Taliban 'Massacres' Over 100 Afghans for Being Gov't Sympathisers at Pakistan Border, Official Says

The Taliban* claims that it now controls nearly 90 percent of Afghanistan's border areas, including that with Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Iran. The Afghan forces are currently involved in an intense fight with the Islamist insurgent group to re-take the entire Spin Boldak district at the Pakistan border.

More than 100 residents of Afghanistan's Spin Boldak have been dragged out and killed by the Taliban* on accusations of being civilian government sympathisers, a Defence Ministry spokesperson told Sputnik on Thursday.

"They are massacring people in parts of the district controlled by them. They are raiding their homes, looting their belongings, and killing them", Fawad Aman, a spokesperson at Afghanistan's Ministry of National Defence, told Sputnik.

He claimed the killings of civilians by the Taliban militants have spiked since Eid festivities concluded on 21 July.

The Afghan official also alleged that certain parts of the strategically-located district were still under the Taliban's control, after the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) launched a security operation last week to re-take it from the Islamist insurgent group.

The town in Afghanistan's Kandahar Province was seized by the Taliban on 14 July (Wednesday), marking the first time in 20 years that it had fallen to the Islamist group.

Aman said that the Taliban, however, was still "in control" of the border crossing, which on average witnesses over 70,000 crossings daily between Pakistan's Balochistan Province and Afghanistan's Kandahar Province.

"We will liberate these parts of the (Spin Boldak) district soon", the Afghan official stated.

The Taliban's chief spokespeson Suhail Shaheen "refuted" the accusation that the group was involved in the killing of civilians.

"They just want to find a justification for their would-be plan of offensive against our forces based in Spin Boldak", he told Sputnik.

Citing a report by Afghan broadcaster TOLO News, Afghanistan's First Vice President Amrullah Saleh claimed that the victims included athletes, video bloggers, and those suspected of sympathising with the Baloch people living next door in Pakistan. 

The victims, mostly young, include athletes, CS activists, business persons, vbloggers & persons suspected of sympathy with govt of Afg. Pak agencies since long see the town as fiercely anti Durand line sympathizing with Baluch & Achekzais next door. This is a revenge massacre https://t.co/9ySwSg7pEK

— Amrullah Saleh (@AmrullahSaleh2) July 23, 2021

*The Taliban is a terrorist group banned in Russia.