FILE PHOTO: Taliban fighters stand as they hold a checkpoint in Kabul, Afghanistan November 5, 2021. REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra/File Photo
December 14, 2021
(Corrects 2nd paragraph to say the 50 killings are in addition to the 100, not part of the same toll)
GENEVA (Reuters) – More than 100 former Afghan national security forces and others have been killed since the Taliban takeover in August, most at the hands of the hardline Islamist group that is recruiting boy soldiers and quashing women’s rights, the U.N. said on Tuesday.
Nada Al-Nashif, U.N. Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that in addition, at least 50 suspected members of the Islamic State-Khorasan Province – an ideological foe of the Taliban – were killed by hanging and beheading.
At least 8 Afghan activists and two journalists have been killed since August, while the U.N. has also documented 59 unlawful detentions and threats to their ranks, she told the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva. “The safety of Afghan judges, prosecutors, and lawyers – particularly women legal professionals – is a matter for particular alarm”, she added.
(Corrects 2nd paragraph to say the 50 killings are in addition to the 100, not part of the same toll)
(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Alison Williams)
