KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – Local sources from Panjshir report that a young man from the province has died of torture in a Taliban prison in eastern Logar province.
The victim, identified as Ahmad Mayel from Rokha district in Panjshir, was arrested three months ago by the regime in the Khairkhana neighborhood of Kabul.
According to the sources, the Taliban informed the young man’s father three days ago that they had buried his son in Logar.
Sources said that the local Taliban authorities did not allow the young man’s family to transfer his body to Panjshir, demanding a guarantee that they would not take photos or videos of the body and make them public.
The Taliban authorities accused the man of collaborating with the armed anti-Taliban group, the National Resistance Front (NRF). However, sources said he had no ties to any group or involvement in such activities.
The Taliban have yet to comment on the matter. However, the regime’s violent crackdown on residents of Panjshir province has continued and escalated in recent months.
Panjshir province, a small province north of Kabul, has been the main stronghold for two armed anti-Taliban groups, the National Resistance Front (NRF) and the Afghanistan Freedom Front (AFF). As a result, it has faced some of the harshest collective punishment from the Taliban in past years.
Since their return to power in Afghanistan in August 2021, the Taliban have detained, tortured, and killed hundreds of Panjshir residents, often accusing them of collaborating with the armed groups or possessing weapons.
Rights groups, activists, and those opposing the Taliban say that the regime’s repressive actions toward residents of Panjshir province amount to collective punishment and war crimes.
In a report released in mid-2023, Amnesty International said that the Taliban have committed the war crime of collective punishment against residents of Panjshir in recent years.
“While many of the acts taken by Taliban forces individually constitute war crimes, the entirety of those acts – plus the additional arbitrary detentions and restrictions on the civilian population – also constitute the war crime of collective punishment,” the international rights group said.
