KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – Afghanistan’s Hazara community continues to face deadly attacks, forced displacement, discrimination and loss of land under Taliban rule, according to a new report by U.S.-based Genocide Watch that calls for accountability and protection.
The report, titled The Persecution of Afghanistan’s Hazaras and authored by August Wyma and Sophia Khan, examines more than a century of targeted violence against the community, from the late 19th-century campaigns of Amir Abdur Rahman Khan to attacks by the Taliban and Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP).
Hazaras are one of Afghanistan’s principal ethnic minorities and predominantly follow Twelver Shia Islam, with smaller numbers belonging to Ismaili Shia and Sunni communities. They have historically been concentrated in the central highlands known as Hazarajat, which includes Bamyan and Daikundi provinces as well as parts of Ghazni, Uruzgan, Wardak and other neighboring areas. Substantial communities also live in urban centers such as Kabul’s Dasht-e Barchi neighborhood.
The report says that because Afghanistan’s population is predominantly Pashto and Sunni Muslim, Hazaras have historically been viewed as outliers and exposed to intersecting forms of discrimination and persecution.
Genocide Watch traces the roots of systematic persecution to Abdur Rahman Khan’s military campaigns between 1891 and 1893. During that period, known as the Hazara War, communities were subjected to mass killings, enslavement, forced migration and extensive confiscation of land after the Amir declared Hazaras “Shia infidels” and launched a “jihad” against them. The report argues that these events established enduring patterns of exclusion, dispossession and impunity that continued through much of the 20th century and into the Afghan civil war of the 1990s.
During the Taliban’s first period in power, Hazaras again faced widespread violence. After Taliban forces captured Mazar-i-Sharif in August 1998, large numbers of civilians were killed. Human Rights Watch estimated that at least 2,000 people died in the city, while thousands more were deliberately disappeared or taken captive. Religious intolerance and efforts to suppress potential opposition were among the likely motives, the report said.
According to the report, the period of U.S.-backed governments from 2001 to 2021 provided greater opportunities for Hazara political representation but failed to fully end discrimination and persecution against the community. Between January 2017 and June 2021, the United Nations recorded more than 65 attacks specifically targeting Hazaras, which killed more than 750 civilians. Among the deadliest incidents were a May 2020 attack on a maternity ward in a Hazara neighbourhood of Kabul that killed 14 people, including two newborns, and a May 2021 bombing near the Sayed-ul-Shuhada girls’ school that killed 85 female students, most of them Hazaras.
Since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021, the report says living conditions for Hazaras have deteriorated further. ISKP, which views Shia Muslims as “apostates,” has claimed responsibility for multiple deadly attacks, including a 2023 assault on a sports club in Dasht-e Barchi. Recent incidents cited include the killing of 12 civilians at a Shia shrine in Herat province in April 2026 and the detention of 45 Shia men in Kabul in June 2026 after they displayed flags associated with Ashura. The report also notes that a grenade attack at a school in Dasht-e Barchi injured more than 40 children.
Beyond direct violence, Genocide Watch documents the Taliban’s dismantling of police infrastructure in Hazara-populated areas over the past five years, a move it says can leave communities more exposed. The report also details forced displacement and economic pressure, including seasonal attacks by nomadic Kuchi groups on Hazara farmland in Behsud district of Maidan Wardak province. These attacks damage crops, sabotage water supplies and force residents from their land, compounding poverty in an already struggling economy.
Hazara women and girls face additional risks arising from the intersection of ethnic, religious and gender-based discrimination. The report notes that historical campaigns subjected Hazara women to enslavement, forced displacement and sexual violence, including documented rape and abduction during the 1993 “Afshar operation” in western Kabul. Under current Taliban restrictions on women and girls, Hazara women encounter further barriers to protection, healthcare and humanitarian assistance.
The report recommended that international accountability mechanisms investigate the Taliban’s role in enabling attacks, including the dismantling of local security infrastructure and failures to protect Shia religious gatherings and schools.
It urges the United Nations to formally investigate ISKP attacks on Hazara civilians and refer findings to the Human Rights Council. Genocide Watch also recommends expanded gender-responsive humanitarian aid for Hazara women and girls and careful assessment of any economic measures aimed at the Taliban to avoid disproportionate harm to Hazara communities.
