US election could decide fate of 70,000 Afghans
The Taliban, an ultraconservative Islamic political group, retook control of Kabul a little more than three years ago, dashing many Afghans’ hopes for a tolerant, democratic government.
The Taliban are intensifying their hunt for people who worked for and collaborated with NATO and the US forces, according to a UN document.
The confidential paper was produced by the Norwegian Centre for Global Analyses, which provides the UN with intelligence information.
“The Taliban are arresting and/or threatening to kill or arrest family members of target individuals unless they surrender themselves to the Taliban,” the BBC reported.
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It said that those at particular risk are people with positions in the military, police and investigative units. “The Taliban have been conducting advance mapping of individuals prior to take take-over of all major cities,” it said.
It added that the militants are screening for individuals while permitting some evacuation of foreign personnel from Kabul airport, but the situation there remained “chaotic”.
According to the report, the Taliban are recruiting new informer networks to collaborate with the new regime. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid had said on Tuesday that the insurgent group does not wish to “repeat any conflict, any war”.
“We want to do away with the factors for conflict. Therefore, the Islamic Emirate does not have any kind of hostility or animosity towards anybody,” Mujahid had said in his first press conference since the Taliban overthrew the Afghanistan government.
He added that all animosity “has come to an end”. “We would like to live peacefully. We do not want any internal enemies or external enemies,” he had said, as reported by Geo News.
The Taliban would not seek retribution against former soldiers and members of the Western-backed government, the spokesman had said, adding that the movement is granting an amnesty for former Afghan government soldiers as well as contractors and translators who worked for international forces.
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