After occupying Ghazni province last month, Taliban fighters tortured and killed nine men of the Hazara people, an ethnic group mainly living in the central mountain region of Afghanistan. Amnesty International reported this on Friday.
Investigators at the scene spoke to eyewitnesses who told them about the killings in the Afghan village of Mundarakht, in the Malistan district. Six men were shot, and three more were tortured to death.
“The brutal killings are believed to represent only a fraction of the total death toll the Taliban have caused so far, as the group has cut cell phone traffic in many of the areas they have recently conquered in order to gain control over which photos and videos are these areas can be passed on,” said Amnesty International.
“The cold-blooded brutality of these killings is a reminder of the Taliban’s track record and a horrifying indicator of what the Taliban rule can bring,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s secretary-general.
According to the human rights group, the killings prove that ethnic and religious minorities are particularly at risk under the Taliban rule. Amnesty International is therefore urging the UN Security Council to adopt an emergency resolution demanding that the Taliban respect international human rights and guarantee the safety of all Afghans, regardless of ethnicity or religion.