is consistent with numerous reports from other sources, including the UN, regarding human rights violations in Afghanistan. For instance, in recent months, there has been an increase in the number of cases of corporal punishment in public.
Rawadari’s report indicates that the Taliban has publicly flogged at least 151 individuals on various charges across the country since January, more than double the number reported during the same period last year. Additionally, two people were publicly executed for murder, and two women were stoned for alleged illicit relationships.
The report also highlights the Taliban’s discriminatory policies towards vulnerable ethnic and religious minorities, including their exclusion from equal access to government services, national resources, and humanitarian aid.
“Our sources from Ghani province reported that no development projects have been implemented in Hazara-populated districts over the past three years. Similarly, in Daykundi province, the Taliban instructed its authorities to carry out development projects exclusively in Gizab district, where Taliban militants were previously active,” Rawadari said.
