Videos show Taliban has no interest in peace in Afghanistan

The Taliban has escalated its offensive against Afghan security forces and civilians and imposed archaic rules in the territories it has captured.

Disturbing videos and photos circulating on social media show the Taliban torturing and killing people in Afghanistan as the Sunni extremist group has been seizing territory after international troops began withdrawing from the country in May 2021. The Taliban has escalated its offensive against Afghan security forces and civilians and imposed archaic rules in the territories it has captured. According to US General Mark Milley, the Taliban now control about half of the 419 district centres in Afghanistan.

Taliban fighters have destroyed 11 sites on the Salam telecommunication network and looted its equipment. (File Photo)

While both the US and the UN has warned the Taliban of international isolation and travel sanctions if the Sunni group unilaterally tries to seize power in Kabul, the Islamist group, with its leadership safely ensconced in neighbouring Pakistan is in no mood to change from its 1996 version. The Deobandi group's larger objective is to impose Sharia on Afghanistan by converting it into an emirate and expand the Sunni Pashtun influence all over the country at the cost of the minorities and women rights.

That the group is in no mood to negotiate peace except for mouthing the words is evident from the reports indicating that Indian photographer Danish Siddiqui was deliberately tortured and killed by the Taliban at Spin Boldak after establishing his nationality. The Taliban shura is based in Quetta, right across the Spin Boldak border.

In one of the video clips on Twitter, several men are seen gathered around a man, picking up stones and repeatedly throwing them at him as he tries to save himself. "The world sees everything with its own eyes, but it is silent. I do not know why we are not human beings. We do not have the right to live. This is the situation of the Afghan people," the user wrote along with the 2:19-minute clip.

In another clip, a man is seen being beaten with sticks and stones and kicked by men. Yet another video was tweeted, which show the Taliban cutting the private parts of a man. It was not possible to verify the authenticity of these videos or ascertain where they were shot.

On Thursday, the Taliban said they had killed a popular comedian. Nazar Mohammad, known as Khasha Zwan, was taken out of his home on July 22 and killed, according to Tolo News. The family of the comedian, who previously served in Kandahar Police, blamed the Taliban for the attack.

Last week, viral videos showed Mohammad with his hands tied behind his back and sitting between two men in a car, being slapped repeatedly. His body could be seen in one of those clips.

Earlier this month reports said the Taliban has ordered women to not leave home alone, set dowry regulations for girls and men to grow their beards among other diktats. According to reports, the Taliban has also issued a statement ordering local religious leaders to give them a list of girls over 15 years of age and widows under 45, reports have said. The Taliban, the reports said, has promised for them to be married to its fighters.

In the past as well, the Taliban enforced a strict interpretation of Islamic law, including public lashings, flogging and stonings. Women were required to cover their bodies and faces in a burqa and were barred from going to school or work or leaving the house without a male relative.

The United Nations has expressed concern with the number of reported "serious human rights abuses" and violations. The global body has said that authorities are obliged to respect the human rights and dignity of all Afghans, especially those of women and girls. Reports of killing, ill-treatment, persecution and discrimination are widespread and disturbing, creating fear and insecurity, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has also said.

Apart from the torturing people in captured areas, reports also said that Taliban fighters have destroyed 11 sites on the Salam telecommunication network and looted its equipment. Reporterly, an Afghan online portal, said citing local officials that the Taliban fighters also closed seven other sites in Paktia’s occupied districts.