Taliban massacred minority Hazara men in Afghanistan: Amnesty
New Delhi, Aug 20 (EFE).- Taliban fighters have brutally massacred nine ethnic Hazara men, Amnesty International said Friday, in a bone-chilling report about rights abuses by the Islamist group after taking control of Afghanistan.
The killings of the men from the persecuted minority group indicated that religious minorities were at risk under the Islamist militia rule.
The rights watchdog said eyewitnesses gave harrowing accounts of the killings between July 4 and 6 in the Mundarakht village of Malistan district in Ghazni province.
“Six of the men were shot and three were tortured to death, including one man who was strangled with his own scarf and had his arm muscles sliced off,” Amnesty said.
Amnesty said the killings “likely represent a tiny fraction of the total death toll” by the Taliban since they have cut mobile phone service in many of the captured areas.
The Taliban seized power in Afghanistan following the collapse of the government on Sunday.
“The cold-blooded brutality of these killings is a reminder of the Taliban’s past record, and a horrifying indicator of what Taliban rule may bring,” said Amnesty International Secretary-General Agnès Callamard.
“These targeted killings prove that ethnic and religious minorities remain at particular risk under Taliban rule in Afghanistan.
The rights body said it interviewed eyewitnesses and reviewed photographic evidence in the aftermath of the killings in Mundarakht.
“One man, 45-year-old Wahed Qaraman, was taken from his home by Taliban fighters who broke his legs and arms, shot him in the right leg, pulled his hair out, and beat his face with a blunt object.”
Taliban fighters beat Jaffar Rahimi, 63, and accused him of working for the Afghan government after finding cash on him, the nonprofit said.
“The Taliban strangled him to death with his own scarf. Three people involved in the burial of Rahimi said his body was covered in bruises, and that the muscles of his arms had been carved off.” EFE
ssk
