The Taliban have been accused of killing 20 civilians in the Panjshir Valley, Afghanistan, with the apparent capture of a man in a video uniform.
The Panjshir Valley was the last area the Taliban resisted when it came to power last month and was where anti-Taliban opposition forces briefly concentrated before being invaded.
The BBC described an incident captured in a video showing a man wearing military equipment surrounded by Taliban fighters that passers-by insisted he was a civilian. Amid the sound of gunfire, the man is seen falling to the ground.
According to the report, the BBC said it had known 20 similar civilian-related incidents in the area after the Taliban capture.
One of the victims was a shopkeeper and father of two named Abdul Sami, who according to sources refused to flee during the Taliban advance. Arrested and accused of selling SIM cards to anti-Taliban opposition fighters, his body was thrown near his home.
The claim arose when a senior Afghan diplomat from the former government on Tuesday described a deteriorating human rights situation in his country, where he said women’s rights were disappearing under the Taliban.
“The people of Afghanistan need action more than ever,” Ambassador Nasir Ahmad Andisha told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, calling on the council to set up a fact-finding mission to monitor the actions of the Taliban in the country.
Reports follow well-documented cases of other retaliatory killings by the hardline Islamist group, both during its lightning-wide advance across the country and after it seized power.
In August, Amnesty International detailed the massacre of nine ethnic Hazara men after Taliban fighters took control of Afghanistan’s Ghazni province in July.
Witnesses said the killings, which took place between July 4 and 6 in the village of Mundarakht in Malistan district, including the death of three tortures, including a man who was strangled with his own, were distressing. scarf.
On Monday, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet described “credible allegations of killings in retaliation for a number of former ANSF (Afghan National Security Forces) officials and reports that officials they worked for previous administrations and their relatives arbitrarily detained ”.
“In some cases, officials were released and in others, they were found dead.”
He also cited “multiple” allegations of Taliban house-to-house searches in search of former government officials and “people who cooperated with U.S. security forces and companies.”
Concerns about the Taliban’s breach of its own human rights promises came as Qatar warned on Tuesday that it would not take responsibility for Kabul airport without “clear” agreements with all those involved, including the Taliban, on its operations. .
Doha has become a key agent in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of U.S. forces last month, helping to evacuate thousands of foreigners and Afghans, engaging new Taliban rulers and supporting operations in the United States. Kabul airport.
“We have to make sure that everything is addressed very clearly otherwise … we cannot take any responsibility for the airport (if) all these things are not addressed,” the foreign minister said. of Qatar, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani. a press conference.
“It simply came to our notice then [under] negotiation “.
Since the U.S. withdrawal, Qatar Airways planes have made several trips to Kabul, flying in aid and Doha representatives and carrying foreign passport holders.
The two-decade U.S. intervention in Afghanistan ended with the rapid airstrike of more than 120,000 people from Kabul when the Taliban returned to power.
The United States withdrew its final troops from Afghanistan on August 30, ending its longest war just before the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks that led to its invasion.