KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – Taliban intelligence agents arrested a former soldier and two civilians from Panjshir province on Saturday, November 30, as part of an intensifying crackdown in the region, local sources reported.
The detainees were identified as Ziaullah, a former soldier, and Abdullah and Mohammad Mohsin, both civilians. According to the sources, Ziaullah was apprehended in Nimroz province after being deported from Iran, while Abdullah and Mohammad Mohsin were arrested in the Abdullah Khil area of Panjshir’s Dara district.
No information has been released regarding the current status or whereabouts of the three detainees, and Taliban officials have not commented on the arrests.
Panjshir province, north of Kabul, has been a focal point of resistance against the Taliban, serving as a base for armed opposition groups such as the National Resistance Front (NRF) and the Afghanistan Freedom Front (AFF).
The Taliban has responded with severe collective punishments, including arbitrary detentions, torture, and extrajudicial killings of Panjshir residents, often accusing them of supporting resistance forces or hiding weapons.
Human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, have condemned the Taliban’s actions in Panjshir as war crimes. Amnesty has documented widespread abuses in the province, including indiscriminate violence, unlawful detentions, and the imposition of collective punishment on the civilian population.
“While many of the acts taken by Taliban forces individually constitute war crimes, the entirety of those acts – along with arbitrary detentions and restrictions on civilians – also constitute the war crime of collective punishment,” Amnesty International stated in a report last year.
