Taliban Executed Over 100 Ex-Police and Intel Officers

(RoyalPatriot.com )- According to a report from Human Rights Watch, the Taliban are responsible for the death or disappearance of over one hundred former security forces and intelligence officers in Afghanistan.

Tuesday’s report documents the murders or disappearances of forty-five former Afghan National Security Forces soldiers who either surrendered or were apprehended by the Taliban between August 15 and October 31. Human Rights Watch found “credible information” of more than one hundred killings in the provinces of Ghazni, Helmand, Kandahar, and Kunduz.

According to Patricia Grossman, associate Asia director for Human Rights Watch, despite the Taliban’s promise to offer amnesty to former security forces, it has not stopped local Taliban commanders from “executing or disappearing” members of the Afghan Security Forces. Grossman called on the Taliban to prevent further deaths, hold local commanders accountable, and offer compensation to the families of the victims.

Grossman also called on the United Nations to step up monitoring of the human rights situation in Afghanistan.

Early last month, Human Rights Watch provided its detailed findings to the Taliban leadership. However, Afghanistan’s Taliban government claimed the detentions were not for “past deeds,” but were prompted by “new criminal activities” which included so-called “plots” against the new Afghan government. The Taliban also claimed some were detained for remaining in contact with “notorious individuals” who have fled Afghanistan. They argued that it was not Taliban policy to execute anyone without a trial “whether he is from ISIS or from another group.”

The Human Rights Watch report also claims the Taliban have stepped up their searches for former members of the Khost Protection Force, the special forces unit created to assist the Central Intelligence Agency in Afghanistan. According to the report, the Taliban are accessing former government employment records to find their targets.

According to Human Rights Watch, a former member of Afghanistan’s former intelligence agency the National Directorate of Security was “arrested” and later found dead by his family.

After its withdrawal from Afghanistan, the US has been forced to rely on the Taliban to ensure that terrorist organizations like Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K) do not find a haven in the country.

US State Department Representative Thomas West told reporters in early November that the United States wants the Taliban to “succeed against ISIS-K.” West said the US is “very concerned” that al Qaeda and other terror groups continue to maintain a presence in Afghanistan, adding this was “an issue of ongoing concern for us in our dialogue with the Taliban.”