Former Vice President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, Amrullah Saleh, has alleged that the Taliban executed approximately 1,200 people without trial in Kunar and Nangarhar provinces during their first two years in power.
In his recent statement, Saleh claimed, “The Taliban’s intelligence chief, Dr. Basheer, ordered these extrajudicial killings between 2021 and 2022.”
He also highlighted the widespread killings that occurred in Kandahar during the Taliban’s initial takeover. He stated, “In the early days of Taliban rule, the streets of Kandahar were filled with corpses. However, due to the stench, the Taliban, with the help of the Red Crescent, removed the bodies and buried them.”
Saleh further addressed the killings of wounded soldiers in Kabul’s 400-bed military hospital. According to him, the Taliban executed injured soldiers who were admitted to the hospital, one by one. “The Taliban placed the bodies of the deceased in containers and later attempted to conceal their actions,” he said. Saleh alleged that a Taliban leader even tried to manipulate media coverage of these incidents to shift the blame onto others, exploiting the Doha Agreement’s terms and affiliated media outlets.
As of now, the Taliban government has not issued any official response to these allegations. However, there are widespread concerns about human rights violations in Afghanistan under Taliban rule.
