Morning Star Online
TALIBAN fighters tortured and killed members of an ethnic minority group in Afghanistan after overrunning their village last month, campaigners reported today — fuelling fears of further atrocities now it has national power.
The report by human rights organisation Amnesty International, which branded the incident a “brutal massacre,” came as further calls were made for safe asylum routes to be opened for those seeking to escape Afghanistan.
Researchers spoke to eyewitnesses in Ghazni province who said that the Taliban killed nine ethnic Hazara men in the village of Mundarakht in early July.
They found that six were shot, some in the head, while three were tortured to death. One was said to have been strangled with his own scarf and to have had his arm muscles sliced off.
Villagers said they escaped to the mountains when fighting intensified between government forces and Taliban fighters.
They said that when some of them returned to collect food, the Taliban had looted their homes and were waiting for them to return.
Some men who passed through Mundarakht on their way home were also ambushed.
Hazaras, who are mostly Shi’ite Muslims and make up Afghanistan’s third-largest ethnic group, have previously been persecuted under Taliban rule.
Amnesty International secretary-general Agnes Callamard said the brutality of the killings was “a reminder of the Taliban’s past record and a horrifying indicator of what Taliban rule may bring.”
The group warned that many more killings may have gone unreported because the Taliban cut phone services in many areas.
The United Nations Refugee Agency warned that the humanitarian needs of people in Afghanistan must not be forgotten and urged states to preserve the right to asylum for Afghans arriving through both regular and spontaneous means.
Spokeswoman Shabia Mantoo said the agency “welcomes the efforts of several states to protect at-risk Afghan nationals through bilateral evacuation programmes.
“These bilateral evacuation programmes should not, however, overshadow or substitute for an urgent and wider international humanitarian response.
“Nor should these hamper or preclude the possibility for Afghans to seek asylum in other countries.”
She raised concerns about the risk of human rights violations against civilians seeking refu..
