Dozens of civilians have been killed since the clashes between the Taliban forces and Mawalwi’s fighters started a week ago in Balkhab district of Sar-e-Pul province, with some of those killed were summarily executed by the Taliban, local residents said.
Twenty-three dead civilians have so far been identified, and the bodies of 29 others, who have been found or buried in various locations, remain unidentified, according to sources.
The extent of atrocities, and the actual number of casualties were still unknown because the Taliban have shut down the telecommunication networks in Balkhab after they entered the district. The Taliban also imposed a blockade on Balkhab, and they aren’t allowing any vehicle to enter or leave the district. As a result, local residents are disconnected with the rest of the world.
The Taliban forces’s large-scale offensive began after Mawlawi Mahdi, their only Hazara and Shia commander, criticized the marginalization of his community from the power, and announced he was no longer a member of the Taliban’s government.
One source said that only in two villages, 20 civilians were killed, 13 in TallKhooch and seven in Gulwarz. Among the dead victims were a 2-year-old child, and a 70-year-old man, said another source.
The situation in Balkhab is still military, and the Taliban conduct house-to-house search, sources said.
Sayed Farhad Haidari*, a Balkhab resident who requested to use a pseudonym to protect his identity, said the most killings happened during the first two days after the Taliban entered the district. He said he knows the identities of 15 civilians who were killed by the Taliban. He said in one incident three men had left the village and fled after the Taliban’s takeover but they returned home because they ran out of food in the mountains. All three were shot dead by the Taliban, he said.
Ahmad Bolandi, an activist from Balkhab who now lives outside Afghanistan, said local residents told him the Taliban summarily executed a civilian in front of the district’s hospital by shooting him dead in public.
Shamsullah Shokran*, another resident of Balkhab district of Sar-e-Pul province, who also asked us to use a pseudonym, said of the 47 bodies which were identified in one day, only two were Mahdi’s fighters. He said he, along with his family, fled Balkhab to Dar-e-Mazar, an area in Sar-e-Pul.
“Taliban, who advanced towards Balkhab via Qom-Kotal, showed no mercy to anything. They fired at everyone,” he said. “Taliban even shot a 2-year-old child, they didn’t show mercy even to animals.”
Qom-Kotal was a frontline between the Taliban and Mawlawi Mahdi’s fighters.
In the beginning, the Taliban didn’t even allow local residents to bury the rotting dead bodies, sources said. They allowed the burial in mass graves without any religious rituals only after local residents insisted to bury the bodies.
Amnesty International said in a statement on Monday that it was “gravely concerned by reports of summary executions and harm to civilians” in Balkhab.
“The Taliban must avoid blocking communication means and preventing essential needs from reaching the communities,” said the statement. “The free flow of information from the conflict zone must be respected. Blocking transport of essential needs to reach communities is a war crime.”
The UN Special Rapporteur, Rachard Bennet, also expressed concerns over “#extrajudicial killings,” and “other #humanrights abuses” in Balkhab.
On Sunday, the Hazara International Council said in a statement that the Taliban have committed “widespread human rights abuses” which could amount to “war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
But the Taliban rejected the allegations of harming civilians and extrajudicial killings.
“We don’t have any civilian casualty or loss in Balkhab, Sar-e-Pul,” Zabihullah Mujahid said in a tweet.
Though the Taliban have cut off telecommunication services in most parts of Balkhab, residents in some remote areas could still have cell phone reception. The sources we interviewed for the story have either witnessed the atrocities themselves before fleeing, or received information from their relatives in Balkhab.
A resident of Gosfandi, a Sar-e-Pul district in proximity of Balkhab, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said though he doesn’t know about the exact number of casualties, “unfortunately, the people have suffered a lot.” He said he lost touch with his relatives in Balkhab since Sunday. He said his relatives told him Sunday, the last time they spoke, that the situation had turned “a little normal” but the “people were worried, and a large number of locals were fleeing.”
Thousands of Balkhab residents fled the district following the Taliban’s clashes with their disgruntled former commander Mawlawi Mahdi, according to local sources. Some took refuge in the mountains and deserts near Balkhab, and some fled to other provinces such as Bamyan. Sources said the internally displaced people(IDPs) are in dire need of food, shelter and medicine.
Shokran*, who fled to Dar-e-Mazar, said 14 families, including his own, are living in two rooms. “There is no food, no money,” he said. “Everything is very expensive.”
Dar-e-Mazar IDPs are in dire need of medicine, he added.
Bolandi, the activist from Balkhab, said thousands of families who were displaced haven’t received any assistance so far. The Taliban are breaking into the abandoned houses of those who have fled, carrying out searches without warrant, he added.
Haidari*, a resident of Salqar, one the remotest villages of Balkhab where fighting hasn’t reached yet, said 30 families live in his village but now around 400 families have taken refuge there. All IDPs face severe shortage of food, medicine and shelter, he added.
Before Balkhab, the Taliban have also been accused of carrying out atrocities including summary executions in Panjshir and Baghlan provinces where they fight against the National Resistance Front forces.
Names with * are pseudonyms.
