Taliban accused of torturing, killing Afghan detainees

File photo

The UN on Sunday expressed grave concerns about the Taliban torturing Afghan detainees as well as serious allegations that some detainees were killed.

The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan expressed these apprehensions in a preliminary reports derived from face-to-face interviews with 13 detainees freed from a Taliban-run detention facility in the Uruzgan province last month by Afghan security forces.

It said the detainees provided consistent accounts of ill treatment and torture, as well as murders of civilians and security personnel. “Multiple detainees reported the murder of at least 11 others by the Taliban,” the report said.

“I am gravely concerned about these serious allegations of ill-treatment, torture and unlawful killing of civilians and security personnel, as well as the deplorable conditions of detention,” said Tadamichi Yamamoto, the mission head and UN special representative for Afghanistan.

According to the report, the detainees reported being held incommunicado underground in five overcrowded rooms. They said that for at least seven hours a day they were forced to work, including making improvised explosive devices, in violation of international humanitarian law.

"The United Nations reminds the Taliban that international humanitarian law applicable to international and non-international armed conflicts provides that all persons who do not take direct part in hostilities, or who have ceased to do so, must always be treated humanely,” said Richard Bennett, the UNAMA’s human rights chief.

Civilians killed by security forces

In a separate incident, five civilian members of a single family were killed by government gunfire.

Attaullah Khogyani, spokesman for the governor of the eastern Nangarhar province, told Anadolu Agency the deaths in the Sherzad district on Saturday were a tragic accident. He said government forces were busy in an operation against insurgents when a fast-moving unidentified car came into their firing range, leaving five civilians, including women and children, dead.

On Sunday, locals staged a protest against such repeated accidents.

The incident was widely condemned. Former President Hamid Karzai wrote on Twitter: “Deeply saddened to learn of civilian casualties mainly women and children caused by night raids and airstrikes in Sherzad district of Nangarhar. I vehemently condemn the attack reiterate my strong opposition to the continuation of Military operations against the Afghan people."