Taliban ’rounding up blacklist of Afghan government workers and threatening to punish them’
Taliban fighters killed nine ethnic Hazara men after taking control of Afghanistan’s Ghazni province last month, Amnesty International has said.
The killings, which took place between 4 and 6 July in the village of Mundarakht, Malistan district, saw six men shot and three others tortured to death.
One man was strangled with his own scarf and had his arm muscles cut off, while another had his legs and arms broken and his hair pulled out, researchers from the human rights charity said.
Taliban fighters display their flag on patrol in Kabul, Afghanistan. Pic: AP
The Hazaras are one of Afghanistan’s largest ethnic minorities and were persecuted under the Sunni Taliban’s earlier rule.
Amnesty International said the brutal killings are likely to represent a “tiny fraction of the total death toll inflicted by the Taliban to date”, as the military group has cut mobile phone service in many of the areas they have recently captured, controlling which photographs and videos are then shared from these regions.
Researchers interviewed eyewitnesses and reviewed photographic evidence in the aftermath of the killings.
Villagers said they fled into the mountains to traditional iloks, their summer grazing land, where they have basic shelters, but there was not enough food for the 30 families that had gathered there and so nine people returned to the village to gather supplies.
The five men and four women discovered their homes had been looted and Taliban fighters were waiting for them.
One man, 45-year-old Wahed Qaraman, was taken from his house and had his legs and arms broken, his hair pulled out, his face beaten with a blunt object, and was shot.
Another man, Jaffar Rahimi, was accused of working for the Afghan government after money was found in his pocket.
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He was strangled to death with his own scarf, and three people involved in his burial told Amnesty that his body was covered in bruises and his arm muscles had been carved off.
A 40-year-old man named Sayed Abdul Hakim was beaten with sticks and rifle butts, had his arms bound, and was shot four times by Taliban fighters, before his body was dumped in a nearby creek.
One eyewitness, who assisted with the burials, told Amnesty: “We asked the Taliban why they did this, and they told us, ‘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’.”
The charity’s secretary-general, Agnes Callamard, has called for the UN Security Council to adopt an emergency resolution “demanding that the Taliban respect international human rights law and ensure the safety of all Afghans”.
“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,” she added.
“These targeted killings are proof that ethnic and religious minorities remain at particular risk under Taliban rule in Afghanistan.”
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Crowds swell at the Afghanistan airport
During the killing spree, three other men, Ali Jan Tata, 65, Zia Faqeer Shah, 23, and Ghulam Rasool Reza, 53, were ambushed and executed as they attempted to reach their homes in the nearby hamlet of Wuli.
According to witnesses, Zia Faqeer Shah’s chest was so riddled with bullets that he was buried in pieces.
Three more men were killed in their home village, the charity said.
The Taliban have seized power in Afghanistan following the collapse of the government in recent days.
Chaotic scenes broke out at Kabul’s airport on Monday as hundreds of desperate Afghans, foreign diplomats, and officials attempted to flee the country to escape the Taliban rule.
The fast-moving developments on Trump’s Ukraine peace deal are dominating the G20 summit in South Africa, as European leaders scramble to put together a counter-proposal to the US-Russia 28-point plan and reinsert Ukraine into these discussions.
European countries are now working up proposals to put to President Trump ahead of his deadline of Thursday to agree a deal.
Ukraine is in a tight spot. It cannot reject Washington outright – it relies on US military support to continue this war – but neither can it accept the terms of a deal that is acutely favourable to Russia, requiring Ukraine to give up territory not even occupied by Moscow and reducing its army.
Overnight, the UK government has reiterated its position that any deal must deliver a “just and lasting peace”.
Ukraine war latest: Kyiv to discuss ending war in talks in Switzerland
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Keir Starmer calls for growth plan at G20
The prime minister, who spoke with E3 allies President Macron of France, Chancellor Merz of Germany and President Zelenskyy of Ukraine on the phone on Friday, is having more conversations today with key partners as they work out how to handle Trump and improve this deal for Ukraine.
One diplomatic source told me allies are being very careful not to criticise Trump or his approach for fear of exacerbating an already delicate situation.
Instead, the prime minister is directing his attacks at Russia.
Read more:
Trump’s 28-point Ukraine peace plan in full
Analysis: We could all pay if Europe doesn’t guarantee Ukraine’s security
Prime Minister Keir Starmer attends a plenary session on the first day of the G20 Leaders’ Summit. Pic: Reuters
“There is only one country around the G20 table that is not calling for a ceasefire in Ukraine and one country that is deploying a barrage of drones and missiles to destroy livelihoods and murder innocent civilians,” he said on Friday evening.
“Time and again, Russia pretends to be serious about peace, but its actions never live up to its words.”
Pic: AP
On the Trump plan, the prime minister said allies are meetin on Saturday “to discuss the current proposal on the table, and in support of Trump’s push for peace, look at how we can strengthen this plan for the next phase of negotiations”.
Strengthening the plan really means that they want to rebalance it towards Ukraine’s position and make it tougher on Russia.
“Ukraine has been ready to negotiate for months, while Russia has stalled and continued its murderous rampage. That is why we must all work together with both the US and Ukraine, to secure a just and lasting peace once and for all,” said the prime minister.
“We will continue to coordinate closely with Washington and Kyiv to achieve that. However, we cannot simply wait for peace.
“We must strain every sinew to secure it. We must cut off Putin’s finance flows by ending our reliance on Russian gas. It won’t be easy, but it’s the right thing to do.”
Pic: AP
Europeans hadn’t even seen this deal earlier in the week, in a sign that the US is cutting other allies out of negotiations – for now at least.
Starmer and other European leaders want to get to a position where Ukraine and Europe are at least at the table.
There is some discussion about whether European leaders such as Macron and Meloni might travel to Washington to speak to Trump early next week in order to persuade him of the European and Ukrainian perspective, as leaders did last August following the US-Russian summit in Alaska.
But Sky News understands there are no discussions about the PM travelling to Washington next week ahead of the budget.
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