KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – Taliban intelligence agents have detained a civilian man in Afghanistan’s Panjshir province, local sources reported, as the group’s security operations and crackdown on residents in the area continue.
The man, identified as Baba Shah, was detained in the Dara district of Panjshir on Sunday, according to the sources. He owns an electric shop in the region and has no known links to any political or military group, they added.
The reason for his detention remain unknown. Taliban authorities in Panjshir have not commented.
Panjshir, located north of Kabul, has been a stronghold for anti-Taliban groups including the National Resistance Front (NRF) and the Afghanistan Freedom Front (AFF). The province has faced repeated Taliban operations involving mass detentions, with hundreds of residents reportedly detained, tortured or killed over the past nearly four years, often on accusations of supporting the armed groups or possessing weapons.
Human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, have described the Taliban’s actions in Panjshir as amounting to war crimes, citing arbitrary detentions and collective punishment of civilians. In 2023, Amnesty said many individual acts by Taliban forces constitute war crimes and together amount to the war crime of collective punishment.
“Many acts by Taliban forces individually constitute war crimes,” Amnesty said, “and together they amount to the war crime of collective punishment.”
