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re: TALIBAN: Kabul Airport Closed-Warlords' Son WARNS=TORTURE & Massacres Continue
Afghanistan: Taliban Tortured and Massacred Men From Hazara
Taliban carrying out door-to-door manhunt- recently "massacred" and brutally tortured several members of the Hazara minority in Afghanistan
The Taliban have stepped up their search for people who worked for Nato forces or the previous Afghan government
Terrified Mums Shield Their Babies and Pass Kids Over Fence as Taliban Open Fire at Kabul Airport
Taliban Violently Block Australian Citizens From Kabul Airport Evacuation Flights
Australians report being hit with weapons and whipped by Taliban militants when they presented their documents
BBC News, 20 AUG 2021.
The Hazara people traditionally live in the mountainous central belt of Afghanistan
The warning comes despite the Taliban saying they would not carry out revenge on Afghans
The road to Kabul airport – crowded, chaotic and punctuated by regular gunfire – has proved impassable to dozens of Australian citizens and visa-holders trying to reach military evacuation flights out of Afghanistan.
On Thursday afternoon, the Australian government issued a public message to Australian citizens and visa-holders in the Afghan capital to travel to Kabul airport to board an evacuation flight out of the country that has fallen to the Taliban.
That group includes a number of former interpreters who served alongside Australian forces, and whose service – in Australian uniform – has made them particular targets for Taliban retribution.
Taliban carrying out door-to-door manhunt- recently "massacred" and brutally tortured several members of the Hazara minority in Afghanistan
Witnesses have given harrowing accounts of the killings, which took place in early July in Ghazni province.
Since taking over the Afghan capital Kabul on Sunday, the Taliban have tried to portray a more restrained image.
But Amnesty said the incident was a "horrifying indicator" of Taliban rule.
The Hazara community is Afghanistan's third largest ethnic group.
They mainly practise Shia Islam and have faced long-term discrimination and persecution in predominantly Sunni Afghanistan and Pakistan.
In the report published on Thursday, Amnesty said the nine Hazara men were killed between 4 and 6 July in Malistan district in the eastern Ghazni province.
The rights group interviewed eyewitnesses and reviewed photographic evidence after the killings.
Villagers said they had escaped to the mountains when fighting intensified between government forces and Taliban fighters.
When some of them returned to the village of Mundarakht to collect food, they said the Taliban had looted their homes and were waiting for them. Separately, some men who passed through Mundarakht on their way home to their hamlet were also ambushed.
In total six men were allegedly shot, some in the head, and three were tortured to death.
According to witness accounts, one man was strangled with his own scarf and had his arm muscles sliced off. Another's body was shot to pieces.
One eyewitness said they asked the fighters why they inflicted such brutality on their people.
"When it is the time of conflict, everyone dies, it doesn't matter if you have guns or not. It is the time of war," a fighter allegedly said.
Amnesty's Secretary-General Agnès Callamard said: "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."
"These targeted killings are proof that ethnic and religious minorities remain at particular risk under Taliban rule in Afghanistan."
It added that mobile phone services have been cut in many of the areas that have been captured by the Taliban, and so information about the killing had not leaked out until now.
Amnesty called on the UN to investigate and protect those at risk.
The Taliban were known for their brutal rule of Afghanistan which deprived women and ethnic minorities of their rights, before they were ousted by a US-led coalition in 2001.
In a press conference following its takeover of Kabul, the militant group promised it would not launch revenge attacks on anyone who worked with US forces, and that it would also grant women rights under Islamic sharia law.
But a UN document has warned that Taliban fighters have been going door-to-door to search for people who worked for Nato forces or the previous Afghan government...
The Taliban have stepped up their search for people who worked for Nato forces or the previous Afghan government, a UN document has warned.
It said the militants have been going door-to-door to find targets and threaten their family members.
The hardline Islamist group has tried to reassure Afghans since seizing power in a lightning offensive, promising there would be "no revenge".
But there are growing fears of a gap between what they say and what they do.
The warning the group were targeting "collaborators" came in a confidential document by the RHIPTO Norwegian Center for Global Analyses, which provides intelligence to the UN.
"There are a high number of individuals that are currently being targeted by the Taliban and the threat is crystal clear," Christian Nellemann, who heads the group behind the report, told the BBC.
"It is in writing that, unless they give themselves in, the Taliban will arrest and prosecute, interrogate and punish family members on behalf of those individuals."
He warned that anyone on the Taliban's blacklist was in severe danger, and that there could be mass executions.
Foreign powers are continuing efforts to get their nationals out of Afghanistan. A Nato official said on Friday that more than 18,000 people have been evacuated in the last five days from Kabul airport.
Some 6,000 more, among them former interpreters for foreign armed forces, are on standby to be flown out late on Thursday or early Friday.
The aim is to double evacuation efforts over the weekend, the official said.
Outside the airport the situation remains chaotic. The Taliban have been blocking Afghans trying to flee, with one video showing a child being handed to a US soldier.
President Joe Biden, who has come under scathing criticism over what his opponents say is a "shambolic" US withdrawal, is expected to speak on Friday about the evacuation effort.
The Taliban now control thousands of US-made armoured vehicles, 30-40 aircraft and a large number of small arms, US officials told Reuters
The Taliban captured Kabul on Sunday, having swept across the country as foreign forces withdrew.
Their victory returns the group to power 20 years on from when they were toppled in a US-led invasion.
The group's previous stint in power saw widespread abuses, including public executions and banning women from the workplace.
But in their first news conference since retaking control of Afghanistan, the group presented a conciliatory tone, promising women's rights would be respected "within the framework of Islamic law".
The Taliban have reportedly pledged not to force women to wear the burka - a one-piece veil that covers the face and body. Instead, the hijab - or a headscarf - will be compulsory.
They also said they did not want "any internal or external enemies" and that there would be an amnesty for former members of the security forces and those who worked with foreign powers.
International powers - and many Afghans - remain sceptical.
The UN chief Antonio Guterres said the only leverage the body had over the Taliban was the militant's desire for international recognition.
Asked in an interview if he thought the Taliban had changed, President Biden said no, adding the group faced an "existential" choice about whether they want to be recognised.
MORE; Woman set on fire by Taliban after she's accused of 'bad cooking' in Afghanistan
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