KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – The UN mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) documented at least five killings of former members of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF), along with dozens of cases of arbitrary arrest, ill-treatment, and torture of former government officials and security personnel in the first quarter of 2026.
In its latest human rights update covering the period from 1 January to 31 March, UNAMA recorded at least 23 cases of arbitrary arrest and detention, and nine instances of torture and ill-treatment of former officials and ANDSF members.
The mission highlighted that former officials and security force members returning from neighboring countries face particular risks, documenting at least eight cases of human rights abuses against former military personnel after they re-entered Afghanistan.
One incident detailed in the report occurred on Jan. 7 in Jawzjan province’s Khwaja Du Koh district, where a former pro-government militia commander was shot dead in his home by unknown assailants. The man had fled to Iran after the Taliban takeover and had returned involuntarily about five months before the killing.
Despite declaring a “general amnesty” after returning to power, the Taliban continue to violate it through arrests, torture, and killings of former government employees, particularly ex-soldiers, women, and rights activists. Over the past nearly five years, hundreds of former government officials, members of the previous security forces, and civilians have been detained, abused, killed, or have gone missing across the country.
The report also detailed extensive restrictions on Afghan women and girls. UNAMA documented at least 336 arbitrary arrests and detentions, along with 59 instances of ill-treatment, primarily linked to dress code enforcement, trimmed beards or Western-style haircuts for men, playing or listening to music, and observance of Valentine’s Day.
Arrests connected to Valentine’s Day gifts occurred in at least three provinces, with the Taliban describing the occasion as a Western practice promoting moral decadence and foreign cultural imitation.
The mission stated that Taliban forces have intensified monitoring of women’s clothing, frequently barring women without burqas from markets and public transportation. In several cases, women were briefly detained until family members brought burqas. Clinics, shops, government offices, and taxi drivers were instructed not to provide services to unaccompanied women lacking a male guardian (mahram).
In one incident on 11 January, a woman was removed from a taxi in Herat city for not wearing a chador, according to the report.
On religious freedoms, UNAMA reported interference with Shia communities in eight provinces, where morality police prevented celebrations of Eid-ul-Fitr according to the Shia calendar and required adherence to the date set by the Taliban authorities. In one province, Shia clerics were detained for refusing to comply. Separately, a Shia mosque in Herat was instructed to bar women from attending evening prayers.
The report also noted continued use of judicial corporal punishment, documenting at least 312 cases between 1 January and 31 March, involving men, women, and minors.
