The Taliban are giving thousands of Kandahar residents three days to leave their homes, according to protesters

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Protesters marched in front of the governor’s office in the city after giving three days to march to 3,500 people living in a government-owned residential area, two protesters told a local journalist who worked for CNN by phone .

Protesters, who are also residents of the area, said they were not told the reasons for the eviction order.

“I have nowhere else to go,” said one protester, who did not want to give her name for fear of reprisals. She said she was poor after losing many members of her family in recent conflicts.

All the families in the area built their houses with the little money they had and could not afford to move, the woman said.

A number of women protesting with the red, black and green Afghan national flag were harassed by the Taliban, according to eyewitnesses. Local television footage shows protesters, including women and children, blocking a road as they descended it.

Mohammad Ibrahim, a Kandahar civil activist, said the Ferqa-e Kohna area, on the edge of the provincial capital, was a government-owned area and the land was distributed to government employees under the previous government. Ibrahim said irregularities and corruption in the transfer of property are likely to occur, leading to the illegal sale of property to residents. Some of the families have lived in Ferqa-e Kohna for more than 20 years, he said.

Taliban spokesmen could not be reached for comment on the evictions.

The Taliban were reportedly preventing a local journalist from doing his job and hitting another while covering the demonstration, according to local radio station Millat Zagh Radio. CNN cannot verify incidents independently.

Local residents are marching against the announcement by the Taliban asking them to evict the houses built on state-owned land in Kandahar on 14 September.
Protests against the Taliban government have erupted in various parts of Afghanistan since the militant group took control of the country last month, following the withdrawal of U.S. troops. The Taliban have repressed protests, often with violence, with reports of detained and ill-treated journalists and activists.
Last week, journalists from Afghan online news media EtilaatRoz told CNN that they were detained while covering a protest by Afghan women against Pakistani participation in Afghanistan and demanding equal rights in the capital Kabul. The protest took place outside a police station and the two men said they were taken inside and were severely beaten.
During another protest last week, Taliban fighters used whips and sticks against a group of women protesting in Kabul, following the announcement of a tough, male-only interim government.
Taliban fighters use whips against Afghan women to protest the male interim government

Taliban leaders on Twitter dismissed videos shared online about violence in women-led protests. The head of the Cultural Commission, Muhammad Jalal, said the demonstrations were “a deliberate attempt to cause trouble”, adding that “these people do not even represent 0.1% of Afghanistan”.

The Taliban have also tried to curb protests, and a statement issued by the Taliban Interior Ministry last week set strict conditions for future demonstrations, including prior approval by the justice ministry.

The United Nations last week called on the Taliban “to immediately cease the use of force against those exercising their right to peaceful assembly and journalists to cover protests and arbitrary detention.”

The Taliban’s response to peaceful marches in Afghanistan has been “increasingly violent” and has included the use of live ammunition, batons and whips, killing at least four people, a spokesman for the group said on Friday. the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ravina Shamdasani. press conference in Geneva.

Even before the Taliban returned to power, protracted conflicts, poverty, consecutive droughts, economic decline and the coronavirus pandemic had worsened an already dire situation in which 18 million Afghans (nearly half the population). ) needed help, according to UN agencies.
As winter approaches, many people could run out of food by the end of the month, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said earlier this week, adding that poverty rates had risen. since the return of the Taliban to power.

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