Hundreds of the residents of Panjshir valley, some 90 km north of the Afghan capital Kabul, took out a protest march last week, chanting slogans against the Taliban regime after the group’s fighters shot dead a civilian. Anger and resentment are growing against the Taliban, which continues abducting and killings members associated with the erstwhile Afghan government, violating its own promise of the general amnesty. 
 
The protest erupted in Panjshir—that came under the Taliban control for the first time in September this year—after the killing of a youth in Anaba district by Taliban fighters, reported TOLOnews. Carrying his body, hundreds of men protested in front of the Taliban’s governor office in the valley.

The videos of the protest shared widely on social media, showed them chanting slogans likes ‘death to the Taliban’ and ‘long live Ahmed Massoud’. Importantly, the killing happened days after the National Resistance Front— led by Ahmed Massoud and former Afghan Vice President Amrullah Saleh—claimed attacks against the Taliban in the mountainous valley. 

Both Massoud, who is the son of the late legendary anti-Taliban guerilla commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, and Saleh are now based out of the country after the Taliban walked into the Panjshir valley, almost a month after capturing Kabul. 

Acknowledging the man was killed by their fighters based on wrong information, Abdul Hamid Khurasani, the provincial security head of the Taliban said, “The people protested and came in front of the governor’s office. The Islamic Emirate leadership team’s (Taliban’s) promise to the people is that anyone who commits such actions will be prosecuted.” 

However, this isn’t the first incident when the group is accused of violating human rights. A recent report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) said since coming to power in August this year, the Taliban fighters have abducted and killed at least a hundred former security and intelligence officers. 

On 15 August, the Taliban walked into the streets of Kabul almost uncontested, when senior leaders, including President Ashraf Ghani, of the erstwhile US-backed Afghan government, fled the country. In the hectic evacuation drive that followed after the takeover, only a fraction of former government officials could manage to escape the country. 

Most officials, associated with security and intelligence departments, simply returned to their homes in cities and villages, believing the Taliban’s announcement of a general amnesty. However, in violation of their own pledge, the group’s commanders and fighters continued 
hunting down former officials. 

As killings continued amid widespread suppression of human rights, in several parts of the country, Afghans, including women, took out protest marches, demanding their rights. 

Furthermore, there are also reports of the Taliban even desecrating the graves of popular local anti-Taliban leaders and commanders. In the most recent case, the Taliban bombed the tomb of Darya Khan Talash, former police chief of Sarobi district, and one of the most famous anti-Taliban commanders in the eastern province of Nangahar. 

It’s been over four months since the Taliban took power, the group hasn’t shown any sign of putting any effort towards national reconciliation. Instead, the retribution by the Taliban, many experts say, is sowing the seeds of a new civil war. (SAM)