Over 200 former Afghan military, officials killed since Taliban takeover: UN

More than 200 members of Afghanistan’s former military, law enforcement and government have been killed since the Taliban took over despite a “general amnesty” for old enemies, the UN mission in Afghanistan said. At least 218 extrajudicial killings with links to the Taliban were recorded, the mission said.

“In most instances, individuals were detained by de facto security forces, often briefly, before being killed,” the UN assistance mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said.

Senior Taliban leaders earlier said that there is an amnesty for former government officials and members of the military. Responding to the mission’s report, Taliban-led foreign affairs ministry said that it had not received reports of any cases of non-compliance with the order. Any cases that did occur would be investigated, it added.

UN human rights chief Volker Turk said the killings were a “betrayal of the people’s trust” since the victims had been assured they would not be targeted while UN rights office spokesperson Jeremy Laurence said the scale of killings was “shocking” and expected the true count to be higher.

“For the majority of violations discussed in this report, there is limited information regarding measures taken by the de facto authorities to investigate incidents and hold perpetrators to account,” UNAMA said, adding, “The apparent impunity with which members of the de facto authorities continue to commit human rights violations against former government officials and ANDSF members is of serious concern.”

In total, UNAMA recorded 800 incidents of human rights violations connected with the Taliban against former government employees and military. These included arbitrary arrests, disappearance and torture.